A Counterfeit Courtesan

by Jess Michaels

  “Yes,” she gasped, for when he touched her just so her body reacted like it was flint to a dry piece of timber. “And since.”

  “Very good,” he whispered, and bent his head, licking the length of her with one sweep. She hissed at the electric pleasure of it, but he drew back instead of repeating the action. “And have you ever put a finger inside of yourself?”

  She lifted her head a fraction to stare down at him. She worried her lip as she shook her head. “N-No.”

  He arched a brow and reached up to catch one hand. He drew it down, pressed a kiss to her palm and then settled it between her legs so that her fingers tangled with his own. “Do it.”

  “Aren’t you meant to—”

  “I will, angel. I will,” he promised, those blue eyes dilating as his smile grew even more wicked than before. “But I want you to understand your body. I want you to know what will happen. To help me make it less painful.”

  She swallowed. Yes, she’d heard all about the pain from grumpy female relatives who told her and her sisters to lay back and think of their duty. But her sisters had whispered far different tales when it came to what was about to happen. Stories of pleasure and bonding and a deepening of connection that changed everything.

  Juliana chose to believe them. She brought herself up on one elbow and positioned her fingers at her entrance. It was wet already, both from Ellis’s tongue and from her own increasing excitement, so when she slid her fingers over herself, there was only powerful pleasure. She ground against herself a little with a tiny moan.

  “Great God,” he muttered, shifting against the bed. “You’ll unman me before I even put myself inside of you.”

  “How is that possible?” she asked, her tone garbled as she pressed her fingers harder to her clitoris.

  “Because watching you do that is infinitely arousing,” he grunted, his gaze focused on the show she was performing. “Now gently press a finger inside.”

  She nodded and pressed her index finger to her entrance. Slowly, she breached the entrance, wiggling her way into the tight channel. Inside was warm, wet, the flesh a little rough. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation, but it felt very tight. When she moved her finger, there was the tiniest flash of pain.

  She glanced at him. “I can hardly bear this. How will I take that?”

  He shrugged. “It will stretch. We’ll go slowly.” He leaned in. “May I?”

  She nodded as his fingers tangled with hers. He pressed a thumb to her clitoris, swirling it there with expert pressure as he encouraged her to thrust the finger she’d put inside herself. As she did so, she dipped her head back. Oh, that was good. That felt very good. So good that she hardly noticed when he placed one of his own fingers at her entrance. Then he was inside and the channel stretched a bit more to accommodate. Their fingers touched and she opened her eyes.

  He held her stare and smiled as she circled her hips against his hand, against her own. The pleasure increased as they ground together, dragging her to the edge of the cliff where she could feel what was about to happen.

  And then she was flying. She bit her lip to muffle her cries as wave after wave of deep, powerful pleasure ripped through her. Her body rippled around her finger, clenching even tighter as her orgasm peaked. He moved his finger harder inside of her, his breath coming fast and sharp as her climax subsided in a series of twitching waves.

  Only when she had let her hand fall away from her body did he do the same. He held her gaze as he lifted his fingers to his mouth and licked them clean. Her body shuddered at the action and she reached for him. He caught her hand, tugging her to an upright position as he swirled his tongue around her own fingers.

  “Ellis,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “I want this. Please.”

  He nodded and she saw the intensity of his desire was just as powerful as her own. That he was shaking as he shifted to return up the length of her body. He kissed the same path up as he had down, and by the time his tongue tangled with hers, she was mewling with pleasure, her body on fire for more.

  He pulled away from her kiss and smiled at her. “This will be good, angel. I promise you that.”

  And even though she knew she shouldn’t, she believed him.

  Chapter 17

  Juliana tensed as Ellis reached between their bodies and positioned himself at her entrance at last. The thick head of him bumped her slick sex and she shivered at the contact.

  He didn’t drive forward, though. He didn’t take or claim as she’d thought he would.

  Instead, he took a long, deep breath and met her stare evenly. “You still want this? Even though you know once it’s done, it can never be undone?”

  She caught his cheeks and drew him down for a kiss. He didn’t resist as she tasted him—tempted him, she hoped. And when she drew away, she nodded. “I want to be undone, Ellis. I want you to be the one who gives me what I need. Please.”

  He kissed her again, this time harder. This time with less control. She lifted into him, letting her moans and cries be lost in his mouth.

  He pushed his hips forward and began to press inside. She parted her mouth from his, staring up at him in wonder as her body stretched to accommodate him. Yes, it stung, but the pain was not so terrible. The pleasure certainly made up for it because that sang through her veins at a much higher rate than anything unpleasant.

  He was inside of her. They were one body, if only for a moment, and he was finding parts of her she hadn’t known existed. New points of pleasure that only he could reach. She lifted against him, kissing his shoulder as he fully seated in her.

  He leaned his forehead against hers, their rapid breathing slowly matching as the seconds ticked by. “Pain?” he whispered.

  She shook her head. “Not much. I-I like it.”

  He jerked his head back, and when his gaze met hers, it was so dark and dangerous that a shudder ripped through her and made her tense her sex around him. He grunted out pleasure and then began to slowly move.

  His thrusts mimicked those of their fingers earlier, only this time everything felt deeper. Harder. Certainly bigger. She lifted into him, meeting his rhythm out of instinct rather than understanding. And when they were finally in sync, she groaned. The pleasure was so good, so much. Waves of it seemed to work through her whole body as he slowly took her. They built with every thrust, different than every time before.

  She rolled with him, kissing him, clinging to his shoulders. She dug her nails into his skin to find purchase, and he smiled against her lips as if he liked that little pain as much as she did. He slid his hand down her thigh, hitching it higher on his hip, changing the angle of his body as he took her.

  That tiny adjustment sent a tidal wave of pleasure through her. She flexed her hips harder, faster, trying to drive toward the release she could feel around the edges of their coupling. Needing it like breath.

  He didn’t deny her. He ground against her, his hand snaking between them to flick against her clitoris. It was too much, it was everything. She gasped out his name as her body twitched out of control. She rocked against him, stealing every drop of pleasure, taking every hint of it until she flopped back, spent with it.

  He slammed his hips against her a few more times, then groaned low and loud as he pulled from her and spent between them. He collapsed over her, panting and sweaty. She stroked her hand along his muscled back, crooning empty words against his skin as she licked and sucked his shoulder, his neck.

  After a few moments had passed, he lifted his head to look down at her. “Did I hurt you?”

  She shook her head. Although they had connected in the most intimate way she could imagine, now she felt shy as he stared at her so closely. He had been inside her body—she wasn’t certain she wanted him inside her mind. And a man like Ellis Maitland could invade either one so easily.

  “No.” She didn’t reach for him as he rolled off of her and onto his side next to her. “I’m sore, but not…hurt, if that makes sense.”

  “Perfect sense,”
he said, pressing a kiss to her neck that lit her on fire all over again. “A hot bath will ease the ache, I’m told.”

  She pursed her lips together. “By all those lovers you’ve deflowered.”

  He arched a brow. “Jealous, Miss Shelley?” When she didn’t answer, he shook his head. “I think you are the first woman I’ve ever deflowered, as you put it.”

  The shock of that fact rocked her, and she stared at him in disbelief and a little pride, which she hoped she didn’t show. “Oh,” she said since he seemed to want an answer of some kind.

  He chuckled and tucked her into his side, smoothing his hands over her sides. She relaxed at the touch of skin on skin and sighed. “And now you have what you wanted,” he mused. “Your pesky virginity is gone. I hope you don’t regret it.”

  “I don’t,” she said as she traced little circles on his chest with her fingertips. “But I suppose now that I have what I bargained for, you would like the same.”

  He leaned back. “That was our arrangement, wasn’t it?”

  He didn’t sound particularly pleased by that reminder, but she ignored it. She was probably imagining that hint of wistfulness. A man like Ellis didn’t give a damn about sex. He was versed in pleasure and it meant little to him beyond the moment certainly. She had to harden herself in the same way.

  She cleared her throat. “That’s fair. The Duke of Coningburgh lied to me when I asked after his family. Specifically, when it came to my supposedly innocent question about whether all his sons were in Town for the Season.”

  She quickly recounted her conversation with the duke and his daughter. The one her sisters and brothers-in-law had dismissed. But Ellis’s gaze lit with interest with every word. As if she had truly contributed something to his cause.

  When she had finished, he stroked his hand over his chin as if he were pondering the information. “Rook and Harcourt could be correct that he was simply avoiding embarrassment.”

  She pulled away from him a fraction as frustration replaced any pleasant emotions their encounter had created. “Then you think me a fool as well?”

  “No, I think your explanation is far more realistic. If you say Coningburgh was afraid, then I believe you,” he said. “You’re certainly one of the most observant people I have ever encountered.”

  Relief rushed through her, followed by a flush of pleasure she knew she shouldn’t dare feel, and yet…

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “You cannot know how much it means for what I’ve said to be heard, not dismissed.”

  “I know a little,” he assured her as he took her hand between his own. “What about the daughter, Lady Lydia?”

  “I have known Lydia a few years,” Juliana said. “We aren’t friends, but acquaintances. Still, she seemed confused by her father’s lie. And angry when they got into their carriage. She…I think she may bear some of the weight of Leonard’s bad behavior. She may have to clean up the mess and it is a frustration to her.”

  “What makes you think that?” Ellis asked, and seemed genuinely interested in her observation.

  She shifted, for that answer was more revealing of herself than perhaps Ellis knew. More revealing than she wanted to be, given the transactional nature of their new arrangement. Did she want to give a part of herself to this man? More of a part than just her body?

  The answer was a little terrifying. The answer was that she did want to share her mind and her heart. She wanted to so desperately, even though she knew the end would not go well. Maitland used others. He had declared that himself.

  He would certainly be finished with her once this trouble was resolved, and he was ready to throw himself back into his underground life of sex and trickery. A place she most certainly did not belong.

  “Juliana?” he asked. “What is it?”

  She shook her head. “I…I saw something in her that I…I feel in myself. Perhaps we recognize kindred pains in others.”

  He stared at her a moment. “You are the one who cleans up the messes,” he said softly.

  She nodded, but the intensity of the connection was too much. She shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Perhaps that is a way to wheedle more information out of Lady Lydia if I were to encounter her and her father again.”

  He arched a brow. “You think you could arrange that?”

  She laughed. “You must know that those of the ton are creatures of habit. If the duke walked with his daughter today, that could mean it is a regular occurrence.”

  “Every day,” he mused. “According to those who follow him.”

  “Then it would be easy to repeat the encounter if I wished to do so,” she said.

  “You think Rook would let you out of the house without a guard,” Ellis said with a laugh she didn’t feel contained much true humor.

  She folded her arms. “You doubt me? I can surely convince my family that I have abandoned my interest in this topic. And in you. We had a row about it, after all. I pouted and locked myself away. I could tell them that reflection led to realization. And they would believe me. That would leave me much freer to move about the world, I think.”

  “Then perhaps you and I should encounter the lady and the duke tomorrow.”

  She stared at him. “Together? What would you say to explain that?”

  “You would introduce me as your beau,” he explained. “A rich merchant you met while in the country at your sister’s wedding celebration. Then I’ll be able to see Coningburgh’s reaction for myself if we can maneuver the situation to our advantage.”

  Juliana considered the plan a moment. She certainly wanted her place in this investigation and Ellis was offering it. As a partner, even. Which felt a little different from the arrangement of quid pro quo they had originally discussed.

  But not in a bad way.

  “Very well. I’ll find a way to break out of the prison I’ve been placed in by my well-meaning sisters and their husbands,” she said. “And I will meet you in the park across the way tomorrow afternoon.”

  He nodded. “With that decided, it would probably be best if I left you,” he said, and slipped from her arms. She couldn’t help but stare as he rewrapped that beautiful naked body back into some semblance of propriety.

  She also couldn’t help but lament that this part of their bargain was over.

  “I suppose I we won’t, er…we won’t be doing this again,” she said, folding her arms as if she could protect the heart this man was beginning to touch.

  He faced her with a look of surprise. “Of course we will. We have entered a bargain now, and that includes pleasure in trade for my assistance. I won’t let you wiggle out of it.”

  “You’ll be back?” she gasped, hating how much that meant to her.

  He grinned as he backed up to her window and unlatched it with one hand behind himself. “My dear Miss Shelley. I promised you so much more than what I gave tonight in exchange for your help. We are not finished. And I will see you in just a few short hours.”

  Then he was gone, ducking out of the window with frightening ease. She rushed to look, unmindful of her own nudity. But he was nowhere to be seen in the inky dark of the night.

  And she was left confused, concerned and wanting so much more. She couldn’t wait to see what more entailed.

  Chapter 18

  When Juliana stepped into the breakfast room the next morning, her sisters were at the table, but not their husbands. Both leapt up at the same time, making twin sounds of relief and joy to see her.

  For a moment, Juliana felt guilt at what she was about to do and say. But she pushed it aside. She was doing all this to help protect those she loved. She wasn’t wrong to wish to do so.

  “You look very pretty this morning,” Thomasina said as she rushed to embrace Juliana. “You’ve a glow to you.”

  Juliana swallowed back a gasp and forced a smile. “I-I must have slept well.”

  A lie, of course. She’d spent half the night with Ellis and the other half staring at her ceiling, both reliving those powerful
, passionate moments and planning for their next move together as partners. If she had a glow, it was from the excitement of those experiences.

  “I’m glad you could,” Anne said with a smile as she poured her tea and motioned to the sideboard. “I tossed and turned, wondering if you would remain angry with us.”

  “Anne,” Juliana breathed, and in this, at least, she could be honest. “I do know that you, Thomasina, Rook and Harcourt all have my best interest at heart. You believe you are protecting me. And I appreciate it even if I might not have always agreed with the methods. Just as you didn’t agree with mine.” She moved to the sideboard and half-heartedly put a few items on her plate before she joined her sisters at the table.

  “I’m happy you do know that,” Thomasina said. “I realize things have…changed. For all of us, really. And that adjustment isn’t easy. We’re all finding our new place in the world.”

  Juliana flinched. Her new place in their world was alone. After an entire life with her sisters at her side, sharing a face and a connection more powerful than anything else…

  Well, that was gone now. Her face wasn’t the same anymore. And their connections with their husbands had eclipsed the triplet bond. Juliana was left out in the cold. Her only glimpse into that world a few stolen moments in Ellis Maitland’s arms. Moments that would be over soon enough.

  “You look far away,” Anne said, reaching out to cover her hand.

  Juliana forced another smile. The time had come to tell her lies and hopefully gain her freedom. “I suppose I do. After I went up to my room last night, I spent a good deal of time thinking about our…our situation. You are right that I’ve struggled to find my place now that it is clear I am no longer needed to soothe your wounds.”

  Thomasina shook her head. “We will always need you, Juliana.”

  Juliana smiled, but she knew it was a sad expression. “But not like before. My life will diverge from both of yours now. You two will eventually have children, probably. You’ll take on your roles as wives and mothers, and I—” She choked on the words and it was not pretended. “I will be Father’s secretary.”