Authors: Michelle Woodward
And up they went, up a winding staircase whose cold stone path would have been frightening had she not had the company of a man who she fancied might make her feel safe anywhere. She admired the cut of his coat and breeches as he led the way on the stairs, grinning a little droll smile at the thought of what Robert's reaction might be if he knew what very dirty thoughts were going through her mind. For all she wanted to do as she watched him ascend was gain a palm-full of his backside and see if it was as firm as it appeared.
The door he opened lead to a small circular room that India deduced was the turret she had spied from the outside. The warmth of his hand encircled hers as he led her in, the curved dome above them allowing observation of the night sky outside. A mysterious contraption took center stage, all tubes and smooth angles. “What is this, Robert?” she asked, running a hand across its dark metal surface.
“I study the stars, India, and this is my telescope.”
“Stars?” she looked up at him, an eyebrow cocked in derision. “I thought you were a tea man, through and through.”
He had the good grace to look discomfited at her knowledge of his life. “I am. But I had a business deal that went sour in the states, and since then, I study the stars. They have more beauty and bounty to offer than any plantation in any country across any sea.”
“Is that so?”
He came up behind her to tilt the telescope up towards the dome of glass above them. “I always found it to be true, until recently.”
India shot him a fast, incredulous look over her shoulder, prepared with a retort. But the truth of the matter was, the heavy weight of his arm over her shoulder as he adjusted the curved lens had sent her thoughts scattering and set her heart hammering. “You seek to flatter me with falseness, Duke Cooper.”
He looked down at her brown face and hard eyes, saw something there that turned the look of amusement in his eyes to complete sincerity, and said, “Never. Now look through the lens, India, and see the rings of Saturn in all their glory.”
She bent her head to look through the tiny brass knob and beheld the minuscule image of a small red planet encircled by two rings, gloriously detailed and breathtaking in its implication.
“Marvelous!” she cried, unable to control her enthusiasm. She tried to press her eye closer to the lens, as if by leaning closer, she could climb into the contraption and land on the image there, far away from the hustle and bustle of a life that did not seem to accept her and above which she held her proud head. “Do you think that there is someone over there watching us here?”
“Yes,” replied Robert Cooper, and his voice was husky.
It was then that India felt her bottom pressing into the apex of his legs against a hard appendage that fit there gloriously well. She closed her eyes tightly and let her mind travel up that apex to a flat stomach no doubt lined with a trail of hair that she could run her fingers through. She felt him lay his palms flat against her narrow hips and the drumbeat of her heart threatened to break through her small ribcage. “You said the stars have more beauty and bounty to offer than any earthly delights. Do you truly believe that?” she asked him.
“No,” he breathed.
She stood, and he took a step until her back was pressed firmly against his chest, where she could feel his heartbeat quicken, as well. “What has more bounty?”
“You.”
She turned and locked her green eyes with his blue ones. She saw no derision, no sick fascination. In the eyes of Duke Robert Cooper, India Augustina saw only an appreciation for the woman in front of him.
The first kiss was light, an experiment, almost. He tasted like water and felt soft underneath her lips. And then his arms wrapped around her waist and she melted into him like butter onto bread. He pressed his lips against her, then invaded the sanctity of her mouth with his tongue, rolling it against her. She tilted her head to accept it, to flick at it with hers, and felt her pulse skyrocket at the implied dance they were leading.
They pressed against each other until there was nowhere to go but each other. How small she felt in his arms, like a fragile porcelain doll. He felt her knees buckle beneath him and scooped her up in his powerful arms. She nested in him and for the first time since her mother left for the God-forsaken country beneath the sun, felt safe. It was a walk of but a few feet to the satin-covered fainting couch in the observatory room, but it felt for the entire world like a blissful eternity. He set her down and unbuttoned first his coat, then his breeches. With fingers that shook slightly to her surprise, she peeled off the few undergarments she had donned beneath her gown. It felt only right that they undressed themselves in tandem, and once her nether regions were bare, she was new transformed, powerful, and in control. Mixed in with the slight feeling of vulnerability at her new nudity, it was an altogether heady potion, and she sat on the edge of the couch, propping herself up on her hands and trying to regain control of her accelerating heartbeat.
He was even more beautiful bared to the world. When he bent to place his tan breeches on the floor, she caught sight of his naked behind and sucked in a breath. He had muscles in places she never thought anyone could; his finely sculpted rear was like a work of art, and the thickness of his thighs looked incredibly solid. She ached to dig her fingers into the meaty flesh and watch the small digits upend this strong man's control. Robert had a line of hair down his belly just like she imagined, and the small dimples in his abdomen rippled with the work of his muscles there as he knelt down in front of her, hands gathering the multitudinous folds of her gown.
The look in his eyes told her all she needed to know. The small smile lifting the corners of his lips said,
I know what I am doing and you need not worry about a single thing.
It sent a rush to her head, that look, and as he slid his hands up her calves beneath her gown, she tilted her head back at the tingle that found its source at his hands and its path all the way up her legs. When he grasped her thighs roughly in his hands, she let out a small mew. She glanced down at Robert Cooper nude between her legs and discovered that her gown had found its way to her waist. She had spent many nights gazing at her nudity in the mirror, but not once had she given it the look of appreciation that Robert was now bestowing upon her naked privacy. He looked up at her as if he was a child receiving a gift, and when he bent his head back down, it was to plant a kiss on that wonderful new possession.
She sucked back a gasp at the sensation of his lips on her more private lips, hardly daring to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had any control over her. That was, after all, half the enjoyment. A hand crawled up her stomach to encompass a small, silk-covered breast, the nipple puckering against his hand involuntarily. He pushed her down until her back was flush with the couch, and continued his ministrations below her waist.
How strangely wonderful it was to be licked down there! She felt him run his tongue up and down her slit, and then back up until he could part her. The invasion was wet and sweet, and when he flicked his tongue inside of her, she thought she would lose her mind at the sensation. His tongue licked a firm path up outside of her until he found a puckered nubbin to flick it against, which he did, lightly and experimentally.
Her hips bucked. It was as if every nerve ending in her body came alive. It was all the signal he needed, and he continued to flick against her in an increasing crescendo of speed until animal moans issued from her throat in a continuing stream. She lost herself and grasped great handfuls of her gown, twisting and writhing on the coach as Robert made love to her with his mouth, an intense feeling building in her limbs until she was a mindless ball of pleasure, seeking release.
“Robert,” she whispered in her mindless state, and he placed his thumb on her to hold his place as he rose and held his member firmly against her entrance.
“Tell me you want this,” he said, nudging her with its head so that she jerked and gasped aloud. A moan escaped, unbidden from her lips. She did not want to say it, and yet she did. Saying it out loud would give over control entirely to him, and while she kept mum, power was still on her side. She thought she could hold on, but when he bent over her and took a silk-covered nipple in his mouth, cloaked his teeth with his lips, and bore down, liquid heat pooled at her core and she knew that the war was over.
“I want this, please, please,” she told him, and unexpectedly, there was no triumph in his face, only a sagging relief.
He entered her, stretching her full. A moment of pain, a slight pause so she could get accustomed to bearing his girth inside of her, and then Robert began to rock gently. She felt him begin to slide slickly in and out of her with an increasing tempo. He found the ridge inside of her that let slip the groans from her lips and worked against it, building up dizzying sensations inside of her the likes of which she recognized as faint memories of her own nightly escapades into the realms of sensual pleasure. But it was nothing like this, nothing like the weight of his body on top of her, knocking the breath out of her, building up the anticipation of what was yet to come, heightening all of the sensations. She wrapped her dusky legs around his waist to draw him deeper in, and their speed reached inhuman proportions. There was a sensation that time was circling all around them, reaching an inevitable conclusion that once climbed, held them both in a space above the world. She cried at the strength of her orgasm, submitting once and for all to a power that was above her as her body twisted and wracked at the pleasure skyrocketing through her entire being.
As they descended from their summit, Robert scattered kisses all the way down her neck and chest. He lay beside her on the couch, both of them breathing heavily, India with a newfound appreciation for her body, a new awareness of its nooks and crannies the likes of which she had not experienced before. Several of these magnificent romps later and they lay curled together on the tiny couch, the hair on his legs rubbing her smooth skin raw, a sensation she would not have traded for all the world, just like she would not trade his hands covering her breasts for anything, nor the sight of her pearly pink nipples peeking out from between his large knuckles. This was her man; she had chosen him before she was cognizant of it, and nobody else would ever love her as properly, she knew. She stroked his forearm lazily, and found her mind wandering towards the future, specifically hers.
“Tell me about what happened with the business deal in the states,” she told him.
Robert held back nothing. They were far beyond the he and the she, the nameless passion that brings two people closer together. He told her of the nefarious character who had promised him untold riches in the southern fields of the states, a plantation of willing workers who would work twice as hard as the natives in India. When he arrived, he found the conditions provided for the workers unspeakable. It was only then that he considered what his own country was doing invading a colony of their own, but it was far worse across the ocean, for these people were being enslaved. There was no other word for it, and the highest point of inhumanity was that they all came from the same soil, and there was much to be said for brother against brother simply by virtue of a difference in skin color.
India felt something come over her, a willingness to bare herself in a new way to another person. It scared her, the strength of this feeling, and had she had just a touch more of insight about her, she would have recognized that she was feeling vulnerable and trusted Robert Cooper in a way she had trusted perhaps only her ama since her mother's departure.
“Do you know the truth about me, Robert?” she asked him cautiously, grasping his forearm more firmly as if she was boarding a ship on stormy waters, for in fact, she was.
“That you are beautiful, intelligent, and have me in your thrall?” he asked, nuzzling the sensitive hairs on her neck.
She closed her eyes to intensify the sensation, but then pushed it aside. If she held back now, she knew, she would never be able to share this with another person in her life. “Do you know about my parentage?”
“You mean the death of Lord Davenport? Everyone knows, darling, it is hardly common knowledge.”
She sat up, gathering her gown against her breasts, suddenly more nervous than she had ever been before in her entire life. “No, Robert. Lord Davenport is not my father.”
He sat up beside her and snaked an arm around her waist, sensing she needed his support. “I see. When did you find out?”
She turned to face him, but could not meet his eyes. “Right before my mother left for India.”
“I'm afraid I do not understand. I was in the states until recently, and I have never been one to indulge in tawdry gossip with society matrons, as you know.”
She told him everything. Of her mother and the sudden departure to a land where the sun burns bright. Of the letter which revealed the secret of her exotic eyes and skin, of the truth behind her mother's years of silence, of the cold nature of her relationship with the man India had believed to be her sire for so many long years. When she was finished, she trembled, and her heart thudded sickeningly with anticipation. Perhaps it had been foolish to trust Duke Cooper so.