‘Would you touch me now, Lily?’ Giles encouraged throatily even as he grasped one of her hands in his and began to move it slowly down between their two bodies.
Lily, still weak and gasping from that overwhelming pleasure, now gasped anew as Giles cupped her hand against the lengthy bulge beneath his breeches. A living, pulsing bulge, which moved enticingly against her fingers….
A burning curiosity to know more overcame her own feelings of uncertainty as she heard Giles groan low in his throat at her touch, his head resting against her breasts as she continued to move caressing fingers against him to feel its insistent throbbing in response to her actions.
‘Oh, God, again, Lily!’ he pleaded gutturally as he fell back onto the mossy ground, his eyes closed, his cheeks flushed, lips slightly parted, his breathing becoming increasingly laboured.
Lily sat up, unconcerned by her bared breasts as she caressed that hard and throbbing length from root to tip, slowly, tenderly, and was rewarded by Giles’s groans of pleasure. She had never dreamed, never even guessed at the pleasure Giles had just shown her, let alone realised that she might be able to give him that same pleasure….
‘Touch me, Lily!’ Silver eyes blazed fiercely into her own.
Lily hesitated only briefly, her curiosity once again winning out over embarrassment, her hands shaking slightly as she unfastened the buttons at the sides of his breeches to reveal white drawers beneath, her eyes opening wide as she looked down upon that pulsing hardness she had so recently caressed as it jutted through the opening at the front.
Lily found herself watching in fascination as it seemed to grow even longer and thicker under her regard, as if in silent invitation.
Giles groaned low in this throat as he watched Lily’s tongue move moistly over the parted plumpness of her lips, and easily imagined how that hot little tongue might feel against him. His hot gaze moved to her bared and pert breasts, the nipples red as berries as they stood firm and puckered.
Aching, unable to resist, Giles reached up to cup one of those tempting globes, watching Lily’s flushed face as he took the nipple between his thumb and finger, squeezing gently, and was instantly rewarded by her sharp intake of breath as she began to tremble and shake. ‘Place your other breast in my mouth, Lily,’ he encouraged throatily as he lay back against the mossy ground.
Her eyes were wide green orbs as she slowly bent over him, her breast now hanging temptingly above his mouth as he continued to caress its twin, watching the pleasure that lit her eyes and flushed her cheeks as he parted his lips to draw the plump nipple into the heat of his mouth. He continued to hold her heated gaze as he caressed, gently at first, and then deeper, harder, as he felt the fingers of her gloved hand close about him, and the rasp of those lace-covered fingers moving up and down.
‘Grip me tighter, Lily.’ He released her breast to groan, ‘Oh, God…!’ His head fell back against the moss, eyes closed, back arching, knowing he was close to reaching his own climax—
He froze, his eyes opening wide as he felt a hot, moist caress and looked down to find Lily bent over him. He was about to lose control from simply watching her tongue caressing him. ‘You have to stop now, Lily!’ he pleaded fiercely, but he knew his plea came too late as he felt himself pulse and release.
Lily pulled back slightly and with a hoarse cry Giles reached out to hold her gloved hand firmly in place.
Giles’s throat was dry and he felt completely spent after the deepest and most satisfying climax he had ever known in his life. It was an intensity of pleasure he owed completely to Lily’s ministrations and this strange and deep attraction they had for each other.
Lily’s heart thundered in her chest, not breathing at all as she knew herself completely mortified by what had just transpired, as she recalled—in shocking detail!—the intimacies the two of them had just indulged in together.
‘Lily…?’
She could not even look at Giles again as she drew back sharply, turning her face away to stand up and turn her back towards him with the intention of refastening her gown, only to give a low groan as she saw the state of her lace glove.
Had her actions been purely instinctive? A desire to please Giles, as he had undoubtedly pleased her? Or was her behaviour due to something else, something much more fundamental, and inherited from the mother who had given birth to her before abandoning her?
‘Lily?’
She kept her back turned towards Giles as she peeled off her glove and dropped it to the ground before attempting to refasten her gown with fingers that shook uncontrollably as they refused to do her bidding.
‘Here, let me,’ Giles prompted huskily, his own clothing straightened to decency as he stepped forward to push Lily’s hands aside so that he might refasten the buttons at the front of her gown. Her head was bent so that he could not see her features, but he was nevertheless able to feel the way she had stiffened as his fingers brushed lightly against her breasts. ‘Lily?’ He raised a hand with the intention of lifting her chin so that he might see her expression.
‘Please…do not touch me.’ She flinched before stepping away from him, her face deathly pale as she continued to stare down at the ground.
Giles gave a pained frown as his hands dropped back to his sides. ‘We did nothing wrong—’
‘Nothing wrong!’ she repeated incredulously as she finally looked up at him, those moss-coloured eyes glittering brightly.
Whether with tears or anger, Giles was as yet unsure…
She gave a jerky shake of her head and groaned. ‘If our shocking behaviour just now were ever to become public knowledge…!’
‘I have no intention of telling anyone,’ he said quietly. ‘Have you?’
She began to pace agitatedly. ‘The Duke of Rothermere has always made these woods available for the use of the people in the village, and as such any one of them could have…could have—’
‘Chanced to walk by whilst we were lost to the throes of passion?’ Giles supplied evenly, wishing to know for certain this conversation was going in the direction he believed it was before he gave suitable reaction to it.
‘Exactly!’ Lily groaned.
His mouth twisted derisively. ‘The chances of that are minimal.’
‘But not impossible!’
‘No…’ he accepted abruptly.
She gave a low and keening wail as she continued to pace. ‘What little standing I have in the village will be destroyed—destroyed!—if our indiscretion should ever become known!’
Giles drew himself up warily. ‘Exactly what is it that you require of me, Lily?’
Lily ceased her pacing to look across at him as she heard the chill in his tone, not in the least encouraged by the ice she also detected in his gaze, or the firm set of his jaw and thinned lips. Those very same lips which had kissed and known her so intimately only minutes ago….
She gave a slow and wary shake of her head. ‘I do not remember saying that I required anything of you.’
Those sculptured lips twisted derisively. ‘But I sense that you do, nevertheless.’
‘I—’ She swallowed, her throat having gone dry. ‘I cannot think what to do or say at this moment.’ She could only feel! And her feelings were ones of humiliation and regret.
Humiliation that she had succumbed so quickly and so completely to Giles’s seduction.
Regret that her actions, if they should become known, would reflect badly on the kind and gentle Mr and Mrs Seagrove, for having taken one such as her into their hearts and home.
‘Enlighten me, Lily,’ Giles bit out harshly. ‘Can this possibly be the same manner in which you persuaded the more gullible Edward into offering you marriage?’
‘I— What…?’ Lily gave a dazed shake of her head.
‘I believe my words were clear enough, Lily.’ Giles’s mouth had thinned as he looked disdainfully down the long length of his nose at her. ‘If not, let me reiterate that I am curious to know if this was the way in which you secured a marriage
proposal from my brother Edward? By allowing him to make love to you, and afterwards suggesting a scandal?’ he said coldly.
What little colour had returned to her cheeks as she paced so agitatedly now drained away completely, the only colour in her face now being those huge moss-green eyes that looked up at him in disbelief. ‘How dare you? How could you even suggest such a thing?’ she finally gasped. ‘You think that I—? You believe that I have behaved in that shameless manner before today? With Edward, of all people!’ she added incredulously. ‘And that I did so in order to entrap him into marriage?’
What else was Giles to think, when Lily’s first concern had been for her own good reputation if their indiscretion today should ever be realised? A reputation which Giles already had serious reasons to doubt.
His jaw tightened. ‘I believe I asked if that was the manner in which his marriage proposal came about.’
Her chin rose challengingly as she informed him, ‘I received no marriage proposal from Edward!’
If that had indeed been the case, Giles thought, then the omission had only been because Edward had had the foresight to first inform Giles of his intentions towards Lily. Intentions Giles had spoken firmly against, advising Edward, if he must, to make the woman his mistress but never his wife. The heated manner of their own lovemaking just now, and Lily’s less than virginal responses—surely no virgin could have touched him as Lily had?—would seem to indicate that Edward had taken that advice, after all.
At least Edward had had carnal knowledge of the woman he had claimed to love before he died, but at the same time that put Giles in the position of having made love to his brother’s lover! A young and beautiful woman who now seemed intent upon using her sensual charms to ensnare yet another Montague into marriage, this time the heir presumptive to the dukedom!
‘Nor will you receive one from me,’ Giles informed her coldly. ‘But the position as my mistress may be available if you are at all interested in taking up that role.’
And if she said yes, what would he do then? Would he take her to mistress, after all, or do the sensible thing and turn away from the temptation she so obviously represented to him?
With his body still satiated from the pleasure he had known at Lily’s touch, Giles had no immediate answer.
Lily recoiled as if she had been struck. Indeed, she felt as if she had. This man, a man whom she had allowed to make love to her and whom she had made love to, dared to insult her still further by offering her a position as his mistress!
‘You are sensual enough.’ Giles seemed to take her silence as indication she was considering his suggestion. ‘And with a little tutoring as to my personal preferences, I am sure that we would deal very well together in the bedchamber. Your adoptive father’s friendship with mine poses something of a problem, of course, but as long as we are both discreet I see no reason why either of them needs ever know of the arrangement. There are several empty cottages on the estate in which we might meet—’
‘Stop!’ Lily managed to gasp when she finally recovered her breath enough to speak, her emotions in turmoil. ‘I do not— You—’ She gave a protesting shake of her head. ‘How dare you even suggest such a demeaning arrangement to me!’ she accused. ‘How dare you!’
He shrugged those broad shoulders. ‘It is all you will ever receive from me. My wife, when I choose to take one, will certainly not have been used by my brother first, nor be the illegitimate offspring of a Gypsy!’ His top lip curled back disdainfully.
Lily felt as if she might faint. Or scream. Or hit something. Preferably Giles Montague, for daring to stand there looking at her so contemptuously as he offered her the position as his mistress!
‘I do not think so!’ Giles reached out and grasped Lily’s slender wrist as her hand swung upwards with the obvious intention of slapping him on the cheek, just as she had done a year ago. ‘Shall I take it from your response that your answer is no?’ He looked down at her with hard mockery as he continued to hold her immobile.
‘You may—because my answer is most certainly no!’ She wrenched her arm out of his grasp, and no doubt bruised her delicate flesh in the process.
‘Then there would appear to be nothing further for the two of us to discuss.’ Giles gave an abrupt inclination of his head before bending down to pick up his hat from where he had dropped it earlier, and then turned on his heel to stride away in the direction of home.
But in full knowledge that it had been Lily, rather he, who had been the one to turn down the role as his mistress.
Chapter Eight
‘You have seemed very quiet these past few days, my dear….’ Mr Seagrove looked across the luncheon table at Lily. ‘The arrangements for the well-dressing are not proving too much for you, I hope, on top of all the other work you do about the parish?’
It was that very work about the parish which Lily believed to have kept her sane these past three days!
Ordinarily she would have shared her confused feelings by speaking, or writing of them, to her friend Lady Phaedra, but as Phaedra was Giles’s sister, Lily had no one in whom she might confide.
Instead she had kept herself too busy to think during the day, and too tired to do anything other than fall straight to sleep in her bedchamber at night. Because she dare not allow herself the time to think, refused to think, about Giles Montague, or the things that had transpired between them the last time they had been alone together. Something which had proved somewhat difficult the day following their lovemaking, when the tips of her breasts had felt sensitive, and between her thighs had suffered a similar soreness.
She had seen Giles several times whilst she was out and about in the village, but thankfully always at a distance, either riding about the estate on his black steed, or in one of the ducal carriages, no doubt on his way to Buxton in pursuit of business, or possibly pleasure. And each time she had chanced to see him Lily had inwardly shrivelled with mortification as she was once again reminded of their lovemaking, and the humiliating conversation which had followed.
‘Not at all, Father,’ she now answered her adoptive father evenly. ‘Indeed, once Mrs Stratton and I have discussed the last details this evening all arrangements for the well-dressing celebrations should be well in hand.’
Mr Seagrove nodded. ‘Then perhaps there is some other reason for the air of…melancholy I have sensed in you these past three days?’
The fact that her adoptive father was aware of exactly how long Lily had been less than her cheerful self was cause for concern; his curiosity would certainly be piqued if he were ever to learn that it was the same day upon which she had last visited with Mrs Lovell, and Giles Montague had joined the two women shortly thereafter!
‘I believe there has been thunder in the air as a precursor to the storm, and I have merely suffered a headache because of it,’ she dismissed lightly. ‘I am sure I shall be completely recovered now that the weather has broken.’ The unseasonal rain was currently lashing down outside their cottage, with the occasional flash of lightning, quickly followed by a crash of thunder.
‘Let us hope that there will not be too much damage to crops or property,’ the vicar remarked ruefully as he glanced out of the window at the storm raging outside. ‘No doubt Sir Nathan will enjoy regaling me with news of it over dinner this evening, if that should prove to be the case,’ he added with less than his usual forebearance.
Lily could not help but smile at Mr Seagrove’s obvious lack of enthusiasm for the dinner he was to take this evening at the home of Sir Nathan Samuelson, a single and eligible gentleman of forty or so years who owned a small estate in the area, but also a man who was known to be rather a dull, dour character.
Indeed, Sir Nathan was twice Lily’s age at least, and had such an unappealing nature, she had felt less than enthusiastic when several times during the past year Sir Nathan had appeared to show a preference for her company. She had certainly been relieved to have the excuse of her previous engagement with Mrs Stratton this evening, as a polit
e way of refusing Sir Nathan’s invitation for her to join her father and him for dinner!
Sir Nathan did possibly have one thing in his favour, however, in that he made no secret of the fact that he was no more enamoured of the male members of the Montague family than she now was—in Lily’s case, one member of that family in particular!
‘No doubt,’ Lily agreed softly. ‘And now, if you will excuse me, Father, I believe the rain is lessening at last, and I should perhaps call upon Mrs Lovell to ensure all is well with her.’
Aware of Mrs Lovell’s shrewdness of nature, and wishing to avoid any questions that elderly lady might have in regard to Lily’s previous visit, she had avoided returning to the Romany camp, but knew she could delay no longer, knowing that whilst the elderly lady stayed here Mr Seagrove considered her as much one of his parishioners as any who lived in the village.
Besides which, yesterday had been the anniversary of the death of Mrs Lovell’s son, and Lily wished to reassure herself that the elderly lady had not suffered any ill effects from that sad day. Out of respect for her grief Lily had herself visited the graveyard beside the church yesterday and placed daffodils on the grave of Matthew Lovell, presuming the wildflowers already arranged there to be from Mrs Lovell.
She stood up now, somewhat relieved they were at the end of their meal rather than the beginning of it; she had no wish for her father to delve further into the reasons for her preoccupation. ‘I believe I will take Mrs Lovell some fresh milk and eggs.’
‘I am sure she and her nephew will appreciate your thoughtfulness.’ Mr Seagrove smiled his approval of the suggestion.
‘Her nephew…?’ Lily raised surprised brows as she recalled the elderly Romany telling her that the rest of her tribe had travelled on a pilgrimage to France, and would not be joining her for several weeks.
‘Judah Lovell.’ The vicar nodded. ‘I chanced to meet him in the village yesterday. He informed me it is many years since he returned to Castonbury, so you perhaps will not remember him. A very friendly and cheerful young man. He is the son of Mrs Lovell’s deceased brother-in-law, I believe.’
Castonbury Park 01 - The Wicked Lord Montague Page 9