A Midnight Dance (38 page)

In their private opulent chambers at the Hotel d’Argon, Jules pulled Sabine to him tightly, sending bathwater spilling over the side of the tub.

In the circle of his strong arms, his solid chest against her back, her fears ebbed, but didn’t vanquish. She tried not to think of the peril they were in. The peril Isabelle was in. The thought of a possible attack, of someone seeking to kill Jules, sent waves of terror through her.

He kissed her neck, a languorous meeting of his mouth and her skin, sending stirring sensations swirling through her body. Briefly she closed her eyes, relishing the sublime distraction from her distress.

“You’re pensive tonight. I know you’re concerned,” he said. “My men and I are no strangers to attack. We’re experienced in battle. I won’t let anything happen to you. Or your family,” he said with such confidence, it was difficult to doubt him. He tucked her hair behind her ear.

His touching statement stirred up the usual tender emotions. Emotions she needed to quash, but couldn’t wrestle down. This was a temporary affair. Nothing more. “I don’t want anything to happen to
you
.”

“I’ll be fine.” Capturing her chin, he lowered his mouth onto hers, the texture and heat of his lips enthralling. Liquid heat pooled in her belly. There was more she needed to say. She broke the kiss before she lost her wits.

“The Marquis is afraid.” Already she was breathless.

“He is.”

“What will we do if we can’t get him to help? How will we find out the truth about your father? The missing silver? Isabelle?”

“We will succeed. We won’t relent until we do. As for your sister, our servants were scattered to the winds when the Crown confiscated our lands. Raymond remembers them better than I. He is making discreet inquiries. It’s likely someone from our hôtel still lives in the city. We’ll hunt down servant by servant until we find one who knew Isabelle and can tell us more.”

A knot clogged her throat, choking off words of gratitude.

He kissed her wet shoulder.

He rose and stepped out of the tub, his wet skin glistening in the firelight. He dried himself with a towel, the muscles in his arms flexing with his movements. Absorbed in the masculine grace of his large powerful body, she was captivated by the stirring sight. She could watch him perform the simplest task for hours. Stare at him a lifetime.

Her gaze dropped to his shaft, fully erect, long and thick. Fire shot through her veins. He’d kept her up most of last night, that magnificent part of his male anatomy inside her, driving her to rapture and back again and again.

She licked her dry lips and met his gaze. Amusement glinted in his wickedly sensuous eyes; he’d noted her ogling him.

He held out his hand. “Come here.” His tone spiked her pulse.

She rose, and he helped her out of the tub.

Slipping an arm around her waist, he pulled her to him and trailed the towel over her shoulder and then along the curve of her breast—the softest caress—wiping away water droplets, sending inflaming sensations swirling through her.

“We make perfect bliss together,” he said. She couldn’t argue with that. His touch alone was heaven.

Tossing the towel away, he dipped his head and swirled his tongue around her nipple, licking the droplets off her skin. She closed her eyes.

He brushed his lips over her nipple before he drew the sensitive tip into his moist mouth.

Her head fell back with a whimper. Juices wept from her sex as he skillfully sucked at her breast.

Ceasing his sensual torture, he swept her off her feet, marched into the bedchamber, and dropped her in the middle of the bed. She landed with a small bounce, sprawled out, her legs open. Keenly aware of the cool air against her slick folds.

He sank one knee on the mattress between her thighs and then the other. Leaning over her, his palms down on the bed above her shoulders, he cupped the drenched curls between her legs. “You want to come for me, Sabine.” It was more of a statement than a question.

Urgency pounded in her veins. “Yes!” She answered just the same.

He slid two fingers into her moist slit. Her breathing hitched.

“You’re so wet. And perfect.” Curling his buried fingers, he stroked over the ultrasensitive spot inside her sheath. A sharp stab of pleasure sent her arching off the bed with a cry.

Pressing the heel of his hand against her throbbing clit, he repeated the stunning stimulation and lowered himself onto the bed beside her without missing a stroke or relenting the scintillating pressure on her needy clit. She fisted the bed linens, grinding herself against his hand. A shattering release was fast approaching.

“I enjoy seeing you like this . . . so wildly aroused,” he murmured against her ear, easing the pressure of his fingers, pumping them in and out of her more slowly.

His light strokes were maddening. Her clitoris pulsed unbearably. “No . . . Don’t slow down . . .” She arched again, desperate for more friction. “Harder . . .” she panted.
“Now
.
”

He chuckled softly, his warm breath tickling her skin. “Ask nicely and I might let you come.”

“Hurry!”

“Nicely . . .”
Slightly he increased the pressure of his fingers. Pleasure shot up her spine—a sampling of what was to come.

She wrapped her arms around him tightly. Her cheek against his, she said in desperation,
“Please . . .”

“How can I resist such a pretty plea?” She heard the smile in his voice, too fevered with passion to be irked by his teasing.

He shoved his fingers in hard, striking the spot with glorious accuracy.

Her hips flew up. She screamed with rapture, her vaginal walls contracting around his unrelenting fingers. He continued to pump his fingers in and out of her until the last spasm ebbed. She collapsed on the bed. Boneless.

It took time before her breathing and heart calmed. His fingers eased out of her, his stiff shaft against her hip.

Resting his cheek against his palm, a slight smile gracing lips, he sported the look of a man sure of his mastery of the carnal arts.

“Don’t look so smug,” she said, yet couldn’t help smiling. She felt wonderful. He was the only one who could inspire amorous fever one moment and blessed contentment the next.

He pulled her up against him. Her nerve endings sparked to life once more.

She sealed her lips to his and deepened her kiss. The press of his body was glorious, stoking her desire, renewing her hunger.

Jules rolled with her onto his back, her soft form on top of his body, his cock pressing into her belly. As usual, his fingers were drawn to her silky hair. He toyed with one of her blond locks. She sat up, a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

Resting her pert derrière on his thighs, she gripped the base of his cock. “This certain part of your anatomy has been neglected long enough, wouldn’t you say?” She stroked her hand up to the engorged head of his shaft and back down, the sensation exquisite.

She leaned over him, her pale hair cascading around them. “I want to taste you.”

His prick gave an eager jerk. His gaze dropped to her lips. He couldn’t wait for his cock to be enveloped in that hot sweet mouth. The very thought sent heat scorching through his groin.

He tucked an errant tress behind her ear. “By all means. I have no objections.” His sac was drawn so tight. His body screaming for release. For the first time in his life he could barely contain himself, all because of one virginal little mouth. And he was going to show her how to use it on his greedy cock.

She grasped his wrists and pinned them down on the mattress near his head. “Good. You’ll be at my mercy just as I was at yours last night. Since I have nothing to tie you with, you’ll keep your hands here. And you will not move them.” She released his wrists.

Despite the amorous agony he was in, he felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.

“I won’t move a muscle.” He slipped his hands under his head, a small act of defiance to playfully goad her.

An adorable frown briefly eclipsed her features. “You move and I’ll stop,” she warned.

Little liar. Her interest in tasting him had been building with each amorous encounter. She wouldn’t stop.

“Make certain your beautiful hair is pulled to one side. I want to watch you,” he said.

She tilted her head. “You’re always commenting on my hair. Always touching it. You really like it that much?”

“It’s but one of your many fine features.”

A wily smile formed on her lips. She leaned into him and gave him a slow, unhurried kiss. He savored her mouth, soft and warm, using the time to steel his control, determined to allow her to dictate the pace, at least initially.

She trailed kisses to his jaw, down his throat and chest. Gathering her hair to one side, she worked her way down his abdomen. His muscles tightened in anticipation. He closed his eyes.

He felt her grip his shaft, then something soft envelop it. Something that was definitely not her mouth. Snapping his eyes open, he was stunned by the sight before him.

She’d wrapped her silky hair around his cock.

“Sabine, what are you—”

With a naughty glint in her eyes, she gave her hair a little tug. It swirled around his shaft in a feather-like caress, sending a jolt of sensation coursing along his length, snatching the breath from his lungs.

Clenching his teeth, he softly swore, his heart pounding. “
Dieu
, where did you learn that?” His will to moderate himself in serious jeopardy.

“Nowhere. I thought it was something you might enjoy—since you like my hair so much.”

He laughed. “I’ve never liked it more.”

“Really?” She grinned with genuine pleasure and coiled her lustrous locks around his cock again.

His heart lurched, unsure he could withstand more of this exquisite torment. “Wait—” But his willful forest fairy did no such thing. This time the decadent caress tore a groan from his throat.

Before he could recover, she flicked her hair to one side and brought her mouth down on his cock.

With a primal growl, he fisted his hair at the back of his head. It took everything he had to keep from gripping her head and thrusting vigorously into her mouth.

Unsure, she drew on him, a gentle suck. His sex in her mouth, she gazed up at him, looking for direction.

“In and out . . . No teeth,” he explained, his voice hoarse.

She began to move her mouth up and down his length, in a slow and steady tempo. “That’s it. Just like that.” He had no idea what about her novice mouth had him so enthralled, but the pleasure was bone-melting, his cock basking in glory, celebrating each delicious sensation.

Suddenly emboldened, she took him deeper, faster, surprising him with her unexpected fervor.

“Sabine . . . slow down . . .” His control was rapidly unraveling with each hungry suck.

Defiantly, she tightened her grip on the base of his shaft, refusing to relent on her ardent pace.

His blood thundered in his ears. His control snapped. He felt the beginnings of his orgasm racing over him.

“
Dieu.
I’m going to come,” he warned. But his words didn’t faze her. She neither stopped nor slowed down. Semen rushed out his cock. His hips jerked as he poured out his prick, giving her all he had. She didn’t stop, gluttonous for more until she’d drained him dry.

His muscles lax, he lay on the bed, his ragged breaths slowly returning to normal.

She crawled up his body and smiled up at him. “I like the way you taste.”

Dieu.
There was so much about her that he liked. This beautiful, unique woman affected him on so many disquieting levels. She was the only woman he knew who could stir his heart as strongly as his body.

Leon watched with amusement as the tall burly man before him kept his gaze straight ahead, avoiding the body of the bound woman on the floor in Leon’s antechamber.

It was a shame Hubert wouldn’t look at her. With clean precise slices patterning her naked body, she was a masterpiece to behold. Lying in a heap on the floor, her dark hair covering her face, soaking in blood that pooled in a puddle around her, she’d been thoroughly enjoyable.

Every cut he’d made on her satiny skin as she screamed helplessly behind her gag had been sheer rapture. Had made him harder. Thicker. He’d come inside her with a glorious rush. And then snapped her neck.

Fresh from his bath, standing in his night wrap, Leon had cleansed her blood and scent from his body, but the memory of their encounter still hummed in his veins.

He was in a fine mood.

Leon dragged his gaze back to his most trusted man. Hubert had done his share of killing, for a sizable purse. He’d had no qualms about hoisting the Archbishop off the ground with a rope around his neck as he kicked and thrashed. Yet whenever a woman was involved, he became amusingly squeamish.