Chapter 19 #2
When she reached him, she stopped and gave a slight curtsy. Colt knew she recognised him just as easily; as if by some tacit agreement, they both decided it was much more interesting to play strangers. Her lips were stained crimson, and she moistened them with the tip of her tongue.
“What a lovely evening,” she murmured, giving his figure a slow, sweeping look as though deciding whether she approved of him.
“Most beautiful,” he agreed, talking about the evening as much as the vision standing before him.
She took the glass from his hand and finished his drink. She set it down on the tray of a passing attendant.
“What do you enjoy most about Vauxhall, sir?” she asked with an unusual level of formality.
This amused Colt. “The anonymity, madam. And the excitement in the air. What is most diverting to you?”
Sarah’s hand rested lightly at the base of her throat. Her hand drifted down, her fingers travelling across her exposed chest and over the curve of her breasts. “The sense of liberty to do whatever one wants, with whomever one wants …”
Colt had enjoyed years of bantering with Sarah, but she had never flirted with him so overtly before. His chest tightened. Did she finally mean to acquiesce to their mutual desire?
“The gardens of Vauxhall boast so many secrets and mysteries,” he remarked in a low voice.
“Not to mention pleasures,” Sarah added, giving him a sultry wink through her mask.
“Shall we?” he said, extending his arm to her.
She took it, and he led her away from the crowds and down a darkened pathway.
They walked in silence for some way, occasionally hearing laughter from dark pockets of the gardens. The deeper they ventured, the more moans and grunts sounded from unseen alcoves and in amongst the trees.
Colt noticed his body reacting in anticipation. He had spent years yearning for this.
They ventured off the main path towards a small, vacant arbour. He had wanted for so many years to taste her mouth and feel her soft lips against his own. He could not hold back another instant. Without awaiting an invitation, Colt pressed Sarah up against a stone pillar and kissed her savagely.
She received his kiss most willingly, opening her mouth to his demanding tongue, digging her fingers into his back, pulling him towards her. Colt grew hard against his breeches, and Sarah rocked her hips against him as he pressed to her stomach.
He gripped her bodice and pulled it as far down as it would allow, one breast now spilling from the top.
He took her nipple between his lips, and she cried out in desire.
She pushed him back towards the stone bench and sat him down.
Within a moment, he released his cock from his breeches and groaned when she sank to the floor on her knees, resting between his thighs.
For all the years he had spent assisting maidens towards their sexual awakening, their innocence usually meant an absence of skill or confidence when it came to this sort of thing.
Sarah bent down, taking his hard flesh in her mouth, sucking him with abandon.
She gripped his corded shaft in one hand and rubbed the skin up and down in time with her mouth.
“Fuck!” he growled between his teeth, as all control deserted him. “Sarah, please,” he hissed urgently, holding both her shoulders between his hands, trying to slow her movements before he came prematurely.
She released him from her mouth, and her dark eyes held him through her mask. Her glistening red lips parted.
He beckoned her with one hand.
Sarah rose from the ground and in a swift movement climbed astride him with her skirts hitched up high.
Colt reached between her thighs with his hand. She wore no undergarments, and her own sticky moisture seeped from her core. He cursed under his breath as the mere touch of her almost cast him over the edge again.
His erection grew thick and long as he eased his way into her tight body, shallow at first and then deeper. They both groaned with pleasure as he filled her, their mouths still locked as their bodies established a brisk rhythm.
He braced her with one arm, and she leaned against him, arching her back while grinding herself down, taking him to the hilt.
“You will finish me quickly, Sarah,” he warned her between gasps. He tried to guide her movements to a slower rhythm, but Sarah refused to allow him to dictate the pace.
“Then finish quickly,” she murmured near his ear, gripping his shoulders and bouncing herself on him frantically.
Colt then caught her mouth in a kiss and, as her body clenched around him, growled as his load spilled inside her.
Sarah threw her head back and cried out. They shuddered together, both panting.
Colt swallowed, his breaths shaking.
They remained joined, cradling each other, thus catching their breath.
Sarah had collapsed against his chest, clutching him as the waves slowly subsided.
He held her in his arms, her body precious and revered.
He did not want to move lest he lose her forever.
He savoured every throb and inhaled the sweet scent of her hair.
Eventually, she clambered off him, and he reluctantly let her go.
She at once became preoccupied with smoothing out her gown and restoring her bodice to order, keeping her eyes away from him.
Colt watched her in silence. Did he read sadness on her face? Still breathless, he stuffed the remains of his erection back into his breeches along with his shirttails. He corrected his own attire and refastened his domino, which had fallen to the ground in their lovemaking.
She cleared her throat. “Do not get any ideas from this, Robert.”
A pang of disappointment shot through Colt. He forced a laugh and tucked a straying tendril of her hair back behind her ear. He extended his arm to her.
“Of course not,” he agreed, taking her the long way back to the main festivities. “But I have never … that was magnificent.”
As a mature lady, Sarah had the confidence to seize what she wanted, however whimsical. Colt adored this about her. Her decision to make love to him tonight had taken him completely off guard. If only she did not come to regret it.
She threw him a smile and a nod of agreement. “It was.”
Without a further word, he escorted her back to the crowds where they located the box Georgina had hired for the occasion, though she herself was nowhere to be seen.
He wondered briefly where she had taken off to.
Perhaps she had followed his advice and found someone with whom to frolic down the dark walk.
He procured Sarah a glass of Champagne and sat down beside her, keen to attend to her every need.
She accepted his courtesies graciously but did not meet his searching gaze.
The mystery of her thoughts unsettled him.
He also recalled his planned assignation with Miss Emily Coombes. Never mind, no harm done there. She would find another beau, and this evening could not have turned out better.