The Master's Lessons (5 page)

The taste of
him upon her tongue lingered even now, and Amelia’s trembling legs
gave way beneath her as the door closed in his wake. For a moment,
the treacherous urge to call after him and beg him to return nearly
overwhelmed her, but she choked it back even as her body throbbed
and burned in a silent but furious protest at his departure.

Cooper
threatened to ruin everything she held dear – but somehow, she
found it impossible to deny even to herself how much she wanted
him. It seemed he was right. She belonged to him, and she did not
doubt he would soon take every possible advantage of that fact.

V.

Lesson Five

Amelia could
not concentrate on the meal in front of her, for she knew without a
doubt that at its conclusion, Cooper would descend from the top
table in search of her. The loaded, lustful glances they had
exchanged over the course of the meal had made that very clear, and
to her consternation each one sent her unwanted desire for him
spiralling further out of control. The entire day had been spent in
a painful spasm of simmering arousal, unable to focus on any of the
marking she had to do when every corner of the school held
reminders of its headmaster. By the time she had gone to the dining
hall, her heart pounding and a fever already building inside her,
she could think of nothing but him.

His burning
stare was now fixed upon her, and she had to clench her lips
tightly together to hold back a desperate moan as she felt her
nipples stiffen against the confines of her corset. Even from the
distance that separated them, Cooper seemed to know all she was
battling, for a ghost of a smile curved back his lips as he pushed
his plate away and rose to his feet.

Amelia could
barely even breathe, and though she jerked her head from side to
side in a tiny, mute plea she did not really mean, he strode
towards her. Seemingly oblivious to the wide-eyed stares of the
other staff, he stopped next to her chair and pointedly held out
his hand for her to take.

“Walk with me a
little while, Miss Montague,” he said, his clear voice carrying
across the hall for the benefit of all those watching and listening
so intently.

Her tongue
darted out across her lips, but she could no sooner deny herself
this now than stop breathing. In thrall to the spell of lust she
felt for him, she wordlessly placed her hand in his, her head
rolling to the side when the touch of his fingers on hers sent a
throb of such desperate longing shooting through her veins that her
heart lost a beat. Triumph blazed in his darkening eyes, and he
lowered his head towards hers to whisper intimately into her ear as
she straightened up next to him.

“Good
girl.”

Even that
gentle whisper was scintillating. A violent shiver ran down the
length of her spine, making the urge to move in closer wholly
impossible to resist. Awed by and no little afraid of the power of
that unwanted compulsion, her breath hitched and she stole a
furtive glance up at Cooper through lowered lashes as he led her
down the length of the hall.

Every line of
his reddened face was held taut in anticipation, and beneath the
cool facade he displayed to everyone else she saw the truth of the
lust he felt for her, a perfect mirror of the passion with which
she wanted him. A sharp twist of unease contorted her stomach, for
he was making no effort to disguise it despite the fact that they
were far from alone yet.

Still fighting
to calm the nervous pounding of her heart, Amelia stretched up onto
the tips of her toes to attract the headmaster’s attention. With a
low groan audible to her alone, he tucked her hand into the crook
of his arm and effortlessly held her wide eyes with his own.

“Do you have
something you wish to say, my dear?” he said under his breath. “Be
warned, though; I will heed no protest from you, not on this.”

“Oh, you have
made that perfectly clear,” she whispered, biting back an irritable
response to the smug superiority in his voice. “However, sir, what
you did not make plain was that you would make this carry-on so
very evident to the rest of the staff! Whatever will they
think?”

A small smile
played at the corners of his thin lips. “That we are courting, no
doubt. I am sure the gentlemen of the staff will fully understand
my motivation in pursuing you, my dear, and your fellow ladies will
feel nothing but envy for the fortunate position I offer to
you.”

Amelia’s eyes widened yet further as Cooper steered her out of
the hall and into the mercifully abandoned corridor.
“
Fortunate
?”

“Indeed. I am
an attractive prospect, both physically and in regard to my
standing in society. Many women have sought the position I am
giving you so freely, Amelia.”

“But I thought
this was for one night only -”

He held up his
free hand to silence her. “Certainly not. My dear, you must surely
know now how much I want you! One night could never be enough for
me; and neither, I suspect, would it be enough for you.”

The arrogance
of his words was breathtaking, yet he was right. Any protest she
might make against him would sound hollow and false. The lust she
felt for him was so ferocious and consuming that one night could
never sate it, but still this forced submission rankled deeply. The
conflict whirled through her mind until she lost her voice
entirely, able to do nothing but bow her head as the headmaster
laughed quietly, clearly secure in his triumph as they strolled arm
in arm towards the cottage where her fate awaited.

Cooper did not
relinquish his possessive hold on her even as he reached his free
hand into his pocket for the key, and to Amelia’s consternation,
she found herself nothing but relieved. His touch inflamed her, and
despite her keen awareness of what was to come, she found herself
surprisingly comfortable on his arm. The homely cottage was warm
and welcoming, with the gas lamps lit in anticipation of their
arrival, and the low burr of the headmaster’s voice when he spoke
resonated deep inside her to bring a gentle flush to her skin.

“Come through
to the parlour for a while, Amelia. We have all night, after
all.”

“I suppose we
do, thanks to your machinations.”

“Now now, my
dear!” he said with a widening smile as the front door closed
behind them. “You cannot pretend that you object to the thought of
an entire night in my arms, for I suspect the pleasure you took
from me in the space of a few minutes yesterday was more than your
young lord gave you during the entirety of the affair.”

She tensed
afresh at the unwanted reminder of Freddie, and her reaction did
not go unnoticed. Cooper’s smile slipped away like chalk from
slate, and his hold on her tightened painfully as they reached the
confines of the small parlour room. The sun was slowly setting
outside, and its amber rays crept in through the small gap in the
drapes to throw illumination upon the armchair he descended into as
she pulled away from him, intending to perch on the velvet settee
opposite until his low growl of discontent rippled through the
room.

“Not
there
,
Amelia; I want you to share my seat.”

The certainty
in his voice made it very plain how used he was to being obeyed
without question, and to her deep frustration Amelia found herself
just as unable to disobey him as any of the students were. Her body
arched of its own volition as she took the hand he held out and
allowed him to pull her into his lap. Aflame with anticipation that
forced aside all thoughts of anything but how much she wanted him
now they were so close, she silently stared up at him as he
retained his grip on her hand for a moment longer, then smiled
tersely again as he let it loose.

“Do you care
for wine, my dear?”

On the table to
their right was an open bottle of claret and two waiting glasses.
When she jerked her head in silent assent, he loosened his starched
collar before twisting to the side and pouring them both a glass.
The powerful, heady aroma was intoxicating, but nowhere near as
much as the intimacy of being held in such a way by the headmaster.
He had her body entirely under the spell of lust he had cast, and
when she shifted only to feel the unmistakable shape of his cock
pressed up against her, she could do nothing to choke back a
desperate moan that swept away the tension he held in each taut
muscle.

As he began to
relax, Cooper lifted her glass to her lips and waited for her to
obediently sip from it then take it from him before he spoke again.
“I knew you would see sense, Amelia. You are an intelligent woman,
and doubtless you realise my proposition was a logical one. Two
like-minded people such as ourselves are well-suited, and I am
entirely confident that the pleasure we give each other will be
limitless.”

Unlike the
headmaster, Amelia found herself becoming tenser with every erratic
beat of her heart. “Were you really so very confident, Mr.
Cooper?”

“Entirely so,”
he said, his voice calm and impassive despite the heat of his
reddened skin. “Amelia, I know you, and I knew you would be unable
to resist this.”

Her eyes
widened incredulously. “You know nothing of me –”

“On the
contrary, I know rather more than you might think.” Setting his
glass aside, he reached up and cupped her jaw in the palm of his
hand, and despite her simmering fury she let loose a soft sigh of
satisfaction. Amused triumph blazed in his eyes as he lowered his
voice and spoke again. “You came to Highdown Hall in search of
security, Amelia; that much was apparent from the very start. You
could have sought marriage, for your many attributes would have
easily made up for the lack of a dowry, but instead you preferred
to stand on your own two feet and support yourself.”

Amelia’s breath
hitched. Cooper’s words struck far too close to the truth, and she
remained silent in fearful expectation of what else he would have
to say.

“Yet despite
all that,” he said softly, “you risked it all; for most
importantly, you have a taste for danger your staid life here
cannot fulfil. Why else would you have risked the security my
employment offers for the sake of a few nights with the earl’s son?
You certainly do not love him, not in the truest sense of the
word.”

“He suggested
he would marry me -”

“Fool! He had
no intention of marrying you.”

“How the hell would
you
know?!”

“Because I am a
man, Amelia!”

He snatched her
glass out of her hand and slammed it down, then slowly and
deliberately wrenched each and every pin out of her hair to free it
from the tidy bun it had been restrained in. She struggled against
him furiously, but his free arm was around her waist to keep her
trapped against him; and the strength of his lean, defined muscles
was impossible to defy. She opened her mouth to rail at him, but he
cut in first.

“Understand
this, Amelia! When a man wants to marry a woman, he cannot bear the
thought of another man so much as looking at her with lust in his
eyes, let alone touching and holding her as intimately as I did
with you last night. Trust me, if he wanted to marry you, he would
not have abandoned you to my tender care.”

“There was
nothing tender about your care!”

“You did not
protest against that when I brought to your climax, my dear!”

Their raised
voices echoed around the ceiling beams, and in that moment Amelia
felt more alive than she ever had before. She twisted around to
face him, caring nothing for the fact that the intimate way in
which she was now seated on him made her skirts ride up expose her
stockinged thighs. As crimson blood rushed to heat her face, she
tossed her loose hair back and pushed the palms of her hands
against his chest in a vain attempt to win some space between
them.

Thunder descended upon his face and he seized hold of her
shoulders. “
Still
he is between us!”

Amelia
shuddered. “Freddie?”

“Unless you
took yet another lover beside me!”

“You are not my
lover!”

“I will be your
everything, Amelia! I want you to think of him no more -”

“How can I do
that, sir?” She closed her eyes tightly, conflicted by the emotion
she felt for the lord and the consuming, unwelcome lust she felt
for the man now holding her against her will. “I cannot simply
switch my emotions off, and my heart yearns for him even as my
treacherous body thrills in being held by you.”

Cooper drew a sharp breath as he clenched his jaw. “Would you
have assented if he
had
proposed?”

Amelia refused
to back down from the fire in his grey eyes, ominous though it was.
“Undoubtedly I would have done, yes. Perhaps I still would, for I
love him -”

The headmaster
cut short her biting words by forcibly covering her lips with his
own in a ferocious kiss, assaulting her mouth with the strength of
his passion for her; but she found she had never wanted anything
more. She cried out in elation as the kiss deepened, his arms now
wrapped tightly around her to crush her against his chest as his
tongue thrust triumphantly into her mouth. Already her arousal had
reached a breathtaking height, and tonight she knew without a doubt
that it would finally be sated, for her words had clearly driven
him to the same heights of desperation she felt. However hard she
tried to fight and deny it, Amelia wanted him more than any other
man before. No-one else had the power to make her feel like this,
and so she willingly submitted to the fire now raging in her core
and fisted Cooper’s shirt as she rocked against him.