His Temporary Mistress

by Bethany Sefchick

  “More,” she panted, arching into him. “I need more.”

  Without warning, he pushed her back against the door, pinning her there with his hard body. Using his already busy hands, he quickly stripped her of her gown – what there was of it – to discover only bare skin beneath.

  “No corset,” Jeremy groaned into Dory’s shoulder as his hands met the soft, silken flesh of her breasts.

  “This gown would not allow for it,” she replied with a sigh, pressing into him so that her breasts filled his palms. “Did you like it?”

  Like it? Like it? God, he had all but combusted in flames when he had first seen her.

  Jeremy nuzzled Dory’s neck before scraping her delicate flesh with his teeth. “You know that I did, minx. You know that I like everything about you.”

  She chuckled, a deep and throaty sound that went straight to his cock, making it throb all the more. God, could this woman be real? So innocent and yet such a tease? Did she even know what she did to him?

  “Good. I had it designed with you in mind after that first night. Madame LaVallier assisted me. She can work quickly if motivated.”

  He really was going to have to speak to the dressmaker about her willingness to indulge innocent young women and their plans for seductive gowns. Especially Dory’s gowns, because the idea of another man seeing her like this made him want to rip something or someone apart.

  Panting, Jeremy pinned Dory back harder against the door, his fingers entwined with hers so that he could hold her prisoner. His prisoner. “I would have liked it better had I been the only man to see you thus. I don’t share, Dory. Once you are mine? Then you are mine until we both walk away. No other man can have you.”

  He was serious about this and he needed her to understand that for him, this wasn’t a game. From the moment Dionysus had opened, there had been a steady parade of women through those doors, many of whom had all but stripped naked and thrown themselves at his feet. He could have bedded them or not. Most of them he hadn’t, and if he had? When the night was over, they both walked away. Free to choose another partner.

  But with Dory? Once he possessed her? She was his until he said otherwise. She might be his temporary mistress, but she was still his.

  Jeremy could see the confusion in her eyes. “I would never dream of going to another man’s bed while I was with you. Nor would I want to, either.” She traced her upper lip with the tip of her tongue. “Jeremy, I know that I have given you plenty of reason to believe that I am some sort of loose woman with my behavior, but in truth? I really am the innocent you think I am. I only act this way with you.”

  “And?” he prodded when she fell silent. He could see that she wished to say more, and he was determined not to bed her until this was resolved.

  “And I am also scared. I was scared the night I walked in here, but also so entranced by the very idea of you that I allowed my rebellious nature to take over. I was scared the next night that I returned because I wasn’t certain if you would remember me. Now? I am scared that when our time together is over, I will never again know this overwhelming feeling that is like a living thing inside of me. That I will never again feel this need to be with someone the way I need to be with you.” Vaguely, Dory became aware of what she was saying, how much of her soul she was confessing to him, but she still pressed on, needing to get this all out now, while she still could. “I’m afraid that you are the only man that I will ever desire and that if I do not take the risk and lie with you now? I will never feel this way again. And I don’t want that. I don’t want to walk away and never know how wonderful it could truly be.”

  When Jeremy just looked at her, Dory squeezed her eyes shut, hoping she would not see a look of utter revulsion in his eyes when she opened them again.

  “Is that truly how you feel, my peacock? Honestly and truly?” Jeremy’s voice was soft and seductive once more.

  But he hadn’t used her name! Drat and damn! Oh, this was a disaster and one of her own making, no less. She should have known better. She did know better. And yet, when it came right down to it, Dory could not help but be anything other than herself, her sensual and sophisticated façade from earlier now stripped away.

  Oh, Lord! Would she never learn? Dory was certain her face was now flaming red with shame after what she had just said – how much of herself she had just revealed.

  Pretty speeches like that were the reason that, during her schoolroom years, boys like Theo Clarke, the future Earl of Timelton, and their neighbor at Hallowby Grange had taken one look at the messy hellion she had been, and coupled with the words coming out of her mouth, had run away – as fast and as far as his legs could carry him.

  Nor had Theo been the only one to flee from Dory’s long-standing need to belong to someone and to feel wanted. There had been others. Plenty of them, from John Herschel, the miller’s son back in Oxfordshire, to her old childhood friend, Miles St. Vincent, a man who was destined to become a duke someday.

  Opening one eye, Dory peered up at Jeremy. He was breathing hard and his mouth was slightly agape, his head cocked to the side as if he was weighing her words and trying to decide whether or not she meant them. Or if she was just a madwoman.

  Their hands, however, were still laced together and he was gripping her so tightly that she was afraid that he might crush the delicate bones in her fingers. But she didn’t back down. Instead, she gripped his hands just as tightly, determined to make him understand.

  “It is how I feel.” Dory notched her chin up a bit higher. She had come this far. Why not see this through to the end? “I am scared, Jeremy, but I am here. Why? Because what started out as a bit of rebellion and, yes, naked curiosity on my part has become something more. I didn’t expect to feel this way. Actually, I didn’t expect you.”

  “And yet here you are, in my arms.” He was ginning now and some of her fear of him rejecting her had begun to fade.

  “Here I am,” she agreed softly. “Because I want to be. Because I want you. And because I am more afraid of leaving here without knowing you in every way than I am of being discovered.”

  Jeremy considered that for a moment. “You would risk everything for me. Just to be with me. Why?”

  No one else had ever thought him worth the bother. Certainly not his own family. Why this woman that he barely knew?

  “I don’t know.” Dory’s words were still soft, but Jeremy could feel the sincerity of them deep inside. “I just would.”

  In the end, that answered nothing, but Jeremy didn’t care and he had the impression that neither did Dory. Sweeping her up into his arms, he carried her to the large, four-poster bed that dominated the one side of the room and gently placed her down onto the soft mattress.

  “I need you, Dory.” He began to unbutton his waistcoat, his jacket long since gone though he could not remember removing it. “I need you so damn much.”

  “Then you shall have me.” Was she hearing him correctly? He wanted her? After she had made that embarrassing speech? Except that his waistcoat was now in a pile on the floor too, so she supped that she had heard him currently. “But will you allow me?”

  Rising up on her knees, Dory motioned for him to come closer to the bed. “I have always wanted to undress a man. Since you will be the first man that I see naked and you have already removed my gown, I think that’s only fair.” Her earlier confidence was slowly returning and she was feeling more like herself than she had a few moments ago.

  “I would hate to be accused of being unfair to a lady.” Jeremy’s eyes took on that now-familiar wickedly dark look and Dory felt her nipples tighten almost painfully. “Do as you like, my lady. I am yours to command.”

  Oh, how she wished he could be hers. Really hers. But that was a fantasy that could never be. Therefore, she needed to content herself with what she could actually have.

  “Then come a bit closer,” she all but purred.

  When he obliged her, Dory ran her hands over the strong muscles of his chest. Though a bit of
broadcloth still lay between them, she could feel the heat of him seeping into her own muscle and bone.

  “So perfect,” she sighed.

  “I would be even more perfect for you, sweet, if I was naked.” The heat in Jeremy’s tone was unmistakable now. So, with slightly trembling fingers, Dory began to undo the buttons on his shirt until she was able to peel the fabric away, leaving his naked chest bared to her hungry gaze.

  “Oh my.” Dory had seen plenty of statures in museums and in the homes of her mother’s friends over the years, but never had she seen the perfectly sculpted chest of a flesh and blood man before. “I had no idea.”

  Jeremy’s hand came to rest at the fall of his trousers for a moment before he continued to undress in front of her. His stockings and shoes were gone now, though he couldn’t remember removing those either. “It will be even better in a moment.” His hungry gaze raked over her body and Dory shivered. “But it would be even better if you were naked first.” He paused. “Remove the rest of your clothes, Dory. For me. Please.”

  When he had first removed her gown, it hadn’t bothered Dory all that much for Jeremy to gaze upon her naked breasts. After all, he had been suckling them just the night before. But removing her stockings and drawers? That was…different. It would leave her exposed and vulnerable to him. And her grandmother, her namesake, had long ago taught her never to be vulnerable to a man.

  But if she didn’t remove them, then how could she lay with Jeremy? How could she prove to him that she wanted him, even if it was only for a little while? That to her, he was worth the risk?

  She couldn’t. Therefore, there was really no choice.

  “As you like.” Dory’s eyes held Jeremy’s as she reached down and undid the ribbons that held up her stockings. Once they were free, she slowly peeled the bits of silk down her legs, well aware that his eyes followed her every move.

  But when her fingers reached for the string at the top of her drawers, he stilled her hand. “Wait. Allow me. Please. It would be my honor.”

  When Jeremy eased her back down onto the bed, Dory went willingly, the searing heat from the palm of his hand all but burning the sensitive skin of her stomach. Though she did raise herself up on her elbows so that she could watch him as he stripped her of the last of her clothing.

  She could feel his strong fingers give a gentle tug as he gently began to ease her drawers down over her hips. His touch was so careful that for a moment, she wondered if he thought she might break if he handled her too hard. Her body felt as if it was inflamed now, that bit of fabric scraping against her skin and heating her blood until she ached for more.

  “Exquisite,” Jeremy breathed as his eyes feasted on the sight of an utterly naked Dory spread out before him. “More so than I had imagined. You are, in a word, perfect.”

  And truthfully, he had imagined quite a bit about Dory over the last few nights when he sought relief from the torment she was causing him by use of his own hand.

  “I would think you are as well. Quite likely perfection. If I could see you, that is. All of you.” She was blushing, he noted, but she didn’t try to hide herself from him. He could see that she wished to, for her hands were gripping the counterpane mercilessly. But she didn’t cover her body or attempt to hide from his heated gaze. Instead, she held herself still and allowed him to look his fill, making herself utterly and completely vulnerable to him.

  It was perhaps the most precious of gifts she could have given him.

  “Perfection? No.” He shook his head. “Pleasing, perhaps. I hope, anyway. Willing to give you pleasure? Certainly.”

  “Then show me.” It wasn’t a demand, for Dory didn’t demand. Rather, she urged and coaxed and each time, Jeremy did as she wished. He couldn’t help himself.

  “As you like,” he replied, echoing her phrase from only a moment ago.

  Jeremy hooked his thumbs beneath the top of his smalls and tugged them down over his hips, until his cock finally sprang free. He watched Dory’s eyes widen, at first in disbelief and then in something that might have been true fear. The first fear he had ever really seen from her.

  “Do not worry, sweet,” he crooned as he sank to the floor and pulled her to the edge of the bed. “We will fit. But first? You must be ready.”

  While Dory didn’t know the particulars, she had overheard enough in ladies’ retiring rooms at balls over the years to know that if a woman was not wet between her legs, coupling with a man was difficult. Frost’s books had given her some idea of how this was typically accomplished, but perhaps Jeremy had other ideas. Such as the ones from the other books. The ones that would likely cause her brother’s heart to stop if he ever found out she had read them. More than once.

  Except how did she tell Jeremy any that? In the end, she didn’t have to.

  “Do you trust me, sweet?” he asked as he slowly parted her legs so that he could kneel between them. “I won’t hurt you, my peacock. I promise. That is the very last thing I would ever do.”

  Dory nodded, her gaze locked with his. “I trust you, Jeremy. With my life.” Which was true. She did trust him that much.

  That must have been the thing to say for his eyes heated again, and he drew in a sharp breath before slowly lowering his mouth to her most feminine of areas. When he kissed her there, she moaned. When he licked her there, she whimpered. But when he parted her feminine lips and slid his tongue through her already-slick channel, Dory nearly shot up off the bed.

  It just felt that delightful.

  “Shh, sweet. Let me make you feel good,” Jeremy crooned and it took all of Dory’s self-control to lie back and allow him to continue to taste her intimately.

  This was so wrong and yet so deliciously right at the same time. With each swipe of his tongue through her most intimate of areas, she found herself growing wetter and wetter, her thighs beginning to shake so badly that she could not control them.

  Her body burned, every nerve feeling as if it was on fire. And yet the burn was so pleasurable, she welcomed it. Not only that, she craved more. Deep inside, something hot and needy was coiling up like a snake about to strike. She could feel it tightening, tighter and tighter, until she was certain she would shatter like glass.

  But she didn’t. Instead, she was pushed higher and higher until she didn’t know where she ended and he began. They were one. They felt like one.

  Dory whimpered again and dug her nails hard into Jeremy’s back, making him hiss. His response was to pull her closer so that his head was now buried between her legs, his hands holding her open to him as he snaked his arms beneath her backside to lift her up as if he wished to taste her more deeply – and he did.

  The first time the tip of his tongue dipped inside of her womanly sheath, Dory cried out even though she knew she wouldn’t be heard this far away from the main gaming floor. When one of his fingers replaced his tongue, she began to pant, her hands twisting in the counterpane as she struggled to remain where she was. When two more fingers followed the first, she let out a high, keening cry of pleasure that reverberated through the room. And when his tongue began to tease and nip at her hidden pearl, all while his fingers continued their sweet torment?

  Dory shattered, her body feeling as if it were coming apart from the inside out. She came with a loud cry, Jeremy’s name on her lips, and her hips bucking wildly as she rode wave after wave of pleasure. Then he was there, his hot, hard cock at her entrance, and she instinctively arched up, opening for him so that he could plunge himself deep inside of her.

  She wanted this. She wanted him. But she had no way to tell him so. Words were failing her. So she told him in the only way she knew how. With her body.

  The moment Jeremy breached Dory’s maidenhead, he knew a quick flash of fear. Fear that he had hurt her along with fear that they could never go back to the way they had been before. Then her sweet, delectable body clamped down around his and he was lost. He was lost in the perfection that was her. Because she was perfect – for him at least.

 
She whimpered when he withdrew slightly and sighed again in bliss when he thrust back into her, harder than he had planned.

  “Dory, I’m sorry,” Jeremy whispered as he brought his lips down to hers, kissing her deeply and allowing their tongues to tangle. “I said I wouldn’t hurt you and I did.”

  “Not hurt,” she gasped as she clutched at his shoulders. “I just want more. Please, Jeremy. Please!”

  It was the final please that pushed him over the edge and he took her harder than he should have given her inexperience. But he didn’t care just then and from the way she molded herself to him, it didn’t seem as if she did either.

  Dory clutched and clawed at him, her body wrapping around his until they were a tangle of arms and limbs, each so wrapped up in the other that there was no beginning and no end. All the while, Jeremy continued to thrust into Dory’s wet heat, his desire for her unchecked now and his need to find his release within her growing with each passing moment. He should withdraw and protect her from a child but he couldn’t, his infamous iron-will suddenly failing him.

  For once, he would do as he wished and not what propriety dictated that he should.

  Instead, he plunged his cock deeper and deeper inside of her, thrusting so hard and deep that he worried he would hurt her. But with each thrust, he craved more of her and not less. So much more that soon his head was spinning and his body was on fire and he no longer knew which way was up and which way was down.

  His release, when it came, overwhelmed him. Sweat poured from his back and her legs tightened around his waist, drawing him deeper inside of her as he spilled his hot rush of seed deep within her womb.

  Jeremy came harder than he had ever come in his life. Harder than he had thought possible.

  All because of her.

  Then, he came again, one final time, with a loud bellow that he was certain would bring people running. But he didn’t care. If they were caught? Then so be it. He was a lord. He would protect her. He would keep her safe. And he would bed her like this every night until the end of their lives. If only she would stay with him. If only she would want him. Always.