Chapter Thirty-Two
Edmund didn’t either.
His body was balancing between utter satiation and pure panic. The deepest pleasure and a dark fear pervaded his awareness in tandem. But he had no desire to analyze his inner workings just then. There was only one thing he wanted.
“Stay with me tonight.”
The words shocked him—and he’d been the one to speak them—so he could understand the look of astonished disbelief she gave him.
Her brow arched. “What? Here?”
“Well, not here on the balcony.” He grinned softly. “But here. At my home. In my bed.”
She turned her head to gaze through the open doors into the candlelit room within. He saw the turning of her mind in her dark eyes.
“Will you be missed?” he asked, forcing a casual tone.
She gave a little shrug. “Not until morning.” Her gaze slid back to his and she tilted her head. “Is this standard? Do you always invite women to stay the night? Even after you’ve…enjoyed each other?”
Her concern would be amusing if it didn’t bring his own awareness to something he was intently choosing not to think about.
To conceal the tightening in his chest, he gave an imitation of her earlier shrug. “I’ve never had a lover at my home before.” When her eyes went wide, he worried he’d revealed too much and quickly added, “It’s always been more convenient to meet elsewhere.”
She immediately shifted and began to rise. “I suppose I should apologize for intruding.”
He circled his arms around her, holding her in place. Her scowl made his smile widen. “No. You shouldn’t. If I didn’t want you here, I wouldn’t’ve asked you to stay.”
Sea-storm eyes stared at him for a long silent moment.
“It’s not a good idea,” she argued, her voice low and nowhere near as firm as it could’ve been.
His arms tightened around her involuntarily. And he didn’t relax them.
“We still need to discuss our strategy in discovering who desires your ruination,” he noted.
A scowl furrowed her brow. “A poor manipulation but true nonetheless, and the reason I came here after all.”
Holding his smile, Edmund gave her a questioning look. “And here I thought you came here with the pure intention of using me for your pleasure.”
The corner of her mouth twitched beguilingly as her gaze narrowed. “Disappointed?”
“Terribly,” he growled, adjusting himself beneath her so she could feel his cock increasing again where it still rested inside her.
Her eyes widened and her lovely lips parted in surprise. “You can’t think to…”
“I definitely could think to.”
She pushed away from him and he reluctantly loosened his arms around her. Sitting upright atop him again, she looked down at him with a stern expression. “We’ve a lot to discuss. If I’m to make it home before dawn, we need to focus on crafting a plan of some sort.”
Edmund dropped his hands to her thighs, covered by rumpled folds of her skirts. Unable to help himself, he gave just a subtle lift of his hips, shifting his thickening length, and watched a shiver roll up her spine.
Her features hardened. “You’re a wicked man,” she whispered even as her hips began to circle in a subtle rhythm.
Though his eyes nearly rolled back in his head at the delicious friction she initiated, he stared into her eyes. “I never claimed to be otherwise,” he said gruffly.
“Then we’d best move indoors,” she murmured, “because I refuse to go another moment without removing this clothing.”
Before she even finished speaking, Edmund was rising to his feet. Her arms and legs wrapped around him as he carried her into his bedroom. Instead of taking her to his bed, he went straight to the corner of his room near the glowing fireplace, where Brimley had set up his nightly bath.
“The water might be a bit tepid,” he noted as he gently lifted her away from him, clenching his teeth as his cock left the heat of her body. “But you’re welcome to enjoy it, if you wish.”
She turned to the bath and trailed her fingertips through the water. Giving him her back, she asked, “Will you assist?”
Though Edmund got an uneasy sense that she was avoiding looking at him, he shoved it aside. She was staying. For a little while anyway.
He deftly released the buttons running down the back of her gown, then eased the material off her shoulders.
As the dress fell to the floor, he addressed the ties of her short stays next while she removed her petticoat.
When all that remained was her whisper-light chemise, she lifted it up over her head in a single movement, dropping it to the floor as she stepped into his enlarged bathtub.
Edmund stood for a moment—her corset still clutched in his hand—appreciating the sight of her nude body before she submerged herself in amber-scented water. As she lay back against the angled side and rested her head on the rim with a deep sigh, he suddenly recalled his own disheveled state.
Setting her garment aside, he strode to the opposite corner of the room where there was a washbowl by his shaving stand.
After stripping down, he removed the sheath and cleaned himself thoroughly before he redressed in a pair of loose, drawstring trousers.
Then he went about collecting her undergarments and her gown, shaking them out before draping them over a chair to minimize wrinkles.
He collected her cloak and their abandoned brandy snifters and brought them inside as well before closing the terrace doors.
And lastly, he added a couple of logs to the fire, knowing she’d be chilled when she left the bath.
Finally, he turned to face her and only then realized that she was watching him intently, a half-smile tilting her mouth.
“I believe I know who to look for if I should ever lose my lady’s maid,” she quipped.
Edmund grinned. “I’ve not always lived this life, remember.”
He strode toward her and dropped to a knee beside the tub. Draping one arm over the edge, he dipped his fingers into the swiftly cooling water. It took all his willpower not to stare overtly at the barely concealed shape of her body beneath the gently moving surface.
“I could be your lady’s maid. Your footman. Your groom and driver. Hell, I could be your cook.” His brows lowered. “Just don’t expect anything fancy or French.”
Her smile was gently amused before her expression turned earnest. “Is it still difficult? To fit in?”
Edmund shrugged. “I don’t try to fit in. I just try not to offend too unforgivably.”
She gave a soft snort. “Well, your handsomeness and charm likely assist with that.”
He grinned. “Do you think so?”
To test it, he drew the back of his fingers along the length of her bent leg, from mid-calf, up and over the bend of her knee and down the outside of her smooth thigh.
Looking into her eyes, he noted the flicker of desire as her lashes lowered for just a moment, then the tightening of her jaw and the swift blink before she steadied her gaze.
“Do you know what offends me, my lord?”
Her voice was low and huskily textured.
He shook his head slowly as his caress reached the curve of her hip.
“Being underestimated,” she replied, parting her legs beneath the water.
Blood rushed to his cock. His heart nearly stopped.
“I’m not easily distracted,” she assured in a deceptively gentle tone as she rested her against the rim of the tub, eyeing him from beneath lowered lashes. “And we still must discuss our plan.”
“Right,” Edmund agreed in a voice thickened by rising need. He cleared his throat and held her stare as he slid his knuckles back up her leg to palm her knee. “The plan. Since you have someone in mind for the culprit, have you any thoughts on how to draw them out?”
As he spoke, he smoothed his palm up the length of her thigh, his fingers claiming the soft inner curve until he reached the delta.
Her gaze never faltered as she replied in an even tone, “I do. But my plan has its risks.” As she said the last word, he shifted his hand to palm her sex.
She drew a swift breath through her nose and lifted her hips, but then continued.
“I’ve thought about it rather carefully, and I think we should give them what they want.
” Edmund gently extended his middle finger to glide it through her soft folds.
Her body’s moisture made the way slick, and he found her clit still swollen and sensitive.
He circled his finger over the bud and watched her as she pulled her lower lip in between her teeth.
His stomach tightened. She was stunning. Sensual. Bold. Confident.
She might not be distracted away from the conversation, but he sure as hell might be as he began to drown in her soft sighs and gentle tensing of muscles, her glimmering stare, and lovely pink lips.
But she’d issued a challenge, and he wasn’t going to go easy.
As she took a breath, he slid his middle finger deep into her.
Curling it gently to press against the front wall of her inner channel.
“And what’s that?” he asked, his voice heavy and graveled.
Her breath turned to a gasp and the muscles of her thighs clenched as her lashes fluttered gorgeously. But she quickly brought her attention back to his gaze.
“We give them—” Her voice stopped abruptly as he withdrew his finger only to thrust two back in its place. Curling them inside her in a beckoning gesture, he allowed a wicked grin.
After a swift blink and a heavy huff of held breath, she repeated. “We give them what they want. My ruination.”
His hand stilled in surprise at her words, but she immediately reached down to grasp his forearm, rocking her pelvis.
His heart nearly burst through his ribcage as his cock hardened swiftly to a point of near pain.
Holy fuck, the woman was going to kill him.
“Edmund,” she gasped. “Don’t leave me now.”
His eyes flew open to meet her glittering gaze. He shook his head free of the sensual fog that had filled his awareness and refocused on her. Thrusting his fingers in and out in two long, demanding strokes, he watched as her head fell to one side before she brought herself back.
“Just for family, remember,” she murmured.
“What?” He couldn’t recall what they’d been discussing. His world was consumed by the heat and softness of her. The demand in her eyes. The arch of her spine and the way the water lapped gently at her peaked breasts.
“My ruination.”
“Just family,” he muttered, slipping his fingertips over her clitoris.
A husky sigh escaped her throat, but she managed to continue.
“You’ll compromise me in view of my eldest cousin, the Marquess Redington.
” She paused to gasp a breath as the rhythm of his fingers grew more purposeful.
Her head dropped back again and her eyes closed.
“That’ll do it,” she gritted out from a tight jaw.
Holding his breath in awe and the deepest lustful admiration, Edmund stroked and thrust. Until her legs tensed and her bottom lifted.
The sound of water sloshing and their heavy breaths filled the room.
The tie on his trousers had already loosened and his cock throbbed against his belly.
As the pleasure built inside him, he quickly had to take himself in hand, wrapping a tight fist around the base of his erection to ensure control of his release.
Then, because he couldn’t fucking help himself, he leaned toward her softly dancing breasts to cover one peak with the heat of his mouth.
Her moan rolled through him like a sensual tidal wave. He tightened his grip on his cock and flicked his tongue over her gorgeous nipple, and she lifted a hand to clutch the back of his head, holding him to her breast as she rocked her pelvis on his fingers.
Her release was sudden and swift and stunning.
As he felt the initial fluttering of her inner muscles, she drew and held a sharp breath. Grasping his hair in a fist, she pulled his mouth from her breast, demanding a kiss while her body erupted in the pulsing spasms of pleasure.
He gave her his mouth and his breath and a twisting curl of his fingers. He gave her everything. The very beat of his heart. Even his seed was called forth for her as he pumped into his hand and released his pleasure onto a towel.
When her body began to relax and her eyes eventually fluttered open, a quiet smile touched her parted lips and her hand soothed his nape with gentle strokes. But there was something in her eyes that worried him. A shadow in the depths…where she held something he couldn’t touch.
He smiled to hide the discomfort in his core—a roguish devil’s smile.