Chapter 16 #3
“Then I’ll be gentle.” He slid in another inch and stayed still while he slowly kissed his way down her throat to her luscious breasts.
He sucked one of her nipples into his mouth and set his teeth on it, making her squirm against him, which eased the forward progression of his cock.
He felt her internal muscles clenching and smiled as he released her nipple.
“I’m going to bite your clit like that next time,” he said, and she shuddered.
“You’re going to love it, and you’ll come so hard you’ll be screaming my name.
” He returned his attention to her second nipple and grazed it with his teeth, too.
She climaxed in long, languid pulses around his cock, her fingers gripping his shoulders so hard that he suspected he’d have bruises.
He straightened, drawing her heels over his shoulders, and withdrew his cock until it was barely inside her.
“Can you see me? Can you see us?” He waited until she nodded. “Now scream for me.”
He thrust forward hard, and she reacted just as he wanted and screeched incoherently, grabbing his forearms as they climaxed together. Max fought the desire to slump over her, and he carefully set her to rights. She gazed up at him, her expression satiated. It made him want to roar like a lion.
He dropped a kiss on her breasts and got out of bed. “Do you want to sleep in a while? I’ll go down and order us some breakfast.”
She pulled the covers up over herself and waved vaguely at him, which he took for assent.
Max whistled as he washed and then got dressed.
After a last kiss, he went down the stairs and out into the stable yard to speak to Bennet, the coachman, and check on his horses.
Whatever else might be wrong with their relationship, sex with Allegra was delightful, and he was loathe to give it up.
Hours later as dusk approached, Allegra stared out of the carriage window at the unfamiliar countryside.
They’d turned off the main Bath Road and were now traversing smaller, more rutted country lanes, which made the carriage rock and sway, reminding her forcibly of her last excursion into the countryside.
“Are we almost there?” Allegra asked.
“Yes,” Max said. “At least, I think we are from Bennet’s directions. Are you sore?”
“My posterior is quite numb,” Allegra confessed.
“And the rest of you?” Max raised an eyebrow. “I did think of another way we could pass the time in this carriage.”
Allegra gave him her best skeptical stare. “Word games?”
“We’ve done that. I was thinking of something much more fun. You come over here and sit on my lap—facing me, obviously. I’ll get hard and then you’ll take me inside you and the rocking motion of the carriage will do the rest.”
“I am not having sex with you in a carriage!” Allegra said. “Especially when we are just about to arrive at my new home and meet the staff.”
“For someone who has quite the sexual appetite, you are such a prude.”
“I do not have …” Allegra paused. “I am simply doing my duty.”
Max snorted. “Doing your duty is lying there stiff as a board waiting desperately for your husband to finish his business and leave you in peace. It certainly isn’t begging your husband to fuck you.”
“I have never said those words.” Allegra glared at him.
“You will.”
He had the audacity to wink. Before she could get properly cross with him, he looked out of the window. “We’re slowing down. I see a set of gateposts ahead.”
The gates were open, and there didn’t appear to be anyone inhabiting the gatehouse.
They progressed up a long drive lined with elm trees and came under an arch into a graveled circular feature in front of the house.
The house was built of the local honey-colored Bath stone and had a central front door flanked by four windows on each side.
It appeared to have four stories, and what she presumed were the attic windows were set behind a parapet on the roof.
The carriage drew to a stop in front of an entrance that sat above a set of wide steps and a pillared porch. Allegra didn’t wait for Max to help her out but descended by herself.
It was surprisingly quiet after the hectic noise of London.
Birds sang, and the wind whispered through the trees.
From what Allegra could see, the house sat within formal gardens to the front and rear.
There was a second arch to the left that she guessed led to the stables.
Pastureland stretched from the gardens to the horizon.
Max stood looking at the fountain, which was not currently working. He joined her and looked up at the front door, frowning. It desperately needed a coat of paint.
“Where are the staff?” he asked. “They should be expecting us. I sent them a message yesterday.”
Bennet called down from the box, “Shall I take the carriage around to the stables, my lord?”
“Be my guest,” Max said. “And please make yourself known to the staff in the house when you’ve settled the horses. You deserve a good meal and a bed to sleep in.”
Bennet nodded, clicked to the horses, and drove through the archway, leaving Max and Allegra in the unsettling silence.
“Should we knock?” Allegra suggested. “Perhaps they are too busy preparing for our arrival to have noticed the carriage.”
Max didn’t look convinced, but he walked up to the door, raised the knocker, and gave it a good thump. Nothing happened. Allegra checked the windows, but no one leaned out to welcome them.
“Maybe there is an entrance at the back,” Allegra said.
“We shouldn’t have to enter our new home for the first time through the servants’ quarters,” Max said in a tone Allegra had never heard from him before.
“Well, it’s surely better than standing here all day.” Allegra started walking, following the carriage through the archway.
After a moment, Max followed her, but he didn’t look pleased.
To Allegra’s relief, it did appear that Bennet had not only found the stables but someone to help him with the horses, which meant the property wasn’t completely deserted.
She spied a back door slightly ajar and headed across the cobbled inner courtyard toward it.
It was dark inside, but Allegra could hear voices. She walked along a short corridor and noted a scullery, a laundry, and the entrance to a cellar. Soon, she found herself in the kitchen. Three people startled as she came in.
“Good afternoon,” Allegra said.
The man sitting at the table stared at her. “Who the devil are you?”
Max’s hand came down hard on her shoulder. “You are speaking to the Marchioness of Blanchard. Who in damnation are you?”