But tonight as he studied her, he realized that she remained as mysterious and untamable as the sea she’d so loved seeing this afternoon. A lifetime together wouldn’t be time enough to reveal all this glorious woman’s secrets.
He had mere hours until they must part forever.
It was a damnable tragedy.
"Shall we take a brandy in the next room?"
She set aside the half-empty wineglass she’d been toying with and raised fathomless brown eyes to his. For this, their last evening together, she wore her best gown and her magnificent hair was caught up in a mass of curls. The coiffure was lovely, although its principal effect on him was the temptation to dismantle it.
He’d always thought Selina beautiful, but a week of sensual fulfillment had turned her into the loveliest woman he’d ever seen. Her creamy skin glowed, and her lips were soft and full as if she’d only just left off kissing him. Sensual awareness weighted her every movement.
"No, let’s go upstairs," she murmured. "I want to be in your arms."
"That’s what I want, too," he said soberly, rising to pull out her chair for her. "Do you want to race me again?"
She laughed as she stood, although he could tell it was an effort. Dinner had been a quiet meal. They both felt the crushing weight of tomorrow’s goodbyes looming ahead. "Not tonight."
"Then allow me to escort you, my lady," he said, presenting his arm.
As she curled her fingers around his elbow, her smile was wistful. Her touch was warm, even through the layers of his coat and shirt. From the start, he’d been preternaturally aware of her. He’d wondered if familiarity would dull his urgent reaction, but she just needed to look at him sideways to make him as hard as iron.
"We only have to make it to the bedroom." Selina gave him a conspiratorial smile and one of those slanting glances under gold-tipped lashes that drove him wild. As if he wasn’t wild enough for her already.
"You know I’m ready for you?" he asked in surprise.
The smile that curved that lush red mouth turned smug. "Of course I know."
"Of course you do," he echoed.
No lover had ever been so attuned to him. It was one of the many reasons why the world exploded into a blinding fireball when they came together.
They left the dining room and crossed the shadowy hall to the staircase. As he mounted each step, he was achingly aware that this was the last time he and Selina would retire to bed together.
Brock beat back the thought because it was too painful to face. But a universe of repressed feeling deepened his voice as he pushed open the door to the chamber. "I don’t want to sleep a wink tonight, my darling."
She watched him with that serious, covetous gaze that only made him want her more. "Let’s see in the dawn."
With a self-confident sway of her hips that would have been foreign to the woman he first met, she moved past. He couldn’t bear to think of her going back to that demure lady, not when he’d watched her blossom into this vivid creature. But he supposed she must, damn it.
He followed her inside, confused, troubled, unhappy. Randy as hell. Because he suffered such unfamiliar emotional turmoil, she caught him by surprise when she turned and flung herself against him in a flurry of blue silk.
"Selina?" he gasped, as she fumbled behind him and slammed the door shut.
"Shh, don’t talk," she said in an intense voice he’d never heard before. She sounded like she wasn’t far off crying. "Tonight, I just want to feel. Because I’ll never feel like this again in my whole life."
"You…"
"No, for pity’s sake, don’t say anything," she hissed and caught his head between shaking hands to drag him down for a kiss, clumsy with violent emotion.
He kissed her back with all the hunger she ignited in him. The kiss held no finesse or tenderness. When at last she drew away, his chest was heaving.
With a hint of apology, Brock touched her lip. "I bruised you."
"I don’t care," she muttered, eyes brilliant with excitement and something that looked like despair.
He reached out to offer her comfort. "Let me…"
She placed her hands flat on his chest and pushed him back until he hit the door. "No! No more talk."
He didn’t resist. During these last days, he’d shared her passion over and over. She’d offered him a satisfaction he’d never found before, but the edge to her demands tonight threatened to burn him to ash.
Selina dropped to her knees in front of him. Her skirts pooled around her like a patch of summer sky. She tugged so roughly at the fastenings on his trousers that a button flew off to bounce across the carpet.
"What the devil…"
He caught her face in one hand and tipped it up until she met his eyes. His dick was thick and throbbing after that fierce kiss and the brush of her eager hands across his clothing. The ferocious concentration she devoted to undressing him heightened his arousal. "You want me in your mouth?"
"Yes," she said on a long exhalation.
They’d tried this variation a couple of times. At first, she’d been uncertain if willing, but in the end, as he’d come to expect, she’d lifted him to summits he’d never before approached. He, the famous rake, completely undone by the virtuous widow.
"I’d like that."
She was breathing in broken gasps. Standing over her, he had a superb view of the way her breasts rose and fell under the modest bodice. "This time I want you to stay until the end."
Shock and sinful anticipation slammed through him. His cock twitched in fervent agreement with her suggestion. She’d told him not to speak. She achieved her goal. Her boldness stole his ability to put two words together. He’d never yet come in her mouth, fearing she’d find the act revolting.
Now he stared down into her flushed face with its bright, yearning eyes and asked himself how he’d ever reached that conclusion. Hadn’t this woman proven herself his equal in daring over and over?
He swallowed, but it didn’t help to ease the tightness of his throat. "I…"
She sent him a seductive smile, composed of delight in his flabbergasted reaction and anticipation over what she was about to do.
Selina caught his hand and lifted it from her cheek. "I want this."
He gulped for air again, then altogether lost the ability to breathe as she kissed his palm, circling the center with her tongue. A jolt of heat made him stagger. An even stronger reaction crashed through him when she took his thumb into her mouth and sucked. As she drew on him, he couldn’t help imagining her devoting the same attention to his prick.
He groaned and sagged against the door. "I’m all yours," he grated out.
The stark reality was that was nothing but the truth.
Through dazed eyes, he watched her undo his trousers with hands that had regained their deftness. When she uncovered his erect cock, a choked murmur of admiration escaped her.
With a tenderness that threatened to blast him to dust, she took his throbbing member in her hand. Lost to her touch, he closed his eyes and rested his head back on the wood panels behind him. He ground his teeth and told himself he wouldn’t come. But as she started to stroke him, that resolution became more and more difficult to keep.
Her caresses became more purposeful, and he clenched his hands at his sides as he struggled for control. When she rubbed her thumb over the drop of moisture on the tip, his breath released in a hiss that expressed pleasure and frustration.
Brock jerked when she closed her mouth over him. The warm, wet suction was familiar, but it never failed to set his blood on fire. One hand caressed his tight balls, while the other curved around to squeeze his buttocks and press him closer to that brazen, sumptuous mouth.
She began to suck and use her tongue on him. He was so close to losing himself, it was a miracle he didn’t flood her mouth there and then. With another guttural groan, he buried his shaking hands in her hair. "God Almighty, Selina, what you do to me."
Her hand circled the base of his dick with a firm g
rip. How did she know to the fraction of an inch how he liked it? She began to move her head in an infernal imitation of the way he thrust inside her.
But this time, praise all the angels, if angels could bring themselves to contemplate such lewdness, he didn’t have to pull free. He could give himself to her in a way he never had before. The prospect made his head reel, even as the dark flow of arousal swept him away.
She moved faster now, increasing the pressure. He groaned again and pushed further into her mouth. He was so close, so damned close.
With a muffled sound of excitement, she took him deeper. She squeezed the base of his dick, then fondled his aching bollocks.
It was all over for his restraint. On a cracked groan, he clutched her skull hard between shaking hands and began to pump into her mouth. Somewhere through the wild storm, he expected her to pull back. But she took all he gave. When at last she lifted her head to gaze up at him, he watched her delicate throat move as she swallowed.
Her eyes were as dark as night and heavy with female satisfaction. With a luxuriant lack of shame, she lifted her hand from him with a final caress. She wiped the mouth that glistened with his seed.
"Och, lassie, you’re such a bonny woman," he said, lapsing into the Scots of his childhood as he so rarely did.
His knees threatened to collapse under him. Gratitude cramped his overflowing heart.
"I liked it," she said in a hoarse whisper. "I felt like you were mine."
He grimaced with the force of his emotions. "I’m yours anyway."
Clumsily he hauled her to her feet and kissed her. She twined herself around him as if she couldn’t get close enough. When they drew apart, they were both breathless.
"That you would do that for me…" Coherence remained too much to ask. He straightened away from the door, unsure his legs would support him. His blood ran sluggish with the lingering effects of his mighty climax in her mouth.
She smiled. Her hair was a wild tangle and threatened to tumble free of its pins. Her eyes glowed with excitement. "I did it for myself, too. You’ve given me such pleasure, I love that I can return the favor."
"You give me pleasure just by breathing," he said in a voice gruff with feeling. And because she’d been so endlessly generous, he dared to make a last forbidden request. "But there’s one more thing I’d like."
Faint bewilderment drew her brows together, but her answer reflected the trust they’d built up during these days of searing intimacy. "Anything."
Despite her quick cooperation, he wasn’t sure she’d take this next step, although she’d make him a happy man if she did. He took her hand and drew her into the center of the room. "Ever since our first night, I’ve wanted this."
She’d stopped looking uncertain. Instead she looked intrigued. "Oh?"
Encouraged, he went on. "I want to watch you touch yourself."
***
Embarrassment and guilty excitement seized Selina. "You want to watch?"
He gave a sharp nod, as his eyes burned into hers. "You said you thought of me when you touched yourself. I want to see you do it. So I can imagine you doing it again, when you…"
Leave.
"I’ll feel so awkward."
His expression darkened. "Will you do it for me? It would give me something to hold onto."
How could she deny him? She read the yearning in his face even as she asked, "You really want this?"
He nodded again. "More than I can say."
"Very well," she said in a reedy voice.
Without shifting his eyes from her, he reached out to grab a chair. He sank into it, stretching his long legs out before him. If she hadn’t read the bristling tension in his straight shoulders and the adamant set of his jaw, she might almost imagine he treated this moment as unimportant. She supposed he was trying to set her at ease.
Not much chance of that.
During a week when they’d spent hours naked together, she’d become used to his eyes on her unclothed body. But this was different. This felt like a performance.
She hesitated and shot him a questioning glance as her courage faltered. He smiled with the singular sweetness that always made her heart expand, until it threatened to break free of her chest.
"Selina, if you don’t want to do this, it’s all right."
She straightened her spine. What would this hurt her? She’d do anything to give Brock pleasure. Yet her knees trembled as she stepped forward and turned her back. "Will you unlace me? If I’d realized what you wanted me to do tonight, I’d have chosen another dress."
His soft chuckle held a wealth of male contentment. The chair gave a soft creak as he stood. "I should have warned you."
"I’m rather glad you didn’t. It would have spoiled my dinner."
She felt him begin to work on her laces. "You didn’t eat much anyway."
"Neither did you."
"No."
A silence descended as he finished undoing her dress. Very gently, he turned her around and kissed her with the same sweetness she’d seen in his smile.
Selina sighed and blinked away the mist that persisted in settling in front of her eyes. She clung to his shirt until she was sure she wouldn’t collapse in a heap. After a week of kisses, she should be inured to the way the touch of his lips turned her world topsy-turvy.
"Now show me," he whispered, sitting down again.
On tottering legs, Selina returned to the center of the room. His eyes were avid as she lifted her arms to remove the few pins that held her hair up off her neck. When she’d taken Brock in her mouth, he’d buried his hands in her hair as he surrendered to that paroxysm of pleasure.
When he’d spurted into her mouth, she’d felt so brave and powerful. She needed to wrench some of that bravery back now.
She reached down deep inside herself. If this was how Brock meant to remember her, she wanted him to think of her as strong and resolute. A woman proud of everything she’d done during this unforgettable week with her dissolute lover.
So while nerves urged her to rush, she made each movement slow and deliberate. As she unpeeled her dress from her shoulders and down her arms, urgency tightened Brock’s face.
"Oh, yes," he breathed, leaning forward. His air of relaxation vanished.
Selina found it in her to tease him, holding the dress to her breasts for an instant before slipping it down over her hips until it crumpled to the floor. She stepped out of it and began to unhook her corset.
By the time her corset parted to reveal her transparent shift, he was breathing audibly and his long-fingered hands clenched the carved arms of the chair. She couldn’t mistake his excitement. He’d fastened his trousers since she’d serviced him on her knees. Now his erect cock tented the material.
"Don’t stop, for pity’s sake," he croaked out.
This gradual revelation of her body to her eager lover excited her, too. With a languid grace she’d never imagined herself capable of, she slipped her corset off so her breasts bobbed loose against her shift. Beneath the drift of her petticoats, she was wet and throbbing. She rubbed her thighs together to feed her craving.
This wasn’t at all like what she did in the lonely space of her bedroom. There every action was furtive and poisoned by shame. Brock’s unconcealed appreciation made her feel like a queen.
But the game they played caught her in its talons just as tight as it caught him. She couldn’t bear to stop now. His eyes focused on the swell of her bosom. She always touched her nipples when she sought satisfaction, but never before with such lascivious pleasure.
She cupped her breasts, holding them up for Brock’s hot gaze. Through the fine material, she plucked at her nipples. She was so close to the edge that the sensation tugged at her womb and an involuntary cry escaped her.
"Hell, Selina, you’re going to kill me," he groaned.
She slid one hand down her chest and fondled her breast under the shift. Then with increasing urgency, she pushed down the fabric so she presented herself to him.
&n
bsp; "Touch them," he grated out, his hand covering his member. His face was flushed, and a muscle jerked in his lean cheek.
Selina adored that she could do this to him. When she’d first seen him, he’d seemed a man apart, untouched by messy human emotion. Now she turned him into this shaking, desperate lover who was on the brink of losing control at the sight of her body.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on arousing herself. Squeezing her nipples. Fondling her breasts. Teasing herself until she was shaking.
When her nipples were tight and aching, she reached down to untie her petticoats. She’d like to continue to titillate Brock, but she verged too close. She pressed her hand over her mound to find some relief. It wasn’t enough. With swift eagerness, she stripped her shift away, so she was naked. She hadn’t worn drawers since she’d arrived at the hunting lodge.
Brock inhaled great lungfuls of air, and the hand he placed over his erection moved with increasing speed.
"What…what do you do once you’re naked?" he asked in a choked voice.
She backed toward the bed. "I…I use my hand."
Her knees felt like wet wool, and she tumbled back onto the mattress. Her touch on her body excited her, but more than that, Brock’s unabashed enjoyment built her responses beyond anything she’d achieved on her own.
"Show me."
Shyness was long forgotten. Her insides tightened with the irresistible drive to climax. She shifted to give him a clear view of her sex and how she stroked herself.
She raised her knees and began to explore the drenched folds of her quim. The air was thick with the scent of her need, musky and salty and hot. She found the place where her pleasure focused and played with it, until a violent convulsion of bliss shuddered through her. She cried out as every muscle in her body clenched in rapture.
She opened dazed eyes to see Brock stroking his length through his gaping trousers. His lips were full, and his eyes were half-closed in sensual delight.
She was so lost in what she’d just done to herself that she barely noticed when he surged to his feet. He paused near the bed to strip away his clothes in a careless rush that betrayed his frenzy.
The Highlander's Forbidden Mistress Page 12
