Nothing Denied (7 page)

“Admit it,” he whispered.

Beatrice shook her head. “I admit nothing.”

He smiled and dipped his head down to glide his tongue between her breasts. She sucked in her breath and arched helplessly against him.

“Yes, you do,” he murmured. “You admit everything with your body’s reactions. You wil tel me the same with your mouth later.”

He tugged and her dress fel forward.

Beatrice felt the warm flush of blood to her cheeks a nd hated the missish reaction. She didn’t want to appear weak before this man, but that was exactly how she felt. Weak with the desire he could read plainly, but also weak with fear she hoped he would never sense. This idea had been fine when it was only in theory, but now…now her gown was being glided down her hips, now Gareth was staring at her flesh openly, now she was real y in this moment. And once they were finished, there would be no going back for her.

“You are beautiful,” Gareth said softly as her dress hit the floor and left her only in a thin shift, stockings and slippers.

Even more heat flooded her face, but this time it was the heat of pleasure and she felt herself relax. No one had said she was beautiful in so long, she could scarce remember it.

“There is no need to fear,” he said even softer as he enveloped her in the warm darkness of his embrace. She felt him gliding her backward ever so slowly, until her backside hit the edge of his bed. She started at the contact, but his strong arms wouldn’t al ow her to maneuver away.

“This first time, no games, no tests,” he said, his tone strangely soothing in the otherwise silent room. She could hardly breathe for a moment as the reality hit her once again. Only this time, with Gareth’s arms firmly around her, with her breasts flat against his chest, her legs tangled with his, his bed at her back

…somehow the reality was not chil ing.

Shutting her eyes, she nodded. “Th–thank you,” she whispered.

The statement sounded odd to her, for it was one she rarely said, but it fit here. After al , he could do anything, but he was promising her gentleness and care. The least she owed him was thanks as she endured what was to come.

“Look at me.”

It was an order, which normal y chafed Beatrice, but she found herself obeying. She let her eyes flutter open and watched as Gareth slowly divested himself of his jacket. He opened his cravat and then he tugged his shirt from his trouser waist. She held her breath as he opened it and pul ed it over his head, leaving him naked from the waist up.

Good Lord, he was a sight. His olive skin looked warm as it stretched over an abundance of lean muscle. A light dusting of hair curled over that, trailing off into the waistband of the trousers he was now unbuttoning.

“You have never seen a man like this,” he mused. Somehow she tore her gaze from the shocking sight of the gaping fly of his pants and looked at him.

“No,” she admitted.

“Not a servant? Not a relative? Not even a picture?”

he asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing. Never.”

He smiled as he pushed his trousers away and stood before her in ful nudity. “And what do you think?”

She swal owed as she let her gaze move downward again. She had heard about a man’s…instrument…his
cock
, she had heard her married sisters giggling about once. She had tried to picture it, but it had never been like
this
in her daydreams.

He was thick, the swol en thrust of him probably close to the width of her three fingers pressed together. As for length, she hadn’t expected that, either.

“You are to fit that inside of me?” she asked, trying to picture such a thing. She might not have ever seen a man naked, but she had certainly touched herself. With one finger inside of her channel she felt ful . Before he answered, she watched as his cock actual y changed.

“It is moving,” she whispered.

“ Yo u
are
an innocent,” he murmured, seemingly more to himself than to her. “As I become more excited by you, my cock fil s and becomes harder. When it is ful y erect, I wil slide it inside of you. If I have done my job correctly, your body wil be hot and slick and ready to stretch to receive me.”

She looked up, his words giving her a shiver she could not suppress.

“Is it ful y erect now?” she asked with another unwanted blush.

After a long moment of holding her gaze, he reached out and took her hand. He pul ed her closer as he closed her fingers around him. She gasped at the silkiness of his skin in comparison to the hardness of the muscle beneath.

“Stroke me,” he said, his voice strained.

Beatrice glanced up, her eyes wide. But she didn’t pul back, despite the fact that he was ordering her around again. Instead, she glided her hand up and down his length, too mesmerized by the feel of him to stop herself from exploring her curiosity.

“Do you feel me getting harder with your touch?” he asked as he dropped his mouth to just below her ear. She shivered as he stroked his tongue along the delicate skin there. “Yes,” she managed to squeak out.

“I feel it.”

“I am almost ready to fil you,” he groaned. “However, I doubt you are ready to receive me.” With an unexpected shove, he toppled her across the bedsheets. “And so I have some work of my own to do.

”

Beatrice sat up on her elbows, half terrified of what he meant and half thril ed. She had never felt so shivery and achy, so nervous and excited al at once. He leaned over her and she gasped as he grasped her ankle. His long, lean fingers curled around her and he lifted her foot up and glided her slipper off. He repeated the action on the opposite foot and tossed the shoes aside. He pushed her legs open just a fraction, which let him stand beside the bed between them. Beatrice gasped as warm air whispered over her naked skin, brushing under her chemise to her most private areas and intensifying the strange, throbbing ache there.

“A tease without even knowing it.” He chuckled. She fol owed his line of sight and blushed as she realized he was looking to where her chemise had slipped between her spread thighs and partial y covered her. She couldn’t think of a retort, she couldn’t think of anything except for the feel of his fingers as he slid them up her legs. They tickled over her knees, they smoothed her thighs until he found the tops of her stockings. One by one, he rol ed them away. His fingers glided over her bare, goose-pimpled flesh as he tugged them down and tossed them aside.

He joined her on the raised bed, crawling up on his knees and spreading her legs even farther with the width of his body.

She was torn by two reactions. One was to run away before it was too late to turn back. The other was to sit up and pul him down onto her flesh. To wrap his warmth around her, fil herself with it. She did neither

—just lay there, helpless as she let his hands touch her again.

This time his palms settled on her bare thighs. She found her back arching as powerful pleasure moved through her at the shocking touch. The tingling between her legs grew stronger, and she felt the same wetness that gathered there when she touched herself rush to her body now.

His hands glided up until they reached the lower hem of her chemise. He met her eyes and slid it up, pushing the fabric over her hips and baring her from the waist down.

“Wait,” she gasped, grasping his wrists and pushing gently as sensation and emotion overwhelmed her.

“Are you changing your mind?” he murmured as he settled down lower. His head hovered over her stomach, his eyes locked with hers, his body comfortable between her thighs.

She hesitated. Was she?

“I–I don’t know,” she final y admitted. “This is al so strange.”

“Let go,” he whispered and then his head dipped down. “Just let go, Beatrice.”

Before she could think, let alone respond, his hands moved to her inner thighs, pushing her wide and spreading the outer lips of her most private places open. She was exposed as his head dipped there and she couldn’t help but gasp out a cry when his lips touched there.

“What?” she cried out, her elbows giving out as she fel back against the mattress. “Gareth?”

He didn’t answer, just glided his tongue out and pressed it to her hot, wet flesh. He simply lapped at her entrance at first, reminding her of the second time he kissed her in the park. He had breached her lips with such unexpected delicacy and gentleness. Now he did the same, but with her lower lips. And just as she had in the park, she felt herself surrendering to the sensation. When she relaxed, it seemed to be a cue to him, for the lapping strokes of his tongue intensified. He flattened his tongue to her flesh, the pressure of his mouth growing more insistent and focused, like he was determined to clean away every drop of her juices and replace them with his own.

And it was magnificent. If her sheath had fluttered and ached before, now he awakened her nerves, her flesh al the more. Nothing she had ever done alone in the quiet of her bed could compare to this touch. This utterly wicked tasting.

His fingers joined in, spreading her open, tracing her entrance with seductive slowness. And then final y, with a flick of his wrist he found that place she always rubbed, that little hard, smooth pearl of her pleasure that was hidden within her folds. While his tongue breached and pleasured her channel, he rubbed that hidden pearl with his finger and thumb in a way more intense than anything she had done. Her hips began to buck in time to his pleasuring, moans escaped her lips and final y, with a burst of wetness and trembling, pleasure overwhelmed her and she lost al control. By the time the overpowering sensations subsided, Beatrice couldn’t have said if moments or hours had passed. Al she could do was lie back, panting, feeling her heart throb and her body twitch out the last few grasps at the pleasure she had experienced. She looked down the stretch of her body to see Gareth licking his lips as he moved up toward her.

He kissed her as he settled over her and she tasted an earthly, salty flavor on his lips. With a start, she realized it was herself she was tasting. Her mind told her to turn her head, but her body arched up instead, molding to Gareth’s hard angles.

“Now you’re ready. And I am most definitely ready,”

he said when he broke from her mouth. His eyes sparkled with intent and desire as he stared down at her.

She tensed when he positioned his hips and she felt the nudging of his cock against her entrance. Reality pierced her fog and she looked at him with what she knew was fear and hesitation. He held her gaze for a moment before he dropped his lips to hers and slid forward.

Beatrice stiffened at the breach, but instead of ful y seating himself inside of her, Gareth hesitated. The moment of respite al owed her to truly experience the moment. She felt ful , far ful er than when she touched herself, but it was not unpleasant as she had feared when she first looked upon his member. It was simply foreign and strange, but also thril ing.

She shifted below him, squeezing her internal muscles experimental y and reveling in the tingle of pleasure that echoed from that action. Above her Gareth closed his eyes with a harsh groan and she stared at him. Had
she
done that?

“You are testing my patience,” he murmured and slid forward another inch. “In the very best way possible.”

“Why be patient?” she panted as she strained up around him.

“Because I want this to be pleasurable for you,” he gasped as he moved forward again. “And if I rush it wil be less than so.”

Beatrice met his gaze again, taken aback by how intimate it felt to be so close to someone else. Being joined as they were was frightening because she felt so revealed, so dangerously vulnerable…and yet, for the first time in her life, she was wil ing to be so because the reward for her vulnerability was so sweet. His mouth dropped down, covering hers. She sank into the kiss, tightening her arms around the broad expanse of his muscled back. Her remaining anxiety faded and she simply
felt
, just as he had asked her to when they began.

Gareth took that moment to drive the last few inches home into her body. She stiffened as he breached her maidenhead, the pain of the final joining a stark reminder that pierced her haze.

He looked down at her and Beatrice was surprised to see the empathy and guilt that darkened his gaze.

“It wil never be like that again,” he reassured her softly.

She nodded, though she wasn’t total y certain she could trust any promise he made. Stil , her sisters did not seem to mind what they shared with their husbands, so that gave credence to his pledge.

“And now I want to erase this pain,” he whispered. His mouth returned to hers in a deep kiss that made her stomach clench and her blood boil. Despite the remaining pain, she shivered at his touch. At the feel of him stretching her untried body. Then he moved and she forgot everything but the new sensations that rushed through her in a powerful burst.

He arched his hips against her, driving himself deep within her womb and rubbing her pelvis in such a way that the pleasure he had evoked earlier with his tongue was intensified to new heights. She arched into each driving motion, lifting herself to meet him, digging her nails into his bare flesh as she cried out in pleasure over and over.

He had promised he would make her forget the pain of their joining, and he was fulfil ing his word with great skil . Al she could feel now, could see now, could experience now, was him. In that moment, the pleasure exploded.

She slammed her hips against his from below as she wailed out a great sound of pleasure and completion. Then she col apsed back on the bed, gasping for air as she watched him withdraw and spend against the bedsheets.

Shutting her eyes, Beatrice heaved out a great sigh. There. It was done. And there was no going back, not until she had this man’s ring on her finger.

Chapter Six

G
areth found himself staring at Beatrice as she lay, a bare arm flopped over her eyes, her breasts rising and fal ing as she panted out breath. Her skin sparkled with sweat, made pink from his touch and from the flush of orgasm.