“No,” she confirmed ruefully. “But there are many young and handsome gentlemen here this evening whom I find very attractive.”
Alex’s jaw tightened. Knowing Amanda and her insatiable desire to know rather than be taught in the classroom, he feared the repercussions from tonight. It would not be long before one of those young and handsome gentlemen would be knocking on the door of Wetherby House in order to call upon his ward, took Amanda’s fancy, and instantly became the recipient of her blunt curiosity.
“We are leaving.” He took a tight grip of her wrist to pull her along beside him as he headed back toward the house.
“I… But… Why?” she demanded to know. “We have barely been here an hour. It is my first ball, and I have only danced the once with you!”
Alex drew in several deep breaths as he slowed his pace. Amanda was right, of course. The fact that he utterly despised those younger gentlemen fawning all over her this evening was not Amanda’s fault.
“Very well.” He nodded abruptly. “But as Hawkwood and Emma are currently…unavailable, you will remain at my side when you are not dancing.”
“Of course.”
Alex eyed her suspiciously as they reentered the crowded ballroom. He was unaccustomed to Amanda’s easy compliance in anything. “You will dance with each gentleman only once,” he warned softly as several of those gentlemen headed in their direction, their admiring gazes on his ward.
She nodded. “Emma has explained the protocol to me.”
Alex wished Emma had explained the protocol of how to behave as Amanda’s guardian to him, because the next two hours were excruciating as Amanda danced away from him in the arms of one gentleman after another. Even when the musicians paused for supper Alex was forced to stand to one side as Amanda’s admirers fought each other over which of them was to collect a plate of food for her, while those remaining squabbled over who was to sit either side of her. Alex felt like her aged uncle. Amanda, meanwhile, sat in the midst of them all, smiling happily.
“She is become all the rage,” Hawkwood remarked beside him. “I should not be surprised if you do not receive half a dozen gentlemen at Wetherby House tomorrow morning, all wishing to propose marriage to Amanda.”
Alex was already expecting those visits, but marriage proposals? “Do not be preposterous,” Alex snapped.
Adam smiled. “We shall see if I am not right.”
As his brother invariably was, Alex acknowledged irritably.
Marriage proposals!
Based on a single meeting with Amanda this evening.
It really was preposterous.
And a recipe for one of those disastrous marriages of many of the ton, his own parents included. “I shall refuse them all,” he dismissed, aware this claim was totally contrary to what his thoughts had been mere days ago, when he had desired nothing more than to rid himself of the burden of Amanda’s guardianship.
Adam gave him a sideways glance. “Amanda might not wish you to.”
“Amanda does not know what is good for her.”
“And you do?”
His mouth tightened. “I know better than she does, yes. Besides, she is too young to marry anyone.”
“Emma tells me she will shortly be nineteen.”
“Far too young to contemplate marriage with someone she barely knows.”
“If you say so.”
Alex glared at his brother. “I do.”
“Very well.” Adam gave an inclination of his head. “I only came over to tell you that Emma and I are leaving now.” He glanced over to where half a dozen gentlemen were still vying for Amanda’s attention. “I will send the carriage back for you, as I doubt you will be leaving for some time,” he added with amusement before taking his departure.
His brother’s prediction proved to be correct as Amanda was also taken for every dance following supper. By the time the musicians drew to a close, and the excruciatingly long evening along with it, Alex’s jaw actually ached from being clenched for so long and so tightly.
His cock was now fit to burst the front of his breeches from having watched Amanda’s breasts swelling over her gown as she was twirled and spun about the ballroom by other gentlemen.
Amanda’s incessant chatter, once they were in Hawkwood’s ducal carriage, about how much she had enjoyed the evening and the merits of the different gentlemen she had met, did not help to improve Alex’s mood.
Finally, he could stand it no longer. “No doubt you have decided that one, or several, of those gentlemen would be ideal to engage in a practical fashion with regard to the lesson of touching and sucking a man’s cock.”
Her chatter ceased instantly, and she stared wide-eyed across the lamplit carriage at him. “I do not… I have not…” A blush colored her cheeks. “I did notice that several of the gentlemen were…hard, there, when we danced together.”
“And did you decide on one of those gentlemen in particular?”
“Lord Sherborne is very attractive, and the bulge in his trousers was bigger than the others.”
Alex, much to his chagrin, had noticed the same thing. “Size is not everything. It is what a gentleman does with it which counts,” he explained at her questioning glance.
“I have noticed that your cock is bigger even than Sherborne’s, and if Lady Dalrimple’s groans of pleasure were an indication, you also know what do to with it.”
Alex dearly hoped Amanda had not been engaging in other conversations as blunt as this one tonight. Although it might go a long way to explaining why so many of those gentlemen’s cocks had become hard just from dancing with her…
“Unless, of course, you have changed your mind and decided that any practical lesson on the subject should come from you?”
His eyes widened. “Are you suggesting…?”
Her chin rose. “Yes, I am.”
“You still wish to be allowed to touch my cock?” he finished for her. “To stroke and then suck it?”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
After the evening he had suffered through, her words now roused Alex to such a pitch, he was in danger of coming all over the inside of his breeches, much like the callow youth he had long ago ceased to be. But what Amanda was suggesting was surely a safer alternative to her engaging in such acts with one of those eager young puppies from this evening?
Besides which, after hours of watching those other young men fawning over her, Alex’s self-control was in tatters.
He held her gaze as he unfastened the buttons on his breeches and let the fold fall before pulling down his drawers until they rested just beneath his ball sac and engorged cock. The cooler air brushing across the sensitive tip made him harder still.
Amanda blinked across at him, still not sure, even with Alex’s cock bared, that he meant for her to touch, stroke, and suck it. A thick and lengthy cock which jutted up and outwards, the mushroomed top glistening slickly in the lamplight with what Miss Marchment had called a man’s pre-cum. A slick and viscous fluid that Amanda knew was meant to lubricate a lady’s pussy for easier entry and preceded a man’s release.
A cock that was thick and long and slick because of her?
For her?
“You wished to learn what a man’s cock looked and felt like,” he reminded harshly.
“I still do,” she assured, throwing off her cloak to fall quickly to her knees on the carriage floor in front of Alex before he could change his mind.
She had danced with many gentlemen this evening, both young and old, but in truth, not one of them appealed to her the way Alex did. To see him now sitting in front of her, with his weighty and long shaft bared made her mouth water with a need to now touch.
She first removed her gloves before reaching out to run her fingers along the pulsing vein running the long length of the cock bobbing in front of her. It surprised her to feel how silky soft and warm the skin felt over the steely hardness beneath. More pre-cum bubbled to the surface in response to her light caress. Amanda brushed her fingertips acr
oss it before bringing them to her mouth. The taste was of a salty sweetness. Not unpleasant, just unlike anything she had ever tasted before.
“Curl your fingers about the shaft and then pump it,” Alex instructed gruffly. “Down, and then up. Again. Dear God…” he groaned as Amanda diligently followed his instructions.
Her hand stilled as she looked up at him in concern. “Did I hurt you?”
His jaw was clenched. “That was not a groan of pain.”
“Oh? Oh!” She brightened at the realization Alex had groaned from pleasure.
It had been exciting to be so much in demand this evening, but nowhere near the excitement she now felt as she continued to stroke and pump Alex’s cock to the sound of his deepening throaty groans. Her breasts felt full and tingly, between her thighs hot and damp.
But this was not about how she felt, it was about ensuring Alex enjoyed what she was doing to him. Amanda wanted him to remember her making love to him. Which, considering the amount of women Alex must have known intimately over the years, was almost impossible.
Almost.
Because Amanda Fullerton had not made love to Alex before tonight.
Alex watched Amanda between slitted lids as she seemed lost in thought for several seconds—not the most flattering of occurrences—only to realize she had merely been gathering her forces before she bent her head and his cockhead was fully engulfed in the heat of her mouth.
His spine and throat arched and his head crashed against the back of the carriage, his legs falling farther apart as he slid down the seat to allow her greater access when she didn’t hesitate to take his cock fully to the back of her throat.
The women Alex had been involved with in the past were usually bored and neglected Society wives, and more interested in him giving them the pleasure they had been missing rather than the other way about. Several of them had given desultory attention to his cock, but usually only with a brief caress as they guided it inside them. Juanita Millbrook had been the exception, but she had been a cat with claws, and one who liked to inflict pain with her pleasure.
This, having Amanda on his knees in front of him, not in supplication but with the determination to explore and enjoy the experience, was an arousing pleasure in itself. With his cock buried in the inferno of her mouth, after the verbal and physical foreplay they had been indulging in these past few days, took him to the edge of release within seconds. Alex feared it might almost be over before it had begun.
He reached out to grasp her shoulders. “Slowly,” he encouraged gently, grasping her shoulders to control her movements as she bobbed her head up and down, sucking his cock to the back of her throat before lifting up and then doing it again.
Her movements slowed, but her tongue became as marauding as a snake, Alex gasping as it located and stroked that sensitive flesh beneath his cockhead and then down to the base of his shaft, only to groan again when she moved upward. She rasped her tongue against the underside of his cock, sending shivers down his spine, only the bulbous top remaining in her mouth as her tongue dipped into the slit at the tip.
Time and again, she repeated the action to a steady and demanding rhythm Alex knew was taking him slowly, inexorably, to a climax that he instinctively knew would rip him apart.
It did rip him apart when one of Amanda’s tiny hands moved to cup beneath his exposed balls, rolling them in her palm, one after the other, while her tongue continued that torturous rasp up and down his cock. The moment her finger stroked across his perineum and then farther back, against his clenched arsehole, Alex knew he had lost all hope of control.
There was no warning, no tingling at the base of his spine, and his balls were already tight. There was no time to alert Amanda to what was about to happen either, before the cum shot down Alex’s cock with the heat of molten lava.
Pulse after heavy pulse of release, pouring into Amanda’s waiting mouth, to be swallowed down before she sucked deeply, eager for more.
That eagerness, the joy in her eyes as she looked up at him, prolonged Alex’s pleasure and release until it felt as if he was pouring his very soul into Amanda along with his cum.
Allowing her to claim him.
Possess him.
Chapter 10
“I allowed Amanda to suck my cock until I came after the ball on Saturday evening.”
Adam raised dark brows as he stared across the distance that separated them as they sat either side of the fireplace in the library at Wetherby House late on Monday morning. “Allowed?”
A nerve ticked in Alex’s tightly clenched jaw. “She had previously asked if she might do so and…and on Saturday night, I gave my permission.”
“I see.”
Alex eyed his brother bleakly. “Do you?”
“No.” Adam frowned. “Amanda had previously asked if she might do this?”
He avoided meeting his brother’s probing gaze. “It is complicated.”
“Then why are you telling me something which is surely best kept between yourself and Amanda?”
“Because I have to talk to someone about what happened, and you are my brother!” Alex rose abruptly to his feet, too restless to remain seated any longer.
Emma had arrived with Hawkwood an hour ago, joining Amanda and Miss Marchment in the parlor before the three ladies all went out shopping together.
Alex had thought of discussing this development with Miss Marchment; after all, the other woman was the closest thing Amanda had had to an authority figure these past three years. But to discuss the events of Saturday night with Sophia Marchment didn’t seem fair to Amanda, and Alex knew how much Amanda valued fairness.
“We are living here together.” Alex began to pace. “I am her guardian.”
“But now also her lover?” Adam prompted softly.
Color warmed his cheeks. “Not in the fullest sense, no.”
“But in the sense that matters?” his brother probed. “In a sense that Amanda matters?”
Alex gave a pained wince. “Well, of course she matters,” he snapped. “She is my responsibility. It is only… How can an innocent girl of almost nineteen years have had such an impact on my self-control that I ever allowed such a thing to happen?”
Even while asking the question, Alex knew exactly the reason it had happened.
Jealousy.
He had stood and watched for hours as those young bucks fawned over and flattered Amanda on Saturday evening, danced with her, and wanted them all gone to Hades, the ballroom and the other guests along with them.
Several of those gentleman had, as Adam had predicted, called to see Amanda yesterday. Alex had left instructions with his new butler to inform any and all that they were not at home to visitors.
“Did you enjoy it?” Adam prompted.
Alex gave a roll of his eyes to imply any man would enjoy having his cock sucked, to which his brother raised reproving brows. “Yes,” Alex bit out. “I enjoyed it more than I have enjoyed being with any other woman. How can that even be with someone so young and inexperienced?”
“Emma is fifteen years younger than me,” his brother drawled. “And an innocent until we met. Yet I was, am, and ever will be completely held in her thrall,” he stated with satisfaction.
“I am not held in Amanda’s thrall!” The mere thought of such a thing terrified Alex to his core. “After the way in which our mother suffered for loving our father, does it not bother you to now be a prisoner of your own emotions?” He frowned at his brother.
“Not when I have not a single doubt I love Emma with all that I am or ever will be, and that she loves me in the same way,” Adam spoke softly. “She holds my heart in her hands, and I am happy for it to be there, know she will keep it safe from harm and never hurt me. As I will hold and cherish her, and her love for me, forever safe from anything or anyone who might ever wish to harm her.”
Alex had spent the majority of Sunday in his study trying to make sense of what had happened on Saturday evening. Well, he knew what had happened to hi
m in a physical sense. It was the other, the rearing up of emotions he should not feel toward his young ward, which had sent him into a dark reverie.
And jealousy, something he had never felt before, not even toward his married lovers’ husbands.
Desire for Amanda of such magnitude, Alex had completely lost control when he bared his cock for her to stroke and suck.
Then experienced a pleasure so deep, it had felt as if he were giving Amanda a part of himself along with his cum.
“Our mother loved a man who was incapable of feeling the emotion for anyone but himself,” Hawkwood continued. “We are neither of us like our father, thank God.”
Alex had always wondered if perhaps he was not a little like Edward Stirling in that he had never fallen even remotely in love with any of the woman he had bedded these past fifteen years. Felt affection for, yes, but never love.
Was he falling in love with Amanda, a young woman so different to any other he had ever met that it had also caused him to behave in a manner so completely unlike himself?
Would he recognize love if it jumped up and bit him on the nose?
“How does Amanda feel about this latest development?” his brother now prompted softly.
“I have no idea.”
Adam’s brows rose again. “The two of you did not talk about it? Afterward?”
“No.” Alex scowled as he recalled how Amanda had calmly returned to her seat across the carriage from him while he managed to fasten his breeches only seconds before they arrived at Wetherby House.
“Since?”
Alex’s mouth thinned. “No.”
His brother eyed him curiously. “Why not?”
Because Alex had been doing his best to avoid so much as being in the same room as Amanda since they entered the house late Saturday evening, let alone engaging in conversation with her, and least of all on the subject of her having sucked his cock to completion!
He closed his eyes, still able to see the way the slenderness of Amanda’s throat moved as she greedily swallowed every pulse of his cum, even licking her lips afterward to ensure she did not miss a single drop.
“Alex—”
Obsession (Regency Lovers 2) Page 8