He smiled at the hint of wistfulness in her voice. “Of course I’m coming. Would I miss meeting Will?”
“Don’t be difficult now. I’m quite reconciled to the situation.”
“I’m never difficult.”
“You’re always difficult.”
“How soon a wife turns shrewish,” he drawled. “I might have to teach you some manners.”
“You’d have to first know what manners are.”
He laughed. “Then I’ll have to teach you something else.”
“There at least you have competence.”
He dipped his head. “So I’ve been told.”
“By all your lovers who glared at me over tea. How did you manage to service them all?” She’d counted at least a score in the course of the day.
“A robust constitution and a fondness for women.”
“For sex, you mean.”
“Yes, for that.”
“Will they come calling again?”
“Josef won’t let them in.”
“But they’ll try.”
He shrugged. “It won’t do them any good.” He flashed a wicked grin. “I’m a happily married man.”
She couldn’t help but smile back. “You were wonderful this afternoon. I mean it.” She kissed her fingertips. “It was a beautiful sight.”
“I’ll surpass what you saw today when Will comes to call.”
“I shouldn’t be so shallow, but—”
“You are,” he sardonically finished. “As would anyone be, darling, in the same situation. I know what country society is like—incestuous, exclusive, everyone knowing everything. Did you go to the wedding?”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t.”
“There’s your mistake. Never show your feelings. That’s when the claws come out. You must have been bloodied.”
“I have good friends. In some ways, incestuous as country society may be, it’s not so vicious as the ton.”
“Yes, it is. You must be well liked.”
“I like to think I am.”
“I’m curious. Did this Will marry an heiress richer than you?”
“Yes, but that’s not why he married her.”
“If you say so.”
“Don’t look at me like that. He didn’t marry her for her money.”
“Does Will have money?”
“Some.”
“Ah.”
“Don’t look so smug. He has sufficient wealth.”
She was becoming distrait. “I need a nap,” Oz said, coming to his feet and holding out his hand to Isolde. “Come keep me company. We didn’t sleep much last night.”
“You shouldn’t have said that about Will,” she murmured.
“I’m sorry. Truly.” Reaching down, he grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet. “I’ll make it up to you. Tell me what you want.”
“Because you’re so rich you can give me whatever I want.”
He grinned. “As long as we understand each other.”
She punched him.
He dragged her close, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly. “We’re two lost souls, darling. Let me entertain you. At least for now.”
Resting her chin on his chest, she gazed up at him, debating whether to take issue with his characterization. Not in the mood for argument, however, she softly sighed. “You are entertaining . . .”
“Damn right I am.” He’d honed his skills to a fine art in recent years, dissipation his remedy for painful memory. “And I have what—a fortnight at least to play congenial husband. Maybe more if Compton proves obtuse. You must tell me what you like best in the way of amusement.”
“Surely you know better than I if all the lustful ladies who came to call today are any indication of your competence.”
In his experience, discussing other women with a lover was never beneficial. While disclosing other females’ sexual preferences was not only ill-bred but suicidal. “As I recall, you like to come a few times before you settle into a rhythm,” he offered.
She grinned. “Are you avoiding my question?”
“I certainly am.”
“What if I want specifics? Say about Lady Livingston who never stopped staring at you. Or the Honorable Miss Childers who looked near tears.”
“Why don’t I show you what they like,” he said in order to put an end to her catechism.
“With names attached?”
“I don’t know why, but if it appeals to you, certainly.”
“You’re lying.”
He had a discerning little wife. “And you’re much too persistent. Should I ask you to tell me how you and Will made love? Ah, it’s not quite so amusing now.”
She had the grace to look nonplussed.
“I apologize,” she said. “Although you must admit,” she said with the tenacity he’d found common to women on this subject, “that many distressed lovers begs the question.”
“Look, darling, every one of the ladies who came to tea today is bored. I alleviate the boredom, that’s all.” He allowed himself more honesty with her. But then, having done her the notable service of marrying her, he expected her to be more accommodating to him.
She understood all the ladies wanted Oz for more than that, but she also knew when to call it quits. “So you’d be willing to exert your imagination and finesse for me as well,” she lightly said.
“With pleasure.” Although, there had been a time in his life when making love had been about love and not about lust. “Now, would you like me to bring your cake upstairs?” He appreciated his wife’s good sense. Some women lacked such self-restraint. “I’m taking that,” he said, nodding at the brandy bottle.
“Then, yes. I’ll indulge my gluttonous desires in addition to relieving my boredom.”
“We both will,” he said with a roguish wink.
After showing her into his bedroom, he set down their provisions and waved her toward a chair. “Would you like the services of a maid?”
“Not unless you’re leaving,” she drolly replied.
He turned, the brandy bottle in his hand. “Not likely.”
As he went back to pouring his drink, she surveyed Oz’s bedroom. It was more austere than the room she’d bathed in that morning, the draperies and carpet cool tones of blue, the walls adorned with muted, bucolic murals reminiscent of Claude Lorrain. The furniture was large in scale, the chairs sized to a man, the four-poster bed a Chippendale piece from the previous century.
“Crème anglaise on your cake?” Oz asked without turning around.
“Yes please.” He might have been her husband of many years so casual his query and tone—like his easy manner at breakfast, or more to the point, like his suave affability with all his fawning lovers who’d come to call today. He was comfortable with women.
He swung around, his drink and her cake in hand. “I suggest we dine in bed. If your sensibilities aren’t averse to such casualness.”
“As you may recall, my sensibilities are rather unencumbered.”
He smiled. “Maybe that’s why I proposed. I found your, shall we say, eagerness charming.”
“While I found your, shall we say, stamina charming,” she returned in teasing mimicry.
“Allow me to put that to good purpose once again.” He nodded toward the bed. “After you eat your cake—or before. Or during,” he said over his shoulder.
She watched him walk away with a degree more infatuation than was advisable considering the practical nature of their marriage. But he was sinfully handsome and devilishly good in bed—the answer to any woman’s dream, which was reason enough if indeed reason even entered the equation in their bizarre arrangement.
And if the sheer beauty of his person wasn’t enough of a lure, she mused, his tailor further enhanced his many charms, the width of his shoulders displayed to advantage beneath his hand-woven tweed jacket, his long, muscular legs impeccably showcased in slim-fitting trousers, his linen dazzling white in contrast to his bronzed skin. In deference to I
solde’s limited wardrobe, he’d not changed from morning dress to meet their guests. He was a considerate husband—particularly while making love.
She found herself suddenly comparing Oz to Will—to the former’s detriment—and immediately chastised herself for fickleness. How could a single night of lovemaking nullify what she’d previously perceived as an enduring attachment. How could she be so shallow?
“If you’re going to daydream, darling, come do so in bed.” Oz had set down the brandy and cake plate and was shrugging out of his jacket. “We can interpret your dreams according to that fellow Freud—society’s newest conceit.”
“Or we could interpret yours,” she lightly returned, reminding herself this was nothing more than amorous sport for her husband.
“Uh-uh. My dreams aren’t for the faint of heart.”
“Pshaw—you don’t frighten me.”
“Nor do I intend to,” he suavely remarked. “I promised to entertain you, I believe.”
“As if I’ve forgotten. I’m afraid I’m no different than all the ladies lusting after you over tea,” she said, untying the ribbon in her hair as she approached him. “Just add me to your list.”
“You forget, I’m a happily married man without a list,” he sportively noted, holding out his hand.
“Your many lovers wouldn’t agree. I believe they’re ever hopeful.” She dropped the twirl of pink ribbon into his open palm and shook out her pale tresses.
“Let them be. I don’t care. I like your hair loose,” he said, deliberately changing the subject. “You remind me of a fresh-faced country lass. My country lass,” he murmured, dropping the ribbon on a table. Reaching out, he slid his fingers through the soft silk of her hair and held her gently captive.
She smiled up at him. “And you’re my irrepressible temptation.”
“A mutual dependency in that regard,” he said a trifle gruffly, surprised at the urgency of his desire. He let his hands drop.
“You don’t like the feeling.”
“No. On the other hand,” he more sensibly acknowledged, turning her and beginning to unhook her gown, “my libido has a narrow focus when it comes to feelings.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “And those feelings are—” “Likely to keep you up all night.”
“How nice. I never have to wait with you.”
“I can pretty much guarantee that.”
But he undressed her without haste, unhooking, unbuttoning, untying with a smooth, deft competence, taking his time. He wasn’t a novice, nor in the mood for slam-bang sex; as for his languid pace—it was a matter of self-discipline.
Less seasoned in the lists of love, Isolde was acutely aware of his touch—the casual drift of his fingers over her skin, the warmth of his palm sliding her dress sleeve down her arm, the occasional brushing contact with his erection as he moved behind her. Each time his hard, solid length grazed her bottom or hip, little anticipatory tremors quivered deep inside her, warming her blood, stirring her skittish senses, making her fully conscious of the heady phrase insatiable longing.
Prior to their meeting at Blackwood’s, she’d always considered sex a pleasure and delight, but never a craving. And now Oz had but to mildly bestir himself and she was instantly in rut. If it didn’t feel so gloriously divine, she might consider being mortified by her shameless response. Maybe later, she decided, wallowing in a voluptuary warmth.
“I should make you wait,” Oz said, well versed in female arousal. Dropping her chemise on the carpet, he turned her around and calmly surveyed her lush nudity. “You’ll thank me for it when you climax.”
She flushed. “So cool and collected. Am I boring you?” He flicked a glance downward. “Does it look like I’m bored?” he said, laughter stirring in his eyes.
His cool equanimity was infuriating but provocative as well, and whether prompted by lust or vexation, determined to ruffle Oz’s unruffled calm, she threw herself at him.
He grunted softly at the sudden impact but otherwise appeared unmoved, save for his libido, which reacted predictably to a nude female in close proximity.
“Umm, he noticed me . . .” Wrapping her arms around Oz’s neck, Isolde melted into his hard, lean body and rising on tiptoe, kissed him with wild, wanton spontaneity.
“There,” she whispered long moments later, dropping back on her heels and leaning back against his light embrace. “Even you’re not completely impervious.”
“Hardly. For your information, I’m not in the habit of asking women to marry me.”
She smiled faintly. “So you’re a little enamored of me.”
“Of course,” he said as if he meant it, knowing what was expected in amorous play. “Now, do I gather we’re in race mode again?” Her eagerness was charming. “No foreplay, no waiting, no cake or brandy?”
“If you don’t think me too rude.” Isolde fluttered her lashes in sham demure.
Oz chuckled. “You’re going to wear me out.”
“He seems in fine form.” She slipped her hand downward and ran her fingers up the length of his erection, patently obvious under the soft wool of his trousers.
“It’s the last thing to go,” he said with a grin.
“If you’re tired, I could just use him. You needn’t do anything.”
He spread his arms wide. “Who could refuse?”
“So I’m in charge?” she airily remarked, taking a step back.
“You’re in charge.” The truth was always flexible in situations like this.
“Didn’t you say that to Lady Mortimer at the Dorchester hunt?”
“I don’t recall.” Damn Lizabeth. He hadn’t thought Isolde had heard her whispered comments at tea.
“You were probably too occupied at the time to notice—what with Lady Mortimer’s very devoted attentions and the possibility of discovery imminent. What was that stable boy’s name?”
Silently cursing Lizabeth’s brazen impertinence, he said, “She was trying to embarrass me. Ignore her.”
“I must say, the image she provoked was intriguing. Do you do things like that often?”
“Christ, can we not talk about Lizabeth?”
“Lizabeth? Is that her name?”
His gaze narrowed. “Where are we going with this?”
Dropping to her knees, Isolde glanced up at Oz. “I thought we might go to an imaginary stable where no stable boy’s likely to walk in and interrupt us.”
“Need I brace myself?” A guarded note echoed in his voice.
“Heavens no. Why would I harm the instrument of all my pleasure?” Isolde brightly said, beginning to untie one of Oz’s shoes. “Our relationship is completely laissez-faire anyway, so what you did with Lady Mortimer is strictly your business. Lift your foot.”
For an inexplicable moment he wasn’t sure he liked the sound of the phrase completely laissez-faire when it came to his wife. But as quickly as the thought surfaced, he dispelled so outré a notion. Isolde was perfectly right about their personal freedoms, and what was even more perfect—she was about to perform fellatio on him. How very wifely.
What was also perfect—as in beautiful to behold—was his wife’s provocative pose. She was kneeling at his feet, all lush, pink flesh and shapely charms, her pale, frothy hair loose and tumbled, the nape of her neck exposed—in a primal vision of submission.
An utterly captivating image.
Deferential and compliant.
He was hard-pressed not to rip open his trousers, tumble her back onto the carpet, and mount her like some randy animal.
Sucking in a breath, he restrained himself. He could wait.
Or maybe he could wait. Having disposed of his shoes and socks, Isolde had suddenly risen to her knees and her upturned face was inches from his crotch.
“You don’t mind being used, do you?” She smiled. “Not that it matters whether you do or not since I’m in charge.” She gently squeezed the bulge in his trousers. “Umm . . . do you think he’s getting bigger?”
A rhetorical questio
n, he supposed as his erection surged higher and he wondered where she’d acquired her coquettish flair—the combination of breathy innocence and voluptuous splendor highly erotic.
“You’re not asleep, are you?” she playfully asked when he didn’t reply.
He smiled and shook his head.
“Then let me know,” she said, intent on disturbing her husband’s damnable composure, “if I’m too rough.” Having witnessed the full extent of Oz’s impressive harem over tea, she was feeling a stab of jealousy—useless but real. “Although if I interpreted Lady Mortimer’s comment correctly you don’t mind a little roughness.” She began opening the buttons on his trouser fly. “Or did she say roughhouse,” she sardonically queried, “which is something else altogether?”
“You don’t seriously think I’m going to fight with you?”
“I was just wondering how common this is for you.”
“With a wife? You tell me.”
“And you tell me if I’m doing this right,” she said with equal impudence, sliding the last button free. “Oh hell.”
“I’ll do it,” he offered, interpreting her expletive, swiftly releasing the small pearl closures on his underwear, experiencing the fierce untrammeled lust specific to the provocative Miss Perceval so recently become his wife. And oh hell to that, too—in spades.
He clenched his hands at his sides as she struggled to draw his engorged penis from the confines of his clothing, her untutored efforts stirring previously unstirred emotions, her naivete captivating to a worldly man. She elicited a tender regard quite different from what passed for feeling in the beau monde.
Then his erection sprang free, Isolde gasped, wide-eyed, and Oz took solace in the fact that he wasn’t alone in his singular fixation.
Her grip tightened, and he tensed against the prodigious shock to his senses. There was no reasonable explanation for his fierce response, even less to the near-orgasmic jolt that streaked up his spine when she forced his engorged cock away from his belly, slid her fingers up the long, rigid length, whispered, “He’s huge!” and opening her mouth, availed herself of Lady Mortimer’s favorite plaything.
Sheer will along with years of practice kept Oz from instantly ejaculating when her mouth slid over the hypersensitive head of his penis. Stepping back from the orgasmic brink, he slipped his fingers through her pale curls, held her prisoner between his large hands, and said, taut and low, “Let’s see how much you can take.”
Sexy As Hell (Berkley Sensation) Page 8
