Of Love and Lust (Regency Erotica)

by Catherine Gayle

  Still, he looked at her with that hunger, that gluttonous need she’d seen there for the first time only moments before. Where had this man come from?

  Piers allowed her no time to ponder his sudden change, however. He yanked at his cravat with one hand, pulling her along behind him with the other. But he didn’t lead him to her chamber. Nor, for that matter, did he take her to his chamber. Instead, he took a seat on the settee before an open window and pulled her onto his lap, straddling him.

  The moon shone through, illuminating her pale skin, especially against the darkness of the room and his clothing. Taking her as-to-that-point untouched breast into his mouth, he used his thumb and forefinger to pinch the tight nub of the other. The joint pleasure-pain sent a flood of need to her center. Judith struggled with the buttons of his coat, trying to free him, but he grabbed hold of her hands and stilled her.

  “No, love. Not now.”

  She whimpered, but obeyed him. After all, she’d never imagined she could feel the way she did at that moment, and Piers was the one who had created these new sensations within her.

  When she dropped her hands back to her sides, he moved his over her again, stroking her everywhere. His gaze followed the path of his hands. They moved lower, holding firm against the tops of her thighs. Then he pressed gently against the insides of her thighs as he spread her legs wider. Then with one hand, he cupped her sex.

  “Good God, you’re so wet.” His voice was frayed and raspy, and he leaned forward until their foreheads met. With a single finger, Piers moved past her curls and inside her, slowly at first and then gradually increasing his pace. Adding a second finger, he rubbed the pad of his thumb over her most sensitive spot, tenderly before increasing his insistence.

  Piers met her eyes then. “Move with me.” His gaze left her no option to refuse.

  She wouldn’t have anyway. Judith lifted her hips and then brought them back against his hand, matching his resolute pace.

  “Yes, my love.” He kissed her again, deep and fast and intoxicating. His tongue worked in tandem with his fingers, each piercing her and thrusting into her in time.

  Sensations built up within her, unfamiliar and incomprehensible. She felt like she would explode if he didn’t stop soon and nearly begged him to do so—but surely she’d die if he didn’t complete whatever it was he’d started. Judith ground her hips onto his hand, urging him on.

  But then, inexplicably, he pulled both his mouth and his hand away from her. “Not yet, love. Soon,” he promised when she let out an inadvertent sob. Piers lifted her from his lap and lay her over the table before him, closer to the open window.

  The moon now shimmered over her almost directly overhead, illuminating her fully to his gaze. A cool, summer breeze gusted in, chilling her overheated skin and sending shivers coursing over her entire body. She lifted her hands to cover herself and pulled her legs together until he shook his head slowly.

  “Let me see you. I want to watch you come.”

  Judith’s breath caught. She lowered her hands back to her sides, gripping the edges of the table so she wouldn’t be tempted to cover herself again.

  Piers knelt down where her legs were hanging over the end of the table. He put light pressure on her knees, spreading her legs apart. He didn’t stop until her thighs were almost in a split, each knee hanging over the side of the table. She was exposed to his view thoroughly. Judith blushed more fiercely than she’d ever done before.

  “So beautiful,” he murmured. Then he stood. He took the end of the table in his hands and lifted it, and spun it around so the moonlight shone on her sex. “Absolute perfection.”

  Judith pinched her eyes closed. It was a very good thing she’d thought to grip the table. Her mortification knew no bounds.

  After he stood there, staring at her for a few moments, he knelt between her legs again. His hand returned to torment her sex, three fingers now stretching her wide, filling her as he rubbed a frenzied pace against her nub. She cried out something unintelligible, whimpering as the marvelous sensations renewed themselves within her.

  “Open your eyes, Judith,” Piers commanded. “Look at me, love.”

  She forced herself to comply and met his gaze just as the first wave of tremors attacked her limbs. All sense of reason left her for she knew not how long.

  By the time she regained her wits, Piers had pulled her body to the edge of the table. Her hips were lifted in the air, her legs were draped over his shoulders, and his tongue was delving deep inside where his fingers had been previously.

  There was no time for her to be embarrassed about her current position. Piers demanded her focus when he used his fingers in her again, sucking her overly sensitive core into his mouth and grazing it with his teeth.

  “Oh, God,” she called out.

  Piers lifted his head for just a moment, piercing her with his gaze. He chuckled. “Piers, love. Not God.” Then he dove back between her legs and blew cold air across her until she was squirming aggressively. He stabbed the crux of her need briefly with his tongue and then came up again when her hips nearly bucked her off the table. “If you don’t settle down some, I’ll drop you, sweetheart. Grab my hair and direct me where you want me.”

  What? How was she supposed to know where she wanted him? Before Judith could determine what he wanted of her, Piers pried the fingers of one of her hands loose from the table and directed it to the back of his head. The other hand soon followed suit of its own accord. She laced her fingers through his hair and held on for dear life until she burst from the inside out again.

  Judith was glorious when she came, her eyes rolling back in exquisite agony, her mouth open in a silent scream. It was a sight he could never imagine tiring of. Piers watched her float back to earth after her climax as he undressed. He was so hard, so desperate to be inside her, it was a miracle he hadn’t spent himself already.

  When he’d divested himself of every article, he returned to the settee and pulled his petite wife onto him, straddling him as she had earlier. Piers reached between their bodies and guided his cock inside her.

  Her eyes widened. “Like this?” she asked him with an awestruck tone.

  God, yes, like this. Like he’d dreamed of it at night for the last four years. Like he’d imagined it in far too many waking moments. He gritted his teeth and nodded, incapable of speech just then.

  Judith braced her arms on his shoulders and lowered onto him slowly. She was so wet, so ready for him, even his girth seemed to give her no problems this time as she stretched to accommodate him. After a moment, she’d dropped all the way onto him, taking him fully inside. Piers groaned in delicious agony at the tight fit. He’d never even attempted such a thing before, sure she couldn’t possibly adjust to his size.

  “You’re all right?” he somehow managed to ask.

  She didn’t answer. Not with words, at least. Instead, she began to move over him, lifting and dropping her hips in a rhythm all her own, much as she’d done earlier when he’d fingered her. With each movement, her full breasts jostled and shook. He allowed his eyes to feast on them, using his hands to steady her hips.

  After a few minutes of moving at her pace, reveling in the tiny sounds she made with each bounce, Piers couldn’t handle it any longer. He tightened his hold on her hips and pressed her down hard against his cock, grinding her pelvis against his and holding her there for a long moment before rocking her back and forth over him.

  Judith let out a broken moan at the pressure against her clitoris. She was close to coming for him. Her eyes had taken on that faraway look again. Piers released her hips to let her resume her ride to completion, turning his focus instead to those rock-hard, distended nipples. He took one lively breast in each hand, gently pulling and pinching at will.

  The faster she rode him, the more vigorously he attended to her nipples. The more force he used, the tighter the walls of her sex gripped his cock.

  In no time, she was shuddering around him. It was the most intense, exquisit
e torture he’d ever experienced. Then his ballocks tightened and the dam burst, and he emptied himself inside her with a shout as she slowed atop him, then came to a stop.

  Judith rested her head against his shoulder as they both fought for air.

  When he regained the ability to think, Piers brushed her brown curls off her forehead then lifted her off his softening cock, resettling her on his lap. “You’re all right?” he asked again. “I didn’t hurt you too badly?”

  She looked up at him with those intense eyes. “Hurt me? Piers, that was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced. I didn’t know—”

  But she broke off and looked away. A furious blush took over her features. How she could possibly turn shy on him after what they’d just shared, he’d never understand. Still, it only made him want her more. Already, he was hardening again. He’d have to resist, though. Her body certainly couldn’t take another assault like he’d just delivered her. Not so soon.

  Piers reached out and turned her chin toward him, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Didn’t know what?”

  Judith’s tongue darted out and wet her lips again, drawing his eye to her trembling lower lip. He steeled himself against the lust for his wife that was fighting for dominance. She didn’t need any more of his lust right now. She needed his love.

  After a long moment, she took a breath. “Mother told me that bedding wouldn’t hurt too much after the first time. She said as long as I would simply lie still, you would take care of your business quickly and it would be over, and I wouldn’t have to suffer overmuch.” She studied her hands, folded neatly in her lap, refusing to look up at him. “The first time did hurt, rather a lot, and I dreaded doing anything that would cause more pain like that. So I’ve done what she told me all this time, never thinking she could have been wrong. I—I didn’t know it could be so pleasurable and lovely.”

  Piers cursed himself. “Christ, love, I’m so sorry.” He’s like to have a word with her mother, too, but nothing could change the past. Damnation, he should have controlled himself better on their wedding night—should have taken the time to prepare her for their lovemaking like he had tonight.

  Four years. Four years of nights spent relieving himself with his hand while imagining her body around him. Four years of trying agonizingly hard not to hurt her when he attempted to beget his heir. All of them wasted.

  He tipped her chin up and kissed her tenderly. “This was good for you, then? You don’t despise me for what I’ve done?”

  A ferocious blush stained her cheeks, but she met his gaze. “I’ve always loved you. I could never despise you, Piers. I just didn’t know you wanted me like that.”

  Like that and so many other ways. All those nights spent tossing in his bed had allowed his imagination far too much free time to run rampant, concocting manners in which he wanted her. It had often left him with scarcely any time to sleep. He’d only trusted himself to go to her bed on those nights he wasn’t already mad with need before approaching her. Most of his nights had been spent with the door to her chamber locked so he couldn’t risk hurting her.

  Judith trailed her fingertips over the contours of his chest, tracing the paths of his toned form. The gentle, tickling pressure sent blood rushing straight to his cock.

  He pressed his hand over hers, stilling her movements. “If you don’t stop that, love, and soon, you’ll find yourself bent over the railing there being rutted like an animal from behind.”

  Piers had meant his words as an admonishment, but Judith’s eyes widened with curiosity before darkening with passion. Good God. She was quickly becoming quite the wanton.

  “Really? From behind?” She freed her hand from his grasp and resumed her torturous teasing.

  “Don’t test me, Judith. Don’t try my patience.”

  A seductive smile, the likes of which he’d never seen on her before soon covered her features. “I’d rather test your endurance.”

  In an instant, Piers had her braced against the edge of the portico, her arms stretched as far as they would go, her hands gripping tight against the railing, and her feet spread as wide as his shoulders. The smooth iron chilled her where it hit against her stomach. A cool breeze wafted over her. She shivered from the gentle gust against her overheated, sweat-drenched skin. It blew her hair back, carrying the scent of roses to combine with the musk of their lovemaking.

  With one hand he bent her forward slightly so she was looking out at the rose gardens under the intense moonlight. With the other, he pulled her hips back against him. And then he was inside her again, deeper than before. Goodness, she’d never felt so stretched before in all her life.

  When he moved within her, a strangled moan escaped her lips and she stretched up on her tiptoes, her fingers curling around the bars.

  “Is this good, love?” Piers held her hips in place even as he tugged gently back on her hair so she’d look at him. “Is this what you wanted?”

  Judith bit her lip and could do no more than nod. She’d wanted this, without knowing it was what she wanted, for so terribly long. If this was even remotely what the relationship between Aurora and Lord Quinton was like, it was no wonder Aurora always looked like a blushing bride.

  Piers put both hands on her hips, tugging her back onto him in rhythm with his thrusts. Somehow, he filled her more than ever before. Was he growing inside her? Gracious, he might split her in two before the night was over, but she’d happily suffer such a fate if she could come again as she had before.

  Then he slid one hand down to that overly sensitive nub and rubbed against it intensely, then pinched it lightly. She nearly fell over from the waves of sensation crashing over her, but he held her in place. She was safe. She would always be safe with Piers.

  “Do this for me, Judith. Take your hand and touch yourself like this.”

  She hesitated, but then did as he asked. When her hand reached the apex of her thighs, he moved both of his up to torment her breasts as he’d done before, squeezing and pinching, molding against them pulling her back to grind her buttocks against him. She could no longer control the animalistic tones coming from her. Half the abbey was probably awake and listening to them, but she couldn’t care in the least at the moment.

  Piers buried his nose against her neck. His breathing was irregular, mixed with low sounds deep from his throat. With a final pulse, his warm surge filled her and she dropped over the edge into bliss.

  When Judith awoke, the sun was streaming in through open draperies and she was wrapped in the cocoon of her husband’s arms, still naked and very well loved.

  She rolled over. He was staring down at her hungrily again, wearing that same expression she’d so often seen in Lord Quinton’s eyes when he looked at Aurora. How could he want her again already? They’d made love three times in the night. But an insistent nudge against her thigh proved that he most certainly did want her again. She supposed there was no longer any reason to be envious.

  Piers leaned in and kissed her, long and slow, while his hands performed decidedly devilish things to her body. Before long, that increasingly familiar wetness was pooling between her thighs. Long minutes later, by the time he rolled atop her and sunk between her thighs, she was moaning out her love for him.

  Or was it lust?

  Either way, it was only fitting. As Lady Coulter had said to her yesterday evening, every marriage needs a healthy dose of lust. Even those filled with love.

  About the Author

  Catherine Gayle has been an avid reader of romance novels (and almost anything else she can legally get her hands on) for as long as she can remember. Her mother might say it started in the womb. When she is not writing or reading, she can often be found buried beneath her sleeping cat or chasing the Nephew Monster.

  Catherine would love to hear from her readers. You can send her an email at catherinegayle.author@gmail.com.

  Available Now:

  A Summons From the Castle

  Regency Christmas Summons Collection 3

 
© 2011 Catherine Gayle, Suzie Grant, Christi Caldwell

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