The Seduction of Lord Stone

by Anna Campbell

Chapter Nine

  Because rushing seemed like blasphemy on this strangely sacred occasion, Silas slowly bent his head and placed his lips on Caroline’s in a kiss that was almost chaste. At last she’d consented. He’d been so sure this moment would never come.

  Her lushly curved body rested against his before she strained up to deepen the contact. Teasing her, he brushed his lips across hers again and again.

  Eventually she leaned back to see his face. To his delight, her expression held no reticence, just curiosity and a stirring sensuality that made him hard. “I know you can do better than that.”

  “Aren’t you enjoying it?”

  “Of course I am, but perhaps it’s time to get to the good stuff.” Her pout did nothing for his precarious control. “We’ve only got one night.”

  Over his dead body. “Caro, stop trying to direct events. I’m your lover, not the steward on your estate awaiting daily orders.”

  “But, Silas—”

  He hauled her up against him and took her mouth in the kind of kiss that shook empires. She stiffened in shock before on a muffled moan, she kissed him back. After yesterday’s fierceness, he should know what to expect from her passion. But her reckless ardor sent his heart crashing against his ribs. He lost himself in a succulent heaven of satiny lips and flickering tongues and nipping teeth. When he raised his head, they were both breathless.

  “Shall I take down my hair?” she asked huskily, releasing his shoulders.

  “Let me.” He caught her hands and placed quick kisses on each set of knuckles. “I’ve waited for this since I first met you.”

  “Really?” she asked in a wondering tone. “I had no idea.”

  He slid a pin from the rich brown hair. One long lock snaked across her round bosom. In a disgustingly adolescent fashion, his heart skipped a beat. “I know.”

  She stared at him with wide blue eyes. “You wooed me all that time.”

  “I did.” Another pin. Another loosened lock.

  “I didn’t realize I was…interested in you until I thought you were in love with Fenella—then I wanted to kill you both.”

  His lips twitched. “How appalling.”

  She regarded him wryly. “You know I’m no angel.”

  “For which I’m heartily grateful.”

  Another pin free. Then another. And another. The fashionable coronet started to look alluringly disheveled.

  The simple act of undoing Caroline’s hair threatened to bring him to his knees. One night? A lifetime wouldn’t be enough.

  “I’ve been so blind,” she murmured.

  “Not anymore.”

  With the last pin gone, her hair tumbled in disarray about her shoulders. On a low growl of pleasure, he buried his hands in its soft luxuriance. He kissed her again, with all the reverence he felt. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered.

  She moaned against his lips and plucked at his shirt with an unashamed impatience that stoked his need. Panting he pulled away to tug his shirt over his head.

  Her gaze fixed on his bare torso, and the salacious way she licked her lips sent another pulse of heat shuddering through him. “It’s a sin to cover you up.”

  His laugh held a hint of bashfulness. “Why, thank you.”

  Expression intent, she placed her hands on his chest. He trembled as she stroked his shoulders and pectorals and belly. For a woman who had been in a hurry, she suddenly seemed to have all the time in the world. Just when he was ready to move a little faster, damn it. Still, her touch created its own joy. Torment, too, perhaps, but definitely joy. His skin burned under her lingering exploration. She curled her fingers in the light covering of hair on his chest and the sting of fingernails made his blood simmer.

  With a sigh, she moved closer, trailing kisses over his collarbone and lower. When her lips grazed his nipple, the simmer turned fierce. His breath hissed out.

  With visible reluctance, she raised her head. “You don’t like it?”

  He laughed softly and plunged a hand into her hair, holding her for a quick kiss. “You take me to paradise.”

  “Good,” she said, and returned to torturing him.

  He endured her predations in a lather of barely restrained hunger, until those clever, seeking hands found his cock. “Devil take you,” he grunted, catching her.

  “I want to see you.” She slid one hand free of his hold and flattened her palm against the front of his trousers. “Don’t make me wait.”

  “Damn it,” he bit out as he went up in flames. His cock, already hard, swelled and the ache in his balls made him grit his teeth. He reached down to shape her touch around where he needed her.

  “Silas…” she sighed.

  That shivery little sound goaded him on. He crashed his mouth into hers for a ferocious kiss, then went to work undressing her. He’d worried that she might need coaxing, but she was with him every step. To his gratification, she made no secret of her lusty enjoyment of his touch. After these bitter months, her willingness was twice as sweet. Her encouragement and audacity proved a potent mixture, making his hands shake as he unfastened her pretty yellow gown.

  The dress slipped to the floor with a whisper of fabric. His animal self demanded that he push her onto the bed and climb on top of her. The soul that had spent more than a year starving for her told him to tarry, to notice, to remember.

  So he lingered to take in the glory of Caro in filmy white corset and petticoat. A delighted smile curved his lips. “You look like a naughty milkmaid.”

  She laughed and shook the heavy fall of hair back from her face. With a naturalness that made his heart expand, she turned and presented her back, lifting her hair out of the way.

  He kissed the curve of her shoulder, and set to removing the last barriers between them. Something of his deftness returned and soon clothing lay scattered around them. He nipped a line down her neck and across her nape.

  “Ooh, Silas, I like that,” she whispered in a husky voice that tested his control.

  He breathed deeply, capturing the fragrance of her skin. Their turbulent encounter in his greenhouse had been too hurried and furious for him to appreciate the splendid details of his beloved. The precise texture of her silky hair. The tremulous, erratic catch of her breath. Her essence: warm, flowery, female. He could write sonnets to that scent.

  He ran his teeth along a tendon in her neck until she gasped with pleasure. His hands traced her slender back down to where gauzy fabric teased him with hints of curved buttocks and lovely legs. He slipped her drawers down and rested his hands on her supple waist as she stepped free of them.

  At last, at last she was naked. Naked, except for her stockings gartered at the knee and the pretty yellow satin slippers with the ribbons around her neat ankles. He muffled an agonized groan. His need, already incandescent, burned hotter by degrees. He took an instant to thank whatever powers had ordained that she came to him.

  “Shall I turn around?”

  He heard a tremor of uncertainty. “Not yet.”

  Delaying the moment tantalized them both. The sight of her bare back and bottom made him powerfully aroused. She’d looked beguiling in corset and petticoat. Now that she was all but naked except for those come-hither stockings, she was irresistible. He needed a moment to shore up his restraint or Caro would find herself unceremoniously taken, never mind his best intentions.

  Caro shifted from one foot to the other. “I feel a little awkward,” she muttered.

  “You look like a dream,” he grated out, ripping in a frenzy at what remained of his clothing.

  At last his bedamned trousers were off. Gently he touched her shoulder and drew her to face him. He knew by now that she wouldn’t pretend coyness. Even so, astounded pleasure jolted him when her attention brazenly dropped to his cock, thick and erect.

  “Good heavens,” she said in blatant admiration.

  Silas hardly heard her. He was too busy drinking in the sight of her body.

  Caro was all feminine curve
s and pearly white skin. From her ruffled dark head to her elegant narrow feet, she was the loveliest creature he’d ever seen. She offered him a universe of marvels to explore. Lush breasts with dark pink nipples. Pale stomach with a mysterious little navel. Feathery dark curls hiding her sex.

  He’d wanted her for so long, this generosity was too much. He swallowed to ease a desert-dry throat, but still his words emerged as a croak. “You are beyond exquisite.”

  He reached out almost hesitantly to cup one breast, testing its delectable weight in his palm. She sighed and pressed forward. She seemed too perfect for mortal man’s possession. But he meant to take her and hold her and cherish her, until she ached to stay with him forever.

  He delicately took her beaded nipple between his lips, tasting her sweetness. She groaned in encouragement and arched forward, burying her hands in his hair and bringing him closer. He drew harder on her breast, rewarded with another quivering sigh.

  Hunger surged with invincible command. Fever overwhelmed everything but carnal need and he lost himself in adoring her beautiful body. Kissing all of her he could reach. Stroking her creamy skin. Discovering where she liked him to touch her. Oh, what delightful exploration.

  Each second heightened his craving. He had to taste her or go mad. Gently he edged her backward until she bumped into the bed.

  “Lie back,” he said hoarsely. Without waiting for an answer, he caught her shoulders and set her on the mattress.

  “Silas, what—” she began as he dropped to kneel between her splayed legs like a worshipper at an altar.

  “Trust me,” he said, catching her knees to prevent her instinctive withdrawal. Her scent surrounded him so that with every breath, she became more a part of him.

  She propped herself on her elbows and surveyed him with a question in her heavy-lidded eyes. “This seems…wicked.”

  Her shyness filled his heart with tenderness. “I hope so.”

  “You can…see me.”

  Deliberately he looked down at the slick pink folds between her slender legs. His determination to claim that secret part of her pounded in his veins. “You’re lovely everywhere.”

  She shifted again, more with self-consciousness than any need to escape, he was sure. “Nobody has ever…”

  “You’ll like it.”

  She frowned. “I’d better.”

  Her sudden imperiousness amused him. “Later, you can return the favor.”

  He waited to appreciate her dawning comprehension of his meaning. Then he bent to kiss her sex. A torrent of intoxicating impressions flooded his senses. The silky slide of his tongue against her most intimate place. The rich, humid scent. The hot, salty taste. The soft friction of curls against his face as he discovered every luscious dip and rise.

  He licked her slowly, basking in her liquid response. Then he drew hard on the center of her pleasure. She cried out sharply. Pulling his hair, she wriggled against his invading mouth. The faint pain intensified his enjoyment, like a hint of tartness in an apple. Spreading her legs to give him greater access, he pressed further. Ruthlessly he speared his tongue into her, tasting more deeply. She released a long shuddering moan that sounded like the music of heaven.

  He returned to teasing that sensitive little pearl of flesh, until she writhed like a mad creature. When he took her in his mouth, her broken cry rang out and her thighs clamped around his shoulders. He lapped at her, relishing her unabashed pleasure.

  After an eon of quaking delight, her hands fell away from his hair to lie loose and open on the sheets at her sides. Her legs relaxed and she stretched panting upon the bed.

  At last he looked up from her delicious mysteries. Her face was pale and transfigured. Her reddened lips curved in a faint reminiscent smile. Humbled by what she gave him so freely, he softly kissed each quivering thigh. Her beauty etched itself into his heart.

  For months he’d imagined having her at his command, but the power of the emotion throbbing beneath his raging desire surprised him. It was mostly gratitude, spiced with unconditional love. He looked along Caro’s graceful body to her unforgettable face, and recognized that she gave his life a center the way nothing else ever had.

  Gently he untied her slippers and drew away her stockings. Impatience thundering in his blood, he arranged her across the sheets, pliant and rosy and warm. She made a sleepy protest as he rolled her into the middle of the bed, then opened her eyes when he rose above her on his arms.

  “That was lovely,” she murmured, eyes dark and weighted with satisfaction—and surprise.

  “Not as lovely as you,” he whispered fervently. He lowered into a kiss, rubbing his cock on her stomach, letting her know without words that he was ready. Desire vibrated around them like beating wings, demanding satisfaction. She curled soft arms around his bare back. Her legs parted so sweetly to frame his hips.

  When he lifted his head, she met his eyes and her smile held no trace of shadow, only sensual welcome. “I want a lover, Lord Stone. I believe you might be suitable. Do you feel yourself up to the position?”

  He pressed down more purposefully. The world shrank to a translucent sphere containing Caro Beaumont and him in a bed on a windy night. Extending these last seconds before his body slid into hers only built anticipation. “That’s a terrible joke.”

  “If you require wit in a mistress, I’m afraid you must look elsewhere.”

  He laughed softly, delighted at her humor. More delighted that she admitted she was his mistress. She’d consent to more, once he’d answered all her doubts. If convincing her involved heady interludes like this, he couldn’t begrudge the delay.

  “Thank you, but I’ll make do with the mistress I have. After all, if she’s using her tongue to pleasure me, I can’t complain if she’s not using it to dazzle me with humor.”

  “Sensible,” she said faintly. The opaque shine of her eyes hinted she approached a point where talking was no longer enough.

  Silas kissed her lips, then bent to suckle her nipple. Her breath emerged in a voluptuous sigh. He nuzzled at her neck and slipped one hand between her legs. She was still wet and his finger slid smoothly inside her. Her muscles clenched against the incursion.

  He stroked her gently, watching her expression change as she became accustomed to his touch. He withdrew at a leisurely pace, relishing the tantalizing glide. Then he slid two fingers into her, moving in and out until her eyes widened with heightening arousal.

  She dragged him down for another kiss, clumsy and eager, then framed his face with unsteady hands. “Take me, Silas.”

  He shook his head and poured every ounce of the love he felt into his smile. “No, take me, Caro.”