She flattened her palms against the broad expanse of his chest and reveled in the low, feral growl Lucas made when she smoothed her palms down.
“Ana…”
With a smile, she whispered, “Just let me touch you, Lucas. I—I’ve been too afraid to properly do it in the past.”
His expression softened again, and her chest ached at the sight. “You aren’t afraid now?”
She shook her head. “No. For the first time in a long while, I’m not afraid.”
He swallowed hard enough that she saw his Adam’s apple work, then his embrace loosened. He let his arms drop to his sides, and she knew he was giving her what she had asked for. Access. Freedom.
The idea made her giddy with power, yet she still felt lost. What did she know about pleasing a man? She only knew what things Lucas did that made her gasp, which touch made her quiver.
Her lips tilted into a smile. That was all she needed. She’d use her own body as a guide.
Drawing a deep breath, she went to work on his shirt. He shed it to join the pile on the floor. Her heart raced as she stepped back to look at him. It had been a while since she saw him bared like this, but her memory had not been faulty when it recalled him as beautiful, perfect. He was those things and more. He was hers.
She leaned closer, letting the tips of her fingers slide against his skin. He hissed out a breath, but he didn’t move. Didn’t wrap his arms around her, though his fingers fisted at his sides. It was clear he was fighting his instincts in order to give her the power and pleasure she craved. Ana’s heart soared as she lifted her lips and pressed them against the ridge of his collarbone.
Lucas tried to think about anything except the brush of Ana’s lips against his skin. Anything to stay in control. Anything at all. It wasn’t working, of course. Her touch was too intoxicating not to filter into his wildly racing mind, not to dull his reaction to everything except for her. She was everything.
And she was focused on him. Only him. Her lips drifted in soft caresses across the chest, sweeping back and forth as she inched lower. Lucas shut his eyes and fought to keep a groan from escaping his lips.
Another battle lost.
He had been with women who were more experienced than Ana, but none of them had ever made him feel like he did when she darted her tongue out to swirl it over his skin. No one had ever made his body so hard. Certainly, no one had ever involved his heart in seduction.
Ana did. Ana always had. Without trying, she brought him to his knees. And if she pulled away, he would be on those very knees begging.
But she didn’t. Instead, she wrapped her soft lips around the flat disk of his nipple and sucked ever so gently. Pleasure crashed through him, and his good intentions were lost. He let out a cry as his fingers found their way into Ana’s hair, sending pins scattering while her locks tangled around his hands and wrists.
She glanced up at him without breaking contact. He expected her to be timid, as she had been the first time they touched. Pull away. Apologize. Instead, she winked.
Lucas’s mouth came open in shock, and his erection, which had already been straining, swelled even harder at her uncharacteristic boldness. There was a wicked temptress under those spectacles. He’d always sensed it and suddenly she was there, gliding her mouth across his chest to repeat the same explosively pleasurable caress on his opposite nipple.
“Little minx,” he growled as he clenched his fingers against her scalp and tilted her face up. Ana arched a brow in challenge and it was just too much. He bent his head and pressed his lips against hers.
Her arms came around his neck and she lifted up on her tiptoes to meet the fire of his kiss with equal passion and need. He slipped his hands from her hair and the heavy length of it fell around her back as he stroked his fingers down her spine. She shivered, but didn’t break the kiss. Not until he cupped her backside and lifted her off the floor against him.
“Lucas,” she moaned, clinging to him tighter. Her leg hooked around his back as he moved toward the bed. Now it would be their bed, and he had the rest of his life to explore every inch of this woman’s body and introduce her to all the pleasures he could think of.
That was an overwhelmingly erotic thought.
He set her down and instantly went to work removing her gown. He hardly even looked at his fingers as he unfastened buttons and clicked hooks free. All he could do was watch her face, feel the brush of her fingers as she stroked her hands up and down his bare sides.
As the last of her clothing fell away, Ana sighed with pleasure. There was something undeniably erotic about the way the fire warmed her naked skin, the way Lucas’s heat warmed it even more. The way her bare breasts were just tantalizing inches from Lucas’s chest.
He lifted her onto the mattress and joined her at her side. For a long moment, he didn’t touch her, just leaned on one elbow and looked down at her. There was such tenderness, such warmth, to his expression that tears tickled her eyes at the sight.
“I want to please you,” she whispered. For the first time she was able to say such a thing without blushing.
He smiled. “You please me enormously. More than any woman I’ve ever known. I wonder how you know how to do that.”
Now the heat she had been able to stifle came to her cheeks. “I think of all you do that pleases me and do the same.”
The warmth and gentleness that had been in his eyes flicked away, replaced by hot, possessive desire she had seen many a time before. Her body reacted to the sight of it, nipples hardening and wet heat flooding her thighs.
“Do unto me as I do unto you, eh?” he asked as he finally placed the flat of his palm against her bare belly.
She gave a mute nod, too caught up in sensation to form coherent words.
“Then let me give you a wider education.”
He sent her a heated stare before he rolled over to wrap his body around her. For an all too brief moment, she felt the swell of his erection through the fabric of his trousers, but then he was sliding down, down, down. He mimicked the things she had done with her mouth earlier, stroking her skin with his lips as he edged at a painfully slow pace to her nipples. When his breath steamed hot against the peaks, she arched up with a wail of pleasure.
He chuckled against her skin as he suckled there, plucking the sensitive flesh until she thought she would burst from the pleasure that shot through every nerve in her body and settled, heavy and wet, between her trembling legs.
Lucas wasn’t done yet, though. He continued his journey down her body, tasting every inch of her skin, nipping her with gentle teeth, arousing her to a feverish level that had her tossing her head back and forth against the soft pillows.
His tongue slipped over her hip as he parted her legs with one hand. Ana’s eyes flew open as she realized what he was about to do. She could scarce believe it, but then it happened. He pressed his mouth against the apex of her thighs.
Steamy heat burned at the sensitive outer lips of her core, and she let out a cry of pleasure and surprise. Lucas pressed a gentle hand against her belly to hold her steady while he opened her with the fingers of his opposite hand. His mouth returned, tongue teasing the slick opening, moving aside folds of sensitive flesh until he stroked the hooded button of pleasure at the top of her entrance.
Ana shivered with the feeling, gripping the pillows, the sheets in an attempt to gain purchase over the powerful sensations her new husband was creating with his skillful tongue. Her hips lifted of their own accord, pushing his hand up even as he exerted force to hold her still. Yet his mouth played on. He suckled, he stroked, he thrust into her. With each action, her body tipped closer to madness, the edge of coming undone. She seemed utterly out of control of her body now as she trembled and bucked under his gentle touch.
When he swirled his tongue one final time, she couldn’t hold back any longer. Every fiber of her being exploded into a colorful kaleidoscope of pleasure. She trembled as wave after wave washed over her, washed her away. She lost her breath, lost her voice as she s
creamed, and yet he went on and on, continuing his torment until her last shudder of pleasure ended.
It took her a blurry moment to realize he was getting up. She opened her eyes wide, blinking as she tried to focus past her still shaking body.
“Lucas?” she murmured breathlessly.
He smiled as he shoved his trousers and boots away with impatient fingers. “I’m not finished yet,” he reassured her as he rejoined her on the bed.
He pulled her over on her side so they lay face to face. His erection, now gloriously bared to her hungry eyes, pressed hot against her belly, twitching every time she drew a panting breath.
“You want to please me?” he whispered.
“Yes,” she groaned as she clenched her fingers into a shaking fist against his bare hip. “Yes.”
“Seeing you find release like you just did gives me more pleasure than you can imagine,” he murmured as he caught her by the waist, dragging her on top of him as he rolled to his back.
“Lucas?”
“Straddle me,” he ordered.
Normally, she would have considered this just another of his overbearing demands. But there was a slight tremble to his voice, a flash of pleading in his eyes. He needed this. Wanted this. And as unsure as she was, she was more than willing to give him what he desired.
She spread her legs, and gasped as the length of him stroked her wet cleft. He shut his eyes with a harsh curse and the cords of muscle in his neck flexed.
“Yes, like that. Now just ease me inside and—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his direction. She repositioned herself and took his length into her in one smooth movement. They both moaned in unison at the feel of him stretching her body, filling her completely.
She moved and gasped at how full she felt in this position. How much control she had over the power and speed of her pleasure. And judging from the way Lucas moaned whenever she did so much as flex, the speed of his release, as well. With a wicked grin, she began to move in slow, rolling motions. But as Lucas’s fingers tightened against her backside, as he pulled her forward to latch onto her nipple with his mouth, the control she’d been so pleased with faded. It was replaced by a wild drive to release, both hers and his. Her hips moved uncontrollably as the pressure built with blinding speed and finally she threw back her head and cried out, only to hear Lucas’s moans join hers as he spilled his essence deep into her clenching body.
With a last groan, she collapsed onto his sweaty chest, shivering from the power of their joining. They lay like that for a long time, clutched in each other’s arms.
After her heart rate returned to normal, Ana began to brush her hand back and forth along Lucas’s hip. She loved the feel of his skin, the bulge of muscles beneath, the slick slide of lusty sweat.
“Lucas?” she murmured.
“Hmm?” His response was sleepy, satiated, and it filled her with a giddy power.
“What you did with your mouth—” She lifted her head and watched his eyes come open with interest.
“Yes?”
“That would be something that would please you, too?”
From the way one corner of his mouth lifted and a dimple flashed, she knew the answer.
“Oh yes,” he said with a chuckle that edged on a groan. “Most definitely.”
She bit her lip as she began to inch her way down the length of his body.
“Teach me.”
Lucas lifted his head from his pillow as the sound of knuckles rapping against the door sounded a second time. He looked over. Ana was still asleep, her tangled locks spread across the pillows. The sheets were pulled down around her waist, baring the soft curves of her breasts.
He suppressed a groan at his body’s renewed craving for her and slung his legs over the side of the bed. He reached out to pull the sheet up for modesty, though when he brushed his knuckles against her nipples and they hardened instantly, he almost ignored the knocking and dove back in beside her to wake her up in the most pleasant fashion.
Instead, he forced some fraction of control. Pulling a robe on as he crossed to the door, he yanked it open.
“What is it?”
He could tell how fierce his expression was by the way the color drained away from the young footman’s cheeks.
“I—I’m sorry, Mr. Tyler, but an urgent message just arrived for you.” He held out an envelope with trembling fingers.
Lucas stepped into the hallway and pulled the door nearly shut behind him as he took the letter. The footman stepped back to give him privacy while he read.
The seal was that of his superior from the War Department. He broke it and withdrew a short note written on heavy, expensive paper.
Sansbury dead at home. Come immediately.
Lucas let loose a curse that made even the previously pale servant turn red up to his ears. He pushed the door open and looked inside at his wife. Ana had rolled over on her stomach, her arm across his side of the bed. She remained asleep.
“Is the messenger still outside?” he asked, folding the note to burn it later.
The footman nodded. “He was instructed to wait for your reply, sir.”
“Tell him I will be on my way shortly. And have my valet meet me in her ladyship’s chamber.” He returned to the bedroom and looked at Ana again.
He should wake her. This was a huge break in their investigation, and she would want to be part of it. In fact, he was certain she would insist.
But then he thought of all her theories. Of the questions he was beginning to have about Henry, himself. No. If his best friend was about to be implicated in the deepest, most desperate treason, he wanted to be the one who uncovered the information.
And if Henry’s name could be cleared, he wanted to be the person who did that, as well. He would let Ana sleep and face her wrath later.
Gathering a few things from the armoire, Lucas slipped past his wife into the sitting room and into the adjoining bed chamber to ready himself.
Chapter 21
L ucas had seen death before, but violent death like this was never something easily stomached. He exchanged a glance with the man from the Watch who was investigating the crime, and they both grimaced.
“It was a personal attack,” Lucas murmured.
The Watch guard scribbled in his notebook. “Why do you think that, sir?”
Lucas looked down at Sansbury’s body. It was disfigured now, the skin smashed, bone sticking through in the arms and through a tear in the trouser leg. His face was twisted in a mask of horror and fear, though his eyes—or the eye that wasn’t swollen shut—were empty of all emotion or life.
Lucas shook his head. “There wasn’t any reason to beat him so severely. A few of these strikes to the head would have incapacitated him. But the killer kept hitting. He was trying to cause pain.” He motioned to a few of the uglier marks. “To punish.”
The guard wrote furiously, and Lucas cast him a quick glance, knowing the man would likely take credit for Lucas’s comments in his report. Not that it mattered. His Majesty’s spies would solve this case, not the Watch. They were fine for breaking up a drunken rout, but not this kind of horror.
The man caught his eye and had the decency to blush before he left the room. Lucas crouched down beside Sansbury’s twisted frame and tilted his head, looking for any clues before he moved the dead man. He didn’t want to miss anything.
“Mr. Tyler is there, sir.”
He turned at the mention of his name. Charles Isley was standing in the parlor door with the guard, face pinched as he took in the bloody scene around him.
“Thank you.”
Isley took a few steps inside, carefully dodging overturned furniture and blood splatter. “Good morning, Tyler,” he said. “Ugly mess, eh?”
Lucas got to his feet and nodded. “Ugly, indeed.”
As ugly as the guilt that suddenly slashed through him. Isley’s appearance only served to remind him of how he’d snuck out of his bedroom an hour before, leaving Ana blissfully i
gnorant of this very big development in their foundering case. She would be justifiably angry when she found out, and probably hurt, especially after she had opened up to him the night before. Gave him so much of herself while they made love. After she found out about this, he would definitely lose ground with her.
“Where is Ana?” Isley asked as he peered around.
Lucas flinched. There was no avoiding the subject now. “She—”
Before he could make some lame excuse, the Watch guard returned to the room with a round, older woman behind him. When she looked around, her knees buckled. Lucas rushed forward, catching her just before she hit the floor. He glared at the young man.
“Dear God, have you no decency! Don’t bring the woman in here.”
The guard flinched. “I—I’m sorry, sir. This is the housekeeper, Mrs. Farnsworth. She found the body.”
Isley shot Lucas a glance. Lucas nodded, guiding the woman into another room with the other two men at his heels. He helped her into a chair while Isley poured her a glass of sherry from Sansbury’s sideboard. The man probably would have begrudged her that kindness in life, but his opinion was no longer an issue.
“Mrs. Farnsworth,” Charlie began as he handed the glass to the woman. “Can you tell us what you remember?”
The housekeeper sipped the liquor slowly, her hands trembling. “Yesterday afternoon, his lordship demanded his servants take leave of the house.”
Lucas’s eyebrows shot up. “All of you?”
She nodded in a few jerks. “Yes. Everyone and for the entire night.”
“Was that a common occurrence?” Lucas asked.
A blush darkened the woman’s lined cheeks. “Y-Yes, sir. Lord Sansbury did a lot of…evening entertaining. He didn’t want servants underfoot when he had his…his female companions here. He did things with them that were—”
Charlie held up a hand. “We understand, madam. You needn’t elaborate if it troubles you.”
The housekeeper nodded with relief. “Thank you. I assumed that was what he was doing last night. This morning when I came back from my sister’s, the house was very quiet. I thought nothing of it, I believed his lordship to still be abed. He doesn’t—didn’t like to be disturbed after one of his nights. Then I went into the parlor to light the fires and—”
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