Have Yourself a Merry Little Scandal: a Christmas collection of Historical Romance (Have Yourself a Merry Little... Book 1)

by Anna Campbell

  Her determination to conquer his willpower led to the intriguing roadmap of ribs and the blocks of muscles that demarcated his abdomen. How intriguing to find a whispery fine and yet somehow coarse trail of black hair that extended below his navel, reaching downward to a nest of the same consistency between his magnificently sturdy thighs.

  And then there was…

  Oh, goodness…

  Stretching boldly toward the ceiling, thick as a half dozen candlesticks bundled together and crowned with a glistening dewdrop of moisture, Theodore’s manhood waited for her to do as she willed. It appeared both soft and rock-solid, an impossible combination in Lauren’s opinion. The flared head, which she thought oddly resembled a mushroom of sorts, could almost be considered pillow-like. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact it sat atop a long, thick rod that looked inflexible, she would say that particular bit was definitely non-threatening.

  Below all that were two round parcels of flesh. Smoothly plump, they apparently served as the base for all the important bits and pieces, nestled like jewels in the mound of curling black hair.

  Lauren studied it all carefully, intent on not missing a single detail, especially admiring the narrowness of Theodore’s hips and the trimness of his waist. Even his outer thighs swelled with muscles as they gave way to the firm globes of his buttocks. All in all, he was beautifully created. An exquisite masterpiece of the male physique.

  “Lauren.” Theodore’s voice was low, shaky as if he might cry or shout. He stared at the ceiling as if he couldn’t bear to even look at her. “In the name of all that is holy… please. Do something. Anything.”

  The desperation in his tone almost frightened her. “I’m unsure where to touch you first,” she replied apologetically. “Or what I should call the parts I do touch.”

  His gaze immediately lowered, finding and latching on hers, burning with such intensity the orbs resembled twin flames in pools of deep ocean blue. Tight with unnamed emotion, his jaw clenched as words were forced through his teeth. “My cock. Touch my cock. The head of it… fuck… I’m begging you…”

  Tugging at her bottom lip with her teeth, keeping her eyes on his, from her kneeling position beside him on the bed, Lauren reached out. Very lightly, afraid of hurting him for he sounded in such agony, she traced the slit marking the crown of his penis with her forefinger.

  “G-goddamnnn…”

  The moan rumbled from Theodore’s chest, and Lauren almost snatched her hand away. But his next word moved her even closer.

  “More.”

  With a deep breath, she did as he asked, experimentally making a circle with her finger and thumb and sliding it over the mushroom-shaped head of his cock. She was rewarded by a groan of appreciation. Encouraged, the rest of her fingers splayed wide and slid down his length, although she couldn’t encircle him completely.

  Upon reaching the twin smooth spheres below, she cupped them briefly in her palm, amazed by their softness, before gliding back up the hard shaft to the top. Increased moisture leaked from the slit now, and as her palm traveled up, Theodore’s hips rocked skyward as well, following the motion almost mindlessly.

  Instinctively, Lauren shifted closer and wrapped both hands around him, causing Theodore to arch into her grip.

  “Your skin feels like velvet,” she marveled in a whisper as Theodore thrust into her hands. “How can you be so hard and yet so incredibly soft? I wonder if you will feel like this inside me. Like burning iron wrapped in velvet.”

  “Christ above. Don’t say things like that, love.”

  Lauren swallowed hard, staring at the massive hunk of flesh in her hands. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what is proper…”

  He huffed out an agonized groan, his body straining toward her when the motion of her hands faltered.

  “I only mean that you might cause a reaction you’re not expecting…” he breathed out a hurried explanation. “I swear I don’t mind, darling.”

  Lauren was relieved she’d not done anything wrong. Still hesitant, she resumed stroking him, noting how the skin of his shaft seemed to grow tighter around the hardness it contained. “This is all right, then? To keep touching you this way?”

  “Yes… for God’s sake, don’t stop. Slide your hand up and then down just like that. Grip me harder…”

  Lauren followed the instructions, intent on learning what she might do best in pleasing him.

  When she rubbed her thumb first over the flared head, then the slit while her hand breached the top of him again and again, Theodore groaned his approval.

  A fine sheen of sweat broke out on his brow, glistening over pectoral muscles and the flexing biceps so easily seen as he kept his hands locked behind his head. His head was thrown back on the pillows, his hair a ruffled mass of waves giving him the decadent look of an exotic sultan.

  Lauren could not stop staring at him in all his masculine beauty. Her eyes darted from his face, where he now bit his own lip to contain his moans, over the massive width of his chest, heaving with unsteady breaths, and down to where her palms cradled his manhood.

  She watched him as her hands pleasured him, fascinated by the savagery of his expression, the desperation she glimpsed in the stark, hard planes of his features. He stared at her before shutting his eyes in helpless surrender to the erotic moment.

  Lauren found herself so entranced by his reaction; she was overwhelmed. She wanted more. More of him. More of this. More of it all. She wanted him in her bloodstream, coursing through her veins, and the only way of gaining such immediate gratification was to have his flesh inside her somehow.

  Without thought, she bent low over his hips, her lips lightly brushing the crown of his erection before she pushed more of him into her mouth.

  “Oh, fuck…” Another strangled curse that might have been her name followed that, exhaled on a fiery groan. Theodore jerked inside her mouth. The head of his shaft, the only part she had engulfed, twitched with shudders of delight. His hands, previously self-restrained, now plunged into her hair, burying themselves, gripping tight to keep her where she was. All ten of his fingers pressed against her scalp, reminders she’d placed herself in his hands, and now, he might not let her go.

  But she was a willing prisoner. Innocent on how to proceed in such matters, but willing all the same. Her mouth opened more, and Theodore surged forward with a feral grunt. Suddenly, her hair was looped around his hands, an abundance of shiny rope he could use to control her.

  The very idea excited her.

  The thought she was driving him mad with lust spiked her own desires. She moaned, and because he held her in place, preventing any movement, it heightened the need to move all the more.

  Tugging against his grip, her head bobbed up then down in slight increments. Her lips pressed firmly to create suction around him. Her tongue, since she didn’t know quite what to do with it, swirled around the part of him inside her mouth, her hands still covering the rest of him.

  The taste of him, salty and musky sweet, seeped through her senses. He was both hard and soft inside her mouth. Velvet wrapped steel indeed, but hotter than she ever imagined. It was as though all the blood in his body, all the warmth inside him, now lay encapsulated within the hard shaft inside her mouth.

  His hands tightened. Beneath her upper body, which had come into contact with his to the point she was sprawled over him, his thighs trembled. His abdomen contracted, throwing muscles into sharp relief.

  With a sudden, jerking motion, Theodore urged Lauren to take more of him, his grip dictating the speed and depth of his thrusts. His motions were almost reluctant. Forceful, but reluctant in a way that indicated he couldn’t help himself, and he hated that fact.

  Suddenly understanding how he held onto a thin thread of control, Lauren softened. She instinctively opened further, her throat muscles objecting but the willingness to please overriding her body’s startled protest.

  Glancing up at that moment, she discovered Theodore watching his cock glide in and out of her mouth.
There was both pained delight and savage triumph in his wintery blue eyes. And shining through it all was his love for her.

  “Enough…”

  The word came hissed between Theodore’s teeth as he abruptly lifted her off him, his cock popping free with a soft noise. For a split second, Lauren thought he was angry before he crushed her against his chest and fused their mouths together.

  He kissed her for a long time, worshipping her lips, tracing her tongue with his, sucking it deep inside his own mouth until she repeated the gesture. Finally, when she was panting and breathless again, he drew back, his expression fiercely protective as he studied her.

  “You’ve bewitched me, Lauren Georgianna Kendall. I love you beyond the depths of reason. I’m going to make you mine before sanity has a chance to stop me.”

  Chapter 18

  Before Lauren could react, Theodore had her flipped on to her back.

  She blinked up at him, stunned. Where a moment ago she held a position of power, he now loomed over her prone body.

  “You've driven me mad; you realize that, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she replied simply. She wasn't sorry for it either. She wanted him mad with desire for an eternity.

  “I'll spend the rest of my life making you happy.” Kissing a path down her neck, Theodore took the edge of the gown in his hand, pulling it up and over her head in one smooth motion. “There. Let me see all of your beauty. How gorgeous you are, Lauren. How lucky I am.”

  Lauren trembled beneath him, nervous, and yet, somehow proud he was seeing her this way.

  “Each time I see you like this shall be as the first,” he murmured. “I’ve no doubt you will always take my breath away. That you will finally be mine is a dream come true.”

  Theodore, hot, naked and oh, so heavy, pressed against her body. His skin was scorching. Lauren felt as if she were being branded by the contact. The coarse hair of his chest abraded her sensitive nipples into aching peaks. The muscled slabs of his thighs push hers apart, and the rigid length of his cock brushed over her clit. When she whimpered from the overstimulation of sensations, his breath feathered her lips in a soothing kiss.

  Lauren touched his shoulders, fingers coasting lightly over his skin, and Theodore bowed his head as a tamed lion would. Accepting her touch and desperate for more, he moved into a position that would result in the loss of her virginity.

  “It will hurt, I’m told.” Theodore sounded pained, and a glimmer of regret lurked in his eyes.

  “I know.” Even faced with that truth, Lauren’s stomach still quivered with anticipation.

  “Spread your legs for me, my brave girl.”

  She did, then waited for him to surge inside her.

  But he held there against her instead for a long moment as if deciding what to do. When he’d determined she had relaxed, he reached down and grasped hold of his shaft. Fisting it at the base, he brushed it over her softest parts.

  “You are so wet for me. So wet and warm. Ready for me to take you. To slide inside you.” Theodore maneuvered his cock up and down in time with his words. Soon, he was dripping with evidence of her arousal, and Lauren could not help but bite her lip. If she thought the head of his shaft felt like velvet iron upon her lips, it was nothing less than silk-wrapped stone as it skimmed the opening of her body. She moaned in delight as nerve endings she never knew existed fired to life. Her legs opened wider, fingers clutching his shoulders and nails digging in to create half-moon marks in his skin.

  The pleasure was unimaginable; waves of ecstasy overtook her as Theodore expertly coaxed her to a trembling, quaking, roiling climax simply by using the head of his cock.

  “Dear God… Theodore,” she cried out. “Yes. Yes, yes.”

  “Now you are truly ready. Open for me. Let me inside.” Theodore pushed his way in, and Lauren gasped as her body allowed it. “Breathe, Lauren. Breathe and concentrate on the pleasure.”

  It stung. Even with her body’s moisture, it hurt. There was a feeling of pressure along with the burning intrusion, and taking a deep breath did not seem it would help at all. But something inside her wanted him to continue. She did not want him to stop. Pulling him closer, she willed her body to soften to the invasion, to allow him to plunder and take whatever he wanted.

  His cock slid in slowly, breaching every inch of her until he settled against the thin shield of her virtue.

  “Hold on to me, darling. Hold on tight,” Theodore’s whisper fluttered against her ear.

  Tears sprang to Lauren’s eyes, and with a jerk of her head, her grip tightened. Braced on his forearms, Theodore brushed a kiss on her forehead.

  “Only pleasure after this, my love. I swear it.”

  Then he surged forward, swallowing her surprised gasp with a branding kiss that lit her soul on fire. Only when he was completely sheathed did he finally pause.

  That sliver of time, an eternity of heartbeats shared between them, was everything all at once. Affirmation she’d been right in allowing herself to fall for him again.

  Her body melted and accepted. Clasped and contracted. Forgot and forgave. Her heart stuttered and started again, stronger and stronger until she thought she could soar to the moon. This, this was where she’d been meant to be all along.

  How foolish I’ve been.

  When her body had adjusted and molded around his deep inside her, Theodore’s hand found hers. Their fingers meshed together, their palms touching.

  “I’m going to move now. Before I go insane with my need for you.” Staring intently at her, he moved her hand high above her head. His other gripped the flesh of her hip. “Stop me if I hurt you.”

  “Yes, Theodore.”

  “Promise me.”

  “I-I will.”

  He began moving in a slow, gentle glide that rocked Lauren’s body. She felt the same ricocheting pangs of pleasure as before, but they were muted for some odd reason. Perhaps it was an overabundance of sensations? She couldn’t be sure.

  Theodore was attentive to the nuances of her body, to her expression, and his mood was somber as he plunged with growing urgency. His hands tightened, keeping hers pinned to the mattress, his other urging her leg to ride higher upon his hip, opening her even more for the taking.

  The pleasure spiked and receded until Theodore seemed to realize she needed something more. Something erotic and sure. Releasing her hands, he moved to a position that placed him on his haunches.

  “Put both your hands on your breasts, love. Imagine I am touching you there and don’t move them unless I say,” he instructed darkly. When she hesitated, his brow rose high as if daring her to defy him.

  Shyly, she did as he asked, splaying her fingers across the white flesh, her pink nipples peeking through. Theodore’s eyes closed for a moment as if the sight was more than he could bear, then he pinned her with a stare so full of emotion, Lauren felt it in her very bones.

  “You are so goddamn beautiful,” he muttered.

  Rolling his hips in the most wicked of fashions, he reared back and reached between her thighs where their bodies were joined.

  A steady forefinger and thumb tweaked the button of nerves, and Lauren cried out loud. It felt too good, too raw and overwhelming. There was the pain of being filled by him, her heated flesh stretching and molding around him, then the lavish, sweetly agonizing beauty of his hand touching her, gliding, plucking, rubbing until she was on the verge of something unknown. A cliff of sorts that beckoned her to plunge over.

  “Come for me, love,” Theodore commanded, his eyes glittering fiercely as he watched her writhe helplessly below him. “Come for me now.”

  Lauren felt her body change in that moment, a startling transformation that should have frightened her rather than thrilled her. Her body, instead of instinctively rejecting his cock, surrendered at last, the tissues and internal muscles sucking at him so he could not withdraw.

  The pain, still lurking there in the background, receded. Where his fingers played her, the sensations collided with the
spot where his cock hit deep. Another deliberate rotation and plunge of his hips, a firmer press of his fingers, and everything merged and melted. An inferno of bliss and love and pleasure that sent Lauren flying over that cliff and through the heavens.

  She barely heard Theodore’s muffled shout of release as he climaxed moments later. The stunning beauty of it all was still too new as he thrust one last time inside her with a satisfied, hoarse groan.

  He collapsed atop her, breathing heavily. It was a welcome weight, necessary to ground her because she was floating on waves of color, lost in a paradise she never wanted to leave.

  “Mine,” he whispered in her ear. “Mine at last. My heart. My love. My life.” He sought and found her lips.

  Lauren smiled. “Mine.”

  Sometime later, Theodore stirred.

  Rising from the bed, he located a soft cloth, dipped it in cool water, and set about cleansing the blood and fluid from Lauren’s thighs. She squirmed a bit, embarrassed by the attention, but a few soothing words settled her. Relaxing against the pillows, she allowed him to do as he wished, and when he was done, she watched as he tossed the cloth into the fire so it would burn away.

  Once back at her side, he gathered her close, tucking her beneath his arm, her head under his chin. When her arm wrapped around his waist, he felt his heart swell until he thought it might burst from his chest.

  “I remember the first moment I saw you.” The rumble of his words stirred her silky brown hair, and he tucked a stray strand of it behind her delicate ear. “I did not even know your name, had not the faintest idea who your family was, but I said to myself, that is the girl I will marry. I fell in love with you that very moment.”

  Lauren snuggled closer. “At the Clarita Musicale.”