by Wendy Stone
“If that is your wish, my husband,” Alyssa said, shrieking again when he hauled her up and pushed her down on the bed, vaulting over her to hold her down.
“My wish is for you to love me for the rest of your life. To be with me and never leave me, ever. You aren’t even allowed to die, not until the very moment that I do so we may be buried together.” Jason growled the words, his face rubbing against the skin of her neck and shoulders, tickling her with his breath.
She giggled, making him look up at her in delight. “I never thought to hear you sound so happy again, my love.”
“Well, as long as there are no other secrets that I need to know…there aren’t any, are there?” she asked, a frown upon her face.
“No my love, I’m secret-free and all yours.”
* * * *
In another bedchamber, not far across town from where the lovers lay entwined and happy, all doubts laid to rest, a woman plotted. She stared at the small bulge that caused the sheet to bump above her stomach with hatred.
It had taken all she had to have the herbs mixed to counteract the effects of the birth control she used. The apothecary she’d gone to had been adamant; these herbs would be effective but mixed with the others she had taken, they could cause her health problems. Female problems, he’d said, stressing the word female.
She’d taken them anyway. She was determined to win Jason back to her side despite the insipid debutante besotting him. And then she’d fucked Johnny, the young stud Jason had interrupted. She’d fucked him until she was sore and her muscles screamed for rest.
But it worked. She was pregnant and Jason would come back to her now, despite his wife. He would leave her, his wife, get a divorce. It wasn’t done often but it had happened and only took a decree from the church to get it done. Jason was rich, he could pull strings if need be.
Then Abigail would take her rightful place as his wife, and she would give birth to their son and his heir. Her place in society would be cemented. She smiled, trailing her hand over the hated child that she’d fought so hard to conceive.
“Soon, my son,” she whispered as she felt the baby move. “You’ll be born and I shall find a wet nurse and a nanny. Your father will be with us, he’ll be with me. I know he will, as soon as he is made to see the truth.” An evil, half-crazed expression touched her eyes and she laughed. The bed moved beside her and her current lovers arms reached for her.
“Quit talking to that lump of yours and come here and suck my cock, woman. Put that mouth to the use it was made for.”
Abigail complied, gladly, feeling heat flood her thighs, mixing with the spendings of earlier that now dried there. Her lips parted as his hand held her head, guiding her to his soft cock. She suckled the small member in, feeling him start to harden between her lips. In her mind, this thin, weak cock became thick and full, hard as steel. Her eyes looked up, staring over the slight paunch of her lover and into his dumpy face and dull brown eyes.
But it wasn’t him she was seeing. No, she saw blue eyes staring down at her with love, a chest that was muscled and wide, a stomach that was hard and taut. She saw Jason.
The hand in her hair pushing her roughly down became that of her love’s, tenderly cherishing her as he guided her into the motion he enjoyed. The voice that gruffly ordered her to “suck it, whore,” became rough and husky, begging for her love.
When he came in her mouth, she swallowed it gladly, for she knew he would see to her pleasure. But when the man she was with rolled over, patting her cheek before starting to snore again, it burst through the thin layer of her dreams and Abigail was appalled.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, her body still lying where he’d pushed her when she’d finished him off. With a scream of hatred, she jumped on the man, punching and hitting, scratching at him until he threw her back, knocking her from the bed.
“Get out!” she screeched loudly, hating him and herself. “Get out of my house!”
“I will!” he shouted back, grabbing for his clothes even as he tried to dab at the blood streaming down his chest from her claws. “You crazy cunt, I’m bleeding!”
Abigail went after him again, murder gleaming in her wild blue eyes. Her hands were raised, her fingers curved like the talons of an eagle. She rushed at him, naked.
He turned, striking her with his palm, knocking her to the floor. “Stay there!” he shouted, trying to pull his pants on his legs.
But Abigail was beyond hearing or recognizing any form of logic. She rose, her arms flailing as she tried to get to the man who had ruined her dreams.
With a shouted oath, the man turned and hit her again, this time with his fist against her jaw. She went down hard and he kicked at her, his foot connecting roughly with her back. “You’re crazy!” he shouted. “You’re a lunatic.”
He hurried out of the room, not even looking back at the sobbing woman crumpled on the floor.
Chapter Eighteen
The invitation was unassumingly plain, addressed simply to Her Grace, the Duchess of Clarington. Alyssa picked it up along with the other invitations that had come with it and placed them upon her desk before going back to ring for tea to be served.
As she went to sit down at the desk, the baby moved, a fluttering little kick that, while becoming more commonplace, still thrilled her. Every move, every kick meant that there was a little life inside of her. Which was getting noticeable, she thought, running her hands over her bulging tummy and looking at herself in the mirror over the fireplace.
“You look beautiful,” a deep voice said.
“You’re biased,” she answered, smiling but not turning around.
“Damn right I am.” His arms came around pulled her to him, his hands stroking over her stomach, gently caressing the burgeoning life. “But that doesn’t change the truth. You are beautiful. How are my two favorite people?” he asked, bending to plant a kiss on the line of her neck.
“Wonderful,” she said, turning to throw her arms around him. She went to kiss him, only to stop, horrified, for his eye and the skin around it were bright red and swollen. “Jason, what happened to you?”
He ducked his head, trying to pull away from her hands but she held him while she poked and prodded at the bruised flesh. “Teddy got in a lucky shot,” he admitted grumpily, flinching when her fingers found a particularly painful spot and pressed. “Ouch! Stop it, Alyssa,” he grabbed her hands.
“You deserve it. When are you two boys going to behave like grown ups?” she asked, going to the door to have the footman run to the kitchen for a cold compress.
“He started it,” Jason said, only partially teasing.
“See what I mean? Children!” she said, shaking her head sadly.
“Well, it’s actually your fault.”
“My fault? You and Teddy get into a square ring, which is just strange all in itself, and pummel each other and it’s my fault? How can it be my fault?”
“Teddy was telling me something that Cat told him and I didn’t believe it of you, so I went to take him to task for his tale. But then something he said rang a bell for me, and as I was trying to determine if he was being truthful or not, this happened.” He lifted his hand to his cheek, going to sit down on the sofa and wiggling his fingers for her to approach.
“What could Teddy know about me that would cause this?” she mused, walking slowly to him.
He pulled her down next to him, waiting until the tea things were delivered along with the compress for his eye. Standing, he followed the servants out of the small parlor she had claimed for an office, locking the pocket doors behind them.
Alyssa raised a brow at his action, but didn’t say a word as he came and sat beside her, reaching for the small pot of tea. He filled two cups, handed her one and calmly fixed his the way he liked it before turning back to her.
“It’s more like what tales Cat has been filling the poor boy’s ears with. She claims that you taught her how to kiss.” Jason calmly handed her a napkin as she choked o
n the sip of tea she’d just taken, carefully patting her on the back until she managed to quit coughing.
“She did what?” she asked, gasping, a blush coming to stain her pale cheeks.
“I knew it!” Jason smirked. “I knew you told Cat about Jamie. Didn’t you?”
“You mean about you, don’t you, love?” she said, regaining a semblance of calm in spite of the grin upon Jason’s face.
“Yes,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Me, Jamie, whatever. The point is, you told her and then somehow you ended up in bed with her.”
“Should I ask about your lovers?” she asked suddenly.
“We aren’t talking about me and a woman from my past, love. We’re talking about you, and a woman who is still in your present. So, has it happened more than once?”
“Jason, you’re acting like a child in a school room, or perhaps an old woman looking for juicy gossip. I can’t believe you are pursuing this.”
“And you’re acting like a guilty wife, my love. Should I read more into this?” Jason was smirking, but inside he was dying to know if the things that Teddy had told him had truly happened. Had his wife, his sophisticated duchess, actually made love with another woman? The thought was too delicious.
“No, it was once, just the once. And it’s your fault if truth were to be told.”
“My fault?” he asked, shocked. “How is your spending the night making love to a woman my fault?”
“Because it is. She wanted to know what it was like, lovemaking and kissing. She’d never been kissed before, and I had. So, if you hadn’t kissed me it never would have happened. So it’s your fault.”
Jason reached for her, pulling her into his arms and lying back against the edge of the sofa. “I don’t understand the how or the why, but that makes sense in some strange, misguided way. Care to give me some details, love?”
“No,” she said firmly before glancing up into his face from under her lashes. “You aren’t angry, are you?”
“Actually I find the idea of you and little Cat together quite…stimulating.” He smiled down into her shocked face. “I wouldn’t have minded being a fly on the wall during that little interlude.”
“Jason!” she exclaimed, her tone shocked, though in truth the thought of him watching her, his blue eyes gazing at her as she made love to Cat, was…interesting.
“I’m a man, my love.”
“Yes that you are. So what did Teddy know?” she said, resting her chin on her fold hands as she lay against him.
“He told me that you and Cat had gotten daring because Cat wanted to learn how to seduce him. You should have seen him, love. I thought he’d burst his buttons when he said that. And the kissing had gone on to fondling and to you suckling on her nipples. So it seems I wasn’t the only one with a secret.”
Alyssa felt her face flush and she went to hide it against his chest, closing her eyes when she felt his fingers lifting her chin.
“What else happened?” he asked, his voice in the deep husky rasp it acquired when he grew aroused.
“Nothing,” she squeaked out, her face flaming more.
“You’re lying,” he said, laughing at her embarrassment. “Tell me.”
“You aren’t going to give up on this, are you?”
“I have all these erotic thoughts of you and Cat in bed together, love, and you want me to give them up?” He laughed when she slapped his chest. “Did you enjoy it?”
“It was quite different,” she managed to mumble.
“Different good or different bad?” he asked, lifting her chin again.
“Good, all right. Yes, I enjoyed what Cat and I did together. Now are you happy?”
“No, now you have to tell me. I have been with no other woman since my first meeting with you, Alyssa. And now I know you can’t say the same,” he said, his voice resonating with hurt. Curious at the reversal, she looked up at him and saw the grin on his face.
Her eyes narrowed and she struggled against him. “Oh you…you cad! You…you arrogant bounder.”
Jason rolled, putting her at the back of the sofa and trapping her between him and it. He ducked her flying hands, grabbing them and holding them above her head, feeling the soft lines of her body against him. The erection he’d been fighting since Teddy first told him was now rampant and straining. He pressed against her thigh, moving his hips slowly and letting her feel his excitement.
“I hate you,” she told him, ignoring the fire starting to burn low in her belly.
“I can tell,” he quipped, his thumb brushing against the hardened tip of her nipple.
“It’s a simple reaction that I can’t control,” she argued, turning her face away from his lips.
“It’s a simple reaction that tells me you love me and want me madly,” he said, turning her face towards his and sinking into her lips.
Soft and moist, wonderfully hot, her mouth opened under his searching tongue, letting him in. He heard her soft moan, felt her wrists twist in his hold and let them go. She wrapped her hands around his neck, her fingers digging into the taut muscles and making him laugh against her mouth.
“Harder, love, but then you’d lose the use of my body to take care of your needs.”
“Hmmm,” she whispered, finding his mouth again and letting her hands slide into his hair. “There is that.”
“Tell me,” he whispered after kissing her almost blind.
“And you call me incorrigible? I won’t tell you.” She lifted her chin stubbornly, making him laugh.
“I’ll make you talk,” he whispered, the words a sensual promise. “Did you enjoy the way she tasted, Alyssa? Did you like the way her soft nipples grew hard in your mouth?”
Alyssa gasped, feeling his hands unfastening the buttons of her gown, pulling it off her shoulders and down her arms. Under it, she wore a simple soft chemise, held up by two tiny straps on her shoulders. It was made of silk, loose to flow over the growing girth of her tummy. The thin fabric was no match for the heat of his hands and mouth, his tongue laving wet circles on the material over her nipples, until they stood out in bold relief.
She moaned, her hands digging into his hair, holding him to her breast as he suckled her through the silken cloth, his words bringing back the memory of her doing the same to Cat, and how it felt to draw Cat’s soft brown nipple between her lips, to feel it harden at the touch of her tongue. She’d enjoyed the taste of her skin and the way her areola had tightened to wrinkled flesh, so different from the smooth texture of her surrounding breast.
Jason pulled her gown down further, his hands softly caressing the hard mound of her stomach. He gently kissed that sweet bulge, knowing his child rested there, inside of her. Then he moved lower, slipping from the sofa to slide the gown from her legs and drape it over the chair next to him.
The chemise had a lacy hem that barely touched the top of her thighs, her stocking tops not quite meeting the edge. She wore no bloomers and he could see the edges of bright red curls peeping from under the silk, an intriguing combination. Satiny skin, silky cloth, and warm womanly flesh, spread before him like a feast, his to take as he pleased.
Her shoes fell from her feet as he tipped the tiny slippers with his hands, sliding over her stocking-covered toes before kneading his thumbs into her arches and hearing her sighs of pleasure. He slid between those feet, lifting one to his shoulder, holding it there while he kissed his way up the long, curved line of her leg.
Alyssa cried out when his mouth touched her bare flesh, his lips like a fiery brand against the soft inside of her thigh. She could feel the heat of his breath brush against the soft fine hairs of her nether lips and it sent a flurry of desire coiling through her. She knew she was growing wet for him as passion seared through her.
“Did you touch her here?” he asked, his finger tickling over her swollen lips, slipping between to glory in her wet heat. “Did you taste her?” he asked, staring up at her flushed features.
“Y…yes,” she admitted.
Jason gr
owled, savoring the thought of his beautiful redheaded vixen with her mouth between petite Cat’s thighs, buried in the dark thatch of hair that must cover her sex. He licked his lips, hearing her call his name before he buried himself in the sweetness of her pink flesh.
Alyssa’s body was tense, watching him as he stared at the apex of her thighs, embarrassed and aroused by knowing he was looking at her so intimately. When he moved forward, his tongue instinctively finding her clit, she jerked against him, her body tensing as the pleasure of it all speared through her. He was merciless, his mouth suckling upon her thin inner lips, his tongue exploring her soft, wet folds until she writhed under him, every thought centered upon the pleasure he was bringing her.
Jason fed her passions, tirelessly pushing her as his tongue and teeth played upon her clit, taking that small bundle of nerves in his mouth and nibbling and sucking upon it. He heard her cries become keening whimpers and knew she would come.
She felt the first hot flush of pleasure like the tide sweeping up a beach, lapping at her nipples before retreating. But like the tide, that pleasure returned, growing wild and dangerous, rolling her in the undercurrent until all she could do was cling to him and wonder if she would survive the ride.
Her eyes were closed, her body lax upon the sofa, one foot upon the floor. That knee bent outward, exposing a goodly amount of her flesh. Jason rose from where he’d feasted, smiling darkly at the sight of her, splayed, wet, almost senseless in the aftermath of pleasure. He pulled his jacket off and then his cravat and collar, throwing them across her gown. His shirt was next, slowly unfastening the linen garment and drawing it from his body.
Alyssa opened one eye a crack, still not sure if she were alive after the explosion of bliss he’d drawn from her body. Her other eye opened and she watched as her husband stripped before her, immensely satisfied as his taut, muscled form came into view.
When he sat down next to her still parted legs to remove his shoes and stockings, he couldn’t help but reach out, touching the wet curls and the flesh below, seeing her jump when his finger brushed against her clit. A moan was wrenched from between her lips, and he smiled darkly, pressing his fingers inside of her portal, gently stretching her.
