“My poor Nora,” he whispered, his hips resuming their pumping, his hand briefly grazing her wet cheek. “You’ve missed this just as much as I have.” This, being a thrust so brutal it almost choked her. He chuckled at the sound. “I can see you’re out of practice and in need of my firm hand and hard cock.” He held her head in an unbreakable grip while he drove into her with increasingly savagery, plunging cruelly, with no care but for his own pleasure, pushing her dangerously close to the edge.
“No,” he ordered harshly.
His selfish command was more powerful than the most exotic aphrodisiac and almost sent her over the edge. But her body, if not her mind, responded without question to his mastery.
“My Nora.” He rammed himself deeply, his thick cock spasming and filling her with the violence of his orgasm.
❈❈❈
Edward blinked up at the dark wood ceiling above his bed, intensely aware of the small, sweaty body alongside his.
“I’ve never been in your bedchamber before,” Nora said.
Her beautiful face was clear in the bright light of the candle. Her delicate lips were swollen and pink and slick and her chest—still covered beneath her nightgown, he realized with a frown—rose and fell with harsh breaths.
She turned her eyes to his and Edward’s own breathing stuttered. Those eyes; he would never ever get over those eyes.
“Thank you,” he said.
Her lips twisted. “I thought to make you suffer all night, but decided I was suffering more.”
Edward snorted. “I doubt that very much. But when I said thank you, I meant—”
“Shh,” she said, her cheeks flushing. “I know what you meant. And I came to you as much—no, more, for myself than for you. So don’t believe me to be selfless.”
“Oh, I don’t.”
She laughed, and if there was a more beautiful sound in the world than her laughter, Edward could not recall it.
“I wanted to write you,” she said this in a softer, more serious voice.
“I wanted you to.”
“I did write you several times, but each time it didn’t feel right to open the door again on what we had. I first needed to make some, well, some repairs to my life. You might know I spent a month with my mother and father?”
“Yes, Smith told me.”
“I told him to, Edward. Just because I wasn’t in contact didn’t mean I wanted you to worry about me—and I knew you’d worry if I disappeared from London.”
Edward knew he should have been ashamed that she knew how dependent he was, but he simply didn’t care.
Edward didn’t want to talk about himself; he had her near him and he didn’t know for how long. He had to ask her things. “Tell me about your family, Nora. If you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind.” She inhaled deeply and then let out a long sigh. “I had a wonderful childhood. Until I was fourteen or so, I loved my life. And then Brandon came along.”
His gut clenched. “Good God, Nora—did he—”
“What?” she frowned at him, her mind obviously on something else. As her eyes slowly focused on him she smiled. “No, Edward. He didn’t hurt me. That, you see, was the problem.”
He forced himself to wait while she gathered her thoughts.
“He came to visit his uncle, the local squire. He was a strapping youth.” She cut him a sly look. “Although not as big as you. And he was perhaps only a year or two older than me. We came across each other one day while I was out riding. My father kept horses for Sarah and I even though it was a cost he could ill-afford. But he’d inherited a small competency from his own father and wasn’t entirely dependent on his living. He used the extra money to purchase the horses, a few extra gowns and furbelows, things of that nature.” She shrugged. “So I was out riding by myself—I had permission to roam the squire’s lands, but not to leave them. Brandon’s horse had thrown a shoe and he was leading him when I came upon them. Well, one thing led to the next and then the next. I gave my maidenhead to him by the river some weeks later. It was—” she gave a sad smile, “less than memorable. Poor Brandon! How could I expect him to know what I wanted when even I did not? He breached me, came inside me, and was finished in the time that is—I now know—usual for very young men. He avoided me afterward. It is a sign of my naturally wanton nature that I did not avoid him. I wanted to do that again. Indeed, I thought of little else. While my elder sister dreamed of wedding gowns and children, I fantasized about the different ways to join with a man.” She’d turned to the ceiling, but now turned back. “You see that I’ve been unnatural from the start.”
Edward leaned forward and kissed her, a quick, hard kiss. “I was just thinking you sounded remarkably like me as a young man.” His lips twitched. “And even as an older man.”
She laughed. “But you are a man and I? Well, I was supposed to be a gently bred lady and yet my mind was rife with very unladylike thoughts of breeding. Brandon left after the summer and I found another playmate. My next experiment went better but was also worse because we were caught.”
Edward winced.
“It happened at an assembly and our parents both agreed the best thing for all was for the two of us to marry.” She chewed her lip, her expression pensive. “It was a horrific thought. Not that I disliked the man—or boy, really—but the last thing I wanted was the end of life’s excitement at the age of fifteen. I rarely spent my pin money and my father was more than generous, so I had a sum saved up that would get me to London and perhaps keep me for a month—or so I believed then.”
Edward was horrified at the thought of this young vicar’s daughter venturing to London alone. “Good God, Nora. What were you planning on doing?”
She gave him a long look from eyes dark with sin. “I knew I couldn’t marry a respectable man without confessing my transgressions, and I didn’t want to do either. So, I left the vicarage very late one night. I walked some miles to a village too small to have a station. When I arrived at the post house there I went directly to their stables. I knew post boys often loitered and I found one whose eyes told me what he wanted from me and that, my dear Edward, was my first experience with whoring.” She chuckled. “I believe I received the better of that deal as the postboy managed to steal me onto the next stage headed to a town with a train station. He, on the other hand, endured what was surely an extremely rough and toothsome mouth-fuck.”
Edward couldn’t laugh with her. “Weren’t you frightened?”
“Of servicing my first customer? No. Of leaving everything I knew and heading into the great unknown, oh, undeniably. But if there is one thing it is easy for a young woman to find in London, it was employment in that oldest of professions. I was smart enough and possessed enough coin not to have to leap at the first opportunity. As a result, I went to work for a decent enough house. I was young enough looking that the madam sold me over and over for almost a year as a virgin.”
Edward rolled onto his side, laying his hand on her flat stomach. “You never became pregnant all this time?”
She shook her head, her jaw tight. “No.” Her tight whisper told him how she felt about that. “I—I know you want children, Edward. And I don’t expect you not to have them—”
He slid his hand around her hip and pulled her toward him. “That’s enough,” he said sharply, forcing her chin up, until she had to meet his gaze. “Don’t you think I learned my lesson where that is concerned?”
She chewed her lip, her huge eyes becoming glassy. “But I want you to have a child. I want to hold a baby of yours.”
Her words tore at him. “The only woman I want to put a child inside of, is you, Nora.” He hesitated. “Could you not love any child? You know I came from an orphanage—there is no shortage of children filling them. When I was little, it was a dream to go to a family.”
Her eyes opened wider and wider.
“Careful,” he said, his face heating at her expression. “Your eyes are in danger of popping out.”
“Oh, Edw
ard, you mean you wouldn’t mind taking in some homeless child—even one not of your blood? But I thought—”
“I know what you thought—that I had to have a copy of myself. I was a fool.” He gave her another hard kiss, this one to mask the shaky feeling inside him. “I’d give you anything,” he whispered. “Haven’t you realized that yet, my Nora?”
She became pliable under his hand. “Anything, Edward?” She nipped at his chin and he groaned.
“Yes, I’ll give you that—as hard and as often as you deserve. But first I want you to finish.”
She gave an exaggerated sigh. “I did not heal the breach between myself and my family during the month I spent with them, but my visit opened a door. It is now their decision whether they wish to take it any further. Anyhow, I’d just returned to Rose Cottage when I received the letter from Cat.”
Edward frowned. “When was this?”
“Perhaps three weeks ago—didn’t you get one? She said she was writing both of us.”
“Yes, but mine came months ago.”
Her eyes widened. “Ah! I’d wondered. This letter had been terribly water damaged and it seemed a miracle it had even found me. Cat, as you know, is careless in such matters so I wasn’t surprised by a lack of a date. But I could not read the frank. So,” she gave him a look of sudden comprehension. “No wonder you looked so surprised to see me. If you received your letter months ago you must have—”
“I thought you might write and when you didn’t?” he shrugged.
“Oh, my poor, poor Edward.” She slid an arm around him and snuggled closer. “You must have wondered at my continued absence.” The words were hot muffled breaths against his chest, and his cock was very interested in this sudden development.
“I did,” he admitted rather wryly—able to sound calm now while he’d bled inside for weeks and months waiting for her. “What took you three bloody weeks?” he demanded.
She laughed, the sound wicked. “Oh, I had to deal with Charles—didn’t you know about he and Smith?”
“I know about them. But what do you mean?”
“No, I won’t say anything yet. There is still room for misunderstanding with those two ninnies.” She burrowed against him, her hand dropping to his cock, her fingers curling around his shaft, her thumb rubbing his head. “Oh, God, Edward. This is such a wonderful development.”
“You little witch,” he chided, but his body was arching against her, his prick already taking charge of matters. “I’ve wanted to fuck you with it for so very, very, very long.”
She wriggled in his arms, purring while her clever fingers stroked.
“Did you like that letter I wrote you?” His voice was a growl as he thrust his hips, pushing his diamond hard erection into her skilled fist. “Have you thought about it? Touched yourself?”
She ground her hips against him. “Please.”
“Shhh,” he chided into her hair. “You’ve been terribly bad, I’m not sure you deserve such pleasure.” His hands moved to her hips, which were no longer beneath the blankets with all her wiggling and shifting. “Who has been shaving my cunt in my absence?”
“Just me, Edward. Nobody but me.”
“Hmm, well that will stop immediately.” He positioned his middle finger at her opening and entered her with a smooth thrust. Her small body arched and curved to accept him and he sucked in a noisy breath at the feel of her tight, silky sheath. “How I’ve missed this,” he murmured, slowly exploring inside her while his thumb circled her already hard peak.
She shuddered in his arms. “Oh please, Edward. Let me come.”
He pushed her onto her back and knelt over her, pumping her hard. “Do you want me inside you? Do you want to feel that cool silver grazing this tight heat?”
Her knees opened wide and Edward stared as his finger—big, masculine, and blunt—slid in and out of her. He pushed her thighs wider with his free hand and bent low, sucking her tiny silver ring into his mouth hard enough to make her squeal. He pulled away without releasing his suction, stretching her until she squirmed and begged.
Her pale skin was splotchy and red with passion, her knees spread in a position of wanton submission. Edward came close enough to position his aching cock at the entrance to her body, breaching her again and again and again with only his crown.
“That feels—it feels—”
“What does it feel like, my greedy little whore?” he grinned down at her, his eyes flickering between the sight of his prick stretching her and her slack, expectant, mouth.
“I need it, Edward. I need to feel you inside m—”
He slammed into her hard enough to drive her up the bed almost a foot. He took her roughly by each thigh as he spread his own knees for better stability and fucked her with pent up need borne of their long separation.
They came, clumsily and quickly, but together.
“Nora!” he gasped as he filled her with everything he had.
“I love you Edward. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Edward waved away Nelson’s hand. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I don’t need you anymore,” he added rather rudely.
Well, that was just too bad. He was feeling rude. He’d woken after his explosive session with Nora to find a brief note on his nightstand:
Edward,
Remember, you are due in my chambers at six o’clock sharp. And do not expect my generous behavior in your bed tonight to erase the fact you signed my contract.
Do not be late.
Nora
He’d paced the next three hours—not easy with an erection that could pierce the hull of a ship. Why had she left him? Hadn’t they formed some understanding? Was he doomed to constantly be confused with this woman? He was . . . irritable. And hard as he imagined going into Nora’s room in—he glanced at the clock: only nine minutes now.
He finished tying the most disastrous four-in-hand he could recall, considered summoning, Nelson, decided against it, and looked at the clock again. Still nine minutes.
He shoved a hand through his hair, wincing as he encountered his tender scalp. And then throbbing as he recalled the way it had become sore down in the library.
God. He wanted her so much. He would have done anything to keep her here, as was evinced by his actions last night. Never in his life had he signed any document without reading it at least five times. Until last night. Christ. He must have been mad.
But he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
While he’d rather be ordered around by Nora than fucked by any other woman, he had to admit his nature was not submissive. He envisioned spending the year ahead tied to a post being whipped, or whatever other diabolical punishment her devious mind could concoct and shivered. Likely she would not always come to him as she’d done last night. Likely she would become even crueler as she eased into her dominant role.
Hell!
Edward shrugged into his coat and adjusted his tortured cock—it didn’t help—before buttoning his coat shut.
The truth was he’d take her any way he could get her and be bloody grateful.
He would have crawled across London naked to have her back.
Yes, he could take a year of beatings and torturous arousals with a smile and—
Edward froze as a terrifying thought struck him—what if she controlled his orgasms the way she’d done yesterday—or at least for part of the evening? What if she kept him hard for an entire year only dolling out pleasure when she felt like it?
No, he shook his head at his reflection, as if to convince himself. No, she wouldn’t—couldn’t be so cruel.
Oh yes, she would.
❈❈❈
Edward knocked on her door at exactly one minute to six.
Nora considered making him wait the extra minute but decided she’d probably tortured the poor man enough by leaving him with that note this morning.
Her heart did an odd lurching dance in her chest at the sight of him. She wanted to gorge and gorge
and gorge on his harsh beauty. Because he was beautiful to her.
“Good morning, Nora.”
She gave him a smug smile, enjoying the lines of tension around his eyes and the slightly petulant twist of his lips. Oh, Edward didn’t like anyone to control the orgasms in his house except Edward. No doubt, after a night to think about it, he was wondering just what he’d signed. Nora never would have wagered he’d sign anything without reading at least three times. It was, she thought, the clearest declaration of love she’d likely get out of him. It was enough and more for her—but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t enjoy teasing him until the very end.
He’d worn a double-breasted frock coat today and she knew what he was trying to hide. Her mouth watered at the memory of his delicious cock—made even more tasty with that lovely silver impaling it.
Take yourself in hand, Nora. You’re not done yet . . .
“I’ve decided to paint your picture,” she announced, tickled by the widening of his dark eyes and the parting of those thick, sensual lips she loved so much. A slight darkening at the top of his cheekbones—more prominent now that he was so lean—told her he was pleased, but also embarrassed.
“You don’t need to paint me because of what I wrote to you, Nora. I know an artist paints according to their . . . well, muse. I—”
“Excuse me. Did I ask for your opinion?” She arched her eyebrows and attempted to look down at him, a difficult task as she had to look up a good nine or ten inches to do so. “Don’t mistake my laxity in your bed last night—allowing you to take your pleasure without my express permission—to fool you, Edward. I will punish you instantly and severely if you do not obey me in every way.” She spun on her heel, torn between enjoying his shocked expression and being too eager for what was waiting to draw out his torment. “Come along, now,” she ordered.
The door to the sunroom was closed, but she’d already prepared it the way she wanted it.
She opened it and stepped back. “Gentlemen before ladies, this morning.”
He hesitated, his brow furrowing, but then entered. “Good God!”
His Harlot (Victorian Decadence Series Book 1) Page 34