“The room is lovely,” she said, hesitating only a moment before going inside. “And you are right. I can live without a maid.”
He gave a cursory glance at the furnishings, not sure if he’d ever paid attention. Being unmarried, he hadn’t cared much one way or the other about the adjoining suite. “I’m glad the room pleases you and I can be obliging. Let me undress you.”
“Your reputation for being obliging is legendary.”
Damn his reputation, Nicholas thought irritably, aware of what the gossips said about him, and still amazed, at twenty-eight, that anyone was so interested in his life. He replied almost gruffly, “I just meant if you need any help during our stay, please ask me.”
“Did I just offend you?”
He took her shoulders and urged her with the slight pressure of his hands to turn around. “The fact I have a reputation offends me. I would prefer it if my personal life was not fodder for the gossip mill.”
“Then perhaps you should not make outrageous public wagers on your sexual prowess.” She said the words in a dry tone, but there was the slightest catch in her voice as he swept aside her hair and began to unfasten her pale, shimmering green evening gown. With practiced ease he undid the buttons, pushed the garment from her slender shoulders, and pulled the pins from her simple chignon. The silken mass cascaded over his hands and down her graceful back and he could smell her perfume, a haunting hint of lily of the valley. Lifting the warm weight of her tresses, he kissed her nape with slow, tantalizing pressure, allowing his mouth to linger as he felt her answering shiver.
“I’d heed your advice, beautiful Caroline, but if I hadn’t taken Manderville’s challenge, you wouldn’t be here, would you? Maybe I should exchange drunken bets with him more often.” He slid his arm around her waist and began to make love to her neck, nuzzling, kissing, tasting her smooth fragrant skin until she leaned back against him and he could see the rapid lift of her full breasts under the lace of her chemise, her nipples taut points against the sheer material.
“Can you feel how I want you?” He knew she could, his arm holding her in loose but insistent persuasion against his already rigid erection. “Do you have any idea how much sway a woman holds over a man when he desires her?”
“No.” The whisper was poignant and soft.
Unfortunately, he was sure she just told him the truth. It did nothing to dampen his ardor, but it did temper his behavior.
“You have my entire attention, believe me,” he promised. “Let me show you.”
He did lift her then, carefully, as if she were a spun-glass creation, and he took her to the canopied bed. This time he removed everything, including her chemise, so Caroline reclined nude and lush in the glow of the lamps lit for her convenience upon retiring.
As she watched, Nicholas undressed with deliberation, removing jacket, cravat, shirt, and boots, giving her every opportunity to tell him to stop, or to cover her bared body.
She did neither.
Thank God, for he was on fire.
When he unfastened his breeches and pushed them down his hips, her lovely gray eyes went wide and she made no secret of studying his erection, her soft lips slightly parted in evident surprise.
That she had never seen an aroused male was disquieting.
Well, hell, another hurdle to jump.
It was easy to guess now her husband had come to her at night, in the dark, to exercise his husbandly rights in a way Nicholas surmised amounted more to selfish brutality than anything else. Common opinion was that it was impossible for a man to violate his wife, for she was essentially his property, but he disagreed. If a woman was reluctant and unready, it was still a crime to take what wasn’t given freely.
He climbed into bed next to her and did nothing more than touch her lower lip, tracing the enchanting curve with an exploratory fingertip. “Have I mentioned I think you are stunningly beautiful?”
“You have been very free with your compliments, Nicholas.” Caroline’s lashes lowered a fraction, but she didn’t move away and seemed a great deal less tense than in their encounter during the afternoon.
“Every man in England would envy me if they knew where I am now.”
“And no doubt every woman would feel the same about me. Especially the legions who have come before me and know what they’re missing.”
Discussing past lovers was never wise under any circumstances and he wasn’t about to start now, not with carnal need so blatantly controlling his senses. What Nicholas coveted was a mere few inches away, her mouth warm and inviting, her voluptuous body his for the taking—only he needed to make sure she was equally involved. “Kiss me,” he said with husky encouragement.
Let her take the lead.
It seemed best, for he didn’t want to frighten or rush her.
For a moment she hesitated, but then leaned in and brushed her lips against his. It took willpower not to crush her to him and devour her, but he stayed still and unmoving as she shyly pressed her mouth to his and then immediately broke away.
It was a small, promising start.
“That’s a kiss?” He lifted a brow teasingly. “This afternoon I kissed you, remember? I’d like to see a better effort, Lady Wynn.”
For a moment, she just stared at him, her vibrant hair spilling over her slim shoulders, her eyes a shade defiant. Then she leaned in again, this time actually placing her small hands on his shoulders and parting her lips. Nicholas angled his head a little to deepen the kiss and the tentative slide of her tongue inside his mouth made a small inner smile grow.
Despite her past, he had a feeling she was going to be an apt pupil.
Bare, soft breasts brushed his chest and he suppressed a groan, her long hair spilling over them both. Doing nothing but lightly touching her back, he traced the curve of her spine, letting her control the play. His fingers tangled in her long tresses, and a low sound of approval escaped his throat as she continued to kiss him with growing confidence.
They were both out of breath when she finally leaned back. “Better?”
“Much.” His erection pulsed with each beat of his heart and Nicholas couldn’t wait to be inside her, reluctantly amused when her gaze went right back to the stiff, swollen length against his stomach. She looked wary, but he was encouraged by a glimmer of intrigue in her eyes.
In a deliberate slow movement, he caught her hand and placed it on his erection. “I don’t want to be a mystery to you in any way.”
Slim fingers tentatively wrapped around his girth and she bit her lower lip. “My ignorance is mortifying.”
He sucked in a breath as she squeezed a little. “Rest assured, you can ask
me
anything and I’ll answer if I can. I’ve never understood why society seems to feel females should be kept in the dark when it comes to sexual matters. Men discuss it at will. It tends to be a popular topic of conversation.”
“In case you have not noticed, your gender has rights we are denied.”
She had a good point, but it was hard to speak with her fingers exploring his whole rock-hard length. “I’ve noticed,” he managed to admit, suppressing a groan as she wiped a bead of liquid from the tip and stared at her finger. “But keep in mind, part of the reason is possessiveness. Since we want to keep our daughters chaste and our wives only for ourselves, I think the general idea is the less you know about the pleasure men and women can give each other, the better.”
“Are we going to start an intellectual debate on this subject? I don’t think you’re going to like my stand on the matter.” She caressed him, peering down between his legs as she cupped his testicles. “They’re heavy.”
For someone with her lack of experience, she was certainly doing a good job of arousing him to a fever pitch. Heavy? He was about to explode from just her innocent touch and it startled him. He wanted to take his time, at least until she understood the game he knew so well how to play.
“I’m enjoying your curiosity,” he explained with monumental effort at appearing relaxed when his ballocks were actually held in her hand, “but maybe it would be best if it was my turn.”
All delectable lustrous hair and pale skin, Caroline looked a little confused.
“To touch you.” He moved to take her in his arms and shifted so she was on her back and he was propped above her, his weight resting on his elbows. They should start simply, Nicholas decided, as he stroked her hip first, caressed her inner thigh, and then found the warmth of her sex. His fingers parted her soft feminine folds and immediately she looked away and tensed.
Damnation.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered, tracing a line across her jaw with his mouth. “I want to make you feel good, beautiful Caroline. If you’ve been properly aroused, you’ll enjoy me, I give you my word. You’re already a little wet, which means your body understands what your mind wants to reject. Relax and I’ll prove it to you.”
He touched her then. Everywhere. Each stroke, each caress, punctuated by sugar-soft kisses and whispered words. The pulse point just above the dip of her collarbone. The tender inside of her elbow. His tongue flicking across her wrist. Taking her little finger into his mouth with provocative tenderness as he caressed her bare shoulder and held her close. It was an exploration, a journey of knowledge and persuasion. Both of them naked, skin brushing heated skin as he made love to her without actual penetration.
The first breathy sigh let him know his patience was being rewarded, the following moan encouraged him even more, and when his hand slipped between her thighs and he stimulated her with small practiced pressure, she clung to him with promising urgency.
His fingers grew wet, the reaction of her body to his touch not in question.
And he found it more powerful in some way because he knew it involved risk, trust, and a dozen things he had abandoned when it came to passion at least a decade ago.
It had an extraordinary impact. She didn’t trust easily. Well, neither did he, so they had that in common, though his reservations were different. However, if the lift of her hips in supplication was any indication, she was overcoming that issue. On his part, he thought he had closed the door firmly on his ghosts.
Perhaps, though, he was wrong.
The past rushed in and crashed into the present and though he didn’t thoroughly understand her motivations in being there, he felt a connection with his lovely bedmate that was more than unusual.
It was like their situation, as original as sin itself.
His care was rewarded when he finally coaxed her into a shuddering climax. And then another. Just when she began to relax, he did it again, sliding his fingers deep into wet, tantalizing heat and feeling those betraying contractions as she gasped and closed her eyes.
The exquisite tightness of her passage made him halt for a moment in a dizzying surge of need. Inner muscles clenched around his invading fingers as he tentatively began to explore the promise of paradise.
The expression on her face told him all he needed to know, and relief washed through him even as he felt sweat prickle across his skin from the effort it took not to move to climb between those lovely thighs—and take her. Caroline looked replete, dazed even, her mouth parted, her eyes wide, a faint flush in her cheeks from sexual release.
“Nicholas,” she whispered in wonder, and let her lashes drift downward.
It was all the permission he needed to move. To adjust himself in place, use his new power over her to spread her legs even farther apart, and then take his pleasure.
He didn’t.
A small voice—one he wanted to banish to hell—told him it wasn’t the right time. Not yet.
In the languorous aftermath, he adjusted her in his arms, trying to still the treacherous need to possess her. She didn’t speak, but he could feel her rapidly beating heart, the smoothness of her silken skin, the soft exhale across his chest as she moved a little and finally lifted her head.
“I . . . I . . .” She faltered, and then swallowed audibly.
He lay sprawled in resigned sexual tension next to her and smiled. When it happened, he’d try to make sure they climaxed together. “You what?”
“I liked that.”
“I rather thought you might.” He fought a grin he had a feeling would infuriate her and added softly, “And I’m glad.”
She shook back her gleaming hair, the sight of her voluptuous nudity in the shimmer of the low-lit lamp a challenge to his resolve to wait. “You don’t understand the depths of that compliment, Nicholas.”
“
Au contraire
, darling, I have a feeling I do.”
“You said earlier you would not make presumptions.”
The spirit in her voice made him chuckle. “You cannot have it both ways. Either I understand women and that’s why you decided to do this in the first place, or I don’t know a thing. Which is it?”
“You don’t know
me
.” Magnificent eyes gleamed silver, but it was hard for her to pull off the haughty, distant Lady Wynn when she was in delectable dishabille right next to him.
His erection throbbed almost painfully. Jesus, restraint had a cost. This—when it finally happened—had better be worth it.
And perhaps he
had
been a bit smug.
He captured her slender shoulders and pulled her close for a slow kiss. When she melted against him, he felt a flicker of triumph. Moving his mouth to her ear, he told her in husky compromise, “All right, I concede I don’t know you as well as I’d like to. We’ve all week and we’ve just begun to become acquainted. Does that intrigue you?”
Her resulting sigh fluttered across his throat. “Yes.”
Chapter Ten
T
he sound of a deep voice stopped her cold in a wash of dismay.
Saturating every pore, every nerve ending, from her scalp to the tips of her toes, and Annabel stood stock-still outside the door to the informal parlor and drew in a breath.