Chapter 23 #2
Christ, he was filled with a poison-like envy that burnt like acid on the inside.
Shaken as he’d never once been in his life—not with Arran McQuoid’s ultimate betrayal, not even when he’d watched on hopelessly as his beloved ship sank to the bottom of the sea—Tremaine stalked over to the matching fireplace that filled his wife’s chambers.
He gripped the marble mantel in both hands and stared blankly at the flames dancing so gently amidst his upheaval.
He didn’t want to feel this way.
Tremaine squeezed his eyes shut.
He couldn’t afford to.
As it was, ultimately he’d only really married Linnie for revenge and retribution. Certainly, she’d find out. It was only a matter of time. Nor had he ever intended for his treachery to remain a secret.
Why, then, was he going mad because of her?
Perhaps this is the punishment for the betrayal you ultimately perpetrated against her. Maybe this is the price that will be extracted for the lengths you’ve gone to, to thwart McQuoid.
Warm, gentle hands touched his back.
His muscles bunched under Linnie’s tender touch.
Then, as soft as a butterfly’s wings, he felt it: Linnie pressed a kiss against the blade of his right shoulder.
The anger went out of him.
“You were right before,” he said tiredly. “I am a bloody hypocritical arse.”
“Yes,” she agreed, a gentle smile tingeing her lyrical voice.
Tremaine felt her go up on tiptoes against him. The sough of her breath fanned his ear.
“But bloody hypocritical arse or not, husband, I love you all the same.”
Tremaine turned so quickly, he knocked Linnie’s hands from him.
“You love me?” he demanded harshly.
That same soft smile he’d heard in her response now wreathed her lips. “I love you,” she repeated.
Her expression became all solemnity. “I love you and only you. You are the only man I’ve ever loved and will ever love. I’ve loved you since I was a girl of eleven, and I will love you until I draw my last breath, Jeremy Renwood Tremaine.”
His dull mind struggled to keep up with each and every revelation tumbling from her beautiful lips.
She loved him.
He didn’t believe in the emotion. There was lovemaking, and that was, for Tremaine, the extent of how that first word should be used.
Taking his right hand in hers, Linnie guided it to her breast.
He knew the unspoken meaning as to why she’d placed his palm over her beating heart and his own organ thumped at a slow, uncomfortable tempo. Her gesture she intended as a romantic one. Tremaine, instead, focused on the sexual nature of that forced caress.
Not taking his gaze from Linnie’s, he stroked her pert nipple and the peak pebbled.
Linnie’s breath caught, and he was saved from the emotionality of what he’d allowed the night to become.
He cupped her other breast and then, with both hands, teased her swollen tips until Linnie’s body grew taut and her breath shallow.
“You love having your nipples played with,” he remarked, his voice roughened.
“Yes!” Linnie undulated her hips.
Giving thanks for the modest nightshift she wore, he slipped the article down past her shoulders. The white cotton garment fell in a whispered whoosh about her waist and caught at her hips.
Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss upon her right breast. “You are so beautiful,” he said huskily, placing a worshipful trail along her collarbone.
Linnie gazed wistfully at him. “I am not, but you make me believe I am.”
From another woman, those words would have been a searching ploy for compliments. Linnie’s shy voice contained the raw honesty of one who believed the nonsense she spoke.
“You are a queen amongst mortals, Linnie Tremaine. You are my queen.”
He took one of her nipples into his mouth and lightly sucked.
Linnie moaned.
Tremaine turned his attention to her previously neglected tip. “Say it!”
“I am your queen, and you are my king.”
A hiss burst from his lips. Yes! She belonged to him and only him. He’d triumphed over Culross and every other man, and never had Tremaine celebrated the spoils of war more than he did right now with his bride.
My bride . . .
Like a caged tiger set free to finally join with his mate, Tremaine kissed Linnie all over.
He left no part of her untouched; he laved her nipples and suckled, one at a time, and then bringing her flesh together, he flicked his tongue back and forth between the peaks until Linnie’s hedonistic keening drummed in his ears.
Never ceasing the attention he gave her thrusting nipples, he reached under her skirts to test her wetness.
“You are drenched,” he rasped.
Linnie’s legs went out from under her.
Tremaine removed his hand and caught her as she collapsed.
Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to the center of the bed and laid her down gently upon the silk coverlet.
“I want to see all of you, Linnie,” he said harshly. “No more stolen exchanges. No more sneaking about. From this day forward, we are free to make love here and anywhere we want, in every way.”
Tremaine guided her nightshift past her hips and tossed the garment aside. Then she lay bare before him.
He drank in the exquisite sight of her: high, perfect breasts, trim waist, gently flared hips, slender, supple thighs—at the apex of which was a neat triangle of tight honey-blond curls.
Tremaine ran a palm up and down the length of her thigh. “Spread your legs for me,” he coaxed.
The order hadn’t even fully formed on his lips and she’d already let them splay.
“I’ve dreamed of tasting you again,” he whispered, sliding down her body until he lay with his face against her cunny.
“Mmm.” Linnie bucked her hips wildly.
“You want that,” he tormented, teasing her nub between his thumb and forefinger. Though with the fire raging within, Tremaine couldn’t sort out whether he or Linnie suffered the most.
He placed a kiss atop her damp curls.
She parted her legs wider for him.
“Tell me what you want and I will give it to you, Linnie. You need but ask.” Driving her—and himself—mad, Tremaine darted his tongue inside her slit.
Linnie sobbed. “I want you to kiss me.”
“Your cunny, Linnie. You want me to kiss your cunny,” he rasped, no longer sure which of them was in control.
“Yes!” she cried. “I want you to kiss my cunny.”
Growling his approval, Tremaine rewarded Linnie’s obedience and set to work pleasuring her. He plunged his tongue inside, fucking her with his mouth.
Moaning her gratitude and approval, Linnie tangled her fingers in Tremaine’s hair and gripped his head tight while he lapped her. The sweet, musky scent of her flooded his senses like the most potent aphrodisiac, of which he’d experienced many in his travels.
Never had bringing a woman off gotten him harder than steel, so all that mattered was Linnie’s gratification. Something about his young bride had made Tremaine’s sole purpose in bed to bring her the ultimate satisfaction.
Panting, he sucked at her swollen folds and clit. As he did, her body grew increasingly tense.
“J-Jeremy.” Her voice grew pitchy.
“You want to spend, my queen,” he panted sharply against her honeyed thatch.
“Yes!” she begged.
Tremaine threw aside his robe. “I’m going to suck you until you come,” he said hoarsely. “Just when you finish, I’m going to enter you swiftly, Linnie, and make love to you like I’ve wanted to do from the instant you came upon me in that art room. And then I’ll make you come all over again.”
“Please!” she wept.
Curling his palms under her supple buttocks, he dragged her hips closer to his mouth and buried his tongue deep inside her slit.
Linnie’s lithe body stiffened, and then, as he’d promised, she was coming long and loudly; his name emerged amidst the ramblings of her incoherent cries.
Sweat rolled down his cheeks; he continued stroking her harder.
Then, before she collapsed into her climax, Tremaine wrenched his head away and climbed between her legs.
He braced his elbows on either side of her head, framing her within the shield of his arms.
Leaning down, Tremaine caught one of her nipples between his lips, still slick and swollen from his mouth. He reached between her legs with his fingers, stroking her back to life until she was moaning again and lifting her hips in search of another surrender.
He roved his eyes over her delicate features, her high cheeks flushed from her release. Her long lashes fluttering to reveal wondrous green irises, smoky with desire. There’d never been a woman more magnificent than her.
His pulse drummed in his ears. I’ve never wanted anything or anyone as much as I want you, Linnie Tremaine . . .
Linnie’s luminous eyes went wide and her lips parted. “Oh,” she whispered, in proof he’d breathed that shocking and terrifying admission to life.
Terror plucked at the corners of his mind. He donned a wicked grin and rubbed his length in a small circle over the flat of her belly. “I’m going to make love to you, sweetheart, in every way,” he said silkily.
Linnie stretched her right hand up, cupped his cheek, and stroked him with the tenderest touch. “I would like that very much, husband.”
Husband.
Another surge of blood shot through his cock.
Tremaine slid himself inch by inch inside her tight, hot womanhood. Her slippery wetness eased his way, but she fit him like a glove. He clenched his teeth. “You feel so damned good, Linnie.” She was so bloody tight; all he wanted to do was bury himself ballocks deep inside her.
“And you feel s-so good inside me.”
He hissed; his body jerked.
It took all his willpower and strength to keep from turning feral over her passion-filled utterance and rutting her mindlessly.
Closing his eyes, Tremaine buried his head between her breasts. “We’ve only just started, love,” he said thickly.
Tremaine took one of her big nipples inside his mouth and sucked as she loved to be sucked.
Moaning, Linnie lifted her hips and urged him on.
He groaned.
“I pray this doesn’t hurt, love,” he panted, and plunged inside the only place in the world he needed to be right here, right now.
Linnie’s cry rang with desire and longing, but still, drawing on a rapidly fraying restraint, he made himself go still inside her.
“Linnie-love.” A pleading note had entered the timbre of his voice. “Do you want me to stop?”
Glaring up at him with passion-filled eyes, Linnie sucked in noisy breaths. “I shall die if you do, Jeremy Tremaine.”
Relief brought his eyes sliding shut, and a strained laugh shook his body. “Well, that is fortunate, as I’d die if you said yes.”
They shared a smile, and then he began to move within her slowly—at first. Their amusement vanished as with long, smooth strokes, he eased his length inside Linnie.
Tremaine took his time to teach her. He set a sensual motion, rocking himself again and again within her exquisite channel.
She lifted her hips experimentally at first, then as she found the movement as old as time, she rose to meet his thrusts.
His breathing came faster.
Burying his mouth in hers, Tremaine consumed her lips; his tongue took on the same increasingly frenzied rhythm as his cock driving into Linnie.
He thrust into her, and like a bold Spartan warrior queen, Linnie answered his thrusting hips, taking all of him and giving freely of herself.
Their chests rose and fell, harsh and hard; her soft, heavy panting blended with the ragged, disjointed gasps of air he sucked in.
There were no words. His and Linnie’s bodies knew what they each needed—to be joined as man and woman, binding them and the vows they’d made this day.
It’d never been like this . . . Why . . . ? How . . . ?
Their bodies took on a frenzied pace.
He felt her body tense. The hot walls of Linnie’s cunny convulsed around him.
“J-Jeremy?” His name quavered, desperate.
“You’re there, love,” he cooed. “Let go and come for me,” he begged, bucking himself into her writhing, answering body. “Please!” Come before I can’t hold on any longer.
Then Linnie spasmed, and screaming against his mouth, she found the surrender she sought. All the while she came, she wept and cursed and pleaded.
Her pleasure sent him over.
At last, abandoning himself to his pleasure, Tremaine poured himself in pulsating waves within her on a low, anguished groan, taking Linnie over another crest as, this time, they climaxed together.
Still, he gripped her hips hard in his fingers and continued to drive himself inside until her channel milked him completely.
His body shuddered and convulsed on an endless orgasm.
Tossing back his head, he released a primal shout to the rafters.
“Linnie!”