Chapter 16 #2
Roman removed his hat and gloves as he followed her. She couldn’t just go to bed. He needed to make sure she believed him when he said he could never think poorly of her. But he also didn’t wish to upset her further.
When she reached the door to her chamber, she turned partially toward him. “I’m going to bed now.”
“I don’t want to say good night like this,” he said. “I can see you’re upset.”
She hesitated, then ultimately exhaled before opening the door and stepping into her chamber. The fact that she didn’t close it behind herself led him to believe he was welcome to go in after her. So, he did and then closed the door firmly.
“The household is still awake,” she pointed out as she removed her gloves and tossed them on her dressing table.
“I know. I won’t stay long.” He watched as she unclasped her cloak, then moved to take it from her shoulders.
She gestured to a hook in the corner, and he went to hang it there. When he turned back around, he saw that she’d stepped out of her slippers. Her gaze was now seductive, surprising him after she’d said she wanted to go to bed. Did she have any idea how alluring she was?
“You said you didn’t want to ‘say good night like this,’” she said. “How were you hoping to say good night?”
“The way we usually do.” Roman crossed to her in two large steps and swept her into his arms.
Their eyes met briefly, and the only thing he saw was a dark desire that matched his own.
He kissed her with a heady passion that forced all other thoughts from his mind.
She pressed against him as she skimmed her hands up beneath his coat and clasped his shoulders.
He could feel her fingertips digging into him through the fabric of his waistcoat and shirt.
He twitched, desperate to remove the coat.
She understood and pushed the garment over his shoulders and down his arms. It quickly found the floor.
Then her hands were on his cravat, loosening the knotted silk that Graham had so painstakingly tied earlier.
Roman clutched her waist as he kissed her again, his tongue thrusting against hers as they fought feverishly to claim the other.
His cravat disappeared, and she began unbuttoning his waistcoat.
When it was open, she pulled his shirt from his breeches and unfastened his fall.
She tucked her hand inside and stroked his cock.
Roman strained against her, his hips rotating mindlessly as she worked him into a desperate state of need.
Roman tore his mouth from hers. “Your gown. Front or back?”
“Front. I don’t have a maid.” He brought his hands up and pulled at the slender cord holding her neckline taut above her breasts.
Damn, but he was woefully out of practice.
Though he didn’t think he’d ever stripped the garments from a woman in this manner.
Indeed, he would tear them from Ellis’s body if it wouldn’t be too beastly.
He latched his mouth onto her neck, suckling her flesh as she panted. “I want to rip every garment from you.”
“You can’t ruin my clothing,” she rasped. “I don’t have much.”
“I’ll buy you a new wardrobe. Anything you want.” He would give her the sun and the moon and every goddamn star in the sky.
She put one hand on his cheek and drew him to look at her. The blue of her eyes shone incandescent in the firelight. “I don’t want a wardrobe. I only want you.”
Roman groaned before seizing her mouth in another nearly brutal kiss. She clutched at his head as she pumped his cock. If she didn’t stop, he was going to come, and that would be a shame. He didn’t want to spend in her hand before he could feel the velvet crush of her sex pulsing around him.
Managing to loosen her bodice enough for the front of the gown to fall, he swept the garment up over her head and cast it aside. “Women have too many bloody garments,” he muttered as he kissed the tops of her breasts.
She awkwardly pulled his waistcoat away, using her free hand to tug the garment from his back. In the end, she had to take her hand from him long enough to remove it entirely. Roman took advantage and turned her about, pressing her back against her bed.
“Not fair,” she whispered as he worked to unlace her corset.
He struggled to pull the ties loose. “For the love of God, help me,” he begged as his fingers continued to fail.
Pushing his hands aside, she finished his work, quickly loosening the garment until she could thrust it down her body. Roman watched greedily as her breasts were freed from their cage. While she worked to remove the corset completely, he cupped her through her chemise.
Ellis arched her back, offering more of herself.
Then she untied the lace at the top of the chemise that cinched the neck and tugged the thin garment down, baring her to his hunger.
She put one hand over his and used the other to guide his head to her breast, urging him to taste her.
He grunted as he closed his mouth over her nipple.
She cried out softly, scoring his scalp with her nails.
He licked and suckled her, ravishing first one breast, then the other.
She pushed the straps of petticoat from her shoulders and somehow kicked the garment away.
Her hands came up under his shirt, skimming his abdomen.
He straightened briefly to whisk the shirt off.
As he did so, she lifted herself onto the bed, her legs dangling between them.
She wore only the chemise, with her breasts bared, and her stockings, held up by simple ribbon garters.
But Roman was out of patience, and it seemed, so was she.
Ellis grabbed at his waist as she spread her legs and wrapped them around him.
He put his hand between them and stroked her clitoris.
Thrusting his fingers lower, he found her wet sheath.
She arched her back, then moved her pelvis, grinding her sex against him.
“Come into me, Roman. Now.” She reached for his cock, and their hands met as they guided him into her body.
He drove hard and fast, and her muscles immediately clenched around him. She fell back on the bed as he thrust into her, working hard against his own impending orgasm. He would not come, not until she had fully climaxed.
Over and over, he filled her. By now, he recognized the signs of her body as she neared release.
Her sex spasmed around him, squeezing him relentlessly.
She stiffened, and he rubbed her clitoris with a firm, intense speed until she cried out his name and shattered into pieces.
He didn’t stop moving as he saw her through the climax, somehow managing to keep his own completion at bay.
Her body slackened, and her whimpers quieted. That was when Roman let go. He drove into her several more times and her sex contracted around him once more. He nearly forgot to pull away, but he did, pivoting his body so he would not spill himself on her.
She typically joined her hand with his, but not tonight. He didn’t think about it. Not now, as his body shuddered with an overwhelming orgasm. He gripped the bedpost with his free hand as he finished.
When he finally fell from the height of ecstasy, he opened his eyes. Ellis was no longer on the bed. He blinked, and she was suddenly at his side, pressing a cloth into his hand. Then, she was gone.
He tidied himself, then re-buttoned his fall. When he straightened, he saw that Ellis was back on the bed, sitting up against the headboard. She wore a night rail, that was, disappointingly, opaque.
“Are you going to bed now?” she asked.
He usually stayed. Or she stayed with him, depending on where they were on any given night. But it was early, and she’d been right—the household was still awake. In fact, he worried they might have been heard, especially since Graham had likely come up to see if he required assistance. Damn.
“I would like to talk, if you’re amenable.
” He perched on the edge of the bed. “It’s important to me that you know I wouldn’t ever think badly of you.
I asked you to trust me, and you said you did.
I hope you always will.” He could see she was torn.
Her features were creased, and her eyes were dark and troubled.
Roman didn’t want to tell her about the duchess’s letter.
It was too horrible. It seemed obvious that Ellis had left the Henlow household because of the duchess.
But was it just because she’d been treated poorly?
That would certainly be enough, especially now that Lady Minerva was married and she no longer needed Ellis as a companion. Why would Ellis remain?
“It is it to do with the Duchess of Henlow?” he asked softly.
Her eyes widened as she sat up straight from the headboard. “What do you know?” she asked in alarm.
“Only that her family has banished her for some reason. I wondered if it might have something to do with you, since you left the household. Did she drive you away?”
Ellis put her hand to her mouth and looked away from him. “Yes, it’s to do with her. She has always hated me—since the day I went to live with them after my parents died. It never made sense to me. It still doesn’t.”
She met his gaze once more, and her eyes were now bright with emotion. “I recently learned the duchess is my mother, that I’m the illegitimate offspring of an affair. It’s ironic, since so many people assumed I was Henlow’s by-blow. But she is my parent, not him.”
Roman stared at her, shocked by this revelation. Whatever he’d anticipated, it had never been this. “You had no idea?”
She shook her head. “Why would I think a woman who loathed me could be my mother? I didn’t even realize I’d been adopted until recently, though perhaps I should have known since I don’t particularly resemble either of my parents.”