Wild, Wicked and Wanton: A Hot Historical Romance Bundle

by Natasha Blackthorne

  “I find it arousing.” This much he could admit to her. “Properly done, your handmaiden would apply this. But since you have no handmaiden, I shall have to do the honors.”

  She laughed softly and the slight tension between them melted. Yet his heart pounded harder than ever. His breath was beginning to hitch. He made an effort to breathe slower. But it was difficult. His excitement was swiftly rising.

  “Did your other ladies wear this for you, in private?”

  “Good God, no.” He moved closer to her. “I would never dream of suggesting something like this to anyone else.”

  “Because it is related to your time in Algeria? Your dark secret?”

  He didn’t wish to be probed about his secrets and shame. So he lifted the kohl. “Look up, sweetheart.”

  She looked up, her expression sweetly patient.

  With a hand made steady by years of mapmaking, even under the duress of the hot desire pounding through his blood, he drew a thick, dark line under her eyes. “Now close for me.”

  “What else would my handmaiden do to prepare me for you?”

  “They would bathe you. Not in a little china tub like here. They have large, luxurious baths, with colorful decorative tiles. Heated water. But first they would have used a solution on your body, all over, to remove all the hair except that on your head.” He sat back from her and trailed his fingertips down her belly to the crimson hair on her mons. “But in your case, I would tell them not to remove this.”

  She gave a soft little giggle, her stomach bouncing with the motion.

  He couldn’t help smiling. “Afterwards they would lather you all over with scented soaps then they would sluice you down with water. Then they would lead you to the deep wading pools and let you soak to relax your muscles.”

  “And then they would take me to you?”

  “No, then you would be fed some herbs and drugs that would make you aroused and they would massage you with scented oils.”

  “Herbs? There are herbs that can make a person…aroused?”

  Well, she sounded interested about that.

  “Aye, they used them quite freely. But after that, they would feed you a light meal and dress you in silks and veils and then carry you to my chambers on a litter.” He was saying too much. He couldn’t seem to help himself for he was enjoying her unexpected enthusiasm for the fantasy scene they were spinning together.

  “And they brought you women, prepared like that?”

  With that probing comment, the time for story telling was over. He sat the kohl on the bedside table. “I am done.”

  She opened her eyes.

  He caught his breath. With the thick, ebony line encircling her eyes, her irises looked like shimmering palest amber. She looked exotic, dark, unbearably erotic.

  Sinful.

  A living Succubus.

  It had been so long since he’d seen a woman wearing kohl except in his dreams. Tormenting, maddeningly seductive dreams. Dreams full of heat and shame.

  But this was not some strange, nameless harem slave. This was his own beloved. His intended wife. Surely, there could be no shame.

  And there wasn’t. There was only pure pleasure.

  Desire pounded into his cock, lengthening it. He was leaking already. Profusely.

  God, he was hard, so incredibly hard that it hurt.

  She jumped up from the bed, giving him a view of her small breasts bouncing. He watched her full, round arse as she ran to the mirror.

  “My goodness!” She clapped her hands to her face then leaned closer to the glass. ‘I don’t look like myself at all!”

  “You look…” His erection throbbed, violently, and as a stab of longing pierced him through, he took a deep, ragged breath. “God, Emily.”

  She whirled to face him.

  He held out a hand and motioned to her. She glanced down and her mouth dropped open. His other hand was on his cock, stroking himself with quick, urgent motions.

  “Come and kneel for me.” His voice sounded hoarse and strangled in his own ears.

  She seemed to freeze, her eyes darkening, and she immediately hurried back to him and fell to her knees. She opened her mouth and swallowed him as deep as she could, seeming almost as hungry for the act as he was. She didn’t tease him but sucked him steadily all the while working her hand on the lower part of his shaft with swift, steady motions.

  Each stroke sent a deep shock of anticipation into his cock and balls. He put his hand to the back of her head.

  She increased the intensity of her hand, soft-firm friction. Her mouth was hot, wet silk.

  He’d had oral pleasure from so many women. So very many. And some of them had been exceptionally skilled. Yet, this was the most astounding carnal experience of his life.

  “God, God, God!” he groaned as his hips arched off the bed, of their own accord.

  He couldn’t hold the tide of hot, surging seed back. His cock jerked and jerked and his come erupted from him in violent surges that wrenched from the very pit of his guts. Guttural groans were torn from him as the surges continued to rock his whole body with shudders of pleasure and release.

  They lay back on the bed and he was cradling her head on his chest, trying desperately to catch his breath, to slow the rapid pounding of his heart. He opened his eyes and found her watching him intently.

  “You wanted me to wear the kohl, that badly?”

  He ran his hand down her body and stroked her buttocks. “Yes.”

  “Well, goodness, why didn’t you just ask me sooner?”

  She made it sound like asking for someone to pass the salt. She didn’t know, couldn’t know, what it cost him to ask. She didn’t know the wicked past the kohl symbolized. She had just turned something evil into something full of light and love. And she didn’t even know it. He lifted his head slightly and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you for that, my love.”

  With her ear pressed to his hard muscled chest, Emily listened to the rumble of Alex’s voice.

  He caressed her back. “What are your thoughts about what happened last night?”

  Her ears burned. Doing it had been one thing but she hadn’t expected to discuss it.

  “I think it was diverting and interesting.” There, that had sounded cool and sophisticated, hadn’t it? Was it what he wanted to hear?

  “And Peter is a fairly good kisser?” Alex’s tone was dry.

  Heat suffused her face. She definitely did not want to discuss last night.

  “Hmm?” He pressed his face into the curve of her neck.

  She rolled into the pillow, hiding her face but unwittingly baring her neck as a result. He laid a trail of kisses along her nape and, in her nervousness, it tickled. She giggled, with a catch in her throat.

  “Come now, Emily, I want to talk about this. I want to know you are not distressed over what happened.”

  She turned to face him, looking up through strands of her mussed hair. “You seduced me!”

  His eyes widened. Had he flinched a little or was that her imagination?

  “Yes, I did.”

  His answer startled her. She had expected him to deny it.

  His handsome features contorted with concern. “Are you angry with me over it?”

  She smiled and touched his face. “No.”

  He closed his eyes, turned his face and pressed his lips to her palm. She sensed his tension release. Goodness, he had worried that she would be angry over his seduction of her?

  If he felt that way, then why had he seduced her to begin with? It came to her with clarity that the seduction had been part of his need. She didn’t understand why but it had been important to him that she be seduced. Else he would have spoken with her about what he’d intended beforehand.

  I still do not know him. Not fully. He won’t allow it. He keeps part of himself hidden.

  A curl of unease wound into her belly, eroding the certainty she’d felt just the night before. She frowned. Of course she knew him. She trusted him implicitly.
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  Didn’t she?

  He ran a finger down between her eyes. “Are you sure you aren’t angry or upset? Don’t be demure about this. Tell me candidly what you are feeling.”

  She had to pause a moment, considering what to say.

  “It was quite startling at first but I am fine now.” Was she? She didn’t completely know. But she was mature and strong enough to cope with her mixed feelings on her own. She offered him a dazzling smile. “Truthfully.”

  “That’s good, because it was simply play. A way to increase our pleasure.”

  No, it hadn’t been simply play. She knew that as surely as she knew her own name. It had been very important to him. Had filled some deep and mysterious need. But he had chosen to put keeping his secrets over closeness and trust in her. Her chest tightened with her hurt. Well, had she really expected to win that easily? The darkness that held him in its grip was strong, maybe stronger than she was. Yet she couldn’t give up now.

  “I don’t want to do that again, with any other man but you.” Of that much she was certain.

  “All right, my love.”

  “But I am glad that it happened. I now understand the difference between unleavened lust and love. And I am glad it happened with Peter and no other. I don’t think I could have felt that way or been comfortable with anyone else.”

  He raised his head and looked down at her. “He’s very taken with you, my love. And he’s quite used to getting his way with women.” He grinned. “But you’re mine.”

  A passing shadow in his eyes told her that, despite his sensual enjoyment and mysterious emotional need for what had transpired last night, it had cost him dearly to allow Peter to touch her. Her stomach flipped and the chamber went a little wobbly. She closed her eyes. Dear God, last night had been dangerous in a way she’d not realized at first. A gamble made on their love, their connection. It might just as easily have driven Alex away from her as brought him close.

  She opened her eyes and studied him a moment. Who was this enigmatic man she loved so dearly? Who was he really? What had he been before that was so terrible he must keep it from her?

  “You and Peter, you’ve done that before, haven’t you?”

  He laughed softly. “You mustn’t ask a man so many questions about his life before you.”

  “But you did share women with him before?”

  “Yes, but it was very different those times.”

  “Different how?”

  “There were no rules before, no sense of possession on either of our parts. There was only total carnal indulgence.”

  “Oh,” she said as his words drew a vivid mental image. Thinking about Alex involved in something that could be termed carnal indulgence was intriguing and strangely arousing—so long as it had happened before he’d met her. Desire began to drive away the other, more disquieting thoughts. Whatever he’d been or done, the sensual aspects of his experience continued to fascinate her.

  “I have a present for you.” His eyes had grown hooded.

  She sucked in her breath against a sudden wave of apprehension. “Oh, two presents in two days. I am a lucky lady.”

  From the height of his propped-up pillow, he looked at her, grinned, and the glint to his gray-blue eyes made her belly flutter. He reached into his dressing gown pocket and withdrew eight inches of glittering dark blue glass that—remarkably—resembled a phallus.

  She caught her breath. “Whatever is that?”

  “It is called a dildo. It comes from the Orient where their women have a little more need of such things than here.” He laid the…the dildo down on the bed.

  Dildo. It was such a stupid-sounding word. Even thinking it made her feel foolish. She stared at it, open-mouthed. People actually kept such things? It was a little shocking and yet she couldn’t help admiring the workmanship, the perfect symmetry and intricate detail. It was a work of art and perhaps even very expensive.

  He rose from the bed, went to her washstand and brought her bottle of bathing oil to her. “Give me your hand.”

  Curious as to what he had in mind, she put out her palm. He poured a generous amount of oil into her hand then wrapped both her hands about the smooth glass coolness. “I bought this for you so that you needn’t feel so unhappy any time we might part in the future.”

  She glanced at the cold, dark blue glass glittering in the firelight. That would never, ever make a substitute for warm, living, throbbing flesh.

  It seemed the most sinful thing he’d introduced her to yet. Totally unnatural.

  He cupped both his hands over hers and urged her to roll the glass dildo back and forth between her palms. “Do you feel it taking on your body’s heat? This is how you prepare it for use.”

  “But we don’t need to use it.” She cast a dubious glance down his body. “Unless you know something I do not?”

  He laughed. “Sometimes the use of toys can heighten things.”

  She gave the dildo another doubtful glance. “If you say so.”

  He pulled the covers back, baring her nakedness. Chilled air rushed over her body and gooseflesh rose in its wake.

  “I shall show you. Roll over on your back.”

  She lay back, feeling a little uneasy about this type of experiment. Why was it even needful? The thought of that cold, alien object in her body seemed perverse.

  He moved her hands, which were still wrapped around the dildo, down her body. He touched her thigh, running his hand up the inside. She spread her legs for him. But then he put that glass object to her flesh. Her heat level decreased a slight bit.

  “Must we really use that thing? We don’t need it.”

  He caressed her belly in broad, circular sweeps. “If you let me show you, you just might change your mind on that point.”

  He placed the dildo on her stomach and got up from the bed and left the chamber. She lay listening to the log in the hearth crack and pop, and eyed the phallus again, watching the firelight shine through the blue glass, making it appear to glow. That thing looked wholly alien upon her flesh.

  When he returned, he held a book. As he sat, the bed rocked with his weight. He ran a fingertip over the expensive leather, traced the gilded edging. “In our country, this is a rare book to obtain. They are given to brides in the Orient on their wedding night, usually by their mother or another female relative.” He propped himself back up on the pillows next to her and opened the book.

  A faint scent of musk and jasmine filled the air, a tad stale as if with age. She glanced at the book. Vivid, jewel-toned colors popped from its pages. The illustrations were so intricately done, the people almost seemed alive. She gasped and sat up to get a better look. An olive-skinned couple reclined on a crimson and gold divan. The man wore an elaborate turban-like headdress. The woman lay back and the man had his head between her legs, his tongue quite clearly stroking her cunny, the lips of which were a bit over-exaggerated.

  He turned the pages slowly and each illustration made her catch her breath anew. Some of the pages included play with toys, mostly a phallus.

  “These books can be custom-made to cater to the tastes of the bridegroom. So he can show his innocent wife the things that he wants from her.”

  She understood. She was the innocent wife. Innocent compared to him. “You commissioned this?”

  “Yes, it’s mine. I like to collect exotic things.”

  “And there is something here you want to try with me?”

  “This one,” he said, running his fingertips lightly down her arm as he turned the page.

  The woman was on her knees and a false phallus protruded from between her nether lips. The man knelt behind her, his—good Lord, was any man really that huge?—cock pressing at her anus.

  Emily sucked in her breath. Heavens, just a few short months ago she would have run screaming from such an image. Now it sent a wave of heat through her loins. She flashed a look at Alex. “This is what you want?”

  “Not exactly like that the first time. The first time, I’ll just
enter you there without the phallus but I want to accustom you to it.” He caressed her arm. “But only if you want it too.”

  The memory of the day before, when he had put his fingers into her there and fucked her at the same time… The fullness, the sense of being taken completely had driven her insane with pleasure. She wanted to feel that again, yes, but with his cock there this time—dear heaven, the intimacy of that. The forbidden nature of it… Her inner muscles contracted and lubrication flowed from her core. A delicate shudder chased along her spine and she closed her eyes.

  He touched her hand. “If you don’t like it, we won’t do it again.”

  At the slight edge in his voice, misgivings arose in her. She opened her eyes and glanced at the page. “Will it hurt me?”

  “It might, at first; it is a type of virginity. But if you allow this we’ll go slow.” He put the book down. “I mainly have that book as a novelty, something exotic to collect. The pictures are a little comedic and not particularly arousing.”

  She agreed and was glad he’d closed the book. But it was a work of art. She was going to examine it privately. Later, alone, when she could giggle wildly at the silliness of it all.

  He picked up the dildo and warmed it between his hands. Her stomach went all fluttery. She wasn’t at all convinced she’d like to have that thing inserted into her. But she trusted him and was willing to go along with his experiment once before closing her mind.

  He bent down and kissed her. The touch of his tongue tracing her lips, sweeping into her mouth and caressing hers, heated her blood. His large hand brushed over her breasts, exciting her nipples into stiff peaks. He pulled his mouth away from hers and kissed his way down to her breasts, to her belly and lower.

  She was trembling with desire.

  He plunged his tongue into her slick depths several times then worked his way forward, licking her swollen inner lips until he reached her erect nub.

  She was close, so close. Just a few more strokes of his deft tongue and she would come undone. She clutched his hair and arched her pelvis upwards.

  He stopped. The head of that phallic object touched her. Smooth, cool, sliding along her swollen nub and then down between her inner folds to her entrance. He pressed and it entered her a little ways. She contracted around it, aching to be filled and stretched, and she arched upwards again. It felt good and yet… it wasn’t a real cock. He bent and applied his tongue to her most sensitive spot again whilst sliding the glass phallus in and out of her with slow, incremental strokes.