Chapter 12
12
Too many emotions collided and crashed in Penny’s chest. How was she meant to resist such an impossibly complex, charming, devastating man?
He is not a man; he is my enemy.
But even her internal voice sounded doubtful.
What enemy claimed she was fascinating? What enemy admitted he would provide his staff with luxuries unheard of below-stairs even if it did not win him the affections of a lowly maid? Liam confounded her. He was an endlessly complex puzzle she desperately wanted to solve. But instead of understanding him, she was only more confused.
What if he is not guilty of these crimes?
Evil men rarely admitted their own darkness. But Liam spoke openly about fearing becoming his father. Evil men didn’t give choices. They took what they wanted. But Liam granted her the choice to leave. To stay. To deny him. To accept him. Evil men rarely felt guilt for their deeds, but Liam was torturing himself, not just for his own failings, but those of his father. Yet his words contrasted drastically with his actions.
What was she to believe? His words? His deeds? Her own instincts about the man? And what of Daisy Williams? Was Liam telling the truth? Did he save the girl from an abusive father or condemn her to a darker fate with the Devil’s Sons? What of the letters Penny found? Did they damn Liam? What of the Queen’s suspicions? Was that proof enough of his guilt?
She had no hard evidence. Only speculation, possibility, doubts shrouded in contradiction and conjecture. Nothing she could use against him. Nothing she could use as a reason to deny her attraction. An attraction that was becoming stronger by the moment. Fuelled by Liam’s confessions of a man desperate to be better than his circumstances. A desire she understood intimately.
If she were judging Liam by her instincts, her experiences with him, her observations of his character, she couldn’t condemn him as an evil man. Every moment with him highlighted his desire to act with honour.
Her mind was a web of conflicting truths. A path forward was impossible. She needed to re-establish distance between them.
‘There is nothing fascinating about me. Remember? I am just plain Penny Smith.’
Liam smiled; the fan of lines framing his brilliant eyes only heightened his appeal.
Everything about this man is enticing.
‘Plain Penny Smith?’ Liam scoffed. ‘Hardly.’ Liam buried his fingers in her hair, gripping the back of her head. He held her hip with his other hand, his fingers flexing slightly, holding her steady against his lap. She couldn’t ignore the hard ridge of his erection pressing against her bottom. While she’d never had personal experience with the strange appendage, neither was she ignorant of what it meant. He wanted her.
Reckless, silly woman. This is a mistake. For so many reasons, I do not belong with this man.
But she was exhausted with all the unanswerable questions. All the confusion. Her attraction to Liam was easy. Undeniable. A clear point in the mist and mystery of her investigation. Because she wanted him too. Just as fiercely as he wanted her. And for just one, simple, sweet moment, she wanted to forget everything else except that.
‘How do I fascinate you, Lord William Renquist?’ It was a dangerous question. His answer could so easily dismantle every wall Penny had built against him.
Liam’s eyes flicked over her features as if he would memorise each one. His regard was intoxicating, and her head buzzed. She was drunk on his desire for her. On her desire for him.
‘You value honour and honesty in others because you embody such ideals within yourself.’ He leaned close, his nose skating along her jawline. He whispered the words into her ear like a wizard weaving a spell. ‘You don’t shy away from difficult tasks. You don’t make excuses for your own failures. You don’t expect anyone to offer you success. You fight to claim what victories you have earned.’
Penny tried to keep her head and not be swept away by his words. ‘I am no better than any other member of your staff. No more honourable. No braver.’
Liam pulled back, but his fingers massaged her neck gently. He squeezed her hip. ‘Truly? Would Mrs Harding have faced off against those two brutes in the alley?’
For a moment, Penny tried to imagine it. Strangely, the image was not so difficult to conjure. She failed to hide her smile. ‘If she had, I doubt they would have survived the encounter.’
Liam’s own lips twitched. ‘Perhaps Mrs Harding wasn’t the best example. But it still stands, Penny. You are an amazing woman.’ Liam cupped her face. His fingers were both gentle and firm as he drew her closer. He pressed a kiss to her mouth, but then he waited. Refusing to take. Instead, he was asking her permission.
And that was impossible to resist.
Liam. I don’t know if you are guilty of the crimes I investigate, but you are nothing like your father.
Penny was tired. Her ankle ached. She was scared she wouldn’t find evidence to earn the reward money to save her mother, and equally terrified she would. The amount of work needing to be completed in the next few days was daunting, and despite her slice of pie, she was still hungry. But when Liam kissed her like that, everything else disappeared.
A new yearning blossomed low in her belly. An ache creating a rush of wet heat between her legs. A hollow need pulsing in her core. A hunger for something far more decadent than pheasant pie or vanilla blancmange.
She wanted Liam. And she could actually have him. For a fragile fragment of time, her desires were simple and attainable.
So she let go of everything else and sank into the moment. Leaning into his body, she opened her mouth and let his tongue dart inside, swirling with her own, tasting and tantalising. His heat washed over her skin, increasing the inferno raging in her blood. But when his hand grazed over her breast, the reality of what they might do engulfed her. She froze, and he immediately broke their kiss.
‘What’s wrong?’
As an intelligent woman with more responsibilities than resources, Penny had protected her virginity. Not out of some misguided moral estimation of value, nor out of lack of opportunity. If she were willing, there were no shortage of available men who would divest her of the virtue she so viciously guarded. But Penny wasn’t a fool. Laying with a man led to pregnancy. And pregnancy would end her work opportunities. It would take away the limited options she toiled endlessly to create. It would doom her to a life of destitution. The same life her mother accepted when she fell pregnant with Penny. And so, she remained intact because the risk incurred from a passionate affair was far greater for her than her male counterpart. And far more likely to destroy her carefully created world than any potential pleasure she might gain.
She reluctantly pulled away from him. ‘I can’t risk pregnancy.’
Her mysterious marquess’ mouth turned up in a wicked smile. ‘Ah. A wise woman. But rest assured. There are a million ways to receive pleasure, Penny. To give it in return. Only one of those ways can result in pregnancy; I swear, I will never ask that of you.’
Penny’s brows drew down in confusion. ‘I don’t understand.’ She was illiterate, but far from ignorant. She had seen and heard many things in prison, on the streets of St Giles, even in the houses where she worked. But always, there was thrusting, grunting, panting… penetration. That is how all men – and a few lucky women – found their pleasure. Her mother had explained this to Penny and warned her of the dangers inherent in sharing one’s body with another. What trick was Liam trying to play?
Penny pulled his hand free from where he loosely gripped her neck. She took his other hand from her hip and placed them both on top of each other in her lap. ‘I won’t be made a fool of, Liam. I might be a virgin, but I know what happens between a man and a woman. And I know that pleasure often results in pregnancy. I refuse to put myself in that position.’
Liam exhaled. Turning one hand over, he toyed with the edge of her apron. His other hand traced down her thigh from hip to knee.
Dear God. I should have left his hands where they were.
‘Penny, did you know a man can use his mouth on a woman’s quim to bring her pleasure? And when he does, there is no chance of her falling pregnant.’
What the bloody hell? No, I did not know that!
Penny shrugged. ‘Yes. Of course I know that.’ She refused to give him an advantage. Even if it meant bluffing.
Lying.
Bluffing.
Liam’s smile grew wider. He licked his lips and squeezed her leg, his questing fingers trailing from the outside of one thigh to the inner point where they pressed together.
‘Then I’m sure you also know the intensity a woman can feel when she reaches her crisis this way.’
The fire must be raging. It was stifling hot, and all the air in the room had been consumed in the blaze. Penny fought to suck in a shallow breath. ‘Exactly,’ she squeaked.
‘As you are so knowledgeable, I’m sure you don’t need me to explain how the cluster of nerves hidden within a woman’s inner petals can be licked, sucked, and nibbled on until the culminating feeling crashes over her like a wave of ecstasy.’
Oh. Dear. God.
Penny squeezed her thighs together against the ever-growing ache. A new rush of need washed through her core.
‘R-right,’ Penny stuttered.
‘And while you know all of these things, I wonder if you’ve ever experienced them.’
‘I…’ The words died on her tongue as all rational thought fled her mind.
Liam lifted her as if she weighed nothing. He slid off the chair and onto his knees, positioning her to take his place on the cushions. His intrepid fingers gripped the hem of her skirt and started to lift it. ‘Would you like to experience them? Would you like to feel my tongue flicking your core? My lips sucking so sweetly until you come apart? My breath heating the delicate flesh I would wager, even now, is weeping for such affection?’
Bloooooddddyyyy helllll.
Penny’s cheeks were on fire. She could barely swallow, let alone put words to her racing thoughts. To experience the intensity he described, find a culmination to the increasingly sweet and sharp need building between her thighs, gain first-hand knowledge of such intimacy with a man as potent as the Marquess of Stoneway. It was unimaginable.
So why not let him show me? No risk of pregnancy, no promises or expectations. Just this moment. Here, now, then forever gone.
‘You swear it changes nothing? Not my position in this house, not your expectations of me, not my standing amongst the other servants… nothing?’
Liam didn’t answer right away. His warm hand squeezed her ankle gently as his gaze flicked down, no doubt surreptitiously checking her injury.
Impossible man.
He must have found it healing satisfactorily, for his eyes quickly returned to hers. ‘It changes nothing unless you wish it to.’
A vague answer, but also an agreement.
Huzzah!
Without breaking eye contact, she dipped her chin, then tipped it up in silent assent.
‘I need to hear you say it, Penny.’
‘Why?’
‘I need to know you are doing this of your own volition. Not because I’m asking. Not because I want this. Not because you have been trained to meet your employer’s every need. But because you want this.’ His thumb rubbed her ankle in slow and intoxicating circles. ‘And if you don’t want this, you needn’t say a thing. You can stand up and walk out of here and I shall never mention this moment again, nor shall your treatment here be altered in any way.’
Should she do this?
Decidedly not.
Did she want to do this?
Undoubtably.
Did she need to do this?
Most desperately.
Decision made.
‘I want this,’ Penny whispered.
‘What do you want? You must tell me. I won’t assume.’
Why is he always so difficult?
Penny cleared her throat, took a breath, and pretended to be confident. ‘I want you to…’ She couldn’t maintain eye contact for this bit, so instead, she looked at his golden hair curling too long at his temple. ‘Lick me… or nibble… or whatever is going to make this ache ease.’ She shifted on the chair. But instead of alleviating her need, it only became more acute. Her nipples hardened into equally sharp points of sensation, somehow magically connected to the hollow emptiness in her core.
‘Are you sure?’ His amber eyes were heavy lidded as his rough voice dropped even deeper.
‘Damn it. Either do it or tell me to leave. I give you permission, Liam. R-ravish me with your mouth. In fact, I command you to do it. How about that? Will you disobey my command?’ Good lord! She couldn’t be any clearer. He need not worry that he was taking advantage.
The corner of his mouth tweaked up in a half-smile. ‘I knew I would be better at following your orders than you are at following mine. How could I possibly disobey Penny Smith? Tonight, you hold the reins.’
Gripping her skirt in shaking fingers, she tugged the cotton up, exposing her woollen stockings and pale knees.
Liam leaned back, tilting his head to see what Penny could not. The shape of her calves, the plain ribbon holding her stockings in place just below her knees. The dark space between her thighs where such mysteries waited to be revealed. She watched his expression shift from appreciation to something darker. Determination. Everywhere his eyes caught on her sparked and fizzed, as if his gaze were a physical thing. He skated his hand up from her ankle, over her muscled calf, to the ribbon. Clever fingers tickled the skin behind her knee.
Damnation!
A once-innocuous part of her body was suddenly painfully arousing.
He took the end of the ribbon and slowly pulled it free of the bow she hastily tied earlier that morning. The pressure around her calf released and he eased the stocking down to her shoe. But he didn’t take off her boots. Instead, he moved on to the second ribbon. Tickling back up her calves with both hands, he swirled small circles on the tender skin.
‘Will you lift your skirts higher for me, sweet Penny?’
I’ll do anything you ask if you keep touching me like that.
A dangerous admission granting him far too much power. Thankfully, she didn’t say the words aloud. Instead, she pressed up on her heels, lifting her bottom from the chair and bunching her skirts around her waist. Liam growled in a predatory sound that was so inflammatory, Penny worried she might melt into a puddle on the velvet upholstery. As a former lady’s maid, she knew how many layers of petticoats, lace, and frills a woman of the beau monde wore under her dress. Penny had two. One petticoat of worn cotton, and her chemise with a simple, front-clasping corset. With her skirt, petticoat and chemise hiked around her waist, nothing would impede Liam’s view of… everything. Her intimate flesh on blatant display.
Cool air wafted over her. There was no chance he wouldn’t notice the wetness glistening between her thighs. Dear God. What will he think?
‘You are perfect, Penny.’
Oh.
A bubble of joy burst in her belly, effervescent delight spiralling outward to the very tips of her fingers and edges of her toes.
His large hand slipped up her leg. Mesmerised by the contrast of his darker skin against her much whiter flesh, she couldn’t tear her gaze away.
With gentle but undeniable pressure, he pushed her legs apart, making room for himself in the cradle of her thighs.
‘Unbutton your top for me. I want to see your pretty breasts.’ Amber eyes burned with such intensity, Penny felt their heat like a brand.
She bit her lip, noticing how Liam’s entire body tightened in response. Crouched between her legs, she couldn’t see the part of him most dissimilar to her own body. ‘Will I get to see you?’ Shocked by her own boldness, she felt a thrill of something. Similar to fear, but far more delicious.
Liam’s wide grin was breathtaking. ‘I’ll show you whatever you like. But first, please Penny, unbutton for me.’
She fumbled with the five buttons holding the top of her dress closed. Her corset was low, and her chemise was loose. It was easy to pull the thin cotton down enough to expose herself. Her breasts were neither small nor large. Her nipples neither dark nor light. Rather nondescript, in her estimation. But it seemed Liam felt otherwise.
‘Fuck,’ he groaned.
The vulgarity uttered with such reverence made Penny feel like a queen.
It’s almost better than being called perfect.
‘Touch them. Brush your hands over your nipples until they burn.’ His words wound around her, creating a wicked spell entrancing her to obey. She gasped at the sweet sensation of her rough fingers rasping over the puckered peaks. It was a heady thing to control her pleasure while he watched.
‘Hellfire.’ The words of her youth resurfaced.
‘That’s it, sweetheart. Pinch them. Harder.’ His amber eyes were focused on where she played with herself. His feather-soft touch tracing higher up her leg. She did as he directed, rolling each bud between her fingers until the corresponding fissure of pleasure between her thighs pulsed with her pounding heart. ‘Keep going, darling.’
His endearments were making her already-fuzzy head swim. She couldn’t take it all in. He pushed her legs wider apart and lowered his head. The rasp of his whiskers scratched against her inner thigh.
‘Dear God!’ Penny jolted upright.
Gripping her hip, Liam kept her still when she instinctively tried to squirm away.
‘Trust me, Penny. It’s going to be so good. I promise.’ He was looking up at her from between her spread legs. The scene was impossibly erotic. Her pale thighs glowing in firelight. Her breasts quivering each time she moved. And Liam’s mouth, whispering against her skin, drifting ever closer to the aching flesh pulsing with need.
‘This can’t be right.’ Never had Penny imagined a man would want to put his mouth there .
‘Let me show you how right it can be.’ He pressed an open-mouthed kiss against her inner thigh, sucking hard enough to make her jolt again.
‘God!’
‘No. Liam.’ His eyes sparkled as his lips curved. ‘Keep touching your breasts; show me what you like.’
Penny leaned back against the chair again. Watching him was overwhelming. Instead, she closed her eyes and focused on feeling.
Her fingers pinching and squeezing.
His breath heating already enflamed, wet flesh.
He licked her slit, separating the folds with his firm tongue and Penny screamed.
His mouth was a magical thing, flicking, laving, sucking, biting her inner flesh until he found a cluster of pleasure hidden and hard at the apex of her entrance. The swollen bud was desperate for friction.
Penny cried out again as he tortured the sweet, secret jewel, hard licks, then whisper-soft kisses. Swirling circles, then long, scraping rasps with his tongue. She was spinning higher, deeper, flying apart one piece at a time. He pushed a finger into her, stretching untried muscles, then thrusting in rhythm with his mouth. It was too much. Not enough. Everything.
He flattened his tongue, rubbing against her until she burned. On a guttural cry, she let the flames engulf her, consuming what she once was and forging something entirely new, something incandescent. Something eternal.