Ash too felt the cold marble thrilling him, but even more delightful was Ellen shifting her hip against his, sliding their sides together sensually. He had understood not using his hands, but now they also kept their legs tightly together as their fronts met. It was the most exciting and frustrating thing he had ever experienced, for he wanted nothing more than to cradle himself in her thighs and thrum into her until she screamed his name.
Ellen moved her body sinuously against him. Just when he thought he might be able to penetrate her with his huge, hot head, she slid her midriff over him and turned her back so that her rosy bottom stroked his manhood in one long, lingering caress.
Ash reached down urgently to adjust himself and press the base of his penis for five seconds before his climax ripped through him like a whirlwind. Heavens, but she made him so hot he was sure he was going to melt.
Oblivious to his crisis, she slid up and down his abdomen, before gliding almost down to his knees. Her curvaceous back molded against him once more, and he would have entered her delicate femininity from behind.
But once again she wriggled out of his range and presented her breasts to him, sliding downwards until they were level with his groin.
"Oh, God, I can’t control this—"
She lifted her hand and pressed him as he had taught her, and he lapsed back onto the marble floor so quickly he nearly cracked his skull.
"Easy, Ash. It’s supposed to be fun, not painful," she murmured, her mouth only inches from his loins.
"I’m all right," he gasped, though he was anything but. He felt sure he was about to explode.
"Don’t snakes hiss?" she asked wickedly. She began to flicker her tongue as she had once seen a cobra do.
He gasped and bucked under her. "Oh, Ellen, please, press me again."
She slithered her tongue everywhere, probing him shamelessly, curiously liberated by the game and half-drunk with the power she had over him with all he had taught her. He tried to lift her shoulders, but she scolded between flicks of her tongue, "No hands, remember?"
"Yes, but—"
Her face had become oiled by the contact. She nuzzled up his hips, thighs and abdomen before gliding all the way to his mouth to kiss him heatedly. His arms came up around her, but she flattened them back down to his sides.
"Come now, this is your fantasy, darling. You need to wriggle more."
He let out a low throaty laugh. "Hare and hounds, I can’t stop writhing."
"You know what I mean."
"I have to admit I’m overwhelmed. I feel completely prostrate with need," he confessed.
"All right. I don’t mind doing the hard work. Just get comfortable on your side. I think I can manage."
"I could just—
"No, I’m having fun. This is really the most incredible idea. Just let me put something under your head."
She grabbed a towel off rail and folded it, then put it under his head and resumed her snake-like motions.
"One question," she said softly as she slipped and slid against his torso and groin. "My tugging and pressing you. I mean this um, suppression isn’t going to hurt you in some way, is it? I mean the natural thing is to, well, let it burst forth?
He laughed shortly. "Don’t be shy, dearest. The formal word is ejaculate, or there’s climax. Then there’s come. Both of the latter two are applicable for females. I can tell you a few more less polite ways to describe it, or a few more colourful and euphemistic ones."
"Er, no, thank you. You have better things to do with your tongue, Mr. Snake."
"But basically, no, it doesn’t hurt. In fact I hear it’s supposed to make thing even more thrilling when I finally let go."
"All right, back to my snake charming then," she said happily. "Or is it my charming snake? So long as you tell me when you’ve had enough."
"Never enough, love, and always too much. Oh, my—"
She tugged again, and he was glad of the soft towel under his head as he subsided once more. She wiggled her hips until he was wedged between her thighs.
Again she eluded him and turned over. Her body against his was one vast caress, sending a shower of sparks sizzling along his spine as she rubbed her back up and down.
Now she was more like a cat than a snake as she arched her back, then flipped over onto her front to rub her breasts against him once more. At last she manoeuvred onto him, and he gritted his teeth as his huge length, made slippery by the oil, glided into her.
A few quick rotations of her hips were enough to set him soaring. She tugged him again and writhed around until her back was to him once more. He felt himself sliding into her again, and could withstand the captivating torture no longer.
Ash grabbed her hips and thrust so hard she almost swallowed her tongue in surprise. "Ash! Ash!" she gasped.
He clung onto his last shreds of sanity as he peaked her pearl of pleasure and nipples and scooped her even more tightly against him. They slipped and slid together sinuously, but every time he was sure he had a good grip on her she slithered away.
"Oh God, hold still, please. I need—"
"I can’t hold still. You’re the one who’s moving, Ash. Oh!"
With one more powerful roll of his hips and a blistering thrust, she exploded in a paroxysm of passion which echoed around the marble chamber.
Ellen clung to his arm and one of his buttocks, but he slid away from her and she found herself flat on her front against the marble, his arms her only cushioning. He pulled upwards with the hand nestled between her thighs, angling her so that her back arched further.
The pressure on her front and the friction as he moved inside her hot and hard was like nothing she had ever felt before. She jammed her hips down in an effort to get even closer to his loins.
"Oh harder, please, harder."
Ash was more than happy to comply, and hoisted her onto her knees. With both hands on her hips clinging tightly despite the oil, he was unrelenting. He lost count of his own pinnacles as he orgasmed and yet kept going to her next peak of pleasure.
Ellen heaved back so hard his rump hit the solid wall and rebounded. She let out a rapturous moan, and at last, totally satisfied, every nerve aquiver, she began to laugh.
It was not exactly the response Ash had hoped for considering it had been the most momentous experience of his entire existence, but she was not mocking him in the least.
She disengage them gently and threw her arms around his neck to give him a kiss so torrid he could feel his flesh burgeoning once more.
"Thank you. That was so magnificent. I had no idea."
"Neither did I."
"But I can’t believe I did that to you."
He cupped her chin and planted light kisses all over her mouth and cheeks. "Please don’t go getting all shy on me. I loved it. Love you. It was so exciting watching, feeling you. I’ve never felt so cherished."
He blew out a shaky breath. "I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the picture of you slithering against my manhood with your mouth and breasts out of my mind."
Ellen’s smile was glowing. "Are you game to try again? After all, we still have all this oil everywhere, and practice makes perfect."
Ash grinned down at her. "It does indeed. And since you did all the hard work last time, let’s just see what I can do to make it up to you. Starting with you lying down and my tongue flickering everywhere."
"Sounds just divine."
"We aim to tempt. Except that you can have your paradise always."
"You’re the snake and Adam all rolled into one," she said softly. "The first man, the only man in the world for me."
"And you’re both my temptress and my Eve, the first and only woman, drawn from my rib to be at my side forever. To complete me."
Ellen’s eyes were two huge pools of longing as he twined sinuously around her body until she cried out his name and begged for release.
Chapter Thirty-six
Several hours later Ellen and Ash decided the marble floor was just a bit too mu
ch for their hands and knees, and moved their activites to the new steaming bath they ran for themselves. The oil and soap made the experience even more wonderful.
"That definitely goes on my list of special things to do in the evenings," she said happily. "Not too often, though. Then it won’t be special, and I suppose I really am a silk kind of girl after all." She gave a rueful grimace as she rubbed one sore hip.
"Did I hurt you?"
"Not you, me when I wriggled against the hot towel rail. That oil really made me slide."
He kissed her tenderly. "You stay there and I’ll clean up the floor. I don’t want you to fall."
"No, stay with me. Kiss me. I need you to kiss me, Ash."
Her eyes burnt with a fierce intensity. "Gladly."
"Have I ever told you how glad I am that I married you?"
"I think you may have mentioned it once or twice. l hope you know I echo the sentiment wholeheartedly."
"I’m so glad, Mrs. Paignton."
"I’m so happy, Mr. Paignton."
"No matter what happens, I love you, Ellen. Always."
She stroked his high cheekbone with one finger, then moved down to trace his handsome lips. "The gods will spare us. We need to trust to love. It will all be fine, I promise. If anything, today has taught us to never doubt the depth of each other’s love and commitment ever again."
Ash nodded and gathered her close. "And has proven just how sensual we both can be. And you know we never even used—"
She silenced him with a kiss. "It’s a pledge to the future. A long happy one, my love."
"If it pleases the gods."
"Amen to that. And it certainly pleases me. And you. Come, let’s get back to our nice soft bed. We can clean up the floor in the morning. Right now I have better things for you to do with your hands than scrub."
Chapter Thirty-seven
The next day, news spread of Ellen’s terrible ordeal with the rabid dog. Her true friends all came to make sure she was all right, including the Duke and his wife.
But however much he tried to make up for his past mistakes, the damage had already been done, to Ellen and Ash's reputations.
After speaking briefly with Lawrence Howard, it was decided that Ash and Ellen would go to his vast plantation in the idyllic setting in Assam where he had built his main home, and tend to the health of the workers there.
Ellen would also be able to apply her common sense and skills to the tea and spice trade, and learn about the different fabrics which made up the piecework trade.
Everyone who truly cared about them was heart-broken to hear they were leaving. However, they knew it would also be a wonderful opportunity for them both. India had been the making of many an ambitious young man, and they had no doubt they would be seeing Ashoka Paignton again soon.
Their steamer trunks began to fill, mainly with medicines and supplies.
"We can buy anything we want once we get there. And I shall keep you so busy on the voyage that you’ll scarcely have any need for clothes."
"Promises, promises."
They both winked at each other, but there was no mistaking their sadness at being forced from their own home by the narrowminded bigotry of others. She looked at both rooms longingly, and could not quite suppress a sigh.
"It will all be here when we come back, Ellen," he said softly.
"Yes, yes, it will," she said, attempting a bright smile, and kissed him hard. Then they continued searching through their items for anything else they deemed essential for their long voyage.
For her last ball in Somerset, Ellen wanted to go all out to leave a lasting impression on the place where she had grown up, but which had judged her not by her actions of twenty-two years, but the lies of the spiteful rattle Bridges.
She took her red wedding sari from the cedar chest, and every piece of jewellery she still owned, and clad herself like the true goddess she knew herself to be.
When she came out of their bower, Ash stared at her in shock.
"What, what is it? Am I unravelling again?" she asked with a worried laugh.
Ash shook his head and pulled her into his embrace. "I never imagined it was possible for you to look more lovely than you did on our wedding day. The last few months have revealed your character, your passion. You’re not the untouched bud any longer, but the full-grown rose, warm, soft, dewy, perfection."
"Thank you, darling. But if you keep playing with my petals like that, and my little rosebud, we will never get to the ball, and our chance for a grand entrance and exit from Somerset will be missed."
Ash frowned. "The last ball. The last dance..."
She met his anguished gaze head on. "We’ll be back one day. No one keeps Ashoka and Ellen Paignton down for long," she said with a toss of her head.
They were brave words, but Ash could see her trepidation and sadness. She tried to march into the Assembly Hall with her head high, but Ash could feel her hand trembling, and more than once her eyes filled with tears as she spoke to one of the Rakehells. The last dance...
They had to confine themselves to waltzes most of the time because they were snubbed for the quadrille sets if the Rakehells were all spoken for. Ash didn't mind for himself, but the third time it happened, Ellen could no longer disguise the hurt she felt at the way everyone was going out of their way to ostracise her, in a way they had never even done with her blatant hussy of a sister. It was just so unfair.
Ash's normally placid temperament evaporated as he began to boil with fury at each cut or scathing remark, the way his wife was been treated like the worst criminal when she had done nothing wrong.
To be spoken to thus, treated with such disdain, driven from her home, all because the Duke had been so shocked by a mere statue which had been all his fault, not Ellen's...
The Duke never even would have found the dashed thing if Ellen had not been so kind and generous as to try to help Charlotte not miscarry, and had invited them to stay.
To think of all she had done for them, for everyone, well, it was just too much. Now, to see them all acting in such a manner even when they knew she had so recently faced death at the jaws of a rabid dog, well, it was just too bad. She was the bravest woman he had ever known, the most chaste and decent. How dare they….
He was about to suggest they leave, lest his anger bubble over and cause him to do or say something they might all regret.
But too late, he found himself rooted to the spot, glaring. His ire knew no bounds as Timothy Bridges strolled in with some of his friends, and spotted Ellen, resplendent in her red sari.
His whispering campaign immediately started up again.
Ash could see Ellen’s lower lip trembled as more and more nasty looks and remarks were directed at her. He had never loved his wife more than he did at that moment when she stood, looking every inch the goddess, trying to talk with Isolde and Bryony Avenel, and rise above all the nasty scandal.
But he could see her pain, and would do anything to help his beloved.
Fury gave way to logic. The spark of an idea suddenly lit in his mind.
Did he dare?
He went over to ask her for the next waltz, but as they made their way around the dance floor, the whispers and nudges from Bridges' set continued unabated. Every move she made was scrutinised as if under a microscope, and picked over like the bones of a carcass.
Finally Ash could stand it no more. He broke off their dance abruptly, and taking his wife’s hand firmly in his own, marched up to the top of the room.
"Ash, what on earth are you—" she gasped, tugging her hand away.
"Trust me," he called over his shoulder as he stalked on, his black kurta and pajama, with a black and gold sleeveless jacket over it, making him look like a furious panther about to devour its prey.
He stood at the top of the dais with his hand raised to command everyone’s attention. They all froze and stared at the man clad so bizarrely who was committing such a gross act of impertinence as to interrupt their dance.
> "I’m sorry to disturb such a wonderful ball. My wife and I are having a small problem that we need your assistance with. It would appear that Mr. Bridges has continued to cast aspersions upon my wife’s character even though she is now happily married to me. This has distressed my wife greatly, to the point where she feels that we are no longer welcome in the district."
Several brows knit, while a few people hung their heads or tried to look anywhere but at the young man and his wife.
"As many of you know, we are leaving Millcote as a result of vindictive gossip, most particularly from Bridges, though you are all guilty if you helped spread it," Ash said with a pointed look in the Duke of Ellesmere’s direction. Thomas had the grace to look embarrassed.
The Rakehell Regency Romance Series Boxed Set 5 Page 67