Sleeping Lord Beattie

by Em Taylor

  Emily did not know what to make of his little diatribe, and what was a cock-stand. She had heard Robert calling his manhood a cock when he was growing up. He had done it to shock her a time or two. She was not going to ask Gideon though. Not when he was in this mood, but he had said he liked her breasts. Well, he said he wanted to suck on them. That must be good. The idea of him doing that sent a shiver of pleasure through her and he tugged impatiently on her clothing.

  She lifted her bottom and he pushed all her clothing apart from her stockings to a heap on the floor. Then he swept around her skin with a blanket, rubbing with more vigour than she felt was necessary.

  Just then the carriage hit a particularly large rut on the road. Emily had been using Gideon’s thigh and the arm of the seat to lift herself. It had been a precarious position. Now she was flung across his lap.

  She was just scrambling off his lap when they hit another rut. Emily reached for something to give her purchase and get her back to her own seat. An arm… but that was no arm. That was definitely not an arm.

  Gideon groaned and his hand closed over hers. Instead of unfurling her fingers as she thought he would, he started to move their hands up and down his hard shaft.

  Emily managed to right herself and looked up into Gideon’s eyes, He looked conflicted.

  “Better to go to hell, then to Bedlam, wouldn’t you agree, my lady.”

  “I think you may prefer seventh heaven, my lord.” He chuckled. Then he looked sombrely at her. “Do you wish to stop?”

  She shook her head. “I like the feel of it in my hand. It’s soft and yet hard at the same time.”

  “Come and sit on my lap then and I shall give you pleasure too. Bring your blanket.” She did as she was bid and he grinned at her. She sat gingerly on his knee. “Tell me, which hand do you write with.” She lifted her right hand. He took it and placed it on his long, thick staff, throwing his head back on an almost pained groan when she started to stroke him. He pressed his lips to hers as his fingers stroked through the curls at the apex of her thighs. She opened her legs without having to be told and his fingers slid through the slick folds easily. He stroked her deftly and she moved her hand to the same rhythm. The kiss was desperate and needy, he dragged his lips away kissing down her neck as he shifted her into his arms,

  He brushed his lips over her chest and down onto her breast until he captured her nipple in his mouth. He held it between his teeth and worried it with his teeth.

  “Gideon,” she moaned, bucking against his fingers and gripping his shaft tighter.

  “Yes, darling, that’s it,” he said before sucking her other nipple into his mouth and doing the same. “Damn, I’m not going to hold off.”

  “Gideon, it feels so good.” Oh, she felt like a ninny saying that. He smiled indulgently down at her as he lifted his fingers to his mouth and licked them, taking some saliva from his tongue to spread on her folds. It was warm and added to the lovely wetness she already had,

  “Imagine we are in my bed at Beattie Park, a bottle of wine and some chocolates next to the bed, my darling. My hard, thick, cock, sliding where my fingers are working, ready to make you mine. My lips trailing from your lips down your neck, down your body, stopping to pay homage to each of these delightful breasts, over your stomach, a little lick into your navel, and then down. My tongue trailing down, down, down, until it circles just here. “

  Emily arched her back as her release pulsed through her. Little bright lights flashed under her eyelids and she was sure she might be having a fit of the vapours. That was unconscionable. Oh, how debasing. Her breathing was coming in heaving rasps and Gideon had pulled her against his chest. He was rubbing her back calling her a good girl.

  She struggled out of his tight embrace and wiped her hair from her eyes. He was grinning.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “You release like a firework at Vauxhall. It is a sight to behold. Now much though I would love to be a gentleman and pretend I do not need a release, you have been stroking me and I am afraid that even gentlemen only have so much tolerance for naked ladies and their very skilled manipulations. Shall I do it myself?”

  “No, please, let me.”

  She curled her fingers back around his length and he leaned back against the squabs, closing his eyes and biting his bottom lip. He looked quite adorable. Soon, he was thrusting into her hand in time to her strokes. He put an arm around her to keep her safe. She slipped off his knee and sat beside him, allowing him more room to thrust. It seemed he wanted to but was afraid to harm her. He pulled her to his side and pressed a kiss to her temple.

  She did not know where the urge came from but he had kissed her nipples. Suddenly she had stuck out her tongue and was circling the small dark nipple on his chest. He groaned, but it was a groan of pleasure.

  “You like that?” she asked. He clasped his hand around hers and sped up the rhythm.

  “Very much. Next, you’ll be putting my cock in your mouth.”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “You want me to?” His eyes were closed.

  “Yes,” he ground out. “No,” he shouted just as she tried to work out the best way to do it. “No, I… Christ…”

  She was not sure there was any blood left in her fingers. His grip was so tight and they were stroking him so fast. He started to make a low moaning noise and then he tensed.

  “Oh God!”

  Jets of white liquid shot from the tip of it and landed on his chest. Some even landed on his chin and he wiped it away in what looked like annoyance. He stroked a few more times as a little more of the seed was squeezed from the tip and then Gideon let go. He uncurled her fingers from his purple headed shaft and raised it to his lips.

  “Thank you,” he said through his pants. “Thank you and I apologise.”

  “What are you apologising for?”

  “A lady should not see a gentleman do that.”

  “I thought this lady had done it to the gentleman with a little help, of course.”

  Without lifting his head from the squabs, he turned it to her and smiled. It was a genuine, warm smile.

  She looked at the white liquid adorning his chest.

  “Is it sticky?”

  “Not much, no.”

  “Can I touch it?”

  “Over the years, my lady I hope to put plenty of it inside you but if Lady Curious wants to touch it and satisfy her curiosity before her wedding day, then she can.”

  She ran her finger through it. It was simply wet. How terribly uninteresting. As she raised it to her nose, he raised an eyebrow. It smelled, well, of nothing. She stuck out her tongue and watched his reaction. He did not try to stop her. She sucked her finger into her mouth.

  “I wonder if hell has its own Bedlam,” he mused.

  “It tastes of salt…and something else.”

  “Well, it is the seed that babies come from.”

  Oh, she hadn’t thought of that. Suddenly she was horrified. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he threw his head back and laughed. “You shall not end up with child by putting it in your mouth.”

  She pursed her lips. He was laughing at her. How was she supposed to have known that? Would he laugh at her and tell his friends she’d thought she could get pregnant by sucking his seed into her mouth. Would she be the talk of White’s?

  “We should get dressed.”

  “We should, but why are you upset with me?”

  “I am not upset with you.”

  “Emily!”

  “Promise me you shall not tell anyone I did not know I could not get pregnant by putting your seed in my mouth.”

  “Of course, I shall not.”

  “Promise me.”

  “Fine. I promise. Why do you need a promise?”

  “I do not wish to be the talk of White’s, or to be ridiculed.”

  “Firstly, my club is Brooks’ and secondly, why would I discuss what happens in my own bedchamber,
or in this case, my own carriage, with people I meet in Brooks’?”

  “Robert was always telling his friends about the silly things I said or did.”

  “It sounds like your brother is an ass.”

  “He can be.”

  “What happens between us, is strictly between us. Just as you may not want anyone to know you didn’t know everything there was to know about the making of babies before you were wed. I believe I would prefer it not to be known that I had an innocent young lady stroking me to completion in a carriage halfway to Scotland while we were both naked. While I have thoroughly enjoyed this interlude, Emily, I doubt I come out of it looking like much of a gentleman.”

  She giggled and passed him her blanket to wipe his chest.

  “I did enjoy it too, if that is any consolation.”

  “It is all the consolation I need.”

  “We should get dressed. We must be getting near to that inn.”

  “Indeed.”

  Chapter 15

  He was inordinately fond of her, it seemed. That was the conclusion that Gideon came to as he sat in the bath looking at his bride to be as she lay on the bed a few hours later.

  They had arrived at the inn only to find that there was only one room left. Emily looked a little pale and he suspected the shock she had received from nearly being killed by that carriage was contributing to her state. He really had no wish to carry on. Also, it was Sunday. Maybe this was what came of travelling on the Sabbath. It was the reason the inn was full so early in the day. Few people had travelled that day. Only him, the godless creature that he was, and he had debauched Lady Emily in his carriage.

  He really did deserve to go to hell.

  It had been wonderful though and it was not as if he was not going to marry the chit. Of course, he was. He had wanted to push his fingers inside her this afternoon but had refrained. She should be untouched in there on her wedding night. Even though he had to share a bed with her tonight, he would not touch her and he would not sully her further.

  Though sully was probably the wrong word. She had enjoyed it and she had been more than willing. She’d understood what she had been doing and he’d given her the opportunity to leave his cock alone and get dressed. She had liked the feel of him. He smiled at that.

  A rustling from the bed caught his attention and he looked up to see her propped on her elbows. He had stayed in the tap room while maids had bathed her and readied her for bed. He had organised dinner for later to be brought to their room and hot bricks to warm her in bed.

  “Are you well?” he enquired.

  She wiped her face with her hand and scowled. “Why have you put me to bed like a naughty child?”

  “I had the maids put you to bed to warm you up. You looked like a ghost when we arrived here. I wanted to care for you, not punish you. You’ve had a terrible shock. You were nearly killed.”

  “You had a terrible shock too.”

  “True but men are made of sterner stuff and I was not the one nearly killed. Now lie back down so I can get out of this bath without you gawping at me.”

  “I have seen you naked before.”

  “Y-e-s, and look how that ended.”

  Her blue eyes twinkled and he laid his head back against the tub. “I quite enjoyed how it ended actually.”

  “Yes, well there shall be no repeat of it until we are married. I have to face your brother and I want to be able to tell him I have not debauched you. Well, at least not fully.”

  “Oh, well, that is a little disappointing, I must admit. I thought since we were sharing a bed…”

  “No, Emily. You shall be a virgin on your wedding night. I shall keep my hands to myself from now on.”

  “It was not your hands I was thinking of, Gideon.”

  Was she making a joke about his cock? Good God, she was. She was going to be the death of him. Dashed little hoyden that she was, but she made him smile and laugh, and God knew that given the current state of the country with this terrible weather and the failing crops, there was dashed little to laugh about.

  “I shall be keeping that far away from you until our wedding night too. No more grabbing onto it as an excuse because there are ruts in the road, Lady Emily.”

  “But what if there is nothing else to hold on to, my lord? You would not want me to be injured.”

  “I swear, my lady, if you touch it again before our wedding night, I shall tie you up in my carriage and recite Homer to you for the rest of the journey—in Greek.”

  “The Iliad or the Odyssey?” she asked. Impertinent little wench.

  “Both,” he roared as he rose out of the bath, not caring that she was seeing him in all his naked glory yet again. Damn, this woman, she was frustrating, irritating, and damned wonderful. He just needed to be allowed to bed her, but his conscience would not allow him to go that far.

  She lay there and watched him as though she was in a box at the theatre watching a play. She didn’t avert her eyes, or blush, or feign modesty. He concentrated on drying himself. His upper body, his wet hair and then his lower body. He was half-erect from her scrutiny. He was getting aroused by the fact that she was not the shrinking violet an innocent lady should be. He kept imagining striding over to the bed, pulling back the covers, insinuating himself between her legs and taking her. Quickly he pulled on a pair of clean breeches and a shirt. He would put on his stockings, neckcloth and waistcoat later. Dinner would not be served for another couple of hours and he did not much care if the men who came up for the tub saw him in a state of undress. He would pull the curtains around the bed so they would not see Emily in her nightgown.

  She was still watching him and he could not help but be drawn to her. He crawled onto the bed and pulled her into his arms, him on top of the covers and her below.

  “You should try to sleep for at least an hour.”

  “I am not at all sleepy.”

  “You were too busy peeping at me in my bath, were you not? It seems mighty unfair, Lady Emily, when I was in the taproom while you bathed.”

  “So, you would like to see me naked again.”

  “What one wants and what one should have are two different things. I would like a kiss, however.” He leaned over her and waited. She lifted her hand and drew his head down.

  Gideon could not have said how long he kissed Emily for. It was a long time. He had never kissed anyone for so long or so thoroughly or with such gentle passion, but he enjoyed every minute. Normally a kiss was simply a prelude to sex. He never kissed innocents at balls. That was what one did if they were looking for a leg-shackle and until now, he had avoided that like the plague.

  When there was a rap on the door, he called out to the men outside to wait for a minute. He drew the curtains around the bed and then let the men in. As they dragged the hip bath out, he smiled to himself at the memory of her lying in the bed, her lips swollen, her chin red from his day beard and a faint blush colouring her cheeks when he winked at her just before he pulled the drapes tight. Was Lady Emily developing a tendre for him? Was she fascinated by more than just the size of what was inside his breeches?

  When the door clicked shut he opened the curtains. Emily was looking dismayed.

  “What’s wrong now?” he asked, sounding harsher than he meant.

  “Do you think they thought we were… well… you know?”

  “Emily, considering you are an innocent, your mind seems to constantly be straying to the topic of sex. I told the staff, you had fallen, hence the dirty clothes. They no doubt thought you were sleeping, which is what you are supposed to be doing.”

  “I do not feel like sleeping.”

  He walked over to his valise, opened it and pulled out a book. He deposited it on the bed beside her. “Then read. Though I am not sure you should be reading books with romantic themes like Mansfield Park. You have a vivid enough imagination as it is.”

  “Perhaps I should become an author.”

  “Heaven forb
ids. I hate to think what lurid gothic novel would come out of that unfettered imagination of yours.”

  She picked up the book and started to flick through it. She was not reading. She was not even trying to find her page, for he had given her a bookmark and it was sticking out of the book. She was frowning. Her head was down. Was she upset?

  Suddenly she tossed the book aside and turned onto her side, curled up into a ball.

  “Emily?”

  “I am tired. I should sleep.”

  “You are upset with me. I was teasing.”

  “No, Gideon. You were not. What you say is true, even if you were.”

  He sighed. This was not silly female hysterics. The young lady he was about to marry was crippled by self-loathing and self-doubt. Even some gentle teasing made her feel worthless and while someone else would laugh it off, Emily took it to heart. In many ways, he was glad he’d had this time alone with her before they wed. Now he knew. Now he could help her. He wasn’t sure how but he could do something.

  “Emily?” She sniffed. It told him that she was crying but also that she had heard him. “Emily, my darling, please sit up and listen to me.” He had no clue what he was going to say, but whatever it was, it was going to come from the heart.

  “I think you should not marry me, my lord. Leave me at my brother’s house. I shall be fine. I do not need to go back to town. You shall not be harmed by the scandal of a failed elopement. I can stay in the country and tend the garden.”

  “Not in this weather. Who knows how many years this rain might go on for.”

  She turned onto her back and wiped her wet eyes. “That is not funny, my lord. People are beginning to starve. You said so yourself.”

  “I know, but it’s not funny that you think yourself so unworthy of marriage, a home and happiness that you would throw it over because I was teasing you.”

  “But what you say is true, my lord. I speak out of turn, I am clumsy, I nearly got myself killed today, I do not think before I act, I let my imagination run away with me, I have been wholly inappropriate. I am obsessed with the act of… sex.” Her eyes were wide with horror. He wanted to laugh but he tamped down the urge. He placed his hands under her shoulders and pulled her into his embrace. She resisted at first and then her arms were around him and fresh tears were flowing. He allowed her to weep. He had a feeling this was years of pain she was letting go.