How to Entice an Earl

by Manda Collins

  He sat down beside her, and gathered her against him. “Why relieved?” he asked. “Didn’t you think I’d agree?”

  “I thought you probably would, but I didn’t know.” She toyed with the bit of ribbon at the neck of her night rail. “It never occurred to me just how difficult it must be for a man to make himself vulnerable in that way. I have a newfound respect for your sex, I think.”

  “Well, I was the one to mention marriage first,” he said, removing her hands from the ribbon and untying it himself. He leaned back and helped her lower her head and shoulders down on the pillows. “I think that deserves some sort of reward.” Unable to resist, he dipped down and kissed the vee of exposed flesh above her bosom.

  “Perhaps,” she said, threading her fingers into his hair. “Though you did not ask. You simply stated your expectations. Just like a man.”

  “Hmm,” he said, licking the indentation above her breastbone. “Perhaps you would like to state your own expectations, now. Just to make things fair.”

  She moaned slightly as he moved his mouth upward and kissed just below her ear. He filed away the knowledge of her sensitivity there for later.

  “I expect that you are wearing far too many clothes,” she said as he took her earlobe between his teeth. “Take them off.”

  Never one to deny a lady, Christian pulled back, and complied.

  Maddie had never felt this combination of giddiness and excitement before.

  From the moment that Christian had revealed his presence in her bedchamber she’d known that tonight would change her life irrevocably. And she was glad of it.

  By the light of the candle, she watched as he shrugged out of his coats, unraveled his neckcloth, and made haste to untuck his shirt and pull it unceremoniously over his head. She drank in the sight of his muscled chest, and well-defined arms, as they emerged from beneath his clothing. She had felt those muscles herself, but seeing them was a far different experience.

  He sat on the edge of the bed, revealing his broad, and deliciously naked, back as he went to work removing his boots. Unable to resist, she sat up and ran a finger down his spine.

  And nearly made him leap out of his skin.

  “Sorry,” he muttered, returning to his boots as she continued to explore his body. “Wasn’t expecting that. And I’m strung tighter than a drum thanks to those wandering hands of yours.”

  Maddie smiled to herself at the knowledge she was responsible for his skittishness. This interlude with Christian was educational on many levels. She slid an experimental finger around to tickle his ribs and was rewarded by another leap.

  Turning to face her, he raised a brow. “If you want me to get these blasted boots off you have to stop interrupting me.”

  “Spoilsport,” she said without rancor, propping herself up on one arm to watch him.

  When he was finally finished with his boots, Christian turned and stretched out alongside her on the bed. She’d never thought her bedchamber was particularly small, but with a large male body in it, it felt like the tiny room of a doll’s house.

  “So,” he said, a half grin quirking his lips as he faced her. Backlit by the candle, his light brown hair’s blond highlights shone like a halo around his head. “Where were we?” he asked, slipping a hand over the curve of her hip.

  His mouth when it touched hers was soft and hot and utterly devastating. Knowing that she could take the lead when she wished, now she welcomed the mastery of his kiss. Gave herself up to the thrill of possession. She snaked a hand over his naked chest, feeling the warmth of his hot skin beneath her fingers, the rough texture of the hair there. The hair that led a path straight from his chest to disappear into his breeches. Her heart beating faster, she felt the coil of desire well deep in her belly as she stroked him, sending tendrils of need into that aching spot between her thighs.

  As if sensing her impatience, Christian reached down to draw the silk of her gown up her body, growling slightly in frustration as it became stuck beneath her hips. Wanting to feel his skin against hers in the most desperate way, Maddie sat up and lifted the gown over her head, tossing it to the floor. As one they came back together, and Maddie nearly wept at the pleasure of feeling his powerful chest pressed against her breasts.

  Moving down her body, Christian took the peak of her breast into his mouth, the slight tug of his sucking sending a jolt straight to her center, where a gnawing emptiness made her hips lift in frustration.

  Answering her silent plea, he slipped a hand between them, and still toying with her nipple, he stroked his fingers over her wetness. Maddie gasped at the pleasure of it and rocked against his hand, as he slipped a finger into her.

  A cry tore from her before Maddie felt Christian cover her mouth with his hand. “Shhhh,” he whispered into her ear, even as he filled her with a second finger. “We don’t want to wake the house.” But the fullness within her was heaven, and unable to stop herself, Maddie moved her restless hips against his hand, begging silently for more.

  Kissing her on the mouth, Christian continued to thrust his fingers into her, then when she felt as if she would burst with the euphoria of it, he stroked his thumb over the spot above where he pressed inside her, and Maddie shrieked beneath his hand. Her body, out of her control, convulsed around his fingers, her hips rocked back and forth of their own volition as she felt herself disappear into a world where only pleasure existed.

  When she came back to herself, it was to find Christian watching her with an almost pained expression. His hand clasped her buttock, and she felt the press of his arousal against her. Wanting to bring him the pleasure that he’d just given her, she slipped her hands between them and began to fumble with the fastenings of his breeches.

  He kissed her, and removed her hands. “Faster if I do it,” he said, his voice hoarse as he shucked his breeches and drawers in one motion and came back to press her back into the softness of the mattress.

  She gasped at the delicious heaviness of his body against hers. Even with him braced above her on his hands, the sensation of being overpowered by him was oddly intoxicating. And the center of her came alive again, pulsing with need as she felt the press of his erection against her stomach.

  “Might hurt at first,” he said with an apologetic smile. “But I’ll make it good for you, Mads. I promise.”

  “I know,” she said, lifting up to kiss him. “I know.”

  Closing her eyes, she felt the slide of his hands up her sides, and down again, over her hips. This was what she’d been craving from him. This possession. Instinctively, she opened her legs and drew her knees up to rest on either side of his hips, inviting him in.

  Tentatively, he guided the tip of his arousal to her, and though she was braced for a sharp pain, Maddie felt only fullness and a strange restlessness as he pressed into her. When he was fully seated, she closed her eyes at the stretching sensation. She leaned up to kiss him, and he looked down at her with an intensity that made her heart leap up within her.

  “Madeline,” he whispered against her mouth, flexing his hips to pull slowly back from her. Unable to stop herself, she pressed her hips up to meet him. “I can’t go slow,” he breathed. “I’m sorry.” She answered him by grabbing hold of his taut buttocks and pulling him closer.

  With a muttered curse, Christian let go. Thrusting into her again and again, as Maddie rose up to meet him. The delicious friction between their bodies vibrating through her like a chorus without words. Unable to look away, she watched the harsh, beautiful planes of his face in the candlelight. He was at once the man she’d known these past months, and another, darker version of himself. The lover she’d never known she needed. But she knew it now. Knew she craved him. Knew the building tension within her could only be slaked by this man and his body, his soul joining with hers.

  “Christian,” she breathed, murmuring words she barely undersood as she felt the madness climbing higher, lifting her to the cliff’s edge as he drove into her, their naked bodies gliding against one another.
Mindlessly, she gripped his shoulders, held on for dear life as she felt the first quakes of orgasm rippling through her.

  “Maddie,” he said, kissing her, driving into her mouth in a mimicry of where their bodies joined below. “You’re mine.”

  Her eyes flew open as she went over, the waves of pleasure bowing her back, jerking her hips in a mindless frenzy as Christian found his release. As if from far away, she heard him cry out, felt the warmth of his release flood within her, bucked against him as the last throbs of her abandon urged her on.

  When Maddie came back to herself, she was acutely aware of the very large, very male body pressing her into the mattress.

  “Sorry,” he muttered against her neck, still a bit breathless. Kissing her tenderly, he withdrew, turned over onto his back and pulled her with him to settle against his chest. Though she was glad to breathe again, she felt bereft at the loss of their joining. “I didn’t mean to crush you.”

  “You weren’t,” she said, snuggling into him, liking the feel of his arm around her, of his hard male body at rest. “I rather liked it.”

  “Did you?” he asked, his eyes closed as he absently stroked her naked back.

  “I did,” she confirmed, turning over onto her stomach so that she could look at him, this man who had just had his wicked way with her.

  He was always ready with a quip or a joke, despite his very serious military career and work for Whitehall, but Maddie had come to realize that there was much more to him than those things. He had shown himself to be protective of her in a way she wasn’t quite sure she’d ever felt. Even from her own family. Christian might disapprove of her becoming involved in the search for Tinker’s murderer, but instead of forbidding her to do so, he’d simply insisted upon helping her. Or at least following her to ensure she didn’t come to harm. In fact, he—

  “I can feel you staring at me,” he said, not opening his eyes. “I just made you see stars. You should be collapsed in a heap of sated bliss. Instead you are plotting.”

  Maddie kissed his chin. “I am not plotting,” she said. “I am simply thinking of our next step in the search for Tinker’s killer.”

  Christian sighed and opened one eye. “That can wait until after the wedding.”

  “Wedding?” Maddie squeaked. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

  “That’s because you aren’t the one who will be facing a pistol at dawn thanks to our thoroughly delightful time together tonight,” he said, opening both eyes. He arched a light brown brow. “I, however, have it all planned.”

  He did?

  “You do?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, neatly flipping her onto her back and kissing her as if he hadn’t just spent the last hour doing so.

  “In fact,” Christian murmured, kissing a line down her chin to her neck, “I think it should take place before the week is out.”

  “Oh.” Maddie sighed as he reached out to lave the tip of her breast with his tongue. “Do you really think so?”

  “Definitely.”

  Maddie felt the muscles in her stomach leap as he moved his mouth downward, over the slight curve of her belly, to slide his hands over the outside of her thighs.

  “Wh-what are you doing down there?” she asked, watching the top of his head as she allowed him to pull her knees wide. “Are you … are you looking at me?”

  He glanced up from his study of her, his eyes dark with desire. “You were looking at me,” he said with a sly grin. “What’s good for the goose…”

  “But that’s not the same as…” But when he leaned forward to kiss her there, Maddie lost the ability to think coherently.

  The feel of his hot mouth on her most private place, which was still sensitive from their lovemaking, made her inner muscles clench with desire. As if he knew just what her body craved, Christian thrust two fingers inside her. Overwhelmed with sensation, needing to hold on to something, Maddie threaded her fingers into his hair, holding him as he pleasured her.

  But the ache she felt demanded more. “I need you,” she gasped, lifting her hips in time with his fingers. “Please,” she begged. “Please.”

  To her relief, she felt him lift his head, his soft hair tickling her belly. “As you wish,” he said roughly, kissing his way up her body to her mouth, where she tasted herself.

  Sliding a hand down his back to grasp his buttocks, she was impatient to feel him inside her.

  Mindless with need, Maddie felt him grasp her by the knees and push them up to her chest. The position left her completely open to him, and as she tilted her pelvis upward she was relieved to feel his hardness against her exposed thigh.

  “Is this what you need?” Christian asked, pressing into her with a slowness that was devastating. Once, twice, Maddie felt her body clench around him, as if pulling him into the heart of her. Fully seated, Christian gave a slight groan as he kissed her, then began to move. His thrusts sure and controlled and not at all what Maddie wanted. Unable to move her body to angle into his movements, she lifted up to kiss him. “Let go,” she whispered against his mouth. “Let go of your control and feel me.”

  Christian stopped moving. He looked into her eyes, and with a quick kiss, he unleashed whatever had been holding him back. His powerful arms bracketed her, holding his weight off her while he allowed himself to slide into her with the full force of his passion. Again and again he drove into her; hard, strong, and unrelenting. Her body alive with the delicious friction between their bodies, Maddie held on to him for dear life, taking each and every inch of him into her.

  Finally, it was too much for them both. Christian’s movements became wild, erratic, and Maddie felt herself hurtling toward the bliss she knew they both wanted. Needed. Crying out, she felt her body pulse around him as she lost herself. At the same time, she felt his back bow and he gave a guttural cry, spilling himself into her and lowering his body onto hers.

  They lay panting together for several seconds as they got their bearings.

  “Did it again,” he muttered against her neck. “Sorry.” Pushing himself to his arms, he kissed her gently and then turned onto his back, pulling her with him so that she lay atop him.

  “Better?” he asked, squinting into her slitted eyes.

  She tucked her head under his chin. “I suppose,” she said. Then promptly fell asleep.

  Much later, Maddie watched as Christian rose from the bed and dressed hastily, tying his cravat in a casual fashion that would have Deveril tsking.

  “I’ll be by in the morning to talk to your father,” he said, kissing her one last time. “Don’t marry anyone else in the meantime.”

  “You are an absurd man,” she said, shaking her head as she sat up in the bed, clutching the sheet to her bosom.

  As she watched, he slipped out of the window and stepped out onto the trellis beyond.

  “But I’m your absurd man,” he said, disappearing down the side of the house.

  “Yes, you are,” Maddie said to the open window.

  Twelve

  It was nearly noon when Christian strode into White’s, in search of coffee and perhaps a bit of low-key conversation. He had arrived home before dawn, but just barely. And after so much time spent with Maddie, he found that his mind was filled with thoughts of her. And so was his body, which was not sated despite the activities in her bed last night. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that. He’d never found himself in the position of aching for a woman he’d already had. It was a new experience for him, and since he planned to marry her as soon as humanly possible, it boded well for their future together.

  But before he could face Maddie’s father, he needed strong coffee, and perhaps a bit of advice from his friends. He was pleased to find Winterson ensconced in a corner with a pot of coffee and a tableful of newspapers.

  “Good morning, old chap,” he said, lowering himself to a chair opposite his friend.

  “Why are you in such a good mood?” Winterson, a dark brow raised in suspicion, looked up from his newspaper. �
��You look as if you didn’t sleep at all. But you’re whistling. Odd, that.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” Christian indicated to the waiter that he would like coffee as well. “Can a man not be in a good mood without prompting suspicion? If so, you will have to turn your eagle eye upon yourself, for I believe you have been in an annoyingly good mood for weeks now.”

  The duke leaned back in his chair and surveyed his friend. “Interesting,” he said finally, then picked up his paper and continued reading.

  They were silent as Christian waited for his coffee, and to see if his friend would extrapolate upon his one-word pronouncement. But after a prolonged silence, in which Winterson continued to read silently, he could stand it no more. “What the devil is that supposed to mean? ‘Interesting.’”

  When his coffee arrived, he absently took a large mouthful and swore as the hot liquid singed his tongue. Lowering the paper to stare at his friend, Winterson raised his brows in inquiry. “Just what it usually means,” he said. “I find it interesting that you came into White’s this morning, without having slept, your cravat a mess, your shirt rumpled, and rumors abounding about how you spent last evening.”

  A peal of warning sounded in Christian’s chest. “What rumors?” he asked, his good mood waning.

  “What rumors, he asks,” Winterson said, shaking his head in exasperation. “The rumors that you kissed Lady Madeline Essex in Lady Emily Fielding’s drawing room last night. Which, I might add, has been corroborated by three people in attendance at her little card party.”

  Damn it. “I had hoped that our engagement would quash the rumors before they even made the rounds.”

  “So,” Winterson said with deceptive calm, “the rumors are true and you plan to marry her?”

  “Yes,” Christian responded, not fooled by his friend’s calm demeanor. As a male relative—even by marriage—of Maddie, Winterson would not hestitate to protect her reputation. Even if that meant crossing swords with his best friend. “And, of course. Have no doubt on that score.”