A Moment of Passion (The Ladies Book of Pleasures)

by Jess Michaels

  “I am here for Miss Downing.”

  The servant followed him as he moved down the hallway and found three more empty rooms. His heart dropped. She was upstairs.

  “I don’t know who you mean,” the butler insisted, trailing behind Jason as he took the stairs two by two.

  “Liar,” Jason barked. He had seen the other man’s eyes dart away when he said Jacinda’s name. She was here.

  Some men might have judged her for that, but Jason didn’t. He judged himself, yes, but not her. After seeing the position a return to her family had put her in, he couldn’t blame her for running. And he wouldn’t doubt Carnthorn had been trailing her for days, waiting for a moment of weakness when he could sweep her up.

  That was his mode of operation, after all. He always got what he wanted when it came to women. By surrender or by force.

  Jason set his jaw. “Where are they?”

  There were three rooms upstairs and he moved to the first one. The door opened to reveal a sitting room, but no occupants. The second, however, was locked.

  He tugged at the door, but it didn’t move. He shook harder.

  “Jacinda!” he shouted, pounding on the door.

  The servant, still trailing him, smirked. “It’s very thick, my lord. To prevent the escape of sound.”

  Jason’s eyes widened. There was only one reason a man like Carnthorn would wish to mute the sound in a room. He stepped back and kicked the door.

  “Stop!” The servant rushed him and Jason shoved the other man, sending him tumbling back down the hall.

  He kicked the door again. “Jacinda!”

  The third time, the thick wood splintered near the hinges and he heard Carnthorn’s angry voice shouting from inside as Jason kicked the door one final time and sent wood flying into the room within.

  He shoved inside, a madman throwing wood shards out of his way to get where he needed to be. He stopped as he looked around at the chamber of sexual control. Then his eyes found Jacinda. She was standing near a torture table in the middle of the room. Carnthorn had her arm and they were staring at him.

  “Get out,” Carnthorn snapped. “You can see she’s made her choice.”

  She blinked, staring at him with wide eyes. But they weren’t her eyes, really. They were blank, pained, filled with dissolution and loss.

  “What did you do to her?” Jason barked as he crossed the room in three long steps.

  She blinked as he reached them, almost as if she hadn’t been aware of him kicking down the door, bursting into the room. Now her face crumpled.

  “Jason,” she whispered.

  He shoved aside Carnthorn’s hand and cupped her face. “Jacinda,” he whispered. “Come with me.”

  She looked at him, then looked at Carnthorn. The duke folded his arms. “Where do you have to go, Jacinda?” he asked. “Knowing what you know about him, about your father. If you leave now, my offer leaves with you. So where do you have to go?”

  She flinched at the words and Jason searched her face. What in God’s name had the bastard said to her, done to her, to make her so...empty?

  “Shut your mouth,” he growled, giving the duke a side glare. “Jacinda, please come with me. You don’t want this, you don’t want him. Come with me and I swear to you I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll find a way to make this right.”

  She focused then, really looking at him, searching his face. He realized she was looking for the truth, probably because she couldn’t take his vow at face value.

  She nodded. “Please. I want to leave. Please don’t make me stay.”

  Carnthorn moved on her and Jason snapped. Without saying a word, he released Jacinda, turned on the duke and smashed him against the wall. He slammed him a second time and saw Carnthorn’s teeth rattle together with the force.

  “If you touch her again, if you look at her again, if you speak her name again, I will know,” he said, his voice low when inside he was screaming. “And understand that I will erase you from this earth.”

  “You’ll be transported,” Carnthorn said, probably wishing his voice wasn’t so strained as Jason pressed a forearm across his throat and pushed just hard enough to hurt, to cut off some air.

  “I will march up the gangplank of the ship whistling,” Jason whispered. “That is a promise.”

  Carnthorn’s eyes widened and he nodded once. Jason released him with great reluctance and turned back to Jacinda. “Let’s go.”

  She staggered as she moved toward him and he caught her elbow to hold her up as he shot Carnthorn one more warning look and took her from the room.

  As they moved down the stairs, she turned toward him, her cheeks high pink and her lips trembling. “Please don’t make me go to my father,” she whispered. “Please.”

  He shook his head as she guided her out the door and helped her up on his horse. He slid into place behind her and held her waist tight as he turned the animal back onto the street.

  “We’re not going to your father. We’re going home.”

  She blinked over her shoulder at him like she didn’t understand. “What home?”

  “Mine.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “If used correctly, water is as sinful as it is cleansing.”—The Ladies Book of Pleasures

  Jacinda hadn’t spoken since they reached his home half an hour before and, as Jason set a cup of tea before her, he stared at her in concern. She glanced at the cup, her face emotionless.

  “He said I would choose before the night was over,” she muttered.

  Jason sat next to her and leaned in. “Carnthorn?”

  She nodded, her cheeks darkening with a blush again. “Yes.”

  “Choose what?”

  She laughed. “Oh, so much. Upon my arrival, he set a glass of whiskey and a cup of tea before me. He said before the night was over, I would choose one. I suppose the whiskey meant I’d stay with him. The tea meant I’d go back to my pathetic life.”

  She tilted the teacup toward him with a sad expression.

  Jason took a deep breath. “Did you drink anything he gave you?” he asked, trying to keep panic from his voice.

  She looked at him, her eyes softening. “No, for the exact reasons you fear. I thought he might have put something in one or both drinks. And yet I went with a man like that. I stupidly climbed into his carriage and his lair like a lamb to the slaughter.”

  Jason flinched at the harshness she directed toward herself. “I understand why you did it,” he said softly.

  She looked at him, her brow wrinkled. “You do?”

  He nodded. “I went to your father’s house first.”

  Her cheeks flamed and she dipped her chin. “I see. My family is something to behold, isn’t it?”

  He reached out to cover her cold hand with his. “They are truly horrible, and I’m so sorry you ever had to endure an hour with them, let alone a lifetime.”

  She smiled, but then drew back. “But wait, why did you go there?”

  “To find you.” He released her hand reluctantly. “Your maid went upstairs to fetch you and we determined you’d left the house. I made chase, fearing you would be harmed, and discovered a servant who saw a woman entering a carriage with Carnthorn’s crest. The rest was not difficult to deduce.”

  She covered her face. “I seem to have lived up to my reputation. What you must think of me.”

  He caught one hand and gently lowered it so she would have to look at him.

  “Jacinda, I just told you, I know why you ran. I don’t judge you. I was terrified for you, praying I wouldn’t find you…” He shuddered. “…broken. But I was never angry. I am not angry. And I will repeat, I do not judge you.”

  She stared at him, her gaze unfaltering. “The things he wanted to do to me,” she whispered.

  He barely held back a pained groan at the thoughts that entered his mind. Jacinda likely didn’t understand half of Carnthorn’s depravity. He did.

  “I know. I know,” he whispered

  �
��Is it true people like those kinds of things, or is he just a madman?”

  Jason sighed. “A bit of both. Yes, there are couples who enjoy games. To be tied up, teased, even spanked or whipped. For them, the loss of control, the use of control, the little bit of pain makes the pleasure better.”

  He drew in a deep breath as he tried not to picture Jacinda tied to a bed...his bed...helpless to him. This was not the time for those thoughts, nor the erection that threatened when he allowed them.

  “But Carnthorn is known to take those scenarios too far,” he added. “They are not just for fun for him. He likes to hurt for the pain’s sake, for punishment.”

  “This is known about him?” Jacinda asked in shock.

  “In certain circles, yes,” Jason said. “Not by Society at large. He has...scarred courtesans. He has used force when a no truly meant no.”

  Jacinda shivered. “He would have forced me tonight if you hadn’t come. He would have made me take his offer.”

  Jason nodded slowly. “I expect that is true. I also think he won’t dare make the attempt again.”

  “Because of you,” she whispered, reaching for him, touching him with gentle fingers along his bare hand. “Because you swept in like some knight rescuing a princess.”

  Jason shook his head at that image. He’d never been the knight to any woman. It wasn’t his role. But Jacinda was different.

  Jacinda was...Jacinda.

  “I didn’t exactly save you,” he said, looking away from her.

  “You offered to be transported for the pleasure of murdering him,” she said with a small smile that vanished almost immediately. “It sounds fairly princely to me.”

  There was silence in the room for a long moment and then she sucked in a breath. “He—he told me something else.”

  “Carnthorn?” Jason asked, tensing as he prepared for something vile.

  She nodded. “He said my father arranged with Hodgend’s father, the Duke of Garrenton, for us to be caught together. It was a means to settle a debt, the forced marriage between us, because the son was unwilling.”

  Her lip began to quiver and she lifted a hand to cover her face. “Jason, my father is why I was ruined. He arranged it all and then he left me to suffer the consequences of his greed and his selfishness.”

  Jason reached for her, catching both her hands with one of his and holding them tightly.

  “Do you believe Carnthorn’s assertation?” he asked.

  She hesitated, and he thought back to everything the baron had said to him in the few unpleasant times they had spoken. He’d said Jacinda had everything laid at her feet and ruined it. The words took on a new meaning with this fresh accusation.

  “I do,” she whispered. “The duke said it to make me realize I had nowhere else to go, no other future available to me. But that doesn’t mean he was lying.”

  Jason flinched. Carnthorn had been able to tell Jacinda she was trapped because she didn’t believe in Jason. Not in his plan, and not in him. He could hardly blame her.

  Only now wasn’t he being offered a second chance?

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

  She opened her eyes and they met his. “Thank you. I just wish I didn’t know. That I could erase this night or replace my memories with something else.”

  He nodded. He wanted to give that to her too.

  “Have you finished your tea?” he asked to change the subject. To regain some control over his mind which was racing wildly.

  She nodded. “I suppose you will send me away now,” she said with a sigh.

  He arched a brow as he stood. “Not at all. In fact, my servants should have your bath ready by now.”

  She rose to her feet. “A bath?”

  “Don’t you want one?” he asked softly.

  She rubbed her hand over her arm as if to brush away unseen grime and nodded. “More than anything.”

  He offered his arm and she took it, allowing him to take her from the parlor and upstairs. The tub permanently in his bedchamber was the nicest in the house, so it was the one he’d had filled for her. When they entered his chamber, she stopped.

  “So this is why you thought my room was so plain,” she said as she stared around her.

  He supposed the chamber was something to behold. He’d spent a great deal having it decorated, though it wasn’t something he thought of much. But the way she looked at it made him see it through different eyes.

  The tall fireplace crackled with a warm fire, reflecting light across the dark wood of his furniture and his muted gray walls. But she wasn’t really looking at those things. She was staring at his bed. His very large bed. His bed where they could spend all night exploring each other, fall asleep in each other’s arms, only to wake in the early morning to make love again.

  The things he hadn’t been able to do since they became lovers, but had dreamed of, even when he tried to think of anything else.

  Things he probably shouldn’t do now after all she’d been through.

  He cleared his throat. “Come, the bath is through here.”

  He motioned to a door that led to the small adjoining room, with its washbasin and the huge tub that was already filled with steaming, fragrant waters.

  She drew in a deep breath of the scent and her smile brightened his chamber more than the brightest afternoon sunlight would have done.

  “I will leave you to it,” he said. “When you are ready to get out, there is a bell there by the tub you can ring for a maid to assist you.”

  Jacinda’s lips parted. “You won’t stay with me?”

  His eyes widened. “I—”

  She turned her face. “You don’t want to stay,” she whispered. “I understand.”

  He caught her arm and drew her closer gently. “I don’t think you do. I want to stay, I ache to stay, but after what you went through—”

  She inched even closer and wound her arms around his neck slowly. She lifted on her tiptoes until her lips nearly touched his.

  “Because of what I went through, I need you to stay.”

  She brushed those same lips back and forth across his, a feather-light touch that made his cock ease to attention in an instant.

  “Please,” she added, her voice the barest whisper.

  He nodded and kissed her again, this time taking control, parting her lips with the tip of his tongue and tasting her as he slowly unbuttoned her gown and glided it down the curves of her body.

  “I’ll have it washed,” he said as he tossed the dress aside.

  She moaned softly as he moved his mouth to her bare throat and turned his hands to her chemise. While he dragged the undergarment down, she shivered.

  “You can burn it if you’d like.”

  He lifted his face. “You’ll need it tomorrow.”

  She smiled despite the night’s events. “So practical.”

  “Not at present,” he whispered and let the chemise flutter around her feet. She stepped out of it and kicked it aside, toeing off her slippers as she did so. She was now naked aside from her stockings and Jason stepped back to look at her.

  She was gloriously beautiful in the candlelight. Her soft curves beckoned, her dark eyes sparkled, her hair looked like chestnuts with highlights of gold and copper.

  Damn, but he wanted her. He longed to touch her, taste her, claim her. He never wanted to let her go. But was that possible? For so many years he had refused to even entertain that idea, and yet this woman, this slip of a woman, made him question everything he was, everything he had been, everything he wanted and everything he claimed to need.

  “I want you,” he whispered, loving how her eyes widened and her pupils dilated with an answering need.

  “Let me wash him off first,” she said. “Let me wash this night away before I replace it with far more pleasant memories.”

  He nodded as she glided her stockings down. Steadying her, he helped her into the tub. She sank beneath the hot water with a hissing sigh of pleasure.

  There was a
chair in the small room and he dragged it beside the tub. She settled back, eyes drifting shut. The water was still clear since she hadn’t yet begun to wash herself and he fully enjoyed the view of her lush body through the little waves of water that lapped around her.

  “You seem uncomfortable,” she said, her smile teasing when she opened her eyes.

  He laughed. “How could you know that with your eyes closed, my lady?”

  “I can sense you,” she said, her wide, dark stare sucking him in until he was permanently trapped. Captured in every way. “I can almost hear you breathing.”

  “Can you hear my cock getting hard for you too?”

  She didn’t answer for a moment and he briefly thought he might have gone too far. But then she smiled wider. “Is that what that sound is? I should hurry along in my washing then, shouldn’t I, so I won’t leave you waiting for long.”

  She caught up the soap on the small table beside her bath and began to lather it between her hands. Jason watched every movement, captivated by both how she moved and who she was.

  “You are changed,” he said softly. Then he shook his head. “Or perhaps you changed me and that is why I think you are different. Perhaps you’ve always been like this, so beautiful and free and funny and wonderful, and yet the world has been too stupid to see it.”

  She blushed, but began to wash her arms and shoulders. He swallowed hard. She was going to kill him with the way she was touching herself. It made him hard as a rock.

  “I rather like the idea that I was wonderful all along and yet overlooked, but I fear that is not true.” She smiled. “It is probably no more true that I am those things now, but you are right that I’m changed. I feel different.”

  “How so?” he choked out, trying to focus on her answers and not the fact that she was now washing her gorgeous breasts, the soap catching on hard nipples and making them look like they were topped with sweet cream.

  She let the soap go under the water to continue her sinful path as she spoke again.