Ian hissed through his teeth, and then groaned aloud as he slid home, fitting snuggly within her tight sheath. He held himself still for a moment, allowing her to become accustomed to the feel of him inside her. She’d only given a small whimper when he’d pushed through the thin membrane, and now stared up at him with wide, liquid blue eyes that glistened with unshed tears.
Angela had mostly slept for the last couple of days while he’d gone about his business. He’d checked on her regularly to reassure himself that she was as comfortable as possible. He’d even had her gowns and personal items moved to his room, so that when she awoke, everything would be within easy reach. But that wasn’t the only reason. He was also determined that she remain here, as they were to be married soon.
The special license had been easily acquired, and now all that was left to do was inform her of his plans. Part of that plan involved making her irrevocably his. The thought of any other man touching her the way he was touching her now brought out a savage possessiveness he hadn’t known existed.
This morning, he’d been roused from sleep by the soft sighs and whimpers coming from the woman next to him. It had been obvious she was dreaming, but the way she’d arched her back, lifting her breasts and moaning from some pleasurable fantasy was all it took to make the blood pound in his veins and his cock to stiffen painfully.
For the past two nights he’d slept fitfully, and when he did sleep he’d been plagued with dreams that tempted him beyond endurance. Last night, he’d actually gained relief by his own hand, spilling his seed into a handkerchief while she lay quietly oblivious beside him. God, he hadn’t done that since he was a youth, when just a slight breeze gave him a raging cockstand.
Ian knew he wouldn’t be able to wait until they were married – didn’t want to. He hadn’t earned his reputation as The Devil Rogue for nothing. The temptation was too great, and he was just wicked enough to take advantage. And so, like a general mounting an important campaign, he used his hands, his mouth, and the liquid velvet of his tongue as his arsenal to plunder, conquer, and possess her every sense.
When he’d first entered her hot, wet, tight little passage, it had been the ultimate challenge to control himself. He’d had to fight the urge to thrust hard, to bury his cock deep within her, but had held himself in check, not wishing to hurt her.
“Are you all right, princess?” His voice was hoarse from the strain of holding himself still. He clenched his teeth, wanting to withdraw and thrust again so badly, it made his temples pound.
“Yes, I-I’m fine,” she said breathlessly. “It didn’t really hurt that much. Is it – is it over?”
He couldn’t help the burst of surprised laughter at her question. It forced him deeper, the head of his cock bumping up against the wall of her womb. And when her inner muscles contracted in response, he almost came then and there. Her gasped “Oh!” made him grin.
“No, angel, it isn’t over. This is just the beginning.”
To demonstrate, Ian slowly pulled out until only the tip of his cock remained inside, and then just as slowly, slid all the way back in. His grin faded away as he experienced the full measure of her very hot, very slippery, very tight canal. He repeated the movement . . . slowly out, slowly in . . . out again, in again, over and over. His breathing became more and more labored as he struggled for control, consumed by the need to thrust harder and faster. It was when she reached up, clasped her hands behind his neck, pulling him toward her, and at the same time, curled her legs over the backs of his thighs, that he increased the rhythm.
His blood exploded through his body, pumping his heart, pounding in his ears. Nothing else existed except the wildly passionate woman in his arms, under him, clinging to him as if her very life depended on it. He was entranced, enthralled, held prisoner by her beautiful body, her snug little passage bathing his cock in its slippery heat, and her primal response. He was nearing his breaking point, ready to climax when she came apart all around him.
She cried out his name, her inner muscles convulsing with such powerful contractions it wrung a hoarse shout from deep in his throat. He thrust one last time, burying his cock all the way up to his balls and came, filling her with his seed.
He collapsed atop her, his cock still nestled deep inside, and rested his weight on his elbows. He dropped his head into the curve of her shoulder, trying to catch his breath.
A long moment passed before he could finally speak. “My God,” he rasped against her damp skin. “You’ve bewitched me.” He raised his head so he could look into her face. “Are you all right?” When she shivered, he realized the bed linens were bunched at their feet, so he reached down, covering them against the chill air.
Angela wondered if this is the way it was with everyone. She wondered if this was what her parents had felt, or the couple strolling down a park path, or anyone who engaged in this sort of activity. It couldn’t possibly be true that absolutely everyone experienced the same intense pleasure she just had, for if they did, the world would be a much happier place.
She remembered how her hips had instinctively risen to meet his, matching his fevered pace as she’d approached the crescendo of something that until now had been beyond her comprehension.
Deep within her, every nerve ending had screamed with pleasure as the tension mounted. She’d clawed his back, felt his hot breath against the side of her neck, heard his deep groans with every thrust. She’d clung to him with her arms and her legs, mating with him like some wild creature. Their bodies had been slick with the heat of their joining.
She’d no longer been the proper Miss Hopkins, but someone else . . . something else . . . something primitive . . . something free and uninhibited.
She cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m fine – better than fine, actually,” she said, and then smiled. “Can we do it again?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Ian’s golden eyes turned dark, his expression intensely focused. She felt his member swell inside her.
“I think that can be arranged,” he said huskily.
As he began to move, slowly thrusting in and out, she asked between breaths, “Is it . . . always . . . oh! – like this?”
“No, angel, it is not.”
Angela could feel nothing but him, hear nothing but the sounds of his labored breathing, smell nothing else, other than his intoxicating male scent, and taste nothing except the nectar of his mouth as it claimed hers.
While their bodies were joined, she felt as though his soul entwined with hers, that fate had somehow brought him to her. She could so easily fall in love with him. Nothing in her existence could have prepared her for the powerful sensations she experienced in his arms, nor could it have forewarned her of the mix of emotions such a revelation would trigger.
Her lips brushed the curve where his neck met his shoulder, her tongue flicking out to taste his warm, salty flesh. As he plunged and withdrew, she fitted herself against him in a timeless rhythm as old as the stars. Her hands roamed over his sleek, muscular back, a distant corner of her mind registering the smooth suppleness of his skin, and the steely strength beneath it. He groaned as she explored every inch of his body within her reach, just as a blind person might memorize an object through touch.
Ian became lost in the lushness of her body and her sweet fragrance. He was held captive by the intense need to stake his claim on her, to make her his indelibly.
When she’d asked if they could do it again, his cock had instantly hardened, bathed in her hot, slick sheath. It was a rare occurrence for him to become so aroused so soon after climax, and yet, it was as if he had not just engaged in the most intense coupling session of his life.
Already, he was about to burst, helpless against the animal forces driving him onward as he thrust into her with powerful strokes. Her arms and legs gripped him with a strength borne from the fierceness of her own need.
He could feel the tension building in her body as she neared her peak. Reaching between them, his fingers found her sensitive l
ittle clitoris, and toyed with it while he continued shoving his cock into her with long, smooth strokes. His mouth captured her impassioned cry as she catapulted into that moment which transcended time and space and reality, his breath mingling with hers as he reached his own powerful release.
He fell in a heap on top of her, barely avoiding crushing her. Utterly spent, his chest heaved with the effort to draw air into his lungs. Had there ever a time when he’d felt so satisfied – so complete? His answer to himself was unequivocally no.
Suddenly, the image of her surrounded by a circle of children – his children – flashed in his mind, and it was nothing short of terrifying. Ian had always known he would marry someday and beget heirs, but the vague idea of carrying out that plan was far different than the reality of one Miss Angela Hopkins, flesh and blood woman, lying naked and pleasured in his arms.
But he was bound by a moral obligation to marry her, to secure her future. It would, without a doubt, irrevocably change his life forever, and hers as well. Since his cock-brained scheme of revenge had backfired with a consequence of monumental proportions, it left him no choice but to make an honest woman of her.
That didn’t mean he had to involve his emotions, however. After all, being in lust did not equate to being in love, which he definitely was not. There was no mistaking the fact that he desired her physically, enjoyed her passion, experienced the most intense sexual pleasure with her, but that was as far as he’d allow it to go.
He slid to her side, tucking his hands behind his head. Neither one of them spoke a word. It seemed neither one cared to break the magical spell lingering between them, silent, wordless, unbreakable. They lay quietly naked, side by side in a mutually satiated state of exhaustion, their skin cooling by slow degrees.
Angela’s thoughts were anything but silent, however. They were loudly clanging around in her brain like a cup full of rattling dice. Who was this man laying next to her? How was it that he had her so enthralled, so beside herself with want, filled with the need to have him as a woman has a man? She was in unexplored territory – well, not completely unexplored at this point, but it was a novel experience, nonetheless. Her body still tingled with the aftereffects of said experience.
She was now faced with a complete and utter mystery – a man – and all the aspects involved with such a creature. What was it about this particular man that compelled her to give herself to him so freely? Out of the string of her previous admirers, Ian Moreland, the Viscount Blackridge, seemed to be the only one who held the key to some hidden, inner part of her that had been otherwise unknown.
She could hear his steady breathing, feel the heat from his body, so close to hers. She wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling. What was she feeling? How would they go on and how would she go on, knowing that somehow he had captured a significant portion of her heart?
Angela wasn’t sure she was willing to surrender such a precious commodity to anyone at all, most especially a man. She’d tried that once, with her father, and that had turned out abominably. But then, The Baron may not be her real father at all, and this man, right here, right now, elicited sensations and emotions she wished – desired – to explore more fully.
5
Villarreal / The Devil Rogue
Chapter 13
“YOU’VE DECIDED WE should do what?”
The following morning had brought about a most disturbing conversation with Ian. Angela had awakened feeling wonderfully light-spirited in addition to being sore in the most delightful places. Her thoughts had turned to the man beside her, and the pleasurable possibilities his presence might offer. But almost as soon as he’d opened his eyes, his focus had been on one particular subject: marriage.
“I think marriage is the best solution,” he said. “I know it’s very sudden, but you have to consider your situation here, and your recent loss of – er – well, your innocence.” At least he had the decency to look abashed.
Angela ignored his adorable lopsided grin and drew herself up as best she could, despite her current state of undress. Grasping the silk sheet to her chest with clenched fingers, she said, “You’re forgetting the fact that our original bargain was for me to be your mistress for three months. Doesn’t that mean sleeping with you and all that it implies? Why the sudden inclination to marry me?”
He cleared his throat. “After much deliberation, I’ve realized that I’ve done you a tremendous disservice by coercing you into the role of my mistress. As a gently reared young woman, I feel you deserve the respectability of marriage, and all the rights and privileges that go along with it.
“You would be gaining far more by becoming my wife – Lady Blackridge – than you would if you were to remain my mistress. You would be under my protection, thereby afforded the respect due a woman of your rank. Society, in general, would see you in a much different light.”
“I hadn’t really planned on remaining in society, so I see no need to marry.” It was almost impossible for Angela to think clearly, as she was naked in a rumpled bed with such a handsome, virile man, who also happened to be naked. Why was he insisting on marriage? What had brought him to that conclusion? Something was not right here, and she was going to find out what it was.
“What exactly was it you were planning to do,” he said sharply, “slip unnoticed into the obscurity of the country, hiding yourself from the realities of life, only to whittle away your youth in a lonely existence?”
That put her on the defensive. “Well, yes – at least in part. And I wouldn’t be wasting my life. You, my lord, have no say in the matter of what I do or don’t do with my future. I have had enough of being under the thumb of a man, and will not subject myself to such a condition ever again.”
Angela yanked on the sheet and slipped out of the bed. Twisting her body around, she wrapped herself in a cocoon of silk, still warm from his heat. Too late, she realized her action had left him laying prone in full naked glory.
His golden eyes glittered with something altogether too primal for her peace of mind, causing her breasts to swell and her nipples tingle. Her gaze involuntarily flicked to the lower half of his body, and she gasped. He was fully aroused, his member proudly rising, thick and long, from the nest of dark curls. Between her thighs, she was moist, her nether lips plump and sensitive in response to his blatant display.
Feeling a bit like a rabbit caught in a snare, Angela moved to take a step back. After all, wasn’t self-preservation the better part of valor – or was it, the better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life? Her addled wits didn’t allow much room for recalling Shakespeare at the moment. There was that blasted sheet, which was tangled around her legs, causing her to tumble and fall in a heap on the floor next to the bed. Before she had time to recover from her undignified sprawl, a heavy weight settled over her.
A deep voice growled into her ear, “Having some trouble, princess?”
He turned her so she lay on her back, forcing her to look up into those fiery eyes. Her arms were trapped by her own stupidity when she’d wound the damned sheet around herself. She was at his mercy – helpless against anything he might decide to do to her.
That was a bad thing, right?
Wrong.
His heat burned through the thin layer of silk, his hard erection pressing against the cradle of her thighs. He surrounded her like a summer storm, sending lightening strikes to her most sensitive places, his deep voice like thunder rumbling through her center. “My name is Ian. Say it,” he commanded.
“Ian,” she breathed.
He kissed her, his mouth devouring hers with a deep, hot intensity. She couldn’t move her arms, couldn’t pull him closer, couldn’t open her legs to invite him in, and that made her want to weep from frustration.
Oh, how easily she succumbed to his seductive spell! But she didn’t care. All she wanted right now was to feel his skin against hers. Breaking away from his mouth, she pleaded, “Ian, let me loose, please!”
&nbs
p; “When I’ve got you right where I want you?” he rasped. “I think not, princess.”
His mouth crashed back down on hers, tasting her lips, licking and sucking, and then he drove his tongue deep inside. She was completely under his control. She didn’t care.
The ear-splitting sound of dishes, plus a heavy silver tray hitting the floor, broke them apart.
“Oh, dear God almighty!” Rosemary screeched from the doorway. “Begging your pardon, my lord.” She hesitated. “Miss Angela . . . is that you under the, ah, never mind. I’ll just leave you two be.” She backed out, her gaze darting to the smoothly muscled buttocks of the Viscount Blackridge. Pieces of broken crockery crunched as the door closed with a slam.
“If I hadn’t already ruined you last night, my dear, you are well and truly ruined now,” Ian said with a sensuous grin. “I’ll leave you to dress, and,” glancing at the mess on the floor, he continued, “eat, if you can find your breakfast. I will be expecting you in my study in one hour. We need to finish our discussion.”
He rose gracefully, and walked with the sinewy grace of a satisfied jungle cat over to a chair that held his clothes from yesterday. From her position on the floor, Angela raised herself up on her elbows to get a better look as he began to dress, loving the way his muscles bunched when he moved. She’d never had such an unimpeded view of a male body before, so she seized this moment of opportunity to look her fill. His member, she noticed, was much smaller than it had been only minutes ago, and softer, less threatening. It swung gently with his movements, fascinating her. The idea that it had so recently been inside her, his flesh connecting with hers so intimately, sent a sizzle of excitement up her spine.
He dragged his breeches up over his narrow hips, effectively concealing his tight buttocks from her view. But then he turned around, displaying his front, the material gaping wide open. Her eyes widened when his member stirred and then began to grow and stiffen. Raising her gaze to his face, she realized he’d been watching her watching him . . . down there. Cheeks aflame, she refused to break eye contact.
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