The Accidental Courtesan

by Cheryl Ann Smith

  She turned this way and that, assuring herself he could see her legs from all angles. She had been a skinny child. No more. She thought her legs one of her best features. From the look on his face, he wasn’t disappointed.

  “They’re passable.” His voice was tight. He shifted, and Noelle suspected his erection was growing painful. She understood from the courtesans how men sometimes found full arousal uncomfortable. She intended to raise the stakes until he was mad for her body.

  “Passable?” She frowned. She knew he teased. He couldn’t keep his eyes off her thighs. “Then I shall cover them so as not to offend.” She turned sideways and bent to retrieve the trousers. The shirt slid up to expose the curve of one hip and buttock.

  A groan broke from him. “Don’t you dare touch those trousers.”

  Slowly, Noelle straightened, leaving the trousers where they lay. She opened her eyes wide. “Hmm. There must be something about me you find interesting besides my hair?” She tapped a fingertip on her chin. “I think I know.” With deliberate slowness, she slid her hands down her body to catch up the hem of the shirt with her fingers. She turned around on her toes.

  She lifted the hem just enough to expose a tiny bit of the lower cleft of her bottom.

  “Dear God, woman.” His voice was hoarse and tight. Noelle squelched a laugh. She dropped the hem and spun back. “Clearly my rump is not to your liking either. You seem pained to look upon it.” His face was flushed, and she was certain there was a dotting of sweat on his brow. His body was tense, coiled, and hard. And so very wonderful.

  He was nearing the point of breaking. It wouldn’t take much to throw him off the cliff. So she reclaimed the hem with both hands and grinned wickedly.

  “Perhaps this is more to your liking, sir.” With one swoop, she drew the shirt up over her body and cast it aside. Her hair fell in waves about her. She was fully bared to his eyes.

  “You are a wicked wench, Lady Seymour.”

  Noelle hadn’t had time to savor her victory when he launched himself from the bed and padded barefoot to her, his fully aroused male member saluting like a steel staff as he walked. Clearly the man was unashamed of his body. From what she could see, he had no reason to be anything but confident.

  She let out a small yelp as he bent to lift her and carried her to the bed. Gavin dropped her in the center with a bounce. She had just enough time to gasp before he was over her and claiming her mouth in a bruising kiss.

  Ripples of pleasure flashed over her skin. He lowered himself enough to tease her with parts of his muscled frame as he brushed against her bare body with his equally naked hips and chest. The friction of their skin aroused her further.

  He kissed her breathless, plunging his tongue into her mouth, mating their tongues together. When he finally lifted his head, she fell deep into his intense eyes.

  “You drive me to madness, love.” He dragged his mouth over hers, briefly, and then trailed kisses across her jaw and down the side of her neck.

  “I want you so desperately,” she breathed, and ran her hands through the thick softness of his hair. He rained kisses over her shoulder blades, down between her breasts, then up to pull a nipple into his mouth.

  Noelle let out a cry-gasp. The pleasure of his sucking mouth left her weightless. He laved the peak with his mouth and tweaked the other nipple with his fingertips. She felt like she was floating outside of her body, but oddly, she wasn’t afraid. She watched him tease and delight her with his mouth, until he lifted his face to grin into her eyes.

  “If you like that, you will love this.” He pushed backward down her body, kissing and caressing the entire length in slow, measured strokes. Her sighs encouraged him, and he occasionally grinned against her skin. Before she could collect clues to his ultimate intentions, he had her legs spread and all but the top of his head had disappeared between her thighs.

  A thrill of alarm broke through her the second she felt warm breath on the tight nub, the core of her femininity. She tried to close her legs. His seeking mouth wouldn’t allow her to succumb to embarrassment. His tongue brushed across the pulsing spot, and she cried out as a thrill of pleasure arched her backward. He had delighted her body with his mouth for a time when she felt him slip a fingertip inside her damp sheath.

  She gasped out his name when her body became no longer her own. She was burning, moaning, begging him with sobbing breaths to ease the torture and give her the release she sought.

  He moved his finger gently inside and out, tugging at the nub with his lips, while she bucked against his hand and mouth. Frenzied, with a final cry, Noelle plunged up and over into a whirling abyss.

  Gavin chuckled as she went slack. He moved up and over her to press a few more kisses on her breasts, her neck, and her lips. Noelle smiled sleepily as he positioned himself between her legs and pressed the tip of his erection against her body.

  “Make me yours, Gavin,” she begged softly.

  With one hand, he placed himself at the opening of her sheath. She writhed against him, encouraged him, wanted him, with quiet desperation, to end her innocence and finally let her know what it meant to be a woman. Gently, he eased inside her and she encompassed his hard length.

  “Careful, sweet.” He leaned to kiss her. “I understand a woman’s first time can be painful.”

  Noelle locked onto his gaze. The tenderness in his eyes closed her throat. He would never intentionally hurt her; she knew it in her heart. “I trust you, Gavin. Completely.”

  Suddenly, his expression changed, softened. Noelle ran her fingertips down his rib cage, and the muscles flexed under her searching hand. His body was strong and powerful, yet tender, too. He didn’t release her gaze as he eased himself further inside her. When he reached the barrier of her innocence, he thrust deep.

  She whimpered. The breach caused some pain, but not extreme discomfort. Gavin rocked gently, giving her time to adjust to his presence. Within minutes, pleasure built again.

  Instinct took over, and she rocked with him as his thrusts deepened and became more intense. She moaned softly, reveling in the feel of him inside her, and his soft skin beneath her hands, as she drew them over his muscled back and down to cup his firm, thrusting, and perfect buttocks.

  He reached between them and again touched the tiny bud.

  For the second time, Gavin brought her to the release she sought. Brief moments later, he groaned and buried himself to the hilt, shuddered, and spilled himself inside her.

  Sated, Noelle closed her eyes and pulled in a deep breath. Never in her life had she felt so complete, so loved. And to think she’d once planned to cling to her innocence and spinsterhood with both hands. It would have been shameful never to experience the delights of lovemaking with this handsome and giving man.

  As she lay beneath Gavin and slid her hands over him, she didn’t regret the loss of her virginity.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked. He eased off of her and settled beside her, a bent hand tucked beneath the side of his head. He examined her body carefully, touching a small red mark on her rib cage where he’d nipped her.

  Shaking her head against the pillow, she slipped a hand around his neck. His expression was slack, sated, his hair falling across his eye. There was a boyish happiness in his expression, as if he’d been given a fantastic new toy to play with.

  But it was she who’d been given a perfect gift. She brushed a fingertip over his smiling mouth that had pleasured her so fully. “Just the opposite. I feel wonderful. Though I fear I have lost the wager. I thought sexual encounters were only an unwelcome means for procreation. I’m pleased to find I was mistaken.”

  Gavin grinned and nipped her finger. “You are a minx, My Lady pirate.” He bent and pressed a light kiss on the tip of her nose. “I will treasure this night always.”

  “As will I.”

  Gavin kissed her lush mouth and inhaled the fragrance of lemon and cinnamon and lovemaking. He’d suspected fire in Noelle from their first kiss. However, these moments with her h
ad changed everything he thought about her, about virgins, about women in general. There was nothing about her, in her, that was deceptive or false, as Anne had been. Noelle had come willingly to his bedroom with nothing more than the desire to share herself, with him to guide her. She’d wanted him as he wanted her, and her passion had stolen his breath away.

  His Lady courtesan-thief was bewitching, beguiling, and beautiful. His heart tugged as he looked into her face, into her soft and gentle eyes.

  There’d been so much to learn about Noelle, about Lady Seymour, when he’d explored beneath her sometimes prickly surface to see what she kept hidden. She’d used her often unhappy childhood to protect herself from harm, and he suspected this was the first time she’d ever fully let her walls come down.

  Why she’d chosen to do so with him was a puzzle. She’d trusted him with her innocence, though he’d made her no promises of a future together.

  “Had I known you were such a magnificent lover, I’d have come sooner to your bed,” she said wistfully. “I have wasted several days when I could have been enjoying your services.”

  Gavin gave her a funny look. Her gentle touches skimmed over him, exploring. She seemed to want to run her hands over every inch of his flesh, as if she was marking him with her lemony scent, claiming him as hers. And he discovered he was thoroughly smitten with his pirate-courtesan.

  “As I recall, you did enjoy my services, twice,” he reminded her. “In the coach and in the bath.”

  She smiled softly. “Yes, but neither compared to this. It was worth my losing your fortune.” She let out a dramatic sigh and drew a fingertip across his chest. “You have done some very scandalous things to me tonight that I am sure in some countries could get us both beheaded.”

  “Indeed?” He dipped his head to circle his tongue around a nipple. The delightful taste of her skin left him light-headed. “You should point out all the things I did that could cause fatal consequences, My Lady. Then I can refrain from doing them in the future.”

  Her fingertips dug into his flesh. He looked into her eyes. She was frowning; scowling, actually.

  “You will not change a thing.” She flattened her hand, removing her nails from the flesh of his rump. He suspected it was quickly becoming one of her favorite parts of his anatomy. “I will risk life and head if you do everything you have done to me tonight over, and over, again.”

  When she’d dropped the breeches, he’d nearly come off the bed. When she’d stripped off her shirt, he’d almost spilled himself on the sheet. Now, as he lay beside her, happily basking in the aftermath of their lovemaking, he was eternally grateful for overgrown ivy on the town house walls and for her trellis-climbing skills.

  Gavin raised his brows and stared into her eyes. She wasn’t the slightest bit shy when asking for her needs to be met. He had never known anyone like her, and suspected he never would again. “Everything?”

  “Everything,” she replied.

  He reached to take her into his arms and pulled her sweet body beneath him. “As My Lady wishes.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Gavin met with Crawford late the next afternoon in Gavin’s study. The investigator had turned the battered footpad over to the Bow Street Runners with only a vague explanation of the attack upon Gavin at the wharf, leaving out the rest of the story to protect Noelle’s identity and the identity of the woman in the sketch.

  Neither Gavin nor Noelle thought revealing the plot would solve their problem, since they hadn’t a clue to who the woman was. Getting the Runners involved might drive her into hiding. Then ever finding her could prove an impossible feat. They couldn’t take that risk.

  “They will hold him until you make a formal complaint, Mister Blackwell.” Crawford rocked back on his heels after making his report. “I’m certain you were not the first victim. There may be further charges.”

  If not for the need to hide Noelle’s title and position, they’d have added kidnapping to the list of crimes. That would have seen the thugs locked up for a very long time.

  Noelle. Gavin’s mouth twitched. Racing the sunrise, he’d regretfully sneaked her out of the town house and insisted on seeing her home. They retraced Thomas’s path through the garden and over the neighbor’s fence, caught a hackney a few streets over, and managed to get her back to Collingwood House just as the first ray of light broke the horizon. The lengthy and delightful kiss she’d left him with, before she’d slipped into the manor, had capped off an enchanting and memorable night together.

  He’d made sure to keep a wary eye open as the coach plodded to Collingwood House, with Noelle tucked against his chest, and then as he returned to the town house. He saw no one lurking in the shadows beyond the streetlamps, and took some comfort in knowing there was little chance the thieves had discovered Noelle’s true identity.

  “I shall file a complaint in the morning.” Gavin looked around the study and couldn’t help feeling the loss of Noelle’s presence in the house. In a matter of hours, he’d been changed by her. Even now, his body stirred with the memories.

  “What of the other two men?” Gavin added, relieved his seat behind the desk hid his rising erection. “Have you discovered any information on them?”

  Crawford nodded. “I have learned the identity of a man who suffered serious injuries the night of the kidnapping.” He eyes twinkled. “Apparently he broke both an arm and a leg falling from a great height. Though I haven’t been able to confirm it was a tumble off a coach, I am off to the hospital to see for myself. I hope to have that mystery cleared up this evening.”

  “Excellent.” Another puzzle piece was moving into place. Two thugs had been eliminated. Gavin was pleased. The sooner the danger to himself and Noelle eased, the quicker he could begin courting her publicly as Lady Seymour.

  It didn’t matter if their relationship ended in marriage. She was his for as long as they both wanted it to remain so, and he planned to make good use of the time they had together.

  A throat cleared and brought his attention around. Crawford was staring at him. He pointed to the housekeeper standing patiently in the open doorway.

  Mrs. Mayhew nodded. “The young lady has arrived.”

  Gavin’s heart leapt, and for a moment he thought Noelle had foolishly ignored the danger and showed up at his door. He quickly realized she was not the visitor and settled back in his chair. Crawford rose, went over to welcome the woman, and helped her out of her cloak.

  Bliss was indeed stunning. Her dark hair was upswept in a crown around her head, and the deep russet muslin gown she wore accentuated her delicate beauty. It was easy to see why Charles had been besotted with the chit and why Crawford fawned over her as he led her into the room. Had Gavin seen her first, he might well have fought his cousin for a place in her bed.

  However, Gavin found he much preferred his pirate to the courtesan. Though most would find the lush beauty of the courtesan more to their liking than the less flashy beauty of Noelle, it was the adventurous spirit and charming wit of the latter that he coveted.

  “Please sit down.” Gavin skipped pleasantries and indicated a chair. Though Noelle considered Bliss nothing more than a pawn in a game, Gavin couldn’t dismiss her completely as a suspect until they questioned her more deeply.

  Hence the decision to remove her from the protection of the courtesan school and bring her here for a last interrogation. Thankfully, Crawford had known the address from his previous dealings with Eva, and sent off Charles’s steward with a coach to collect her. They didn’t have to go through Noelle and the charade of the coach and blindfold. And the duchess had reluctantly given Crawford permission to have the courtesan picked up, as she trusted the investigator.

  Even if the young woman was innocent of the bigger charges, she had taken the necklace and set the whole caper into motion. At the very least, she was a thief. But it was up to Charles to determine if there would be charges in that matter.

  “We want to hear the story behind the necklace one more time,
” Gavin said once she was settled opposite the desk. Without Noelle and the courtesan rescuer, Sophie, lingering at the school to come to her aid, Bliss was unsettled. It would help to keep her honest. “Mister Crawford hopes to find some information in your story.”

  Bliss’s face tightened. She perched uneasily on the edge of the chair, as if she expected to be arrested at any moment. Gavin felt confident. She should be fearful.

  “I . . . ah”—her composure started to slip—“please, it was a mistake. I didn’t mean to take the necklace!”

  Gavin frowned. “We did not bring you here to have you arrested for theft. The matter has moved beyond that. We need to know everything you can recall about your maid. Down to the last detail. She seems to have fled London, and we hope to discover her trail. Did she mention family or where she was from?”

  Bliss shook her head and twisted her fingers together. “I don’t remember any family. I think she was an orphan.” The courtesan’s shoulders slumped. “I’m certain she mentioned that once.” Her brown eyes narrowed. “She fixed the beds and dusted the furniture. Why did I need to know anything beyond how well she cleaned?”

  Gavin felt a rise of annoyance. The courtesan cared nothing for the maid yet allowed the woman to convince her to steal a very expensive necklace. Bliss wasn’t intelligent enough to plan and execute the theft without encouragement, and she certainly was no mastermind behind a theft ring.

  “And you have not seen the woman since that day?” Crawford asked, frowning.

  “I have not.” Bliss clasped her hands tightly in her lap. “It was a horrible, horrible mistake,” she cried. “I tried to put it back, I did. But Charles distracted me, and by the time I remembered the necklace, he was gone.”

  “And the maid?” the investigator pressed.

  The courtesan slumped. “I didn’t see her after I went for help. I’d heard of the courtesan school and knew if anyone could help me, it was Miss Eva. I dressed and quickly set out. Freda was nowhere in sight when I left.”