“In this case, I feel I must be direct,” she said with a shrug as she remained standing, looking around his room with darting glances, as if she were seeking escape routes. But that was the only indication she gave of her fear.
Just as she had been in the carriage after her kidnapping, she seemed calm and collected. Nothing like he would assume an innocent would be after having been made a shocking offer like his.
“I…” She hesitated, and now she reached for the back of the chair she would not take and clung to it for support. “I will be your lover, Your Grace, if you spare my brother.”
Christian blinked. Her agreement to come to his bed made his head spin with wicked delight, but it seemed their negotiations were not at an end. He had to remain as cool as she seemed to be.
“Spare him?” he repeated, as if he did not know what she was talking about.
She shook her head. “Please, let us not play games with each other. I know you have plans for him. That you wish to hurt him physically after you make him suffer from the consequences of this kidnapping plot of yours.”
His lips pressed together hard enough that it caused a twinge of pain. She was not wrong in that assessment.
“If you want me,” she continued, “you must forget those plans.”
He tilted his head. “So certain of your prowess, are you, my lady?”
She swallowed as hot color filled her cheeks. “No, not at all. I have no idea of anything to do with…with what you suggest. But this is my virtue we are haggling over. It must come with a price, mustn’t it? It is the only thing of value I possess that is mine and mine alone.”
He folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. “And is it worth this high a price? After all, you will already be seen as ruined, you know. Having been with me, unchaperoned, for over twenty-four hours will put your reputation in shambles.”
Her expression, which had been so calm and cool, suddenly wavered. There was regret there, pain and fear. Guilt stabbed at Christian, but he ignored its insistence.
Finally, she said, “Yes, I am ruined already. And so if that is your purpose in taking me, I suppose you have succeeded. But last night you claimed you wished for something more.”
“I do,” he admitted and watched her face carefully for her reaction. “Pleasure beyond your wildest imaginings. Pleasure far more intense than that which made you moan so wantonly last night when I kissed you.”
She lifted her chin with pride and said, “Well, that comes at a cost, Your Grace. You must promise not to take further revenge on my brother. Promise me now, and you may do as you wish.”
He doubted she had any idea how powerful those words were. Do as he wished? Great God, the things he wished to do. But she had to understand something first.
“This will not end the war between our families.”
She shut her eyes. “Of course not. I could not expect that my virginity could possibly change generations of idiotic hatred and war. That would be too much for any woman to change. God knows there have been some who have tried.”
He flinched at her assessment. Did she know how Matilda had begged him to end the war? Had some servant, even Laura, spoken out of turn and given her ammunition against him? Or was she speaking from her own experience in her family over the years?
Whatever the truth, he felt compelled to defend himself.
“I do not love war, Ava,” he said.
“Of course you do,” she retorted, pacing away from him. “Both you and my brother love it, our fathers loved it, our grandfathers loved it and even farther back than that. Or else someone would have ended it by now and saved our families from scandal, heartbreak and loss.”
She spun to face him, arms folded and steel in her eyes. “But that is not the topic of our conversation. Do you agree to spare my brother from your wrath in exchange for me?”
He stared at his folded hands on the desk before him. Getting to Windbury, choking the life out of him—it would be nearly impossible. Not to mention it would likely get him thrown in Newgate, duke or not.
But this…this revenge was deeper and so much sweeter. If he only ruined Ava in name alone, at least Windbury would know she had remained untouched. But now…
“No more revenge on your brother,” he said. “This will pay his debt, at least on this matter. He can live with knowing that your innocence was traded thanks to his cowardice.”
She shuddered ever so slightly. “Then I will do as you request. I turn my body over to you for your pleasure.”
Chapter Seven
Now that she had said the words, struck the bargain, Ava was overcome by emotion. Terror, for she had no idea if this man would sexually mistreat her or ask her to do things so depraved she could not even imagine them. But there was also a tiny thrill in her, a thrill that he would touch her again as he had in the parlor last night.
But the most overwhelming feeling of all was relief. Finally, she would not have to fear for Liam’s safety. She could do some good on behalf of her brother. And that was worth any price.
“For how long?” Christian asked, pulling her from her reverie.
Ava turned toward him, surprised. So they were still bargaining.
“How long?” she repeated.
“A month,” he offered. “You will be in my bed for a month.”
Her eyes widened. That was an eternity!
“Two weeks,” she countered.
The tiniest of smiles lifted the corners of his lips. She had not seen him smile before, even a little bit, and it made him very handsome, even in this devilish moment.
“Three weeks, Ava. And that is my final offer.”
She sighed. “Very well, three weeks. But I want to send a message to my brother so he will not fear for me.”
Christian’s smile vanished, and his expression grew hard and cold again. “No. I want him to fear. That is the point of this exercise.”
Ava froze. He looked so cold when he spoke of her brother. So filled with anger and pain. She would have to proceed carefully.
Slowly, she shook her head. “I will not allow him to believe for nearly a month that I am dead, Your Grace.”
He was silent for a long moment, staring at her with an expression that was impossible to read.
“Christian,” he corrected her.
She blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“Christian is my given name.”
Was he asking her to call him by that name? It was an intimacy she had never imagined he might desire.
“If you agree to call me Christian, you may send him a message in one week,” he continued.
“A week?” she repeated as thoughts of what she would call her lover faded. Great God, if Liam were missing for a week she would run mad with terror.
“It is a proper compromise, my dear,” he said. “I must have something for my side.”
She folded her arms. This man was such a riddle. He could show her kindness but then be so cold. He hated, but there was something more lurking beneath the surface where she couldn’t quite see.
However, one thing she could tell for certain, he was stubborn. He refused to allow her a letter for a week, and it was evident he would not fold on that point.
“Fine,” she managed through clenched teeth. “A week. That will certainly ensure he suffers, so you will have your prize.”
Of course she did not add that Liam was so wrapped up in his own pain and torment that he might not even notice she was gone. But her servants would. Her friends would.
Someone would pay for her brother’s sins. Even if it was not him.
“Very good. Are all our terms set, Ava?” he drawled, a cat in the cream, a man who knew he had won.
She shrugged. “I suppose so.”
“Then shake my hand and seal the bargain.”
He got to his feet and eased around the desk toward her. He held out the hand that was not resting on his cane. She stared at it, stared at him. What would those hands do in the next three weeks?
She shivered and reached out to shake, but when he caught her fingers, he tugged her in and she found his mouth descending on hers for the second time.
Swirling desire caught her and dragged her under the moment his lips covered hers. His tongue breached her without resistance and suddenly he seemed to be tasting her entire mouth. He explored, sucked, and she was lost in sensation even if she did not wish to be.
Her fears began to subside as the kiss deepened and deepened. She liked this. Wanton or not, it was true. When he kissed her, she felt utterly alive, tingling with anticipation. He seemed to sense that. He guided her back until he could perch on the edge of his desk. He let his cane fall away with a clatter, and then both his arms came around her.
He was impossibly warm and very strong, despite his injuries. In his arms, she felt like a fluttering bird, captured and afraid…but also excited and yearning for whatever would happen next.
She melted against him, again entirely against her own will, and moaned against his lips. She sensed him smile beneath her, and his fingers stroked along her spine until her body began to thrum with pleasure. It was…amazing. She had never felt anything like it. Heat spread from the places where his hands touched her, spiraling through her body and settling in parts of her that had always been considered private. Her nipples ached, the place between her legs throbbed.
She went weak in the knees and gripped his shoulders to keep herself upright.
He pulled back to stare up at her dizzy and dazed expression.
“Fascinating,” he murmured, and she had a feeling his words were more for himself than for her. “So very responsive. I would never have guessed. It does make one wonder what would happen if one…”
He trailed off and glided one of his hands away from her back. She shivered as he trailed it around her waist and then up the flat expanse of her stomach until he shocked her by cupping one small breast. She might have recoiled, but he held her firm with the hand that remained on her back, holding her steady as she tried to buck away.
“Shhh, don’t. Just let me do this and feel how good it is,” he soothed, locking gazes with her. His eyes were…so beautifully bright and blue, she couldn’t look away. She couldn’t do anything but hold steady.
He began to gently massage her captive breast, stroking, squeezing, playing with the sensitive flesh. Once her shock had faded, she realized how powerfully pleasurable the experience was. Her nipple began to pucker, and heated bursts of unbearable sensation throbbed from where he stroked her. It built and built, burning a flame in her loins that was unexpected and powerful.
He flicked his thumb over the hardened peak of her breast through the fabric of her gown and for the second time in mere moments, Ava nearly collapsed with the intensity of the reaction in her aching, arching body. How was this possible?
He released her, his breath short, and nodded. “Oh yes. Yes, yes, this will be something amazing.”
She stared at him, still seated on the edge of his desk, continuing to watch her with as much intensity as ever. His gaze was so hooded, she couldn’t fully read his intent. But at this point, he must wish to consummate their bargain. She shivered and then lifted her fingers to the buttons along the front of what now seemed to be a very tight and constricting gown. She flushed as she popped one free, then a second.
He got to his feet, swept up his discarded cane and took a step toward her. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Is this not the next stage?” she asked, heat rushing to her cheeks even faster and hotter now that she had been stopped in her actions and he was staring at her in what appeared to be shock.
Slowly, he reached out and rebuttoned her gown, though he let out a low groan as he did so.
“Great God, you will test a man,” he muttered. “Ava, yes, in a very short time I will strip you out of that gown and we will make love. And judging from how utterly responsive you are, it will be most explosive. But I am not about to take your innocence in my drafty office where a servant could knock at any moment.”
She blinked. There was something so…gentle in his expression. Something she had never expected, especially considering the shocking bargain he had all but forced her into making.
And now he spoke of her comfort?
“But—” she began and then stopped herself. She straightened her spine and forced herself to be strong. She met his gaze evenly. “Your Grace, if this is my punishment, why would you not want me in the worst and most humiliating position?”
He swallowed hard. “This is a punishment for your brother, but I swear to you, it will not be painful for you.”
His fingers reached out, and for a moment she thought he might touch her face, but he pulled back with a shake of his head.
“Come,” he said, motioning to the door. “We’ll go upstairs. I’ll show you, Ava.”
She sucked in a breath. This was it. The moment that would change her life irrevocably. And as she followed him from the room, she realized she anticipated that moment with a thrill of excitement in her belly far more than a pit of dread.
Christian steered her down the hall and stopped at the door to the chamber where she had stayed the night before. She looked at him in surprise.
“Here?” she asked.
He nodded and pushed the door open. Already the evidence of her morning readying had been swept away and her bed had been made. A bed that seemed enormous now that Christian held the door for her, motioning her to enter and take the next step in their wicked bargain.
She drew a deep breath and entered. He followed her and closed the door with what seemed like a deafening snap.
“I would think you would consider this enemy territory,” she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling and failing miserably.
He surprised her by stifling a laugh. “This is my home, my dear. Everything around you is my territory.”
He paused and looked around the room and the wickedness, the innuendo, left his tone. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been in this room. Is it comfortable?”
She arched a brow. “Not presently. But overall, yes. It is very comfortable.”
“Not presently because I’m here?” he asked, turning on her suddenly.
She nodded once.
He smiled again, and again she was taken aback by how utterly handsome he was. “And I make you nervous?”
“A gentleman would not ask something so direct,” she said, but then she stared at him. “But you are not exactly a gentleman, are you? At least not when it comes to me or my family.”
He tilted his head. “I certainly do not feel particularly gentlemanly at present. But I asked you a question to which I already know the answer. I make you nervous.”
She lifted her chin. “There is no use pretending otherwise.”
He nodded. “But not only because of our families and their long history. I make you nervous because you want me despite that history. Being a lady, you have been taught that desire is wrong, and it must feel particularly wrong given the subject of your longings.”
She folded her arms and backed up a step, only that action took her closer to the bed, so the increased distance did not make her feel any more comfortable in this odd interrogation.
“You are so bold to assume I desire you,” she said with a sniff.
He shrugged. “I assume nothing. I know you want me.”
Her lips parted at his assertion. One she had no intention of verifying even though she feared it was utterly correct. This…this thing between them, this thing that stirred her body so easily, she feared it was desire.
“How do you know what is in my heart, in my mind?” she asked.
He moved toward her, backing her even farther against the bed. “Because when I kiss you, you return my caress without hesitation. And when I touch you, your body almost instantly grows ripe with it. A man with any experience knows these things. And by the time I am finished with you, you will recognize your desire as keenly as I do. You will welcome it, welcome me, even though
it goes against any and every impulse in your mind.”
She shivered at the thought of being so wantonly out of control. “And that, I suppose, will be my final punishment?”
He slid a finger beneath her chin. “Only if you view it that way.”
She might have retorted, but the closeness of his body to hers made her pause. He took advantage of that hesitation and covered her mouth so swiftly that she had no time to raise any defenses to the feelings he inspired. Just as had happened in the office a short time before, his kiss pushed her body to a precipice of neediness she didn’t recognize. In fact, she feared it, and yet she lifted up to be close to him, she found her fingers wrapping around his upper arms for support.
He chuckled against her lips and then slid a free hand into her hair. Angling her head, he drove his tongue between her lips and stroked hers, coaxing her, tasting her. Hesitantly, she darted it out to meet his and found their tongues dancing against each other. He tasted of mint and tea and something sharp and masculine that made her needy and weak.
He pulled away. “You see, Ava, that is the desire I was talking about earlier. That pull to touch me, that need to taste me, that heavy ache that fills you from head to toe but makes you feel alive…that is desire. And it will only get better the further we go in our association.”
She stared at him, unable to reply, but he seemed to require no answer. Without breaking his stare from hers, he set his cane aside and reached for the buttons along the front of her dress. The same ones she had tried to loosen for him earlier in his office. Now he swept them open with what seemed like no effort at all.
She flushed as her gown parted, revealing inches of flesh, then more than inches. He stared at her bare collarbones, the curve of her breasts that disappeared into the thin fabric of her chemise, and let out a shuddering sigh of his own.
“Very pretty, Ava,” he murmured, then tugged the dress from her arms and down to her waist. “Very pretty indeed.”
She lifted her hands instinctively, covering her nearly naked chest as heat flooded her cheeks.
“You shouldn’t—” she began, but stopped because it was so foolish.
Taken by the Duke Page 6