To Seduce a Bride (27 page)

Heath welcomed her eagerness, reveled in the erotic friction between their bodies as she rubbed herself against the hardness of his erection. But then suddenly she stilled and raised her head, her expression uncertain for the first time this evening.

“Heath…I know I haven't the experience of your other women,” she began before he abruptly cut her off.

“Hush,” he ordered, softly smiling. “You have all the experience either of us needs.”

And there were no other women any longer, Heath added silently. Not since their first kiss in the barn loft. There was only Lily. She was lush and alive and more desirable than any woman he had ever known.

With one deft and powerful twist of his body, he rolled her under him. He was utterly captivated by her, he thought, gazing down at her. He was enchanted by her fire and softness, her glowing eyes, her marvelous mouth…. God, how he wanted her. Yet he had to remember her virginal state.

His fingers trailed down her body to the apex of her thighs, gliding through the curls to find her feminine cleft. She was already hot and swollen for him, even before he brushed the sensitive bud that was the center of her pleasure and began stroking with exquisite tenderness.

He made her arch and shiver against his hand, but when he lowered his head to kiss her, this time it was Lily who stopped him.

“Heath, the sponges…on the bedside table.”

Her breathless reminder brought some semblance of sanity to his mad rush to take her.

Nodding, he sat up and reached for the pouch on the table, which contained several small sponges with strings attached. Wetting one from the vial of liquid, he probed her warm, silky folds with his fingers and pressed the sponge slowly, carefully inside her woman's passage.

Lily gasped and tensed her muscles, but Heath murmured a quiet reassurance, so that when he stretched out to cover her again, she was gazing up at him trustingly.

Bracing his weight on his forearms, he nestled his body in the cradle of her thighs and parted her swollen sex with his phallus.

“I may hurt you,” he warned, his tone regretful.

She smiled faintly and reached up to touch his face. “It's all right,” she whispered.

The tenderness he felt for her deepening, he stared down into her lovely face and gently, very gently, eased the head of his cock into her quivering flesh.

Lily held her breath but made no sound. With exquisite care, Heath pressed forward again, pushing inside her a fraction of an inch.

When a wince flashed across her features, he halted and feathered light kisses over her forehead, her cheekbones, her lips, wanting to kiss away the pain. After a moment he could feel her body begin to relax again, so he slowly slid in further, his long, thick arousal stretching her flesh, filling her. When at last he sank in the entire way, he held completely still so Lily could grow accustomed to his throbbing fullness.

She was tight, wet, fitting him like a glove, enveloping him in glorious heat…blissful for him but not for her yet, Heath knew. Impaled on his hardness, Lily remained rigid beneath him, her breath coming in shallow pants.

After another long moment, however, her body softened as if the discomfort had faded. And when several more heartbeats passed, she stirred her hips, tentatively, testing.

“Better?” Heath asked.

The hint of a smile that wreathed her lips told him what he wanted to know, even before she whispered, “Much better, thank you.”

He began to move then, withdrawing the slightest measure, then carefully gliding upward once more. It wasn't long before he felt her shiver of aroused excitement and her hips began to move of their own accord.

Hot, urgent longing clamored inside Heath at her instinctive motion. He wanted to bury himself inside her fiercely, again and again, but he held back. Instead he kept up the careful, deliberate rhythm, coaxing her, pleasuring her slowly and sweetly, claiming her with endless tenderness.

And Lily responded. Her skin was flushed with passion now; her breath was ragged, but not from pain as he thrust gently into her melting flesh. In another few moments she was whimpering feverishly, her nails digging into his shoulders as she matched his rhythm.

Clenching his teeth, Heath struggled to maintain control, his own breathing rough as he moved inside her. But only when she was on the brink of climax did he hasten the pace, sliding free only to plunge again. Lowering his head, he captured her wild moans with his mouth but never stopped moving as she writhed and strained beneath him.

Then suddenly she jolted against him, arching her spine helplessly, her harsh cries muffled by his lips as the tumult broke within her. Trying desperately to keep his savage need in check, Heath used all his skill to prolong her ecstasy as wave after wave of rapture convulsed her slender body.

But her fierce abandon was his undoing. A great shudder surged through his frame as at last he surrendered to his need for her. With a hoarse moan of his own, he let himself fill Lily with the desire that he'd felt from the first moment of meeting her.

His body clenched and spasmed with the same blazing heat she was feeling as he plunged into pleasure so intense and raw, it seared.

As the firestorm receded, they lay there together, weak with the aftershocks. Finally easing his weight to the side, Heath drew Lily into his arms, wrapping his body around her trembling one, soothing her shivers, calming her.

When she exhaled a ragged sigh, he brushed her temple with his lips and breathed a sigh of his own.

The contentment he felt was indescribable. He had marked Lily for his own. She belonged to him now. They had fully consummated their union, and there was no going back. In truth, he thought of her as his bride.

Elation flooded through Heath, along with a primal possessiveness.

What surprised him, however, was how powerful his response to her had been. He'd never experienced lovemaking quite like that before. Never felt that liquid fire pouring through him.

Lily had felt it, too, he was certain. She had met him fiercely, giving as passionately as she did everything else. Her vibrancy made him feel intensely alive, filling him with exhilaration and something very much like joy….

“Now perhaps you will believe me,” he murmured against the crown of her head, “when I say you are a woman of great passion.”

Sated and boneless, Lily pressed a kiss against his bare shoulder. “I think you give me too much credit. You are devastatingly adept at lovemaking.”

His laughter came quietly against her hair. “You will soon become adept yourself.”

That could very well happen, Lily reflected, if they made love again. And she certainly wanted to. Passion was as thrilling and wonderful as Heath had promised it would be.

Recalling the magic of it, Lily sighed once more. He had appeased the aching need deep within her, shown her pleasure beyond her wildest imaginings. She had felt part of him with their bodies joined, skin against warm skin, flesh against naked flesh, hardness against softness.

And now, when he enfolded her more tightly in his arms and stroked the curve of her hot cheek with a soothing finger, Lily shut her eyes, savoring his tenderness…the intimacy, the bliss of lying here with him like this.

Suddenly she found herself swallowing against the tightness in her throat. That threatening ache had returned, along with an odd, yearning sensation that spread out from the region of her heart.

This would never do, Lily warned herself. She couldn't allow Heath's tenderness to overwhelm her emotional defenses. She only wanted his passion, nothing more.

Determined to break the spell he had cast over, Lily pressed her hands against his chest to loosen his embrace.

“So,” she commented casually, drawing back a short way to gaze up at him. “If you approve of my carnal abilities, does this mean you will consider me for the position of your mistress?”

Chapter Fifteen

He refused my offer to become his mistress out of hand.

—Lily to Fanny

Lily felt Heath stiffen at her question. All his languidness had flown, she realized as he fixed her with a measuring stare.

“You cannot possibly think I would set you up as my mistress,” he finally responded.

“Actually, I do think so.”

A scowl wreathing his handsome features, Heath sat up in bed, absently propping the pillows behind his back. “Have you taken complete leave of your senses?”

Lily dimpled up at him. “I believe I am in possession of all my faculties, my lord. At least the ones that still remain after you obliterated them just now.”

“Lily, damn it all…”

“Your swearing at me is becoming rather repetitive.” She pushed herself up to brace her weight on one elbow. “I want to be your
chère amie,
Heath.”

He shook his head in disbelief, then said very slowly, as if speaking to an extremely dimwitted child, “But
I
do not want you for my mistress, sweeting. I won't settle for less than marriage.”

“And I won't settle for marriage, especially after tonight…now that I know what making love to you is like. It was even better than you claimed it would be. I am certain the role of your mistress will be significantly better than that of your wife.”

“No, it won't be,” Heath said tersely. “And it is unworthy of you even to suggest it.”

Lily arched her eyebrows. “Unworthy? Why? I think it is the perfect solution to our impasse.”

She rose so that she was kneeling beside him. Immediately his gaze drifted down to her bare breasts, then abruptly lifted again when she continued:

“A mistress has numerous advantages over a wife, Heath. Chiefly the independence to be her own woman without the misery. I will be free to leave an affair if I choose, just as you will. You won't have to be saddled with me for life.”

“I have told you, I
want
to be saddled with you.”

“But you won't consider my wishes at all?”

“Certainly I will consider them.”

“Then why won't you at least think about my proposal?”

“No,” Heath repeated adamantly. “It's out of the question.”

With that staunch declaration, he rose from the bed and went to the washstand, where he wet a cloth from a ewer and washed his loins. When he strode naked back to the bed, Lily found her gaze riveted on his beautiful, muscular body—until he commanded her to lie back.

Warm color suffused her face as he carefully washed away the traces of seed and the pink tinge of blood from her thighs and the area between. Lily drew a shaky breath at the intimate gesture, but Heath's touch was completely perfunctory, not seductive in the least.

Neither was his tone as he returned the cloth to the washbasin. “You can't have considered the consequences of your proposition, Lily. You would lose all respectability if you became my light-o'-love.”

“Our affair would have to be kept secret, of course.”

“We could not keep an arrangement secret for long. And until then, we would have to sneak around to avoid scandal. You couldn't go about town with me, or be seen anywhere in public. You would have to hide in the shadows, just as you do now.”

Heath crossed to the bed again, but this time he sat beside her. “I won't be content with a few stolen hours together now and then. What kind of life would that be for us? What kind of future would we have? We most certainly couldn't have a family without marriage.”

“I forgot,” Lily murmured, reluctantly meeting his gaze. “You want heirs.”

“Eventually, yes. What about you, Lily? Are you telling me you don't want children?”

She wasn't able to say any such thing, but her desire for children was not strong enough to overcome her objections to matrimony. “Not if it means I must marry.”

His gaze searched hers. “Why this sudden turnabout? Why this insistence on our becoming lovers before our game is even over?”

He was completely serious, Lily realized, deciding she owed him the same seriousness. “The truth is, I don't want you taking another woman as your mistress.”

He stared at her for a brief moment. “I don't want any other woman for my mistress. I want you.”

“You say that now, but as soon as the marriage lines are dry, you may change your mind.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I won't argue with you or offer vows of fidelity when you won't believe me anyway.”

“I won't argue with you, either, Heath. But I mean to persuade you to listen to me.” Giving him a soft smile, Lily raised her fingers to his lips. “I know I have a long way to go before I can hope to satisfy a man of your vast experience and expertise, but I think I could become skilled enough in time. You could teach me what I need to know.”

“You already satisfy me, Lily. And I suspect you would make the best mistress I have ever known. But I am not interested.”

She reached down and lightly touched his flaccid member. “At least let me show my appreciation for your generosity…how grateful I am to you for helping my friends.”

Her offer caused his gaze to narrow. There was real anger in his eyes as his fingers closed about her wrist and held her hand away. “I won't even dignify that with a reply.”

Standing abruptly, Heath retrieved his clothing and began to dress.

“You are leaving?” Lily asked in dismay.

“Yes, and so are you.” Bending, he picked up her gown and tossed it to her. “Put this on.”

Distractedly Lily clutched the garment to her naked breasts. “But I thought we would spend the night together.”

“We don't have that right. We aren't legally wed.”

“Heath…I want to make love to you again.”

He shot her a dismissive glance. “What you want is beside the point. I'm not touching you again.”

Lily raised her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. “I have already lost my virtue to you. It hardly matters now how many times we make love.”

“It will matter to you tomorrow. You will be tender and sore enough as it is.”

Her gaze went to the table where the dishes were still in their covers. “We could at least stay long enough to partake of supper. I dislike for all that food to go to waste.”

“The hotel can return it to the kitchens and serve it to their staff. Get dressed, Lily. I am taking you home.”

Finally accepting that she wouldn't sway him, she flounced off the bed. “Very well. But you cannot take me to the boardinghouse.”

“I certainly am not taking you to Marcus's. He would have my liver if he knew what we had done tonight.”

“Heath—” she began before he cut her off.

“That is the end of it, Lily. Get dressed.”

Highly miffed, she pulled on her gown and struggled to fasten the hooks while various thoughts spun in her head. The evening had been an abject failure…except that she now was fully a woman and Heath had become her lover for a few magical, enchanting moments.

She couldn't regret that, Lily reflected with a small, secret smile. Even if he obviously did.

She wasn't prepared to give up just yet, though. By now Heath should know her well enough to realize she wasn't the sort of woman to surrender after one little defeat. He would be her lover again. She just needed to determine how to overcome his objections.

         

Despite her resolve, Lily was actually a little relieved that Heath broke his unyielding silence as his carriage halted on the street near the boardinghouse.

“I intend to call upon you tomorrow afternoon. At one o'clock, if that is convenient.”

She debated refusing, but that would defeat her own purpose. “Very well, one o'clock.”

“Wear a pelisse and your veil. We will be taking a drive.”

“Oh?” Lily asked curiously.

“I have something to show you.”

Heath refused to expound further as he helped her down from his carriage and escorted her to the rear tradesmen's entrance. Lily felt strangely disappointed when he bid her a terse good night and remained waiting for her to go inside. But it was his unexpected anger that took her aback. That, and the sense that she had gravely disappointed
him.

If she hoped she would avoid detection by the household, however, she was soon proved wrong. Just as she was about to mount the rear service stairs, she spied Fanny coming down the corridor toward her. Surprisingly, Basil was directly behind her.

“May I speak to you a moment, Lily?” Fanny called out.

“Yes, of course.”

Basil halted beside Fanny. “I will leave you two ladies to your own devices. If you need me, Fanny, I am at your service.”

“Thank you, Basil,” Fanny replied with a soft smile. “I am glad we had our little coze.”

When he gave her an odd glance in return, it was almost a wince—which puzzled Lily. There were definite undercurrents of tension between Basil and Fanny, yet not the exasperation and irritation they usually roused in each other. Apparently they were no longer at daggers drawn, at least for the moment. And as Basil turned away, heading for the stairs, the look of desire and longing in his eyes was unmistakable.

Musing over the cause, Lily followed her friend to the parlor. The lamps were lit, so she surmised that Basil and Fanny had been making use of this room just now.

“What are you doing here, Fanny?” she asked as they settled into chairs. “I would have expected you to be occupied on a Saturday evening.”

“I came seeking company, but you were not here.” Her tone was almost accusatory.

Lily hesitated, not wanting to confess exactly where she had been. “Could not Fleur and Chantel have sufficed?”

“They are out with Lord Poole, celebrating.”

“Celebrating?” she echoed.

Fanny nodded. “It seems Lord Poole has rekindled his former ardor for Chantel, so he insisted on paying the entire gambling debt of thirty thousand pounds to Mick O'Rourke.”

“Why, that is splendid!” Lily exclaimed. “It means they are no longer in danger of imprisonment.”

“Yes,” Fanny said glumly. “But Mick still will not accept that I don't wish to marry him. He called on me at my home this afternoon and offered me his entire fortune if I would agree to become his wife. He was quite unhappy when I refused.”

Stiffening involuntarily, Lily leaned forward in her chair. “That brute did not hurt you again?”

“No. This time he was the perfect gentleman.”

Lily surveyed her friend carefully. Either Fanny's bruises had healed, or they were artfully concealed by cosmetics. Yet she still look disturbed.

“But…?” Lily prodded.

Fanny grimaced. “But Mick made a nuisance of himself. He wouldn't leave my house, so I had no choice but to take refuge here. I was supposed to entertain one of the Prussian ambassadors this evening. Mick cost me a pretty penny, let me tell you. At this rate, he will put me out of business—which no doubt has become his aim.”

Lily scowled. “He is trying to coerce you to marry him?”

“I suspect he doesn't see it that way.” Fanny sighed. “I like him well enough, but I have no desire to wed him. And he makes an extremely poor patron. He is far too possessive.” Fanny suddenly frowned. “What of you, Lily? I was told you were spending the night at Lord Danvers's home with your sisters. Imagine my surprise to find you sneaking into the boardinghouse.”

“I was not
sneaking,
” Lily protested. “I merely saw no reason to advertise my precipitate return.”

“You were with Claybourne, were you not?” When Lily looked at her in surprise, Fanny sent her a sardonic smile. “His lordship's carriage drove past on the street, and I recognized his crest on the door panel.”

“My being with him is hardly a crime, Fanny.”

Her friend sighed. “No, but I worry about you. Just what have you been doing with him, darling? The flush on your cheeks suggests you have gone past mere courtship. You have become lovers, have you not?”

“Well…yes,” Lily confessed, not wanting to lie. “Tonight was our first time, in fact. But you needn't worry. It may come to nothing. I offered to become Heath's mistress so he would abandon the notion of winning my hand in marriage, but he decidedly refused.”

“Oh, Lily.” Fanny sounded less shocked than dismayed.

Lily gave her a quizzical glance. “What is the matter, Fanny? You of all people should understand my desire for independence. The position of mistress will allow me freedom I could never have as his wife.”

“I know. But I feel guilty for leading you astray. I have been such a wicked influence on you. You would never have made so scandalous a proposition to Claybourne but for your friendship with me.”

Lily was truly puzzled. “You aren't to blame whatsoever. And since when did you suddenly become so prim and proper?”