Chapter Nine #2
William reeled regarding the revelation Charlotte had just shared with him.
Wouldn’t he have known if a woman he shared sex with was a murder?
Twice over, even? “Do you truly think she’s a murderess?
Moving through the beau monde adding wealth and power?
Killing a current protector’s adversaries for a price?
” Of course, he didn’t know that for a fact, but the more he thought on the issue, the more horrid it became.
“I wouldn’t know.” When she shrugged, her dress pulled taut over her full breasts, and his gaze dropped to her chest. “I hardly know anything about the ton. It never interested me.”
“Ah, so what does interest you?” After he’d stood up from the chair, he came toward her. “I’d like to know since we are engaged, not happily, albeit.”
“We’re not unhappy, I’ll wager.” Mischief twinkled in her blue eyes. “You certainly have affected a better mood since the incident that landed us in this engagement.”
“Perhaps.” Wary about what she might say next, he settled on the sofa next to her. “Now please, answer the question.”
“Very well.” She nodded. “What interests me? At the moment, you do.”
How dull. “Whyever for? I’m not that deep.”
“I beg to differ. You are quite interesting, and the fact you have made it a point not to share anything of a personal nature makes you even more so.” When she gave him a smile, his world was in danger of tilting.
There was something about her that he couldn’t puzzle out.
“Also, we have already been intimate. Now we are engaged, whether we wish it or not. In this moment, I want to know what sort of man you are. My father said you have too many vices, are lazy and dismissive, don’t tend to your responsibilities.
I would rather not have that in a husband. ”
It was his first instinct to let anger take control.
In fact, the wall of heated angst rose in his chest, but then he tempered it with rational thought.
If those were the rumors, that was his own fault.
He hadn’t cared through the years about what society vipers said about him.
And to be honest, he didn’t care that his reputation might be dinged for he hadn’t planned on marrying anyway, but then came Charlotte, and everything changed.
Fuck me. Will it always be this way?
Anger simply wasn’t worth it any longer.
He blew out a breath. “I am a man of many interests, books being one of them. I don’t enjoy conflict and arguing, which is why I’m often absent from the Lords.
I have also found that life is too short to be mired in trivial things that don’t matter.
Again, that applies to politics, but it also can be said of society events. ”
“There is that. I don’t enjoy them either.” For long moments, she regarded him, and he hoped to hell she found what she searched for. “I’m still curious about you, though.”
“Fair enough. What would you like to know?”
“How you might react if I do something scandalous.” When the mischief in her expression only grew, shock went through his chest as she dropped to her knees before him. “Like this.”
He could hardly breathe. “What are you doing?” But he knew. Christ, did she even know how to give a man head?
Charlotte laid a hand on one of his knees. That innocent touch nearly launched him off the sofa. “I read a passage in that book where your former mistress talked about pleasuring men with her mouth and hands. I would like to try that.”
“Now?” Except the word came out follow by a definitive squeak.
“Yes.” She nodded to strengthen the answer.
“On me?” Again, his voice broke. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d had women suck him off more than a few times in his roguish past.
“Why not?” When she reached for his front falls, his breath stalled. “You did the same to me. Why shouldn’t I return the favor?”
Why, indeed? Curious to see what she would do, he gave her a nod, then settled back to give her more room to work with.
Then he cleared his throat in an effort to dislodge the ball of emotion stuck there.
She didn’t need to do this. “If you wish to please me, know that I don’t require such acts from you.
Polite ladies of the ton shouldn’t even know about this sort of thing. ”
“Pish posh, William. This is only in fun.” Then his rapidly hardening length fell out of his breeches into her waiting palm.
“Oh, look at it! When it was inside me, I didn’t truly understand the full magnitude of this tool.
” There was such awe and interest in her tone, he wanted to chuckle, but his throat was too dry.
“I’m not that impressive.” The heat from that innocent touch sent a wave of awareness over him that wrenched him from his thoughts.
“You don’t know me that well, and when you do, you’ll regret the engagement, I think.
” It was odd, such a thing, for as much as he hadn’t wanted this relationship, it was his, and if it suddenly ended?
A bit of heated panic rose in his chest.
“We will see as time goes on, but in this moment, it is enough.” With her other hand, she glided her fingers up and down his thigh.
Immediate reaction streaked through his veins for that innocent exploration had caught him unawares.
Tiny fires erupted in his blood. Damn but he was intrigued and aroused by her daring and initiative.
Had he helped to encourage that to the forefront after what they’d done over the past few days? “God, your touch is driving me mad.”
“Good,” she said in a whispered voice. Sunlight coming in through the windows glimmered off the metal frames of her spectacles. “I’ve thought of doing this since I met you.”
Truly? “Why are you doing this, Charlotte?”
“Why not?” She frowned at his shaft, and the intense scrutiny only made him harder. “We are engaged, and if you are to be with me in the future, shouldn’t I familiarize myself with your equipage?” Tentatively, cautiously, his wife traced a fingertip along the side of his member.
Damnation!
The light touch paired with her tart mouth and curious nature made her irresistible. “I can’t fault you for that.” For a few seconds, he watched her then he widened his legs and tried to relax as best he could with heat running through him, else he’d pop off prematurely.
“I have never done this before, so forgive me if I’m rubbish at it.” She wrapped her hand about his stiffening length, but it was her words that made him more randy than he’d been in a while.
“Why now? It’s not necessary.”
On a first, unsure stroke, she said, “When a woman like me wins a man like you, she doesn’t want to make a poor showing. Also, you have made me wild the times we’ve gotten up to scandal, and I would like to return the favor.”
“Ah.”
Then she held him more firmly and drew her curled fingers up and down his shaft.
Bloody hell. William sucked in a sharp breath, for her fumbling strokes and caresses had awareness and need shivering down his spine faster than the touch of an experienced woman.
“Let me help you start.” Gently, so she wouldn’t think he tried to take control, he settled his hand over hers, showed her how to hold his length to maximum advantage.
“Go slowly at first. Too much pressure or rough play can have disastrous results.”
At first. There was a time and a place for more advanced steps later.
After a few minutes of experimentation, a faint smile curved her lips.
“I see, now.” Soon she was stroking his flesh as if she’d been doing it all her life.
Up and down her fingers went, then she had this little quirk that she did at the root where she twisted her wrist and flexed her fingers that had heated reaction streaking through his member and into his stones.
“Incidentally, Mrs. Sherrington was quite instructive on some of the pages of her book. It was almost as if she’d written it as a lesson guide, which also made me curious. ”
With every pass, he hardened further. Need tingled in his stones, but just when he suggested she stop, the cheeky woman cupped them in her other hand, squeezed them with a firm insistence that had his eyes ready to cross.
“Oh, this is quite lovely and fun,” she breathed as she glanced up at him with shining eyes behind her lenses. “I am literally holding your fate—and my power—in my hand.”
“That is quite enough.” Emotion graveled his voice, but he didn’t reach for her. Not yet.
“Is it, though?” One of her blonde eyebrows rose in challenge, then with a husky chuckle, she leaned forward and closed her pink lips around the head of his shaft.
Holy shit!
William’s whole body jerked as if it had come awake from a shock.
She giggled, and the vibrations buzzed around his length, enhancing the exquisite torture she’d already given him.
While still holding his stones in her hand, his still-innocent-in-theory fiancée moved closer to him and slowly, so damn slowly he thought he might die, she took his member into her mouth as far as he could go until his tip hit the back of her throat.
“Christ…”
Then, she swallowed, and the contracting muscles gently squeezed his prick. He nearly shot his wad right there, but he bore down on the urge and gritted his teeth.
“Charlotte, please…” Yet he moved wriggled into a better position for her.
She drew off his shaft with a slight pop and another giggle.
“I never knew how large a man’s appendage could be, but yours is particularly amazing.
All I can think about is feeling it move inside me.
” At least she released his stones, and he knew a moment’s relief, but it was short-lived, for she slipped that hand beneath his shaft and stones, and for one maddening second, she rubbed the highly sensitive skin between his balls and anus, and he was temporarily separated from reality by wicked sensations.
Before he could respond, she took him once more into the warm cavern of her mouth.
“Dear God.” In seconds, he was lost in the wonder that was his inexperienced, obstinate fiancée as she proceeded to suck him off as if she’d spent copious time on her knees. There was no doubt he’d shake apart from need.
It took her a bit to find a rhythm, but once she did, he was doomed.
As William remained helpless in her hold, she worked him over with both her hand and her mouth.
Where the devil had she learned that thing with her tongue?
How she swirled it beneath the head of his shaft, how she tickled his length with said tongue and teeth?
Just how detailed had that book of his ex-mistress’ been?
Perhaps I should burn it.
Then his mind began to splinter. With a groan, he buried his hands in her soft hair, plucked the pins from it, and tangled his fingers in those tresses. Because he couldn’t help it, needed some relief, he thrust gently into her mouth.
“Oh!” For one fleeting moment, she paused and confusion once more flashed in her eyes behind those spectacles’ lenses, but then she accepted the new addition, and her fingers delved tighter into the flesh of his thigh.
The faster and deeper he thrust, the more frantic and harder she worked him over, and the sight of her blonde head bobbing on his shaft was enough to hurtle him over the point of no return.
Warning tingled through his stones. His muscles bunched and stiffened.
Swiftly, he yanked his handkerchief from an interior pocket of his jacket as he pulled out of her mouth.
Seconds later, he took himself in hand as a hard release slammed into him.
He swore he would perish as his shaft pulsed and pumped.
At the end, he collapsed back against the sofa and listened to the racing beat of his heart.
“In that moment, where you weren’t quite yourself, you were angelic,” Charlotte whispered as she came onto the sofa with him. “So handsome, and so vulnerable. It’s quite endearing.”
After he tossed the used handkerchief to the floor, William stuffed himself back into his breeches then did up the buttons.
“No one has ever mentioned that to me before after such an act.” With her hair down, tangled about her shoulders and back, and a hint of satisfaction in her blue eyes, she was simply gorgeous, so he pulled her close to his body and laid down on the sofa with her. “Thank you. That was… needed.”
The sound of her soft chuckle wrapped around him like a luxurious blanket. “The release? You’ve had those before with me.”
“No, actually. The bonding therein, though the release was damned lovely.” It was odd admitting such to her, but he couldn’t help it.
Simply holding her, feeling her softness against him was something new for him, and what was more, he rather liked it.
“Perhaps there might be some hope in envisioning a future between us after all.”
“I might think so too.” She patted a hand to his chest. “Why did you withdraw before you exploded? I wasn’t afraid of taking your essence down my throat.”
He pressed his lips to the top of her head.
“It didn’t seem quite the appropriate thing to do, and I certainly didn’t want to treat you as if you were naught but a mistress.
” What the hell was wrong with him? When had he ever given consideration to a carnal partner before?
“But I’m not above letting you experience that too in the near future. ”
“A sweet sentiment, surely.” When her eyes drifted closed, he didn’t mind, but when his stomach rumbled, they both laughed. She lifted her head. “Perhaps we should indulge in tea. We can discuss what you’d like out of a nuptial ceremony, I suppose, and when you’d like to have it.”
There was that. Tamping down the urge to huff, he nodded. “I suppose we do.” And that was shocking into itself.