And then Paris. Oh, Christ—what had been left of his soul after the excesses of Paris? He had no excuse for Paris. There had been no devil waiting to punish him for failure to perform. There had been only his natural, voracious drives.
“Alex?”
He refocused his vision on Emily. Her eyes were wide, her face a little pale. He suddenly felt unclean. Old. Satyric. What the devil was he doing with a fresh, naïve girl?
“Alex!” She’d gone completely white.
“Yes, my love?” His voice sounded indolent, strange to his ears.
“You were laughing.”
“Was I?” He ran a finger around the rim of his wineglass. He felt disconnected from himself. From this moment.
“Yes, it was the most terrible thing I have ever heard…” She hugged her arms and massaged her hands up and down her upper arms. “It sounded so empty, cynical.” Her brows drew together, an expression of something almost like sorrow.
To reassure her, he smiled at her and winked. Inside, however, he still felt distant from her and everything else, including himself. “Well, I was thinking of something quite amusing.”
Peter’s forehead wrinkled and he raised a silver-blond brow. “Maybe you should share it with us, cousin.”
“I don’t think so. It is a very personal jest.”
Silence fell, the emotional mood as tight as a violin’s string. Alex ate chicken that tasted like wood. Peter cleared his throat and then launched into some droll story about one of his New York clients. Alex couldn’t focus on it. His attention was drawn to Emily.
She appeared to have recovered. She’d been laughing—no, giggling was a more apt term. Quite flirtatiously. Candlelight glowed softly on her pristine ivory complexion. Spots of color, like the rose blush on a spring peach, shone on her cheeks. Her eyes sparkled like sunrays on morning dew. But her lips were swollen, bruised…like a woman who’d recently been well and truly fucked. As she had.
And, in the moment while their eyes locked, her gaze grew heated. She wanted more. She always wanted more. He loved her boundless sensuality. Endless fucking. He’d dreamt of such a woman for years. One single woman to fill his boundless needs.
But would she always be happy with one single man?
Would she eventually be unfaithful, the way that Peter had insinuated?
She believed in the purity of love. She’d hate herself. She’d hate him for weighing her down. Binding her to a vow of fidelity.
Yet it seemed inevitable. The lying. The hiding.
The four glasses of port he’d imbibed soured, and bitterness rose in his gullet.
But what if a person’s self-discovery could be made softer, easier. Safer?
****
After supper, in the study, Alex pulled Emily into his lap. He’d done that in front of Peter before and so it didn’t bother her. She enjoyed the feel of his strong thighs beneath her. His strong hands holding her waist. His comforting scent as he and Peter spoke of politics, of the debates in Congress over the creation of a National Navy and the resending of the British Orders of Council. Their voices lulled her and she laid her head on his shoulder and grew drowsy.
Why didn’t he make their excuses so Peter would leave? He’d asked her to wear this green velvet gown. Since the first time she’d worn it, it had been a special thing between them. They had employed it and the satin chemise she wore beneath to such sensual decadence that just to wear it made her insane with sexual hunger.
Her breasts had been taut with her expectation, the lips of her cunt swollen, aching with desire all through the meal. Just in anticipation of being alone with him. Two weeks of pent-up lust was simply unbearable. She’d been so edgy she’d drunk far too much wine. It made her a little dizzy. It made her want to be wild. Free. To writhe and scream.
Now Peter wouldn’t leave and Alex seemed in no hurry to urge him to go.
A pleasant sensation tingled through her and her nipples drew into stiff peaks. She realized he was caressing her breasts through the velvet bodice. She tensed. “Alex?”
“What?” he breathed against her cheek, as if she were the one out of order. The strong odor of port on his breath only fuelled her own sense of intoxication.
“Peter.”
“What about him?”
“He’s still here.”
“Are you embarrassed?”
Her face flamed. “Yes, of course…”
“Why? I am only showing you affection.”
“I should imagine Peter is embarrassed, too.”
“He’s not.” Alex’s hands moved to the back of her gown to her laces and began tugging.
She couldn’t look at Peter. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because he asked me if he might watch us sometime.”
Her heart began to hammer.
“Watch us?”
“Yes, he wants to watch us together.”
His tone was smooth and seductive. It made her throat go dry but she wasn’t exactly afraid. “Together?”
He was still caressing her breasts. The pleasure lulled her. Drenched by a constant trickle of wetness, her inner folds swelled. She darted a glance at Peter, wishing he would vaporize on the spot. So she would be alone with Alex. So they could lie back on this settee and he could continue to drive her insane with desire. So he could slowly bare her body and caress every inch of it before pressing her down and—
“Yes. Together. You and I.” Alex’s voice interrupted her naughty thoughts. His tongue flicked her earlobe and anticipation went shuddering through her.
Now she could picture what Alex proposed.
God. She was quite excited by the whole idea. What the devil? She was completely foxed and Alex’s erection, rising beneath her, was about to drive her over the edge.
“Wh—” She wet her dry lips. “What does he want to see?”
Alex laughed, a sound all the more wolfish for its softness. Shivers raced down her spine, little tremors of delight that made her cunt pulse like a second beating heart.
“He’d like to watch me fondle your pretty little tits and then I think he’d like to watch you give me a French.”
Chapter Four
“Oh.” It was all Emily could manage to say. She dared not believe her own ears. Yet he was still working her laces loose.
He took her earlobe into his mouth and drew on it. Pure delight tingled down over her neck and made her nipples tighten even harder. He put his tongue into the center of her ear and demonstrated an approximation there of what she wanted most. Softly thrusting in and out. God, he knew what that did to her… Fierce need stabbed down into her lower belly. She opened her mouth on a silent moan, trembling all over.
He removed his tongue. “He’d like to do a lot more. However, no man is ever going to fuck you but me.”
“Oh… yes. Of course.”
He moved his hands to her waist and tightened. “Damned correct, of course.”
“But you want this… for him to watch?”
“I do.” Alex breathed the words and she recognized his most passionate mood. His cock was harder than iron beneath her bottom.
“Why?”
Alex laughed, the sound rumbling like deep thunder through her body. “Because I know how badly he shall wish to be me and that he’ll never know the joy of being inside your sweet body.” His whispered words sent heat and chills through her. He nipped her earlobe. “Allow this. Give me this.”
Her nipples tightened into sharp, painful peaks and suddenly she wanted nothing but to feel his hands upon them. A moan trembled through her and she bit her lip to hold it back. He kissed her then and she couldn’t help opening to him. Hungrily, shamelessly.
He pulled her gown off her shoulders, sliding the velvet slowly down, his fingertips trailing after it and sending sparks of fire down her skin. Her back arched of its own accord, her breasts aching for his touch.
The straps of her petticoats dropped. He touched her satin chemise, hooking into the neckline, tightening.
<
br /> She became aware enough to grasp his hands. “Don’t tear it!”
She hurried to shrug out of it. She hadn’t worn stays and, as the cool air touched them, her nipples grew even more erect. They were painfully hard now. Heat twisted through her belly into her cunt.
He turned her on his lap so that she partially faced Peter’s settee. She didn’t dare open her eyes yet she knew he was watching. She could sense it. There was carnal fire sparking on the air. It intoxicated her, dizzied her. Once again, Alex was showing her sides of herself she’d never dreamt existed. How could she have dreamt it? No one did such things in books. No one talked of such things.
Alex caressed her breasts with agonizing slowness. The inner folds of her quim swelled and she couldn’t help but squirm on his leg. He stroked and cupped her but somehow never even so much as brushed her nipples. A moan escaped her. It echoed loud and animal.
She caught at his hands and tried to direct them but he resisted her. “Oh, please, please,” she cried, no longer even remembering where they were.
“He’s watching you, my love.” Alex’s voice was warm and soft in her ear. “He wishes he were me.”
She barely comprehended his words. She was beyond caring.
“Look at him. Go ahead, he will like that. Look at him now.”
Thoughtlessly, she obeyed, opening her eyes. Peter was watching, his sky-blue eyes darkened and focused, intent on her. It should have dismayed her but it only fuelled her desire. Wetness gushed forth between her legs and her inner walls began to quake. Alex’s fingertips grazed her nipples and fire raced through her body. She moaned. She couldn’t stop. He turned her to face him and lowered his head. His tongue laved one nipple avidly.
She threw her head back and cried out. Tears flowed down her cheeks, pure relief.
His mouth closed to suckle her. Hard. He pinched her other peak.
She arched her back, leaning into his attentions. Her inner walls contracted hard and then she was coming. Wave after wave hit her and took hold of her. At last she lay weakly against Alex, too drained to do much more than pant for breath.
“My God,” Alex’s voice seemed to come from a distance. “You are so fucking magnificent.”
Sense and sensation returned. He stroked her hair off her face; she smelt her own sweat. Her throat felt raw, ravished. She’d been screaming. She was still too drained to think about it.
Alex gave her a gentle push off his lap. “On your knees, my darling.” His voice was a soft command.
She dropped down to the soft rug, a spill of velvet skirts and lacy petticoats. The gown hung about her waist as she tried to regain her bearings. But Alex was already wrenching his fall open, already pulling her into the circle of his hard, muscled legs. She could feel his urgency in his hands and then in the throbbing of his cock as he placed her hand about it. He wanted her, needed her.
She wanted to please him. Needed to please him.
She placed her lips to the head then ran her mouth down his length leisurely. His flesh seemed to vibrate with pleasure beneath her lips even as his hand gently touched the curls at the back of her head. She looked up and his eyes glowed dark periwinkle and held hers. Somehow she was more completely his than she’d ever been before. She took him into her mouth, never breaking their eye contact.
But she was also aware of Peter.
Knowing she had an audience, she took her time and slowly ran her lips down Alex’s length then back again. She stroked the underside of his shaft with her tongue, moving incrementally then swooping back to suck him into her mouth. She worked hard to relax her throat, to swallow and to take as much of him as she could.
Then she let him go completely, allowing his cock to pop from her mouth. She ran her tongue again down his length then pressed kisses all the way back up to the crown. She swirled her tongue around and around the head. He began to leak profusely and she eagerly licked him, tilting her head back.
Then she moved suddenly forward and swallowed him as far as she could.
“My God, Alex, no wonder you’ve been scarce. You’ve been spending all your time playing schoolmaster.” Peter’s voice sounded hoarse.
“I never taught her anything. She was born a natural.” Alex touched her hair lightly.
She made his cock wetter and worked her hand on the part she couldn’t fit in her mouth. She could feel the tension in his body increase and she reached for his balls and found them pulled close to his body. His breathing grew more discordant and she redoubled her efforts.
He pushed her away gently as he withdrew from her mouth. She registered the loss with a sorrowful moan. He groaned harshly. A second later the warmth of his seed jetted against her breasts. Elation slammed through her, driving her so high on her own excitement and his pleasure that she felt herself to be flying. She was laughing and yet tears streamed down her cheeks. His lips, warm but fierce, kissed those tears. She touched his silken hair and he kissed a trail to her neck.
“Houri.”
The whispered word came out soft and harsh, a foreign word. She knew what it meant. She’d studied the Islamic faith in her research about Barbary. It meant a perfect, pure, modest mate, a heavenly lover. But to European men, it meant something between nymph and a virgin pleasure slave. She didn’t understand Alex using it. It didn’t matter. His shadows didn’t stand between them in this place for she had stepped into them and joined him there. How she knew this, she wasn’t certain, but they were one flesh, one soul. She could feel it.
Peter. She raised her head from Alex’s shoulder and dared a glance in his direction.
“He looks lonely, doesn’t he, love?” Alex whispered in her ear. “Why don’t you go comfort him?”
Did he mean that? She looked down at her state of undress. His semen all over her breasts. She looked back at Alex and he smiled then stretched to the side table. He retrieved a white linen towel and with slow, delicate swipes, removed his claiming seed. He set the towel aside and took his forgotten, full glass of Scotch and another towel from the table. He wet the towel and wiped her down again. The liquor’s wetness evaporated, cooling her skin, making her nipples tingle delightfully. He tossed the towel aside then bent and tasted her tight, pink tips.
“Here,” Alex said. “Stand for me, my love.”
She stood and he pulled her gown over her hips. It was strange that Peter was still here and she didn’t object to being stripped in front of him. Yet everything had been strange tonight. In a moment, she was clad only in her silken stockings and garters. Alex’s hands swept over her belly, hips, arse and back up to her breasts. He twisted around and got his glass again. He poured the contents over her breasts. Wet coldness took her breath and she gasped. He bent and soon the warmth of his lips and tongue replaced the coldness. He licked and sucked the Scotch from her then centered his efforts on her nipples, laving them, warming her, reigniting her desire. And there was no sense of shame. Instead she felt free and beautiful. Totally carnal. It was all so very decadent and delicious.
He dropped to his knees and traced the tracks of Scotch down her belly. And lower still, kissing her mons, flicking his tongue against her erect nub. Sensation sparked and her legs quaked. She gripped his head and his tongue slid deeper into her dripping folds.
He stopped and glanced up at her, his eyes dark and smoky with desire. “Go to him.”
Her mouth fell open. Surely he couldn’t mean it…
“But, Alex?”
He turned her to face Peter and gave her arse a sharp smack. “Go to him,” he commanded softly.
She remained still, watching as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.
He caressed her back with a sinful, serpentine motion. “It will be all right. He knows the boundaries he must keep.”
Peter laughed softly. “Yes, Alex has made them quite clear.”
So they had spoken about this when she had excused herself for the necessary after supper. They must have. The thought sent a wave of trepidation pounding through her heart
.
She raised her head and found herself staring into Peter’s sky-blue eyes. They were warm and kind. And glittering with lust. Her mouth dried even as desire pounded through her veins.
Peter extended a hand. “Come here, love.”
She stared at his hand, fascinated by the temptation it posed. Her eyes traveled back up his body. He had removed his jacket and sat in his waistcoat and shirtsleeves. His stomach was flat and hard looking, his shoulders broad and his arms well muscled. She turned back to Alex. “Why must I be naked while the two of you are clothed?”
Alex’s eyes widened and then he chuckled. “Part of the rules, my love.”
“Oh,” she replied. Heat raced through her, heat she didn’t completely understand.
Alex nodded and made a gesture that suggested she turn. “Go on.”
She turned and Peter grinned at her, his handsome face exuding much charm. “I promise, I won’t bite.”
A sound echoed in the chamber, husky and almost wicked. A woman’s carnal laugh. It was hers. The realization shocked her. “Won’t you?”
His grin widened and he shook his head. “It’s against the rules.”
Something unfurled in her belly. Resistance she’d only dimly been aware of. In its place desire flamed. She found herself walking over to Peter. His eyes were as blue and kind as ever.
His grin softened to a warm, welcoming smile. He opened his arms. Excited heat flushed her face, her nipples drew into peaks and her lower belly went taut. But her mouth was dry with nervousness. She paused and glanced over her shoulder at Alex.
His eyes glittered with arousal. He winked at her. “This is safe for you. Peter is my dearest friend.”
She licked her lips and swallowed. Then she continued towards Peter. She expected to stand or perhaps sit beside him. Maybe she didn’t know what she expected. He reached out and pulled her into his lap.
He was breathing hard and his cock pressed against her bottom. She fancied she could smell musky, male excitement. He was gazing at her face now, though earlier, as she had walked towards him, his eyes had been riveted on her nakedness. Though his body was very masculine, almost rugged compared to Alex’s, his facial features were nearly feminine in their fine handsomeness. He lacked Alex’s strong, stubborn jaw, his cheeks were smoother as if he needn’t worry so much about shaving daily. So different from Alex. His lashes and brows were pale blond, making his eyes all the more startlingly light.
Wild, Wicked and Wanton: A Hot Historical Romance Bundle Page 94
