It was, now.
The reality of that knowledge was more than a little unsettling to Serena. After tonight, she would never be the same. She would be irrevocably changed. The trick was to keep her wits about her.
“What would you like, my lord?” Serena asked, indicating wine and spirits on a nearby table.
His eyes burned in response. “You know exactly what I want. I want you.” He walked toward her, slowly, like a lion stalking his prey. “I’ve waited long enough, as have you, Serena. Tonight we will taste the pleasure that has been denied us for too long. And there will be pleasure, for both of us.”
Serena licked her lips, feeling a flutter of arousal between her legs, even while she had to fight the urge to quarrel with him about anything and everything, as she had done before the contract was signed. But she was his courtesan now. There could be no more resistance. It was time to act the part.
“Take off your robe,” he commanded.
Slowly, she untied the fastener at her waist, letting the silk robe fall open. She heard him inhale a quick breath as his gaze dropped to her naked body beneath.
“All the way off, Serena. I want to see you.”
She pulled the soft fabric slowly down her shoulders, baring more and more of her flesh to his scrutiny.
Serena had never been completely naked in front of a man before. It was a strange feeling. There was a subtle shifting of power as she slowly let the garment drop to the floor. She had never felt so vulnerable, yet so powerful. For the sight of her body unclothed and unprotected was somehow making Darius vulnerable as well.
“By God, but you’re beautiful,” he said, his voice heavy with need. He reached out to touch her.
His strong, masculine hand cupped her shoulder, then slid down her arm, tantalizingly slow.
Serena held her breath. This was not the first time Darius had touched her. Only a week ago he’d been pawing at her breasts under the oak tree of his garden.
Then why did it feel so new?
His other hand reached out to touch her shoulder, mirroring the first caress. He looked down at her with those piercing blue eyes, now dark with passion, and took a naked breast in each hand.
Serena heard herself gasp, and worked hard to stay in control. Her body was his, now, to do with what he wanted. Perhaps it was that knowledge that was the most unnerving of all.
He rubbed the pads of his thumbs across her nipples, and her stomach did a little flip. Then he rolled each hardened tip between thumb and index finger, first softly, then hard enough to make her expel a breath she hadn’t even noticed she’d been holding.
She watched the corner of his mouth turn up in a wicked grin. Was he teasing her breasts for his pleasure, or for hers, she wondered?
“Do you enjoy how I touch you, Serena?” he asked.
She closed her eyes, holding onto his arm for support as he continued his wicked torture. “What do you think?”
“I think you do.” He trailed his fingers under the curve of each breast. The sensation made tingles dance over every inch of her skin.
He was right, blast him. She was enjoying his touch entirely too much, especially considering how poorly he had treated her in the past. But somehow, the past was slipping away. Only the present existed.
Wasn’t that how he’d seduced her in the first place?
But she had to remain in control.
Her training demanded it.
Her self-esteem insisted upon it.
And Lady Devlyn would be very disappointed if her star pupil surrendered body and soul to Darius on the first night of their association.
Her body was one thing. Her soul was quite another.
But Serena was beginning to believe that each was tied to the other, and that the body could be tricked into opening the soul’s defenses by exactly this kind of temptation.
She would have to gather her strength before Darius’s next onslaught.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, tipping her chin upward. “It’s as if you just froze.”
“There is nothing wrong, my lord,” she replied. “I am simply overcome with desire. Perhaps we should move to the bed now?”
He studied her curiously. “In a hurry, are you?”
“I only want to please you, my lord.”
His expressing darkened with disapproval expression. “Will you quit calling me ‘my lord?’ We know each other too well for that. What happened to saying my name?”
“I thought, now that I am in your employ…,” she began.
“Yes, you keep bringing that up. To distract me, I think—and perhaps to distract yourself.”
“From what?” Serena asked innocently.
“The pleasure you feel when I touch you. The pleasure you’ll feel when you’re beneath me on that bed.”
Serena said lightly, “Do not presume to know what I am thinking, Darius. I have rented out my body to you, not my mind.”
His expression darkened. “You make it sound so distasteful, Serena. Employee and employer. Is that how you really feel about us?”
She shrugged.
“I think you’re blowing smoke,” he said. “You’re afraid that you’ll enjoy yourself too much, and it will make you vulnerable.”
“You flatter yourself,” she said haughtily, realizing that he enjoyed sparring with her in this way, and since he was paying her for pleasure, she would give him exactly what he wanted.
“Do I?” he asked. “We shall see. If I have rented out your body, then it is mine to use as I see fit. Wasn’t that our agreement?” He stepped closer to her, towering above her. The scent of his skin swirled around her, spicy, masculine, tinged with a hint of something else…raw power.
A flash of uncertainty spiked through her veins. She had never seen him like this.
His blue eyes blazed down at her. His voice was whisper-soft, but held a powerful warning. “Will you try to hide your true self when I’m buried inside you? Let’s see how good you are.” In one quick motion, he scooped her up into his strong arms and strode toward the bed.
Serena’s mind was spinning, this was happening too fast. She had lost control of the situation, and needed desperately to get it back.
Darius placed her on the bed, then crawled on top of her like a slow-moving panther. His hands pinned her arms above her head and he used his knee to push her legs apart. She felt stretched, naked and vulnerable. He looked down at her with those penetrating eyes before his mouth dove to claim hers. The kiss was like a branding, an unsentimental act of possession. It burned with heat and primal desire. His mouth fed on hers, as if she alone could provide him nourishment. She was his to use for his pleasure, taking as much or as little as he wanted.
Serena’s heart pounded uncontrollably, but was it fear or excitement that had her pulse racing so?
Then his lips descended to her neck, searing the tender flesh there with his sensual onslaught.
Her body—traitor that it was—quaked and shivered in response. It seemed to cry out for his touch. She felt his hand slide down over her belly, and she bucked uncontrollably when it covered her exposed sex. His fingers, warm and demanding, explored the delicate, throbbing folds between her legs, and Serena wriggled helplessly in response. She felt a blinding hunger building in the depths of her core, just as it had that night in the Telford Gardens.
“Damn you, Darius,” she ground out, flinging her head back onto the pillow.
“Is this what you were afraid of?” he asked, his voice raw with desire. “Feeling this burning need for me, deep inside you?”
She made no response, no audible one, at any rate. She couldn’t. Her mouth was gasping for air.
“This is sex, Serena,” he growled. “Hot, raw sex. And this is what we’re going to have whenever I come to your bed. I need it, and so do you. Tonight I will have your virginity, and after I bury myself inside you, you will never be able to forget me.”
His hand continued stroking her sex, stirring the flames of Serena’s passion like
a master. She was slick with desire now, and when his fingers entered her, they entered smoothly. He pushed gently, soon encountering the resistance of her maidenhead.
There was the proof of her virginity, at the tip of his fingers. Was that why he had teased her this way, to make sure he was getting what he paid for, she wondered?
He buried his face in her neck. “God, I’ve thought about this every night for the past two years, Serena. You’ve tortured me more than you know.”
He kissed her mouth, languidly. For a moment, he took his hand away from her sex. Unbidden, her hips pushed upward in need, aching for his touch to return.
Then she realized what he was doing. He had unfastened his trousers. She felt his swollen cock against the skin of her thigh. She knew it was her duty to touch him there, but her own curiosity made her hand reach downward to his sex.
Her hand encircled him, and she was unprepared for the paradox she encountered there. Darius’s manhood was hard as stone, but the warm skin was as soft as a newborn babe’s. He inhaled a breath as she explored the pulsing hub of his masculinity.
He pushed her hand away, chuckling slightly as he rose from the bed. “Slow down. We have all night.”
He pulled off his coat and unbuttoned his vest. He yanked at his neck cloth, untying the intricate knot and tossing it to the floor. His linen shirt followed, then his boots and open trousers.
Serena propped herself up on her elbows, watching Darius as he undressed. He was built like a Greek god, all hard muscle and tantalizing masculinity.
She was breathing hard, as if she’d run a race. Her mind felt like it was trying in vain to catch up with her body, which was so sexually aroused that it seemed the two might never reunite.
Her body burned for the man in front of her. It didn’t care that he’d hurt her once. It didn’t care that Serena had sold herself to Darius. Her body wanted him, craved the physical satisfaction that only he could provide.
In a matter of moments, he would take her virginity.
And oh, how she wanted him to.
All through her lessons with Lady Devlyn and the Courtesan Club, Serena and her friends and had studied male anatomy. They had learned how to arouse a man, how to prolong his pleasure, and how to read the signs of his approaching ejaculation.
But nothing could truly prepare her for the reality of this moment, now that it had come. For there was something else dancing in this room with them, which the books hadn’t been able to describe. Even now, Serena didn’t know what to call it. The shifts in the balance of power between them were so subtle, and so quick, they were almost imperceptible. Almost.
This potent energy between them was like shifting sand at the mercy of the tide. It changed and moved with each passing moment. Passion swirled around them, heating the very air of the room.
Darius was gloriously naked now. He stepped toward the bed, his eyes burning with unmasked desire. His sex hung heavy and swollen between his legs. Soon, it would be inside her, pushed right up to the hilt.
What would that feel like, she wondered? Of one thing she was certain: her body hungered for it in the most distracting way.
Darius returned to the bed and lithely climbed across it. Then he was on top of her, bare skin pressed against bare skin. He kissed her again, holding himself up on one arm as his other hand touched the corner of her mouth. Then he trailed his hand down her neck, over her breast, down her side, to delve between her legs again.
She moaned as he pleasured her with his fingers, readying her for their joining. This was its own form of sweet torture, this weighted, humming prelude. Desire flooded her veins, flooded every inch of her body until she felt ready to explode.
When would he give her release?
As if reading her mind, Darius moved atop her, spreading her legs with his thighs. The tip of his cock touched her slick opening, and pushed forward.
Serena took a deep breath, willing herself to remain in control. But the sensation of being entered like this was so different, so unlike anything she could have imagined, that it was a challenge.
Darius was so thick, so hard, that she felt stretched and invaded. Yet the sensation was wickedly pleasurable. He was pushing as gently as he could, but they both knew he’d eventually have to push hard enough to break through her maidenhead.
Darius snaked an arm around the back of her waist, holding her firmly. His mouth descended upon hers in a claiming kiss as he quickly thrust his cock inside her.
Serena gasped at the shock of it, Darius’s mouth still covering hers. She was aware of a stinging, stretching pain deep within, but it quickly subsided. Darius was now buried deep. He had taken her virginity, as he’d said he would.
He took his mouth away from hers and balanced himself on one hand and an elbow. Serena looked up into his eyes. He watched her intently with those piercing blue eyes that missed nothing. Then his hips began to slowly thrust.
He moved smoothly, completely in control of every muscle. Though Darius was a big man, he rested practically no weight on Serena as she lay spread beneath him. Instead, he moved effortlessly, thrusting deeply, then pushing slowly upward as he pulled out, and down as he entered again.
Serena’s hands reached to cradle his hips as he continued his thrusts. She ran her hands across the firm muscles of his buttocks, feeling them contract as he worked her with his body.
His face hovered above hers as he shifted all of his weight onto his elbow. The other hand found the pleasure point of her sex, and he rubbed her there, slightly above where their bodies were joined.
The heat that Serena felt before was now brought to another level, as Darius expertly teased the most sensitive part of her sex. This sensation, coupled with his thick shaft stretching and pulsing within her, was almost too much to bear. Serena felt weak, shaky, and quite different than she had ever felt before.
In the past, Darius had aroused her to the point of release, but this was more intense than she had ever experienced. She felt lightheaded and out of breath.
Then, white-hot sensation washed over her, cresting and smashing against every part of her body, until she realized she was gasping and clinging to Darius for dear life.
She looked up at him in time to see his face grimace in sweet pain as he ejaculated inside her. Only then did Darius allow himself to collapse on top of her, and only for a few moments before he rolled off to lay panting beside her.
It was done. Darius had claimed her virginity. It would be his as long as they both lived.
Serena felt strange. More than just sexually spent. She felt emptied, raw, and irrevocably changed. Her limbs had somehow been reduced to the consistency of sweet jam, now useless.
But more than the physical results of their coupling, Serena felt her mind trying to make sense out of what had just happened. Perhaps that would take longer. But she would have plenty of time to get used to it. She was Darius’s courtesan, now. This was her life.
And she didn’t know how to feel about any of it.
Serena moved to get up from the bed, but was stopped by Darius’s strong arm reaching across her body.
“Don’t bother getting dressed, Serena. I’ll be hard for you again before long.”
She took a shaky breath and laid back down, knowing that he would pleasure her again when he took her, but not knowing how much of Darius’s wicked ministrations she would be able to take and still remain in possession of her faculties.
Chapter 12
“A woman must not become sentimental about losing her virginity. Though much importance has been given this physical attribute, it is, after all, just a bit of skin.”
–from Memoirs of a Courtesan, by Lady Night
“So, how was it?” Bliss asked excitedly. “Was Lord Kane hung like a horse?”
Felicity poured herself some tea, and intoned, “If he was, then what did he do with his member, exactly? Details, details.”
Serena opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Bliss again. She shared a look with La
dy Devlyn, who watched it all with a knowing and amused expression on her face.
“Were you quite frightened by its size, Serena? Was it monstrously big? Bigger than this?” Bliss held aloft the tall pepper mill.
Serena buttered a scone while she waited for the girls’ excitement to abate. She had invited the Courtesan Club to her townhouse the next morning for breakfast—in part to show off her opulent new residence, but more so because she needed the company of her friends. It was the morning after the most unforgettable night of her life, and instead of feeling victorious, Serena felt more confused than ever.
Darius had left in the wee hours of the morning, after several bouts of lovemaking that had left Serena feeling spent and hollowed out.
Felicity laughed, saying, “I don’t think Lord Kane’s member could be that big, Bliss. If it was, Serena would not be able to walk this morning. Isn’t that right, Serena?”
“He was big enough, believe me,” Serena said.
Bliss and Felicity both giggled and clapped with glee.
“She’s done it. Our Serena is a woman, now,” Felicity pronounced. “I’m so proud of you, and envious.”
Bliss added, “Congratulations, Serena. May you have many more nights just like it…er, well, I suppose you cannot lose your virginity more than once.”
“Though there are some who try,” Lady Devlyn pointed out.
“You know what I mean.”
Serena smiled and replied, “I’m sure I will have many more nights like that, Bliss. Lord Kane is quite virile.”
“You see? I knew it,” Bliss said, cheerfully. “And how was it when he rent your maidenhead asunder?”
“Bliss!” Felicity admonished.
“She must tell us, Felicity, so that you and I will know what to expect when it’s our turn. Was it terribly painful?”
Serena paused for a moment, surprised at herself for being a little squeamish about the girls’ personal questions. “Only a little.”
His Courtesan Bride (Brides of Mayfair 3) Page 12
