And she wanted this too much to go back now. “I’m only asking for this once. I won’t force you into anything. And if anyone sees you, feel free to deny everything.”
A gleam of amusement lit his eyes. “Nobody will see me.”
When she opened her mouth again, it was to feel his lips against hers. He was clearly done with discussion. That solution worked well for her too. Curling her arm around his neck, she responded enthusiastically. She already knew how he liked to kiss, but he had given her several different kinds, from tender to passionate. This one was different again. It was as if he’d unleashed the hounds. He positively devoured her.
Plunging his tongue into her mouth, he treated her to a blatant display of what was to come, thrusting in, tasting and claiming with a masterful finesse Livia found irresistible. She responded eagerly, holding on to him as if he was her only lifeline. If he moved away she’d fall to the floor in a messy heap. Her legs shook as she groaned into his mouth.
He tore his lips away from hers, his gaze hot, and glanced over her head to the bed. Finch had already drawn the covers down to reveal the inviting, smooth white sheets, it stood, a silent witness to what she was about to do.
Joyfully and willingly. She initiated the second kiss, eager for more. He tasted of man, deliciously different, a touch of spirits, maybe brandy, still lingering to inflame her desire even further. Had he taken a drink for courage before he’d come to her? Surely not. She’d rarely met a man so confident, so sure of himself.
He slid his hands around her waist, over her gown, and a streak of cold air slid down her side. When she tried to pull away to find out what had happened, he dragged her back, kissing her feverishly, returning what she had initiated. He finished the kiss only to glance at her, and then kiss his way to her ear, exploring the rim with his tongue. Who knew her ear was so sensitive? She certainly had not. He kissed down her throat, finding new spots that ratcheted her arousal. She moaned, and he sighed a hot breath over her skin in response, raising the tiny hairs, making her shiver.
When he touched her bare skin she understood what he’d done. He’d unfastened the sash fastening her gown and it was loose. He’d pushed it aside to find her skin. Fear tickled her senses before he stroked, and sent her into new transports of delight.
Nobody had touched her bare waist other than her maid and, presumably, her nurse. No man, that was for sure. And now a man was taking possession of her. All of her. Leaning back into his touch, she gave a small “Oh!” of shock and pleasure.
“Sweetheart, let me see you.”
With a catch in her breath, she stepped back, automatically pulling her gown together once more. The sash was lost somewhere on the floor.
His eyes were all black, no brown showing, his mouth reddened with kisses, his olive skin flushed with arousal. “You want to stop?”
She shook her head and found her voice. “No. I’m just—no man has seen me…”
“Naked?” A smile curved his mouth and put tiny lines at the corners of his eyes. “That pleases me, Livia. Trust me enough to let me see and touch.”
“You’ve touched dozens of women. I’m not too special. Just ordinary.” She could not compare to beauties like Ophelia d’Arblay, that was for sure.
“May I be the judge of that? I do not compare women, neither do I think of other women when I’m with the one of my choice. You are my choice, Livia. Nobody else.”
His words gave her the courage to open the robe and shrug it off her shoulders. Yards of silk slithered to the floor with a swish. A desperate urge took her to cover herself, but she bunched her hands and left them by her sides. If he didn’t like what he saw, then at least she would know. And surely, despite the dim light, he’d see those thin, distinctive lines on her stomach and thighs.
Silence. He scanned her once, from her head to her feet and back again. She felt as if he’d just claimed her. His eyes burned with an inner heat, his chest moved as he took a breath.
Then, with deliberation he lifted his hands and pushed the silk toggle fastening the top of his robe through its corresponding loop.
She just stood there.
He put his hands to his waist and slipped the two fastenings there undone with sharp, quick motions.
Her skin prickled.
He pulled back the garment and let it fall to the floor. He was as naked as she.
Not cool enough to serve him the way he had served her, she stared, greedily taking him in. A patch of dark hair marked his chest, filing into a neat line between his slim hips and down to what reared below.
Livia had never seen an erect male before. Not on a man, at any rate. When she’d done it before, the encounters had been feverish and hurried. She’d felt rather than seen. Adrian’s erection was angry, red, the slick cap gaining a purplish hue. And it was fleshy, human, every bit of it made for sin. She swallowed.
Before she could back away he stepped forward and took her in his arms. Without clothes, his body was hotter than ever, a veritable furnace of hard, hot male. Muscles swelled under her hands when she dared touch him, curving her palms over his upper arms, as much to keep herself steady as to feel him. Then she only wanted to keep hold. His member pressed into her stomach, imprinting its shape there, the damp tip kissing her bare skin.
“Adrian?” She had not meant her voice to come out so small and scared, but this experience was beyond her understanding. She’d expected a fumble and some caressing. Not that deliberate, open display. The candles shed enough light to reveal every smooth line of his body. She’d stood with her back to the candles, throwing her body into shadow, so perhaps he could not see as much. If he had seen the telltale marks, he said nothing. But she had seen all of him; the small scars from who knew what accidents and perhaps physical confrontations, the powerful shoulders, the slabs of muscle delineating his chest. Even now his chest hair provided a new texture for her to rub her body against. Which, she discovered, she was doing quite shamelessly.
“What is it?” The tremor in his voice told her he was also affected by their undressing.
“Am I enough?” She hated to feel needy, but before all that magnificence, she did.
“More than enough. I have never seen anything so lovely. No.” He put a finger over her lips when she would protest. “I mean it. You are singularly beautiful, Livia.” He kissed her nose, softly. “I hardly dare touch you.”
“I’m not special.” Although Adrian was the first man she had seen naked, she had naturally seen plenty of women. Her sisters, her maid, when they shared a room when traveling, people too poor to care about displaying themselves. Enough to know she had an average body.
“You feel wonderful.” He cupped her shoulder, then slid his hand down to her waist and around, over her buttocks. “Like the finest silk under my palms. I have never experienced anything quite like this. And your breasts are beautiful. Such pale nipples are a challenge.”
“To what?” His response startled how. How could nipples be a challenge?
“To kiss them from pale rose to raspberry pink.” He pressed her into his body, and she finally had her wish to discover what his legs felt like against hers. Strong enough to support them both. “Which I will shortly be doing. You’re as pale as milk.”
She laughed. “Mama used to make Claudia and I bathe in it. And we were always ordered to keep out of the sun because we might develop freckles.”
“I think I see one or two.” He gazed down his nose at her, concentrating on her face.
“Oh dear. Mama will be mortified.”
Swooping down, he kissed the side of her nose, then the bridge. “There, that’s those taken care of. Never listen to anyone but me, Livia. You’re beautiful.”
“Everything? All of me?”
“Every bit,” he said firmly, sweeping his hand over her body. He stroked her lower belly, where one of the marks of childbirth remained. Oh he knew
. He’d seen. If he asked her where the baby was, she’d tell him the truth. Otherwise, what was the point of telling him? Let him think the baby was dead.
Her heart sank, but she pushed her sorrow away. Later, when she was alone again, she’d mourn, as she had done so many times before. Not now. Relish the moment, because it would never come again.
She glanced down, to where her hand rested on his arm. The startling contrast between his skin and hers made her look almost dead. But the fashion was for pale skin. She preferred bronzed, now that she had seen all of him.
“Better now?”
Jerking her chin up, she met his eyes. Amused, yes, but still that glow banked down deep inside, and the rod pressing into her stomach told her his desire had not abated one whit by the sight of her. Biting her lip, she nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
“Good. Here we are, Livia. I should tell you that it is far too late for you to back down. You are mine now, and I intend to make good use of you before I leave.”
“Oh.” Use of her? What did that mean?
“And you, sweetheart, will be making use of me. At least, I fervently pray that you will.”
His kiss came as a shock. She had not been expecting such an all-out attack, but perhaps she should have, because that hand, still pressed to her backside, pressed even farther. Did he mean to enter her directly through her stomach wall?
As his tongue entered her mouth, licking sensuously inside, softly taking her will and her mind, his finger slid between her legs, gently caressing what it found there.
Her gasp sucked his tongue in, but he gentled his kiss, stroking her lips and tongue, as if soothing her before the assault to come. “You’re wet,” he said when he drew back enough to speak. But not enough to allow his lips to leave hers, so he caressed her with every word.
“Yes.” The tops of her thighs had dampened with the welcome she was showing him. Although she wanted to squirm, he held her too firmly for that, one arm around her waist, the other between her legs.
“You’re soft, wet and I don’t know how much longer I can wait.” He glanced down to where her breasts were squashed against his chest. “I want to play first, but I do not think I have the control. Because above all else, I want to see you come.”
That word, forbidden but not unknown in this context, his breath warm against her lips, his mouth touching hers meant as much as what he was doing with his finger.
“Turn around.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“Do as I say.”
As he withdrew his finger, she did as he asked, but she had no idea what he wanted her to do that for. With his hands circling her waist he guided her to the side of the bed so she was facing it. Ah, he wanted her to climb in. She lifted her leg.
“No. Stay there.” He pressed his hand between her shoulder blades, urging her to bend over the bed.
Livia had a modern canopy bed, not one of the old-fashioned four-posters that had the high frames, but one with a lower mattress. Still she had to go on tiptoe until he found the footstool and helped her to stand on it.
“Prop yourself up on your elbows and open your legs.”
The soft commands sent thrills through her. She had a vague idea of what he was about to do, but she was by no means certain. Where she had expected some familiarity, she found none. She was entering unknown country.
Sliding his arms around her body, he found her breasts. They hung into his hands like ripe fruit. “So soft,” he murmured, moving closer. His shaft slid naturally between her thighs.
“Adrian?” This was so intimate, so visceral she did not know how to process his actions. And yet the lack of anything but themselves, no subterfuge, no carefully calculated manners, no thought for anything except pleasure drove her to an unbearable level of arousal. She moaned. “Do it.”
“Well, I’ve heard more gracious invitations.” Removing one hand, he caressed her, stroking down to her bottom and back between her legs. This time he inserted a finger into her, pushing firmly but without undue pressure until she sighed. “Good.” His voice was tight. “That feels wonderful.” Drawing his finger out, he rubbed her, gently encouraging her natural response to him. “Better.”
Pulling away slightly, he urged his shaft closer, so it pressed against her entrance. “You can take me more easily this way. You’re wet enough, sweetheart. Relax, let me do it all. When I push, push back.”
What could she do? In this position she could do nothing but take him.
And take him she did. Slowly, steadily, he introduced his body to hers. One hand clasping her hip, he held her steady, helping her push back. He paused, and she sighed in relief. She’d done it.
Except she hadn’t. There was, it appeared, more, because he pressed in farther, and farther. Could she do this? Take this man who was big in every sense of the word?
He filled her then, when she thought she had no more to give, filled her some more. His lips grazed her spine and he kissed her up to the nape of her neck, rubbing his face against her, a trace of stubble creating a marvelous friction.“So good. Oh, Livia, you are a revelation.”
He didn’t ask her how she was. If she wanted him to stop, she could do it, she realized. She could pull the covers and escape across the bed. But why in heaven would she want to do that? He felt so good, his shaft deep inside her body, his hands gentle on her body.
A slight breeze hit her skin as he stood. Clasping her hips with both hands, he held her steady while he withdrew. Then he powered back inside her.
Livia lost her breath. Sensations rippled up the spine he’d just kissed, right to the top of her head.
Partially withdrawing, he did it again. And again.
Every time he moved he took a slightly different angle until he stroked a spot inside her that sent tingles through every part of her body. “Ah! Oh, what did you do!”
“Good,” he said. “There it is. Every woman has a secret place and this is yours. I can find it better this way. Now that I know where it is—” He lowered his voice. “You won’t be able to stop me.”
A promise or a threat? Livia didn’t care so long as he carried on doing this. He thrust, finding that spot repeatedly, until she lost count of his strokes, until he slid inside her easily, each drive increasing the wetness inside and outside that part of her body. He collided with her, masculine grunts punctuating his progress, marking his success.
The tingles turned into bolts of lightning, but the kind that filled her body with awareness of itself and of him. Her senses heightened and she no longer cared what sounds she made, crying out. Until she cried his name and he gave a shaky laugh, and warned her, “Hush, darling. Not so loud.”
Oh God. Claudia’s old room was next door, but she and Dominic had moved to a room a floor above, so they could be close to their baby. But for that, Livia’s twin would have come running to see what was the matter. But somebody else might hear. Fear froze her, but only for a moment as Adrian continued his relentless drive, mercilessly urging her toward a place she had never been to before.
His strokes mattered more than anything else in the world. “If you stop now, I’ll kill you,” she muttered, making him laugh, hastily muffling the sound before he drove against her. Her bottom and breasts quivered with each stroke, her skin so sensitive that every time he caressed her with his hand, he added to the torment inside her, every part of her as one, powering up to that final…plunge.
Livia dropped like a stone as ecstasy blossomed around her, flowing through her. His hold on her tightened as she buried her face in the bedcover and shouted, unable to control herself in the throes of this—experience.
She didn’t even have a name for it. But she knew she wanted it again.
With a sharp sound, he pulled out of her, his hand on her hip clenching tight and releasing, clenching once more before he groaned, soft and long. Wetness splashed her spine. His seed,
hot and potent.
“Wait.” She was glad to hear the shakiness in his voice, because that meant he was as affected as she was by this experience.
He returned, swiping a towel across her back, before he looped an arm under her and lifted her, letting her slump onto the bed. She could happily stay there, sprawled over the covers sideways all night, but the mattress dipped as he climbed up and lifted her again, turning her to nestle against his body. He drew the covers over them.
“Sleep now, sweet Livia. I’ll watch over you.”
All awareness gone, only filled with a joy she had never felt before, she closed her eyes. Just for a minute.
Chapter 14
Adrian lay on his back, one arm holding a slumbering Livia close, the other tucked under his head. Livia snuffled and moved, sliding her leg over his to tuck it between them. He smiled. This woman was not getting away.
Her glorious hair lay over his chest in tousled disarray, driving him half-crazy with its silky sensuousness. He wanted her again and again, but while no virgin, Livia was far from experienced. He didn’t want to hurt her, which was a novel idea in itself.
Usually he paid women to become his mistress. They had a contract, and a guarantee. When a woman such as Ophelia broke those rules, he walked away. That was how he preferred to conduct his private life. The stories about him were mostly fabricated by a greedy press, but because he never bothered to refute them, they were accepted as the truth.
But if Livia broke his rules, he wouldn’t walk away, and that bothered him.
Only a little, though. The bliss that invaded his senses left him swamped in happiness, such an unaccustomed and fleeting emotion that he didn’t know what to do with it. Unexpected too. He’d had to take her the way he had because he wasn’t sure he could control himself much longer. In an impulse he had not known since the early days of his adventures with women, he knew he had to take her fast, and without her watching him with that dreamy, aroused expression. She had expected a slow seduction, probably lying on her back, but he had no time for that. He wanted in, as deeply as he could go, but he wouldn’t come until she had given up her joy. Which she did, thank the Lord, before he had given up the delightful fight. That act was all he needed to know that his search had ended. Began and ended with the same person. Livia.
Boundless (The Shaws) Page 19