A Ladys Pleasure (7 page)

She blushed. “Why thank you, kind sir.”

His voice lowered. “I can’t wait to have you all to myself, my dear.”

She quivered at the unabashed need in his tone. “I, too, am quite…eager…Your Grace.”

“How much longer before we can make our escapes without notice, do you think?”

“I believe Caro has arranged for us to be entertained by some musical performances from some of the guests. I would think it should be easy enough to slip away then.”

“I take it you do not plan to perform, then?”

“I would not torture Caroline and Richard’s guests so. Alas, I fear I am completely lacking in any musical talent.”

“Ah, excellent.”

She held back a grin. “You do not enjoy music, Your Grace?”

He smiled down at her, realizing how his remark could be interpreted. “I enjoy music quite a bit, but there are other…pursuits which I enjoy more, my lady.”

“Indeed. I am not a bit surprised.” She was enjoying their banter. No wonder the duke was so successful with the ladies. It was not just for his skills in the bedchamber, though she was eager to experience more of those. He also had a way of making the lady he was with feel as if he were focused completely on her. The fact that he was also entertaining and obviously intelligent surely didn’t hurt.

About fifteen minutes later, Lily’s prediction proved correct when Caroline drew everyone’s attention and announced that they would be adjourning to the music room.

The duke bent to whisper in her ear. “You go on up, Lily. I’ll give you about ten minutes before I follow. That way no one can remark upon our leaving together. I wouldn’t have you the subject of malicious gossip.”

She nodded. “My room is…”

“No need to tell me, my dear,” he interrupted. “I’ve known since the first day where your room was located. Oh, and dismiss your lady’s maid. I’ll be glad to help you…prepare for bed tonight.”

She blushed again and, in the movement of people toward the music room, managed to slip out the door unobserved.

* * * *

Lily nervously paced back and forth in the confines of her bed chamber, her mind a jumbled whirl of anxiety and anticipation. Could she really go through with this? What if he didn’t come? He might have changed his mind, though she didn’t really think so. Or if he did, what if it turned into a disaster? If the other night was a fluke. Mayhap she would find that she could not respond to Richard any more than she had responded to her husband. It was quite possible that she just wasn’t like other women…those women who enjoyed their passions. Maybe she should call this off now before she suffered utter humiliation.

Oh, but that was ridiculous. She was made like other women, wasn’t she? She was being silly. There was no doubt of the pleasure she had found with the duke two nights ago. It hadn’t take him long to draw from her the response he wanted. Obviously he was a man experienced in exciting the woman he was with. And wasn’t it better to know…to find out now the truth than to wonder for the rest of her life if she could react as other women to the marital embrace? Surely if Richard could not satisfy her, no one could.

When the knock came, she whirled around just as the door opened and the object of her thoughts walked through. He closed the door behind him and carefully turned the lock, leaning back against it without saying a word. Lily had to swallow past a sudden dryness in her throat. It took all her nerve to stay still as Richard stood there looking at her.

“I thought this moment would never arrive,” he spoke softly, but his eyes blazed into hers. “You don’t know how many times I’ve remembered our delicious tryst in the garden and longed to repeat it. And so much more.”

She licked her lips, and his eyes tracked the movement hungrily.

“You’ve kept me waiting too long, Lily.” He finally walked forward until he stood before her. She couldn’t meet his gaze, focusing instead on the buttons of his waistcoat and waiting.

“Turn around.” His voice a deep command.

She did as he said and felt his hands unfastening the buttons which ran down the back of her gown. As the bodice loosened and gaped forward, she reached up to hold the fabric in place. She felt his warm breath on the back of her neck and couldn’t hold back a sudden shiver of need that chased through her. Closing her eyes, she tried to still the tumult of her heartbeat that pounded like a wild thing in her chest. He completed his task and told her to turn back around. Hesitantly she turned, at last raising her gaze to his face.

He smiled, but it was not reassuring. Rather it contained a wicked glint and the promise of something that had her trembling deep inside. He reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Release the gown, Lily. I want to see you.”

She gulped, hesitated a moment, and then did as he asked. With a quick tug, he had the bodice down around her waist. She wore nothing beneath the gown except for her corset, petticoats, and silk stockings. Her breasts were uncovered, and the chill air combined with the attention of the duke had her peaks tightening into hard points. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with each shaky breath she took. She stared into the duke’s face and watched as a small nerve began to jump next to his mouth. She sensed the struggle in him to keep control of his desires, and wasn’t sure if she wanted him to succeed or not. Her emotions were in turmoil, and a frightening sense of anticipation rolled through her. She took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Damn, Lily.” Her hands rose to cover her nudity, but he stopped her. “No. Don’t. It should be a crime to cover such beauty.”

She bit her lip, but inside, she felt a sweet glow at his admiration. She stilled. He reached out to cup her left breast, and she marveled at the warmth which radiated from his skin to hers. He used his thumb to rub across the nipple, circling around and around.

Then he pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, and she gasped.

When he bent and took the nipple between his lips, she thought she would die with the pleasure of it all. He worked the tip with his tongue and teeth before turning his attention to her other breast. His hand continued to fondle her. But finally he drew back.

She tried to reach up and clasp him to her, but he caught her hands and pushed them down.

He glanced around and began tugging her to the left until they stopped before the antique cheval mirror that stood in the corner. He turned her to face the mirror, and she looked away, uncomfortable at the sight of her semi-nudity next to his fully clothed figure. “Look at yourself, Lily. I want you to see what I see. How beautiful you are.”

She lifted her eyes and met his in the mirror. His hands came around and cupped her breasts, lifting them, weighing them. He stroked over the nipples which were damply erect, and her head dropped back. His hands moved lower, catching hold of her dress and shoving it over her hips until it fell to the ground in a soft swoosh of silk and lace.

“Lovely,” he whispered.

He helped her unfasten her petticoats, and they joined her gown in a green and white puddle on the floor. She stepped out of the clothing with his help and watched as he lifted them to drape across a nearby chair. Then he removed her corset and flung it to the floor, stroking across the slight indentations in her skin caused by the tight-fitting garment.

She watched as his hands moved slowly down the curve of her waist and then back up again. Goosebumps broke out on her skin, and she couldn’t control the reaction that followed the movement of his hands. When his arm encircled her waist and pulled her back against him, she could feel his erection press boldly against her back.

“Look at us, Lily. Look at how we are together.” The picture reflected in the mirror was the most erotic thing that she had ever seen. She was completely nude with the exception of the white silk stockings tied at her thighs with black garters. The contrast between the whiteness of the stockings and the creamy paleness of her thighs made her even more conscious of her nudity. The springy curls at the apex of her thighs glistened with dewy drops of moisture. Proof of her own arousal. And the figure of the duke towering behind her, his bold masculinity a counterpoint to her own femininity, made her feel delicate and fragile. He bent his head, holding her eyes with his, and kissed the side of her neck, his mouth parting over the pulse that pounded against her skin. His hands moved over the quivering muscles of her stomach to cup over her woman’s mound. She felt overpowered and possessed and marveled that she liked the feeling. She was not a weak woman. In fact, she prided herself on her strength, her independence. Yet for some reason the duke’s obvious dominance over her aroused in her an unbelievable need.

In a sudden movement, he spun her around and took her mouth in a hungry kiss, and her senses reeled. If she thought she had been kissed before, she found how just how wrong she was. If she had ever doubted his physical mastery over her, she had none now.

His tongue breached her mouth in hard demand, allowing no leeway for her relative inexperience. Untutored as she was, she strove to give him what he needed, twining her tongue with his and denying him nothing. He reached down and picked her up, carrying her to place her upon the bed and quickly following her down to crush her into the softness of the mattress. He slanted his mouth over hers again and again, until she was breathless with desire and need.

When he began kissing his way down her body, she struggled to regain some measure of sanity, but that idea completely slipped away as his mouth closed once again over her breasts, devouring the creamy mounds with kiss after stinging kiss. She moaned with pleasure as he took one nipple between his teeth and tugged sharply, the tiny bite of pain adding to the erotic sensations that were threatening to overpower her.

Lily’s senses reeled. His presence surrounded her until she felt totally possessed. He moved farther down, and she struggled to comprehend what it was he was doing. She felt his hands moving lower, sliding between her legs to part them. Then she had her answer when his mouth pressed a soft kiss against her womanly softness. She moved sensuously against the movement of his lips, disbelief giving way to pleasure as his lips and tongue explored every fold and crevice of her most private area.

She had never imagined such a thing. It was what she had felt in the garden magnified tenfold. As he licked over that especially sensitive nubbin, she arched up.

“Please, Richard. Please, I need…”

He paused and looked up, meeting her gaze with his own. “I know, Lily. I know what you need. Believe me. I need it, too.” He bent again to pleasure her, and she began to feel a tightening inside her with which she was already somewhat familiar. She had felt it with him the other night, and she knew, this time, for what goal her body reached. A finger slid inside her, then a second, pumping even as he licked and sucked her. With unexpected force, she exploded, her cry of delight muffled against her hand.

Before the pulses of her release had faded, he had moved over her, released his erection from his breeches, and, with one quick thrust, seated himself inside her hungry channel. He stayed utterly still for several moments, giving her body time to adjust to his thick hardness. It had been so long since she had felt a man’s body inside her own. And even when her husband had deigned to visit her, he had never felt like this. The flaccid corpulence of his body had disgusted her. He had never filled her as Richard did, stretching her channel almost to the point of pain. He had never made her yearn to touch and taste every inch of his skin. But she did now.

Lily lifted her arms to wrap around his shoulders, pulling him even closer. He raised up and looked down into her eyes. “Damn, you feel good, sweetheart.”

She smiled, reveling in how right it all felt, and tightened her insides around his shaft. She watched triumphantly as his eyes almost closed with pleasure. “Damn, woman, who taught you that movement?”

She did it again. “No one, Your Grace. I discovered it all on my own. Just now.”

“Well…not completely on your own, sweetheart.” He gave a wicked grin. She started to laugh, amazed that she would do so at such an intimate moment, and then he moved, and she quit laughing and started moaning.

“Ummmm…do that again,” she whispered.

“Yes, ma’am,” the duke answered.

He began sliding in and out of her, setting a slow steady rhythm designed, she knew, to drive her absolutely insane. His mouth moved against hers in a kiss that mimicked the motions of his body. The double penetration ratcheted her arousal even higher, and her hands reached around to clasp his buttocks, urging him closer and closer. She felt his muscles flex with each thrust.

“Tell me you want me,” he murmured against her mouth, and she gasped out a soft reply.

“I want you. You know I want you.”

“Again,” he demanded. “Louder.”

“I want you.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly she felt it again, that tightening pressure, and she knew that she was going to go over again. “Richard. Richard…it’s happening.”

“Yes, baby. Come for me. Come again, all over my cock.”

She cried out his name and came, her body trembling with the intensity of the climax. He didn’t stop, continuing his thrusts, riding her through the orgasm and showing her no mercy as he strove for his own release.

He reached beneath her hips and tilted her up so that the angle of penetration changed. He began pistoning into her, harder and harder. She wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him deeper until he called out harshly and emptied himself into her.

He pushed himself off her and slumped to the bed, tugging her against him and enclosing her in his arms. Gradually she regained her senses, becoming conscious of his body against hers where they lay entangled on the bed. He bent down to give her a soft kiss, and Lily smiled sleepily into his eyes, sated and replete.

When Lily awoke the next morning, she was alone in her bed, but the tangled covers betrayed the truth of the night before. Richard had reached for her again and again, seemingly insatiable. The pleasure she had found in his arms was nothing she could possibly have imagined. She found it difficult to believe now that she had actually planned to forgo such bliss for the rest of her life.