Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)

by Carole Mortimer

“Stroke yourself faster and harder,” he ordered gruffly, knowing he was poised on the edge of his own release. He pushed one of his hands down the bodice of her gown to pinch one of her hard and swollen nipples between finger and thumb.

  Alys groaned and shuddered as she found her own release at the same time Sebastian’s cock pulsed against her lips and caressing tongue, the flow of his release pumping hotly into her mouth. Having no idea what else she was supposed to do, Alys lapped it up and swallowed it down. She could see warm approval in Sebastian’s gaze as she licked up the last of his juices before releasing his cock to sit back on her heels.

  “I did not tell you to stop yet,” he reminded softly as Alys would have also ceased stroking her now highly sensitive clit. “I would very much enjoy watching as you stroke yourself to a second climax.”

  Her eyes widened. “I can do that?”

  He nodded. “A man takes a little longer to recover, but a woman may come as many times as her body allows. Your responses five days ago tells me you can come many times before your body is satiated.” His eyes were very dark as he came down on his knees in front of her and used his fingers to part and open the slit in her drawers wider still. “You have the prettiest pussy I have ever seen.”

  Alys had long passed the point of feeling any embarrassment or vulnerability, having now shared intimacies with Sebastian which she had not even known existed.

  Perhaps she was something of a wanton after all.

  If she was, Sebastian did not seem to mind. In fact he was encouraging her to behave even more outrageously.

  “I am very sensitive.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she continued to stroke her now-slick nubbin.

  “Too sensitive?”

  “No. I do not think so. I… Perhaps,” she groaned as the pleasure between her legs spiked to an almost unbearable degree.

  “Let me.” Devil gently moved her fingers aside, taking a few seconds to admire the deep rose flush of her glistening nether lips before replacing her fingers with his own.

  He leaned forward slightly so he could claim her lips, tasting himself there as he thrust his tongue deep inside the wet heat of her mouth.

  Her clit felt slippery and swollen as it pulsed against the caress of his fingertips, Alys’s breathing becoming ragged and uneven as evidence she was approaching a second climax.

  He matched the thrusting of his tongue into her mouth to the same rhythm of the firm caress of his fingers on her nubbin. Until she drew in a sharp breath through her nose, her fingers tightly gripping Devil’s shoulders. Her clit swelled and throbbed as she came for a second time.

  Devil removed his hand from the dampness of her drawers but continued to kiss her for several minutes longer, gentling those kisses until Alys’s breathing had returned to normal.

  He broke the kiss to rest his damp forehead against hers. “Thank you.”

  She glanced at him quickly before her lashes lowered again. “I believe it should be me thanking you.”

  Devil chuckled softly. “We will certainly not be bored in our marriage bed!”

  The mere mention of the word marriage reminded Alys she was to marry this man tomorrow.

  But first she had to get through a dinner at which not only her brother and his disreputable friends would be present, but also Sebastian’s judgmental friend, the Earl of Carlton.

  Alys’s nervousness had only deepened by the time she came down the stairs a few minutes before eight o’clock that evening. Her intention was to join the gentlemen in the blue salon just in time for Holmes to announce dinner was served.

  Tonight she would be the only lady present among nine gentlemen.

  Nerve-provoking enough, but she had good reason to believe only one of those gentlemen looked upon her with any favor.

  Sebastian.

  Her brother’s friends would no doubt take their cue from their host and treat her with the same contempt Teddy now did.

  As for the Earl of Carlton…

  Having been the one to deliver the Special License from the Prince Regent, the earl could be in no doubt Deveril was not marrying her out of love.

  Did he also know Deveril was to pay Teddy twenty thousand pounds for the privilege of marrying Alys?

  Probably.

  Alys’s maid had informed her the marquis’s lawyer had arrived late this afternoon, and although Alys had not been invited to the meeting, she believed her brother would now have ensured those funds had already been transferred into his keeping.

  Which meant the lawyer would probably also be joining them for dinner.

  Whoever or whatever was present, the conversation in the blue salon seemed to be far more muted this evening than on other nights. These past few evenings, Alys had been able to hear the raucous laughter and conversation of Teddy and his friends all the way up the stairs in her bedchamber.

  The reason for tonight’s silence quickly became obvious once Alys stood unobserved in the doorway and saw there was a distinct division between the gentlemen in the room. Teddy and his friends stood near the unlit fireplace, talking in subdued voices. Deveril, the earl, and a middle-aged and gray-haired gentleman Alys could only assume was Deveril’s lawyer were standing all the way across the room next to the bay window.

  Alys walked toward Deveril’s group, having no interest in her brother or his friends.

  “—we shall go to my estate in Herefordshire after—” Devil broke off from answering the lawyer’s polite question the moment he saw Carlton’s pale gray gaze was now focused on something behind Devil.

  Or someone.

  Alys. Looking regal in her low-cut gown of deep blue silk, with her hair swept up in an intricate style at her crown.

  But it was not the gown or hairstyle which gave her that regal appearance; it was the cool confidence in her sky-blue eyes and the proud tilt to her chin. She looked every inch the marchioness she would very soon become.

  Devil reached her side in two steps before taking both her gloved hands in his. “I was not sure if you were going to join us after all.” He spoke softly so that only Alys could hear.

  As the minutes had ticked by toward eight o’clock, Devil had believed Alys to have reconsidered her earlier decision and she no longer intended to join the gentlemen for dinner. Not that he could have blamed her if she had; there were far too many men’s egos gathered together in this one room.

  Neither Devil nor Carlton were into playing such childish games as that, and the lawyer seemed oblivious of any tension, but Newcomb and his motley collection of friends had all taken up challenging stances. Before Carlton had put them in their place with one sharply worded set-down.

  “You asked that I do so,” Alys reminded Devil, her gaze not quite meeting his.

  Out of shyness, following the intensity of their lovemaking earlier? Or because she was still uncertain of his decision to marry her?

  The fact Alys was here at all, and only because Devil had said he would like it if she was, would seem to imply it was the former.

  Devil had been pleasantly surprised by Alys’s daring in wanting to make love to him earlier. She had taken instruction well, and balked only when he asked her to touch herself, but even that she had taken to eagerly once he had assured her it was perfectly permissible. The depth of pleasure he had felt to Alys’s lovemaking had almost brought him to his knees.

  He now tucked one of her gloved hands into the crook of his arm before turning back to the two gentlemen he had been talking to moments ago. “Mr. Fowler, this is my betrothed, Miss Alys Newcomb,” he introduced with pride. “Alys, my lawyer, Mr. Giles Fowler.” He waited for the bow and curtsey that followed the introduction before turning to Carlton. “Maxim, my future wife, Miss Alys Newcomb. Alys, this is my good friend Lord Maximillian Smythe, the Earl of Carlton.”

  Alys believed she heard an undertone of warning in Sebastian’s voice when he spoke to the earl. Indication Carlton still did not approve of his friend’s marriage to her? Sebastian had implied as much earlier
.

  “My lord.” She swept the earl a deep curtsey.

  “You must call me Maxim, as Devil does,” he invited smoothly as he raised one of her gloved hands and skimmed his lips across her knuckles. “As we shall be almost like family after tomorrow, I should like Devil’s permission to call you Alys.”

  Alys turned to look at Sebastian, leaving him to decide whether or not he would give permission for such familiarity toward her from one of his friends.

  “You have it,” Sebastian drawled. “However, you do not have my permission to hold Alys’s hand, in public or otherwise.” He raised his brows as he cast a pointed glance to where the earl still held on to Alys’s hand.

  The earl released her before straightening, a mocking smile tilting the sternness of his mouth as Sebastian immediately placed Alys’s hand in the crook of his own arm.

  “I believe that permission is still my right to give until after the service tomorrow?”

  Alys closed her eyes briefly before turning to face her brother. The flush to Teddy’s cheeks and the almost fevered glitter in his eyes indicated he had already had far too much to drink this evening. She doubted Teddy would have dared to openly challenge the marquis in this way if he had not. The other man not only outranked him but was superior in every other way that made Sebastian a gentleman and showed Teddy was not.

  Sebastian’s mouth tightened. “I believe the conclusion of our business this afternoon gives me that right.”

  “Have you never heard the proverb ‘there is many a slip ’twixt cup and lip’?” The sneer on Teddy’s mouth turned the quote into a taunt.

  And a challenge?

  It certainly sounded that way to Alys.

  To Sebastian too, from the way in which his lips had tightened and his eyes narrowed to dark slits.

  Chapter 9

  “As it might be the last occasion on which I might do so, I also insist on escorting my sister in to dinner.” Teddy presented his arm to her.

  That left Alys with the option of angering Teddy or slighting Sebastian. To do the former would probably result in an even more uncomfortable evening than she was expecting. To do the latter was unacceptable.

  “Allow me.” Carlton stepped forward and offered her his arm.

  Alys glanced at him uncertainly, not sure if he was inciting more mischief or if he genuinely wished to help her by offering himself as the third alternative. The warm encouragement in his pale gray eyes told her it was the latter.

  “Thank you.” Alys stepped past her brother and Sebastian, who continued to glare at each other, to place her hand on Carlton’s arm and allow him to escort her as they crossed the salon to lead the guests through to the dining room.

  “Your brother will be lucky to survive through to the wedding tomorrow if he does not quickly learn to resist challenging Devil,” the earl murmured ruefully.

  She sighed heavily. “The drink has made my brother forget all caution, I am afraid. But I thank you for at least attempting to dispel the tension just now.”

  Carlton pulled back the chair for her to take her seat at one end of the table once they reached the dining room. “I fear I have only delayed the inevitable,” he drawled as he took the seat to her left, leaving the one to her right for her fiancé, as etiquette dictated he should.

  Alys gave the earl a worried glance. “Which is?”

  He shrugged broad shoulders. “Devil will be forced to either beat your brother within an inch of his life or possibly run him through with the first available sword. I believe I saw a couple of them on the wall out in the hallway as we passed through,” he added dryly.

  Her worry increased. “There is now only dinner this evening and the few hours of tomorrow to get through.”

  “That may be too long,” Carlton had time to murmur before Sebastian and the other gentlemen joined them in the dining room. “I would say it depends upon your brother’s behavior for the rest of this evening.”

  Alys was aware of, but refused to acknowledge, Teddy’s increasingly belligerent gaze on her during dinner. His already loud and reckless mood was not helped by the vast amount of wine he consumed with each course of the meal.

  Dinner was a long-drawn-out affair, but Sebastian and Carlton did their best to ease Alys’s tension and keep her entertained and preoccupied as they regaled her with amusing stories from the years they had spent at school and university together.

  “You joined the army at the same time too, I believe?” she prompted lightly, and was instantly aware of a frisson of tension as the two men glanced at each other and then away again. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “Not at all,” Sebastian answered her smoothly, one of his hands moving to cover hers as it rested on the table top. “All The Sinners were in the army. What one does, the others tend to do too.”

  Alys gave Carlton a mischievous glance, much more at ease with him than she had been earlier. “Does that mean we might soon hear word of your own impending nuptials?”

  He almost choked over the wine he was sipping, taking several seconds to regain his voice. “Absolutely not,” he assured her emphatically once he had done so. He gave a shudder. “Marriage would not suit me at all.”

  “Why not?” she prompted curiously.

  “Alys,” Sebastian cautioned.

  She gave him a quizzical glance. “Have I spoken out of turn?”

  “Not at all,” Carlton dismissed in a bored voice.

  “Sebastian…?”

  Devil gave her a reassuring smile, unwilling to discuss Maxim’s private life. He might, with Maxim’s permission, explain that situation to Alys one day. But not tonight. “Let us talk of something else. Are you sure you are completely packed and ready to leave here for good tomorrow?”

  She nodded. “I am.”

  “That is—”

  “—marrying the man who killed our father just proves that my sister is nothing but a whore who will spread her legs for any man who so much as looks at her. Even the man who murdered our father!” Teddy Newcomb’s voice carried easily from the other end of the table, causing all other conversation to cease.

  Devil pushed his chair back noisily as he instantly rose to his feet.

  “Calm down, Devil,” Maxim warned softly. “Can you not see he is only trying to anger you into a fight?”

  “Then he is succeeding,” Devil bit out through gritted teeth.

  “Not here. Not now,” Maxim cautioned. “Too many witnesses.”

  Devil’s hands were clenched into fists at his sides as he glared down the length of the table at his host and future brother-in-law. “Unless you have another sister whom you have chosen to insult, and so publicly, I suggest you apologize to Alys immediately.”

  “Can’t apologize for telling the truth, old chap.” Newcomb waved his wineglass about as he spoke, slopping some of the contents over his hand and onto the table. “Everyone knows the only reason you’re marrying her is because she behaved the whor—” He got no farther in his rant against Alys because Devil had reached that end of the table in four long strides and had now lifted the other man up from his chair by the front of his waistcoat.

  Devil thrust his face very close to the younger man’s. “You will apologize to Alys, or give me the satisfaction of meeting me outside at dawn.”

  “With the same set of dueling pistols you used to kill my father?” Newcomb taunted.

  His eyes narrowed. “I had pummeling you into the ground with my fists in mind, but I will happily—”

  “Now, now, gentlemen.” Maxim joined the two of them, his tone cajoling. “Tempers are merely running a little high with the advent of the wedding tomorrow.”

  Alys felt totally humiliated, both by her brother’s revealing comments and Sebastian’s visceral reaction to them.

  Carlton’s calm intervention had succeeded in bringing her out of her initial shock, and she now rose to her feet, her head held high as she left the dining room with all the dignity she could muster. She would have gone to her bedchamb
er shortly anyway and left the gentlemen to enjoy their brandy, so what did it matter if she left a few minutes sooner than she had intended?

  Teddy’s drunken comment showed the absolute contempt he felt toward her. The alcohol had loosened his tongue. He also seemed to have thrown all caution to the wind now that he had received his twenty thousand pounds from her future husband.

  Sebastian’s furious reaction was almost as disturbing.

  Her brother’s remark regarding her father’s dueling pistols was also a stark reminder to Alys that she had always held Deveril responsible for that untimely death.

  A violence Deveril had shown this evening he was clearly capable of.

  Alys had not forgotten the manner of her father’s death. How could she? But she had allowed herself, with Deveril’s encouragement, to give him the benefit of the doubt on the subject. Enough to consent to marry him, at least.

  Alys had no doubt that Teddy had spoken deliberately, intending to cause a rift between herself and Deveril before their marriage had even begun. But that did not make his comments any less valid.

  She had agreed to marry the man whom she had found standing over her father’s dead body with a recently fired pistol in his hand.

  “Alys!”

  She froze halfway up the stairs at the sound of Deveril’s voice, then drew in a deep and calming breath before turning to glance down to where he stood in the hallway looking up at her. “I have a headache and am going to bed.”

  Devil took the stairs two at a time until he was standing on the step below hers, their faces now on the same level. A cold lump took up residence in his chest as he saw the withdrawn expression on Alys’s pale face and the remoteness of her gaze.

  Damn Newcomb for the bastard he undoubtedly was. First for hurting Alys with his remarks about her virtue, and then by reminding Alys of the way in which her father died and her future husband’s supposed involvement in it.

  His jaw tightened. “Do you really have a headache, or are you merely avoiding spending any more time in my company this evening?”

  Her laugh lacked humor. “Considering I shall be your wife by this time tomorrow, the latter would be a pointless exercise, do you not agree?”