by Amy Jarecki
The only words were the title, scrawled across the top:
Situations de la Chambre à Coucher
He’d never imagined lovemaking could be accomplished in so many positions. Thirty-five in all. For the love of God, the woman could even be on top—or the man behind.
Oh, sweet Mary, that picture stirred his blood.
His skin grew hot as he studied each angle, the placement of the woman’s shapely thighs, and how the man managed to insert… ah… himself.
Aiden threw back his spirit to calm the fire raging beneath his kilt. The problem? The whisky only made him burn hotter. He scanned down the page and his heart nearly stopped when he examined a sketch of a woman kneeling over her partner and taking him into her mouth, her fingers wrapped around the base of the man’s shaft.
Mouths? MacPherson never alluded to that.
In the next drawing the couple had changed positions. Aiden nearly fell off his chair. The man actually had his face in the woman’s… and her face expressed nothing but pure ecstasy.
He slammed the parchment shut and gulped, staring straight ahead.
“Are you unwell, my lord?” asked a passing porter.
“Another whisky, please,” he croaked.
“Straightaway, my lord.”
Aiden stole another peek inside. He rather liked the idea of lovemaking with the mouth. Oh yes, and, in addition to that, hands as well. Those were, well, surefire methods of preventing the birth of bastards.
Why hadn’t MacPherson told him about such alternatives? Mayhap the captain was right, Fraser was more of a talker. Mayhap Fraser knew of only the one position, which now seemed rather dreary in comparison to so many others.
Chapter Eleven
Maddie lay awake listening to Agnes’s light snores sail down from above stairs. She’d returned from the gallery anxious to tell Aiden about her conversation with the queen and had been disappointed to discover him away. And she grew further disappointed when he didn’t return in time to take the evening meal.
He hadn’t mentioned that he’d be away. Not that he needed to inform her of his plans.
But his sudden disappearance was odd all the same.
When the outer door opened and closed, Maddie slid from her bed and hastily donned her dressing gown. When she peered into the passageway, she found His Lordship opening the door to his chamber. “I’m so glad I caught you,” she blurted, lest she miss him altogether.
He spun around, inhaling sharply. “M’lady. You’re still awake?”
“Aye, did I startle you?”
“No.” He stepped nearer, the scent of whisky and tobacco swirling around him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something different about his eyes, something almost predatory. “Is Miss Agnes with you?”
“She’s in her quarters—has been asleep for an hour or more.” Maddie leaned closer and inhaled more deeply. Lord Aiden’s scent was on the verge of being intoxicating. “I’ve never seen you smoke a pipe, m’lord.”
“I don’t.” He drew a hand down his waistcoat, his eyes growing darker. “I stopped at Boodle’s gentlemen’s club to do a bit of reading.”
“I see.” She glanced away. “Was it invigorating?”
His breath caught—a very subtle sound, but he’d gasped all the same. Reaching out, he brushed his fingers along her cheek, staring at her more intently than ever before. “Very invigorating, lass.” His voice sounded deeper as well.
Initially she’d wanted to tell Aiden about her conversation with the queen, but her tongue was tied. The thrill of his touch rendered her speechless. Though he had the most enchanting moss-green eyes, Lord Aiden had never gazed upon her with such fervor before.
Placing his hand at the back of her neck, he urged her nearer. Though the passageway was dark, the flickering lamplight from her chamber made his lips shine. Good heavens, she shouldn’t have dashed into the corridor in her dressing gown. But now her breasts swelled with the thrill of his mouth growing nearer, his long lashes shuttering his eyes, the hint of whisky on his breath as it skimmed her forehead.
Aye, Maddie had enjoyed every kiss she’d received from Lord Aiden Murray. Enjoyed the light touch of his fingers on her cheek. Last eve she shouldn’t have allowed him to kiss her in the window embrasure. She still shuddered at the humiliation of having been caught.
But now a shiver jumped up the back of her neck. Indeed, there was nothing to stop her tonight. With Miss Agnes fast asleep, not a soul would interrupt them. Heaven forgive her, she enjoyed kissing this man. His hands upon her were like a drug that once taken created an addiction.
She didn’t know what came over her whenever he touched her, just as he was doing at this very moment. The hunger in his eyes made her blood thrum. And with a low growl, his lips clamped over hers. His tongue drove into her mouth as if he were starving—not for food, but for her.
Merciful heavens.
Maddie closed her eyes. Her emotions took over while her hands wound their way around his waist. On fire, she shuddered and arched toward him, craving more—more kissing—more closeness—more.
Aiden backed her against the wall, his big hands everywhere, rubbing up and down her body. Every place he touched begged for his fingers to sweep over and caress it again.
Her eyes flew open when his fingers swirled around her unbound breast. He met her gaze with a fiery, green-eyed stare. “Och, I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you dancing in Dunnottar’s gallery.”
Maddie’s eyes rolled back as his hand slipped inside her dressing gown and cupped her, skin to skin. With his touch her breast swelled and ached with a heavy longing that made her hips rock forward. Met with the same hard maleness she’d felt intimately touch her in the embrasure last eve, her hips rubbed while pressure built, like screaming inside, begging for more.
Kissing him, moving with him, her back against the wall, it wasn’t enough.
With a deep guttural moan, he lifted her in his arms, carried her along the passageway, and kicked open his chamber door. Big, strong arms cradled her as if she weighed nothing.
Her mind cleared enough to realize he was headed straight for the enormous four-poster bed. “Lord Aiden, we mustn’t!”
He chuckled into her hair. “Do you remember on Hogmanay, I asked you to call me Aiden?”
“Aye.”
“I want you to call me Aiden now, Magdalen—Maddie—dear God, I’m mad for you.” He rested her on the bed and knelt over her, untying his cravat. She’d seen him without his shirt that very morn. The image of a complete and utter Adonis would be burned upon her mind for the rest of her days. Grinning, eyes filled with passion, he slowly drew the lace away and cast it to the floor.
Her breathing sped up when he removed his doublet and tossed it aside as well.
With her last shred of lucidness, Maddie pressed her hand against his chest. Met with heat, the hammering of his heart thumped a steady rhythm against her trembling fingers. “We mustn’t.”
“I want you, lass, and I ken by your kisses you want me.”
She chewed her lip, wanting him more than life, but forcing herself to be sensible. “Aye, but I cannot bring another bastard into this world.”
“I’ve considered that.”
Her heart nearly stopped beating. “You have?”
His deft fingers continued to unbutton his waistcoat while he arched a single eyebrow. “There are other ways to bring you pleasure aside from—ah—the direct route.”
“Pardon?” she asked, her breasts swelling at the thought of seeing the rippled muscles in his abdomen.
But I am lying on his bed in his chamber. Sacrilege.
He pulled loose the bow at his nape and let his tresses fall forward. Dusky hair with highlights flickering amber by the coals in the hearth. Handsome as the devil. A more delicious man could not possibly exist. “Stay with me.” His gaze trailed from her face to her breasts. “I promise I will not take your innocence.”
“Kissing only?” she asked, h
eat pooling between her loins.
He tugged his shirt over his head and cast it aside. “And touching, Maddie.” Rocking back on his haunches, he raked his gaze down her body—almost as if allowing her a chance to flee. “If you’ll trust me.”
Touching? He made it sound so risqué, so dangerous, so impossible to refuse.
Powerless to speak, she nodded as her hand grew a mind of its own and brushed across Aiden’s hard, rippled stomach.
He closed his eyes and moaned. “That feels so good.”
It felt good to Maddie, too, and before she had a chance to think, his lips touched hers as his hands untied her sash and spread open her dressing gown. Without her petticoats and stays, only a chemise of holland cloth separated her breasts from his bare chest. Desperate to feel his hardness, she slipped her hands to his back and pulled him closer.
When he moved over her, she whimpered. Too many erotic sensations coursed through her. Caught in a web of passion, Maddie kissed and rocked and swirled her hips. He slid between her legs, long and hard. A wanton streak she never knew existed demanded she rub in tandem with the motion of his hips.
As Aiden’s cock nestled between Maddie’s legs, he could have come right there… but he craved more. He wanted to be completely naked like the people in the drawings. And he was so close, he had to ease away a bit just to maintain control. Dear God, this woman’s body was made for sin. And her scent? Och, Maddie’s fragrance drove him to the brink of insanity. His every nerve ending trembled as he tried to remain lucid enough not to lose control.
Pulling back to his knees, he inched up the hem of her chemise.
When the linen reached her knees, she snapped her hands to her thighs. “But—”
“Trust me.” With a cockeyed grin, he released his belt and let his kilt drop.
Her eyes fell to his cock—pointing straight at her. God save him, he liked having her eyes on him, the pink of her tongue slipping across her lip made him crave her lips on him, sucking him, her hand gripping his root.
But not yet.
“Now you,” he said. It wasn’t a request, but a command.
Trust filled her eyes as she moved her hands and allowed him to pull the chemise over her head.
Holy Christ, she was more beautiful than the woman in the drawings. More beautiful than anything he could have ever imagined. Long, sleek limbs, voluptuous hips, a slender waist and round breasts large enough to fill his hands with pure heaven.
Reverently he bowed his head and suckled the pert rosebuds tipping her breasts. He would savor Maddie this night.
His tongue moved from one breast to the next, teasing them to erect tips, and then he trailed kisses down her flat midriff. When finally he lay with his shoulders between her spread thighs, Maddie gasped and writhed with each new sensation as he relentlessly kissed her. The lassie’s every mewl took him a little closer to the edge. He inhaled the full power of the fragrance that had driven him mad since the first time he’d met the woman—danced with her—touched his palm to her palm.
“I-I-I.” She peered down at him. “What?”
“I want to watch your face while I kiss you here.”
She tried to sit up, but he stopped her by splaying his hand on her abdomen. “Remember my promise, lass.” Hell’s fire, he’d never been so aroused in his life. God bless the captain and his wee pamphlet—it was exactly what he’d needed.
Maddie eased back against the pillows, her face pensive. But Aiden watched her as his tongue lapped. With a wee gasp her thighs shuddered around him. He slid his finger over her nub of flesh.
“Mercy,” she cried out, arching her back.
Until he’d seen the sketches, he’d had no idea a woman could gain as much pleasure as a man.
He swirled his finger around the nub and then lower, finding her entrance slick, hot, and oh, so very, very wet.
His cock throbbed. Aye, the big fella kens what he wants.
Maddie’s eyes rolled back when he slid his finger in and out, her hips moving in seductive swirls. Holding his finger inside her core, he licked the wee nub. Gasping, she bucked against him. Dear God, nothing stroked his cock, yet he could come just by licking her. Aiden flicked out his tongue and lapped again. The lass tasted of sweet butter mixed with nectar. He swirled his tongue faster with the rhythm of his relentless finger. Moaning like a woman possessed, Maddie tossed her head from side to side.
Gasping, she clutched the bedclothes in her fists. “I’m about to burst.”
With a few more laps of his tongue, a high-pitched cry caught in Maddie’s throat. When her body stiffened with a frantic gasp, he flicked his tongue faster, while watching the pleasure on her angelic face. Her thighs shuddered. Her core shattered around his finger, gripped it tight, then pulsed around it.
Sucking in deep breaths, she opened her eyes, her face radiant as a sunset. Her breasts heaved with every breath. “How can you make me feel like this?”
He grinned and trailed kisses from her hips to her slender neck. “A wee trick sailors learn,” he hedged. Rising to his knees, he glanced to his waistcoat on the floor, the parchment still tucked away.
“I had no idea a man could make a woman shatter. From the way the women talk at the hospital, ’tis the men who gain all the pleasure.” Her gaze slid down to his erect manhood. “But you, ah, can you gain pleasure without making a bairn?”
Dear Lord, he’d been praying she’d ask. His gaze again shifted to his waistcoat. No, she’d probably think him a lecherous beast if he showed her the sketches.
“Would it be all right if I touched, ah, your…?” Her shoulder rose to her ear while a lock of long hair covered one eye. Sexy as a wildcat.
“Aye, lass, you can touch me with your hands, and mayhap even your lips… ah… if it pleases you.”
She gasped. “Just like you did to me?”
He held her heavy-lidded stare, and the corner of his mouth turned up as he nodded.
She grinned wantonly. “Well then, I think you should lie on your back.”
Oh yes, Aiden was only too eager to comply.
Maddie slid an arm into her dressing gown.
“Wait.” Aiden stopped her. “Would you leave it off?”
Blushing, she regarded the sleeve and pushed it away. Then she turned her attention to him. She rubbed her palm atop his abdomen. “It stirred my blood when I saw you without your shirt this morn.”
“Mm.”
“And now I want to ravish you.” She traced her finger from the center of his chest to his belly button. “Just like you ravished me.”
A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “I am at your mercy, m’lady.” A bit more seed dripped from the tip of his cock. God’s bones, he prayed he could hold on a wee bit longer.
She began by suckling his nipples as he’d done to her. Every flick of her tongue, every caress of her fingers served to make him harder. When she actually placed her fingers around his cock, he sucked in a gasp. “Christ.”
Maddie released him as if she’d wrapped her fingers around a hot brand. “Are you all right?”
“Better than all right,” he croaked, guiding her fingers back.
“Can I hurt you?”
“Not sure.”
“Have you ever done this before?”
“Nay.”
“Then perhaps I should start slow?”
Slow wasn’t in his vocabulary. Not now, when his cock was harder than an oaken bedpost. When she wrapped her lithe fingers around his shaft, a gasp caught in his throat. His blood coursed hot. Her lips bent toward him and opened wide—the most erotic picture he’d ever seen in his life.
Warm mouth surrounded him.
Aiden squeezed his eyes shut to stave off his need to thrust like a madman.
But when her hand squeezed, sliding up and down, he lurched into a frenzy. Losing his mind, he thrust with the rhythm of her hand. Maddie’s naked body consumed his mind. Her intoxicating scent led him into a fervor of unbridled hunger. Euphoric tension on the verge of pa
in consumed him. Higher and higher he soared until a bellowing moan grated in his throat while the world shattered into a million pulsing stars of euphoria.
As the tension eased and the world became harmonious again, Maddie rocked back and slowly drew a hand across her mouth. “Fascinating.”
Chapter Twelve
Maddie’s feet barely hit the steps when she left the queen’s antechamber and headed across the courtyard. Aiden had invited her to an organ recital by an emerging composer, George Frideric Handel, who was visiting from the Holy Roman Empire. Thank heavens His Lordship had given her enough notice for her to arrange for a new gown, and with the coin she had received from playing her harp, she could actually afford something stylish, fit for London society.
Agnes had gone to fetch the gown from the dressmaker, and Maddie couldn’t wait to try it on. Her mind raced with thoughts of the accessories she’d need—a fan for certain, shoes, a velvet cloak. Mayhap Agnes could come up with a fashionable new hairstyle as well.
“There you are, m’lady.” Lord Seaforth approached, taking long strides across the courtyard. “Where are you off to in such a hurry? I’ve been looking for you for two days.”
She stopped short and drew a hand over her mouth. In the past few days she’d been so blinded by ardor, she hadn’t been able to do as much as she’d wanted to further her father’s cause—aside from trying to win the queen’s good graces, or at least build enough favor with her to attempt another plea for Da’s release.
But Maddie hadn’t been sick with worry as a good daughter ought to have been. And now Lord Seaforth had been looking for her… for two days? She glanced to the folded parchment in Seaforth’s hand and bit her lip. “I’ve been asked to play the harp for the queen.”