His attention settled on her again. A bemused half smile broke, but danger lurked in those eyes. “Mrs. Joyes, did I hear correctly? Are you accusing me of being diseased?”
“The possibility is there. That is all I am saying. One cannot be too careful.”
“I agree. Which is why I am most careful. I assure you that I am not a danger to you.”
She swallowed hard. “One never knows.”
His gaze sharpened. “One most certainly knows.”
“The results of recent debauches may not be apparent yet to you.” She had no idea if that was even true. She just trusted that Celia’s reference to at least a reprieve referred to something having to do with that.
He sighed audibly. Not in exasperation, the way he normally did. This deep exhale sounded too much like a man seeking to keep his temper in check.
“Mrs. Joyes,” he said with strained calm. “There are certain establishments known to be fastidious regarding the health of the women who work there. This is why I am writing my book—so men coming to town can be directed to such places and not find themselves lured into others. I limit myself to such establishments, as do all men of good sense.” He sighed again. His jaw twitched. “Furthermore, there are steps to protect oneself from such disease, which I am known to take.” He sighed once more, then scowled. “Damnation, I cannot believe I am explaining this as if you have a right to hear it.”
“Book or no, steps or no, I dare not consider a liaison under the circumstances.”
His eyes narrowed on her. His expression hardened. He advanced toward her, and she instinctively backed up. If she ever saw Castleford this angry again, she hoped it was from far away.
He subjected her eyes to a deep scrutiny. “So you have been dodging me because of this. I suppose, with the stories you have heard, there is some sense in denying us both out of fear of the worst.”
“I am relieved that you understand. I think that, under the circumstances, it would be better if I took my leave now and—”
“Will a physician’s letter attesting to my health satisfy you?”
She had to firm her jaw to resist gaping at him.
“It would be presumptuous of me to expect you to procure one. Better if we just agreed that you will keep the diamonds, and I will keep my . . . privacy.”
“I do not mind procuring one. In fact, I insist on doing so. I will also get letters from the physicians who examine the inhabitants of the establishments that I have visited the last year.”
“How . . . thorough of you.”
“Answer my question. Will this satisfy your concerns?”
“I expect it would take a good while to obtain all that documentation. By then you will have set your sights elsewhere, anyway, so it is rather silly for us to agree that—”
“Damn it, Daphne, will it satisfy you or not? Is this a true objection?”
“Yes.” It had become one. How reckless not to have thought of such a thing before. She felt very fortunate that one of her best friends was the daughter of a courtesan.
“I will concede that while I know this is unnecessary, you have no way to be sure,” he said. “Therefore, I will see to it, and I will not attempt to thoroughly seduce you until I can reassure you.”
“Thank you. That is very thoughtful.” Assuming that she had just ended their conversation and most likely his pursuit, she turned to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“I would say our business is finished, Your Grace. All of it, for some time. At least a week, I would guess. Or perhaps ten days.” Or forever.
“The hell it is.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him. She almost sailed through the air. She landed on top of him, on his lap, where he had sat in a chair.
He began to kiss her. Startled, she pressed against his chest and angled her head away.
“What—we just agreed you would not—”
“Not thoroughly seduce you. I did not say I would not seduce you less than thoroughly. Surely you and Captain Joyes enjoyed each other on occasion without intercourse.”
She looked at him.
“No? Ah. Well, you already know that you can know the heights of pleasure that way. We only need to make it mutual this time. Besides, you promised me that I would see you in these diamonds, and nothing else.” He handed the box to her while holding her firmly in place with his other arm. “Put them on.”
She refused to take it. “
I
did not promise that.
You
promised that.”
“And I am always good to my word. Put them on.”
She had no intention of being seen in diamonds and nothing else. She squirmed to get loose.
“If you think I am so stupid as to believe I could take off my clothes and you would respect my preference not to—well, not to, then you are a madman.” She pried at his embracing arm. “You think far too highly of yourself and could use a few lessons on being a gentleman.”
“I just heard a scold. How convenient your behavior can be.” He set aside the box and proved what he meant by kissing her.
She managed a few more squirms of resistance after that, but it was very hard to truly fight something that your weaker self remembered as a wonderful thrill. Her mind kept scolding him and herself, but her body abandoned the battle in a disgraceful mutiny.
The pleasure was just too luscious. That was the last clear thought she had, and it was more an excuse than it was an argument for restraint. The thrills distracted her fast. It was as if her experience on the barge had only made her more sensitive and less able to deny herself.
Everything happened more rapidly. The heat escalated fast. His hands were on her from the start, caressing her body, encouraging the arousal that left her weak.
The little resistance that remained flowed away as the warmth and excitement flowed down. She hooked one tether of consciousness to their conversation and his promise of restraint and let herself drift on the currents of sensation, floating at the glorious freedom.
Yes
, she whispered to herself as his mouth scorched her neck and chest.
Yes
, as his fine hand raised shudders in her while it smoothed over her thighs and waist and finally over her breasts.
His fingers rubbed her through her garments, and sensuality’s daze descended on her. That special tension filled her body and tightened more with each wicked tease on her breasts. Soon she inched toward desperation. And so it took her a while to realize the kisses had stopped.
She blinked her eyes open when she did, to find Castleford watching her. Not with triumph or his own desperation but rather with curiosity. She had a moment of lucidity in which she remembered how dangerous his curiosity could be and that she had come here today determined to discourage it.
He nuzzled her neck. “He did not teach you much, did he?”
It took a heroic effort to push aside the haze enough to comprehend what he said. Since he did not stop caressing her, it took even longer to consider why he might have said it, and at such a moment.
He kissed her and did something with his tongue and mouth that seemed an invitation. She understood then. Feeling incredibly wanton and relieved that his probing gaze had been about something so simple, she tried to kiss him the way he had kissed her.
No, she had not been taught much, but in the minutes that followed she had her first lesson in expressing her passion more mutually. She became an active agent in stoking this risky fire, but it made her heady with power and impressed by her own audacity. She even ventured a kiss to his neck and tentatively slid her hand beneath his waistcoat.
Moving now, in a flowing weightlessness, as he carried her to that sultan’s bed and laid her among the silk pillows. He looked down while he stripped off his cravat, then his waistcoat and shirt. She closed her eyes because he frightened her a little, the way he looked at her.
You are a fool to trust him. You know he will not stop. Better men would not, and he is proud of his sins.
Whatever power that inner voice had was defeated in the next moment. He joined her on that chaise longue and took control of her with one masterful kiss and one devastating caress.
With the way he embraced her, there was nothing to do but embrace him back. His warmth surrounded her, encompassed her, and the sensation of his skin, of the hard shoulders and back beneath her hands, entranced her. She caressed as if by instinct, and it increased the intensity and heat like her kisses had.
He released her. Turned her. Her dress loosened. Then the stays she had sensibly worn. Fabric slid off her shoulders and down her body until her breasts were naked.
He turned her again, and she tried to cover herself with her arms. He moved her shields away so nothing protected her from his gaze. While he looked, the fabric slid lower yet, making her gasp from shock and arousal and the feel of the breeze. Then she gasped again, as his hand moved down her nakedness and removed her dress and chemise entirely.
She dared not look at herself or him. She could barely contain what this did to her, this exposure and vulnerability. Real fear moved in her, but so did powerful desire that made her shake.
Then he no longer touched her at all. He moved, and she opened her eyes to see him stretched out next to her, his head resting on his hand while he looked at her. His other hand placed the small box with the ear bobs between her naked breasts.
“Put them on for me.”
She knelt so she could fasten them correctly, sensing as she did that she had just ceded some vital ground, even though she did not know what it was.
The ear bobs were not heavy or overlong. She screwed the backs until they held. Castleford rose up on his arm to get a better view of them. And her.
His hand touched one of her ears, then moved down. He fondled her breast. Torturous pleasure poured down low in her, tantalizing her in the worst way.
“They are the only jewels for you,” he said. “You are perfect in diamonds. Exquisite. Beguiling.” He kissed her ear, then her chest, then bent and kissed her breast. His tongue flicked on its tip, and a shock shot through her. “Now do as I do, so we both know some relief this day.”
He knelt tall and worked the fastenings on his lower garments. Astonished anew, but too far gone to care, she fell back on the cushion while he removed them entirely.
He knelt there, looking down, those golden flecks in his eyes so dangerous now. They mesmerized her, and she knew, just knew, what he wanted her to do. She wanted it too, so she did not even feel shy when she stretched out her arm and touched his naked chest. She allowed herself the pleasure of watching her hand move over him, over the hard ridges of his muscles and the soft smoothness of his skin, over his taut stomach and around the tight swell of his rear hip.
His expression and body hardened with her caress, and his arousal did too, growing more as if demanding attention. Shyer now, but not too much, to her own amazement, she caressed around his hip and touched him with her fingers.
His eyes closed briefly. When they opened again the devilish fires burned in them. He leaned forward until he hovered over her on hands and knees.
“Do not stop.” His head dipped, and his tongue and teeth and mouth began devastating her with erotic teases on her breasts, with licks and nips and finally more determined arousals that had her mind dimming to everything except pure sensuality.
She did not stop but sought to madden him in turn so she would not be so vulnerable. She stroked his shaft and the tip and circled him with her hand. When the pleasure began crying in her, she ceased knowing much what she did. When he lay beside her again she could no longer reach.
She parted her legs too gratefully when his hand began to stroke her down there. She lifted her hips to his touch, too eager, shameless in her need, indifferent to her pride. She almost begged him for more, for faster devastation, for him to forget what had been said and to thoroughly take her. She clung to him and reached for that wonderful release she had known on the barge.
She came close, painfully close, but he surprised her again. He moved below her, between her legs, then left the bed. Kneeling there, he pulled her toward him. He spread her legs wide and lowered his head.
Her body convulsed from the shock of that kiss. She lost awareness, because the pleasure became so intense. She thought she might be begging now, or crying, because she was doing both in her head, in a chant of urging and fear.
It happened, finally, that burst of white heat that relieved the tight coil of pleasure. The perfect sensation spread like a warm river all through her, making her lose sense of her own physicality.
He moved up and covered her, totally, as she drifted in that momentary heaven. His forearms flanked her, and his hips rested between her thighs. It entered her mind that he would take her now. Enter her. Alarm managed to rise through her stupor.
Then she felt the evidence that sometime in this passion he had also found relief. Her vulnerability being beneath him did not frighten her after that.