The Night Before Scandal (Heart's Temptation Book 7)

by Scarlett Scott

  He watched as she pulled her chemise over her head and unbuttoned her drawers before allowing them to fall around her ankles. The elegant sweep of her back entranced him, but her rump’s full curves were what captured his attention the most. My God, she was beautiful. He wanted to fall to his knees and bite one of those lovely, cream-smooth cheeks.

  He swallowed, fighting back another swift, powerful surge of arousal. When she moved to undo her intricate coiffure, he found his wits and stepped forward, staying her. He had changed his mind.

  “Allow me.”

  She stilled, lowering her hands. He had never before lowered a lover’s tresses. Had never been struck by the urge. But Alexandra’s hair was magnificent. He had always been drawn to ginger-haired women. No other shade of red could compare to her copper locks, which were a delectable strawberry with flaxen highlights that glinted in the sun rays that filtered through the large tower windows. His fingers sank into the soft strands, finding pins and pulling them out one by one. They rained to the floor, some hitting the fur, others landing upon the stone floor with a plink.

  He unwound braids and coils, amazed at how much of it there was and how well her lady’s maid had trapped the bounty. Alexandra’s hair, unbound, was wild and breathtaking. It matched her perfectly. He smoothed it down over her back, his palm stopping at the ends, which reached all the way to the curve of her arse. He sifted through the strands, finding bare, pliable flesh, and filled his hands with her.

  She gasped, shooting him a look over her shoulder that was part shocked, part aroused. “My lord?”

  He leaned forward, caught her lips with his to reassure her. “You have a tempting bottom.” He squeezed gently. “But if you insist upon my lording me, I’m going to spank it.”

  Up went her finely arched brows. “You wouldn’t dare, my lord.”

  With his right hand, he delivered a painless tap to her rump. “Do you risk testing me?”

  He kissed her again, slid his hands over soft, yielding flesh to anchor her waist. Their tongues dueled. He bit the fullness of her lower lip, licked the bow that taunted him each time he gazed upon her. Kissing her from this angle, his body behind hers, her face tilted toward him, his cock grinding against her backside, the silken curtain of her hair whispering over his chest, only served to heighten the sensations licking through him like low, molten flames.

  “Harry,” she whispered into his mouth. And then she turned in his arms, cupping his face as she had earlier, as though he were someone precious to her. As if he were someone to be cherished. Her tenderness as she stood vulnerable, innocent, and nude before him rocked him to his core.

  Something warm slid into place deep in his heart.

  Something right.

  It wasn’t the Christmas season. Or the cold. Or the snow. Or the fantasy of their little bower away from everyone else. It was the woman before him. She was his other half, the piece of himself he had never known was missing until this moment of stark revelation and utter want.

  He had fallen in love with Lady Alexandra Danvers.

  “Yes, darling.” He planted kisses on her cheek, her ear, her chin and jaw. Any speck of skin his lips could find. Her throat, the madly throbbing pulse of her heart. Lower still, all the way to the generous swells of her breasts, at last upon full, erotic display. He kissed his way to the taut bud of one erect nipple and then sucked it into his mouth. “Mmm.”

  She hummed her pleasure. He licked and bit before moving to the other perfectly pink peak and trailing his tongue in a teasing ring. He kissed below, then above it before straightening, denying her what she so clearly wanted.

  “Harry,” she said again.

  But he had something better in mind. Ignoring her plea, he guided her to her back on the soft fur, taking care to see that she was comfortably settled. He stopped for a beat to take in the full effect of her long, deliciously curved body spread before him like a nude feminine feast before he kissed the peak of her breast. “The next part of the experiment involves communication.”

  “Please do it again,” she said immediately.

  He smiled against her skin before kissing to the left of her hungry nipple. She was a quick study, his future wife. “Do what again?” he asked, being deliberately obtuse.

  Harry glanced up to find her watching him, her lip caught between her teeth, an adorable flush staining her cheekbones. A quick study, but still an innocent. Never mind that, he would rectify it with great pleasure. And he would also make her tell him exactly what she wanted him to do to her. If she wanted to conduct an experiment, he would damn well give her a bloody experiment. He blew on her nipple.

  She gasped and arched her back, thrusting her breast toward him in a wordless plea.

  But he would not falter. He kissed the valley between her breasts. Here, she smelled of her soap. Bergamot and orange and sweet, bare woman. “Tell me, Alexandra.”

  “What you did before,” she said on a rush, frustration tingeing her tone.

  He blew on the beckoning bud again. “More specific, sweet. I am afraid that I must conduct this experiment with a great deal of attention toward specificity. That way, when we review it, there can be no question of what occurred. Nor will there be any confusion regarding our compatibility.”

  She made a sound of exasperation. Her fingers threaded through his hair, and she attempted to urge his head toward her waiting nipple. He resisted, prolonging their battle of wills to heighten the passion for both of them. Even if it all but killed him to control his urge to fuck her into the next century as he so desperately longed to do.

  “Suck my nipple into your mouth as you did before,” she elaborated, her voice strained with need. “And…use your teeth again, if you please.”

  He had uncovered her libidinous side, and he loved it. “As you wish, sweet. All in the name of our experiment, naturally.”

  And then he suckled her. Caught her nipple between his teeth and tugged. Licked it. Kissed it. Bit it once more. He held his weight on one forearm as he visited this sensual torture upon her, and his free hand found its home. His fingers parted her slit, encountering hot, slick flesh. He sought her pearl, circling the sensitive nub. Her hips bucked. With two fingers, he worked her, sucking at the same time.

  More wetness coated his fingers. His entire body was alive and aflame, his senses filled with her, breathing her in, aware of her every sound and breath and movement. He could not get enough of this. Of her. And the notion that he would be able to spend the rest of his life bringing her pleasure and loving her nearly split him in two.

  Too good to be true.

  She was.

  It was.

  They were.

  “This experiment is proceeding…” she gasped when his fingers found the particularly sensitive underside of her clitoris at the same time as he bit her. “Oh. That is to say, I am pleased with the experiment thus far. Harry.”

  He raked her flesh with his teeth and applied more pressure to her pearl. He sucked her nipple and let it fall from his lips with a lusty pop before looking up to meet her gaze as he continued to play within her wet folds. “Pearl.” He stroked it lovingly. She was soaking wet. “Also known as gem. Or, more scientifically as clitoris.” At the last, he worked it from side to side, applying all his efforts to stimulating her and readying her for the culmination of their experiment.

  The rending of her maidenhead.

  He did not like to think of it, for he had never taken a virgin. His only lovers had been well-experienced and eager, either for the pleasure he could give them or the coin. Neither had mattered to him. All that had was his ability to slake his needs within their willing flesh.

  He wished he had never known another woman before Alexandra, that he could come to her the same way she came to him, innocent and ready for an awakening. They could have discovered their pleasure together. But he was not an untried youth, and he could not undo what had already been done.

  All he could do was make certain that she was the only woman he
would ever pleasure again. The only woman he would ever love.

  “Pearl,” she repeated, her hips thrusting into his in a parody of lovemaking.

  She wanted more. The wetness on his fingers suggested she was ready for it. But first, he wanted to taste her. Perhaps it was not the sort of thing one ought to attempt with an inexperienced lady. But the woman he was hellbent upon pleasuring was no ordinary lady. She was Lady Alexandra Danvers, and she did not flinch at stealing her brother’s attire and donning it so that she could proceed with her meteorological studies. She was an original.

  She was his.

  Forever.

  Chapter Ten

  Lord Harry—Harry—suckled her nipple. Alexandra suppressed an indecent moan at the pleasure he inflicted upon her. She had intended this experiment to be methodical. Reasonable. She had somehow anticipated a clear, calm outcome. A list of observations.

  But making love with a man had nothing at all to do with science.

  And making love with Lord Henry Marlow was not an experiment at all but rather an experience to revel in. If she had ever imagined she could form a logical thought or conduct herself with reason and scientific clarity where he was concerned, she considered herself horribly, ridiculously wrong.

  He kissed his way down her belly, and while her inner sense of modesty told her to avert her gaze, she could not stare anywhere but at him. He kissed the jut of her hip bone. His hands bracketed her thighs before sliding inward, urging her to part them. He kissed her mound as his hands spread her legs wide to accommodate…

  Oh. My. Heavens.

  His mouth.

  The first touch of his tongue upon her pearl, as he had instructed her to call it, made her cry out. He circled the sensitive nub of flesh, then flattened his tongue and worked her. Desire swirled.

  He licked, traveling along her seam and then delving deeper. Harry sucked her pearl the same way he had sucked her nipples, and she could not control her body’s wanton reaction to such splendor. She had thought there could be no greater pleasure than his lips upon hers, but how wrong she’d been. For this, his wicked mouth between her legs, was a whole new level of bliss.

  When he used his teeth upon her, she cried out, the pleasure so intense that she thought it would break her. And it almost did, for one more nip of her pearl followed by a slow and steady suck, and her body shook as a wave of ecstasy unlike anything she’d ever known crashed over her.

  His tongue worked her until the last, small tremor subsided, and she lay beneath him feeling both boneless and mindless. Harry rose above her, his lips glistening with her juices, his green eyes dark and glittering. “That is called spending, and I plan to make you do it thoroughly and often when we are wed.”

  Alexandra could not argue with that. “I will hold you to that promise.”

  He grinned down at her, so handsome that she ached. “Is that a yes, sweet?”

  It was an irrefutable yes to everything and anything he wished to do to her.

  But as her eyes devoured his form—the strong, broad chest, lean waist ribbed with muscle, strong forearms, and the thick, long rod of his cock—she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Yes to which question?”

  “To marrying me, minx.” He guided her thighs apart and lowered his beautiful body to hers, the head of him brushing over her clitoris. He bowed his head and sucked her nipple. His fingers dipped between them to work her in a delightful new way.

  She could not withhold her low, pleased moan of acquiescence, for he knew how to pleasure her far too well. “Oh yes. But in the interest of science, I do think our experiment might continue.”

  He kissed a path of fire up her throat. “I couldn’t agree more.”

  And then he took her mouth with his in a kiss that was hot, open, and hungry. She tasted the musk of herself on his lips and tongue, and instead of shocking her, it only aroused her more. That same knot of need grew within her, the flesh he had awakened needy and slick. She ached to be filled. To become one with him.

  He moved, his cock poised at her opening. She bucked, knowing what she wanted. His fingers played over her pearl.

  “Are you certain, Alexandra?” he whispered, kissing her as if she were something to be savored.

  “Yes.” She rocked again, bringing the tip of him closer still. “I want you inside me.”

  With one shallow thrust, he broke past the barrier of her maidenhead. A sharp, stinging pain pierced her, but she knew enough to expect it, and she had been prepared. He stilled, tore his lips away, and pressed his forehead to hers. “Did I hurt you, darling?”

  He toyed with her pearl more firmly, chasing away the pain with a fresh onslaught of desire. Her hips tipped upward of their own accord, her internal muscles squeezing to bring him deeper. Nothing had ever felt so real or so right. They were joined, connected.

  The words spilled forth from her. She could no longer contain them. They were larger than she was. “I love you.”

  On a groan, he thrust into her until he was fully seated. She was gloriously full and surrounded by him. The weight of his body atop hers, the sensation of him inside her, the heat and scent of skin…it was too much. She never wanted it to end.

  He moved then, thrusting in a delicious rhythm. In and out, in and out. Deep then shallow, his skilled fingers never leaving her. Pleasure crashed through her with the force of a runaway locomotive. She tightened around his driving cock as he sank deep inside her, and she screamed her release.

  He was not far behind. He thrust again and again as she shuddered and quaked and spent. And then his body stiffened and tensed beneath her questing touch. He slammed home, whispering her name into her mouth as the warm, wet rush of his seed spurted inside her.

  He collapsed atop her, his heart thudding to match hers, and kissed her nose. “I love you too, sweet. I have already acquired a license, and we can be married as soon as you wish.”

  She hugged him to her, burying her face in the delicious heat of his neck. “I have every intention of conducting similar experiments with you as soon as possible. Will tomorrow do?”

  The rumble of his laughter and the sweetness of another kiss rewarded her. “You are an utter gem, Danvers. Who could have known my Christmas angel would come to me in the middle of an Oxfordshire blizzard, wearing her brother’s clothes?”

  Alexandra kissed him again, for she couldn’t seem to help herself. “Did you mean what you said about the trousers?”

  A sinful smile curved his sensual lips. “I meant what I said about everything, sweet. You appeared in my life when I least expected it, but when I needed you most. I love you exactly as you are. You’re perfection.”

  “I love you Harry Archibald Marlow.” Happiness suffused her, mingling with the delicious glow that had flooded her in the wake of their lovemaking. “And I also meant what I said about marrying you tomorrow.”

  He laughed and kissed her again. “Consider it done, my love.”

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  The weather was insufferably warm, and there was a thunderstorm rolling in, making the conditions perfect for studying the clouds in an effort to complete, at last, her weather prognostics map. Alexandra noted the reading from the barometer in her journal before holding her spectroscope to her eye and observing the striations of the clouds. Here, at last, she was certain, was the missing pieces in her research.

  It had only taken her six months, one wedding, and one indefinably wonderful husband to reach her final conclusions. She made some more notes in her journal, sketching out the bands of the spectrum, beginning at left with red, then carrying on to orange, yellow, green and finally ending at right with blue.

  By the time she had completed her notations, ominous cracks of thunder could be heard, trembling on the horizon. Lightning bolts arced across the sky, traveling between clouds. For a moment, she stood in awe, watching the beauty of the storm. The air was redolent with the scent of imminent rain.

  Nature was fierce and incredible.

 
; A strong arm wrapped around her waist, and the voice she had come to know and love so well, butter smooth and every bit as rich and decadent, murmured in her ear. “Have you finished taking your notes, my love? I fear lingering here much longer will not be safe.”

  Alexandra turned to a sight even more fierce and incredible than the impending storm: her handsome husband. Looping her arms around his neck, she drew his mouth down to hers for a kiss that began as sweet and innocent and soon turned into a hungry, frenzied meeting of lips and tongue and teeth.

  With a growl, he held her tighter, angling his mouth over hers and exerting just the right amount of pressure before catching her lower lip in his teeth and giving her a tender nip. “I love you,” she said on a contented sigh, rubbing her nose against his.

  She could not seem to stop telling him, now that he had unlocked that part of herself. And even though it seemed hardly enough. Three simple, monosyllabic words could not begin to convey the depth of emotion she felt for Harry.

  She showed him with her caresses on his body, with her tongue against his. She showed him every night in their bed and even sometimes in his study. And the library. Oh, and there had been that occasion for wickedness in the hall when no one else had been about…

  She was flushing, she was certain, her cheeks hot and prickly.

  “I love you too, angel.” He kissed her again, his eyes blazing with intensity as they burned into hers. “And you are flushing, which leads me to believe you are having indecent thoughts about the carriage awaiting us.”

  She had not been, but now he mentioned it…

  Alexandra could not stifle her smile. “Carriages shall forever hold a fond place in my heart. I seem to recall a very naughty carriage ride with a certain gentleman that changed my life forever.”

  He grinned back at her, those creases bracketing his eyes that she had kissed so often appearing. “I remember it well. The snow was falling down like mad, and the loveliest gentleman I’ve ever seen was standing in the midst of it, studying the snow bands and laughing at me for berating the clouds.”