Compromising Charis

by Sahara Kelly

  “I understand. You want me to ruin you. To take you to my bed and reintroduce you to those physical pleasures you found in the arms of your unfortunate lover years ago.”

  Charis lifted an eyebrow. “It was only a couple of years ago. I have found them since.”

  “There have been others?” His tone was abrupt.

  “Certainly not.” Charis straightened, then blushed furiously as she realized what she’d just admitted.

  “Well, well.” His lips curved into a grin. “I am more committed than ever, Miss Charis. It seems we shall contrive to enjoy ourselves, and ruin you at the same time, eh?”

  “Thank you. That would work out very nicely.”

  She was set on this appalling course. It would ostracize her from her family and society.

  It would set her free.

  And if the sheer outrageousness of it should elicit a definite shiver of excitement, so be it. She was a fallen woman anyway. Might as well accept it as part of who she was.

  “I think a day and a night should just about do it,” Sinjun drawled. His words recalled her to her plans.

  “Yes, that sounds about right. And if afterward you could get word to my family of our. . . er. . . interlude, I would appreciate it. I’ll be long gone, of course.”

  “Where?” He sounded mildly curious.

  “Since I’m appointing you keeper of my secrets, and master of my upcoming ruination, I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. I have a friend who knows a lot about horses. I’m going to join her when I find her family’s campsite. I will learn even more than I know now. Then I shall breed them. Horses, that is.” She paused. “At least, that’s the plan. How Jenny will feel about it, I’m not sure.” There were details that needed working out, such as where she would get the funding for her own stable if her family did indeed cut her off, but she refused to let those thoughts stop her. Better to be a penniless wanderer than the wife of a lackwit.

  “A laudable ambition.” Sinjun nodded. “I believe we are less than half an hour away from our destination, so why don’t you give me your opinion of my lads?” He nodded at the matched pair drawing the curricle. “I’m rather proud of them myself. Got a wonderful deal.”

  The conversation turned to horses, a subject dear to Charis’ heart. It turned out Sinjun was a knowledgeable companion, and a pleasure to listen to. They exchanged ideas and laughed together at some of the absurdities gentlemen went to when trying to buy the perfect mount. She chuckled at his tale of a friend who was determined to purchase the largest hunter at a horse fair even though his feet barely reached the stirrups. Of course, man met ground as soon as the beast broke into a trot, barely disturbing the horse’s gait, but utterly destroying the man’s carefully-tended reputation as a bruising rider. After that, he was just bruised.

  She and Sinjun were in complete charity with each other, Charis realized, as he turned the reins and headed down a shaded lane toward a modestly elegant house. Not as large as a country estate, nor as humble as a cottage, it was something in between. A residence designed for the comfort and privacy of a wealthy gentleman.

  “Here’s our destination, Miss Charis.” He nodded ahead.

  She swallowed. “Very well, Mr. Randall.”

  If there was a time to withdraw from this arrangement, Charis knew it had to be now, before she walked through that door. Was she making a terrible mistake? Could she go through with this outrageous plan, and come out of it with a whole skin?

  Would Jenny worry when she didn’t arrive at Lark’s Cross? And even if she did, what could one gypsy girl do?

  For a few seconds, Charis realized how very alone she was. There wasn’t anyone on whom she could rely for help or advice. No, she had to make her own decisions, and accept her own consequences. Squaring her shoulders, she glanced once more at Sinjun.

  He pulled neatly to a halt in front of the glowing red brick building, gravel crunching beneath his wheels. Solid, unruffled, and apparently quite at ease with himself. He turned to her.

  “There are rules, you know.”

  “There are?” Charis looked at his face. He was so very handsome, but at this moment there was something more in his gaze. A determination perhaps, a strength of will. She wasn’t quite sure. It could have been intimidating, but oddly enough, she found it comforting. A woman could lay her head on those shoulders and let the world go away for a while. Such a notion was decidedly appealing.

  “First rule. You call me Sinjun. I call you Charis.”

  She nodded. “Very well. Sinjun.” She tested the word. “I like it. Out of the ordinary.”

  He jumped to the ground and came around to her side, leaning on the shiny black wing of the curricle. “Second rule. You will do everything I tell you to do. Without question.”

  “I. . . I. . . .”

  “I will not harm you. Nor hurt you. My word as a gentleman. But, I will make love to you. You will make love to me. It won’t work unless it’s the two of us, Charis. And you will rely on me to show you how to achieve maximum pleasure from our time together. Since it is so limited, we’re going to make every second count. Do I make myself clear?”

  His eyes roamed her face then moved down to gaze at her breasts. She could swear she felt her nipples hardening beneath the force of that gaze.

  She nodded. “I understand, Sinjun. I understand.” Somehow or other, those words seemed to seal her fate. She put her hand in his, and let him help her from the curricle.

  Compromising Charis:

  Chapter Three

  A rather flustered butler opened the door. He gaped at her as she stood next to Sinjun. “Oh, oh, Mr. Randall, sir. I was unaware you’d be bringing company.” He cleared his throat. “Of the female sort, sir.”

  Sinjun grinned. “Is it a problem, Matthews?”

  “No sir.” The man gulped. “It’s just that we don’t have any womenfolk here today. Expecting you to be alone, sir, I took the liberty of giving the maids the day off. Sir George said you were looking for somewhere to relax. . . .” His voice tapered off as he shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

  “Don’t worry about it. Miss Charis and I are desirous of privacy. This will work out very well indeed.” He stepped inside as Charis followed. “I assume Mrs. Chalmers has left plenty of food?”

  “Of course, sir.” The butler closed the door behind them. “But nothing, well, I mean nothing of a fancy nature, sir.” He looked vaguely distressed. “Just some pie, bread and cheese. Gentleman’s fare, sir.”

  “I like pie.” Charis smiled at the butler. “And I’m sure it’s delicious.”

  “Well, yes, miss.” Matthews nodded. “Makes a very good pie does our cook. Very good indeed.”

  “There we are then. It’ll be fine.” Sinjun drew Charis farther into the hall. “As I said, Miss Charis and I have business to attend to that will take some time.” He flashed a wicked glance at the butler, still standing rigid by the door. “Are you still paying your respects to that nice widow who runs the dairy?”

  Charis watched in fascination as a dull red crept over the man’s cheeks.

  “Thought so.” Sinjun was unrepentant. “Tell you what, Matthews. Why don’t you take the day off too? We can survive quite nicely all alone here for a day. Come back tomorrow morning. Enjoy some free time. Give that lovely widow’s ample bottom a pinch from me.”

  “Sir!” Matthews’ tone was a mixture of eagerness and outrage.

  “Run along, man. We’ll be fine.”

  Slowly, the butler turned to a door off the hall. “If you’re sure, Mr. Randall sir?”

  “Completely sure. It’s a myth, you know. We can manage quite well without servants for a few hours, no matter what anyone says.”

  Charis nodded. “I’ve been used to doing for myself and surviving without incident.”

  He looked uncertainly at them. “It’s highly irregular.”

  Sinjun’s grin widened. “You have no idea.”

  “Very well then, sir. I’ll take my leave.�
�� He bowed respectfully. “Can’t say I’m easy about this whole thing, but Sir George did say you were to be accorded every comfort.”

  “And your absence will be a comfort, Matthews. Knowing you’re indulging that randy side of yours will sustain me.”

  Muttering various instructions about kitchens and door latches, Matthews finally left Sinjun and Charis alone in the foyer of the house.

  “Thank God. I thought he’d never leave.” Sinjun took Charis by the arm. “Come on. Let’s go into the parlor. It’s this way.”

  Charis looked around her with interest. It was not a large house by any standards, but just the sort of place a gentleman would like to come to on the weekends, or when he needed to rusticate after too many town entertainments. The walls were beautifully paneled, and the floors shone with many applications of beeswax.

  The room Sinjun led her into was just as cozy. A brick fireplace dominated one wall, windows let in the late morning sunshine, and the furniture was clearly designed more for comfort than for style. A long couch rested beneath a tapestry on one wall, and two enormous wing chairs flanked the hearth, bare of wood now, but filled with a vase of fresh flowers.

  Charis might have created such a room for herself if she’d ever spent time thinking about it.

  “Are you ready?”

  Sinjun’s voice recalled her from her contemplation of her surroundings. “For what?”

  “For your ruination to commence, of course.” He shrugged out of his coat and untied his cravat, flinging them both down on a convenient side table.

  “But. . . but. . . it’s daylight.” She blinked at him.

  “Your point?” He stared at her. “Did you think a woman couldn’t be ruined in the glare of the sun?”

  She swallowed as she watched him unbutton his shirt, revealing a broad chest dusted with golden hair. He pulled the tails free of his breeches, and flung himself down in one of the large wing chairs. “Your turn.”

  “I. . . uhm. . . I. . . .“ Charis blinked. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Sinjun tilted his head. “Undress.”

  “Here?”

  “No. Outside by the lily pond. Of course here, sweet Charis. Here where I can watch. I doubt the goldfish would appreciate the sight as much as I’m going to.”

  Charis slowly unfastened her cloak and looked around her.

  “Put your clothes on the sofa.” He shifted a little, spreading his thighs wide. A distinct bulge beneath his soft breeches caught Charis’ eye. She blushed and did as she was told.

  “Now the gown.”

  Awkwardly, she let her hands find the ribbons and buttons at the back of her neck and began slipping them free.

  “Slowly. Arouse me, Charis. Seduce me with what you’re doing. Don’t rush.”

  She sighed. He was being rather demanding. But Charis obeyed, feeling a tingle within her body as the fabric loosened. When she reached the last button, she glanced at him from beneath her eyelashes, and let the gown slide off her shoulders to the floor.

  “Excellent.”

  The bulge was growing. Charis suppressed a shudder of excitement. She must be wicked, indeed, to respond so enthusiastically to what she was doing. As she stood there in her petticoat and chemise, her nipples budded into peaks beneath the thin silk. And her belly ached, low down between her thighs.

  “Continue.” His voice cracked into the stillness.

  Charis leaned down, realizing as she did so that her chemise gaped open around her breasts. She smiled to herself as she unfastened her laces and kicked her shoes away. There. That would show him she wasn’t totally ignorant of all things seductive.

  “The undergarments?” she asked, glancing at his face as her hands moved to the ties behind her back. There was a taut look around his cheekbones as his gaze roamed hotly over her body. He simply nodded.

  Charis hadn’t worn a corset since she’d dressed herself before dawn, without assistance, in the simplest clothes she possessed. In less than a minute, she was standing naked but for the light chemise that barely reached her knees.

  “Finish it. I want you nude. Right where you are. In the sunlight.”

  She was more than a little self-conscious. He was still partly dressed, it was the middle of the morning, and she was in a strange house, undressing in front of a man she didn’t know. Then the thought of her purpose stiffened her resolve. Better this sensual interlude than marriage to a lackwit or a life of drudgery.

  He stared at her legs and she noted his throat move as he swallowed. In spite of his apparent calm, it would seem he was not unaffected by what she was doing. The thought gave her the courage to tug at the ribbon holding the chemise in place.Taking a deep breath, she let it drop.

  “By God, you’re a beauty.” The softly whispered words surprised Charis. She opened her eyes wide at the man devouring her with his gaze. She was unused to thinking of herself in such terms. In fact, she was unused to thinking about herself very much at all.

  She had the requisite number of arms and legs, and everything worked the way it was supposed to. Other than that, the question of beauty hadn’t concerned her. Who needed to be beautiful for horses or the moors of Northumberland?

  “Unpin your hair.” He choked out the command, his body no longer sprawling or relaxed in the chair. Sinjun looked. . .tense.

  Fighting the urge to cover herself with her hands, Charis lifted her arms and pulled the pins from the untidy mass atop her head. It fell down past her shoulders, a soft tickling caress against the bare skin of her spine. Obeying some natural instinct, she ran her fingers through it to straighten the tangles, noting how his eyes followed her movements.

  “Now come here.”

  Charis went willingly. There was a certain charm to the way Sinjun smiled. The tone of his voice, the laughter in his eyes. He’d touched something inside her at their first exchange of words. He’d appealed to her on many levels.

  She already felt as if she knew him and knowing he thought her beautiful? Well, that was enough of a compliment to make her heart pound in her breast.

  She stopped in front of his chair. “Now what?” It took all the confidence she possessed, and then some to manage a nonchalant tone. Her body felt strange, alive with tiny tingles of excitement, and she felt the damp heat blooming in hidden places between her thighs.

  He reached out a hand and smoothed his fingers down her side, running them delicately over her hip bone and making her stifle a giggle at the tickling sensation.

  “You have the softest skin, Charis. Like silk.” He looked her over thoroughly. “Your breasts are full and womanly. Your belly is curved in a way I find most appealing. Your legs are perfection in themselves, and your pussy. . . . “ He brushed his fingers through the hair coiling between her thighs. “Ah, yes, your pussy. It’s beautiful, Charis.”

  “It is?” She’d heard the word before, of course. Whispered low as if sinful. But he spoke it in such a natural way that he could have been referring to her elbow. Of course, she admitted to herself, that if he’d been touching her elbow she probably wouldn’t have felt those hot fiery shudders deep inside her body.

  She felt them now. Little darts of arousal spread inexorably through her loins as Sinjun took inventory with his eyes, and with little delicate strokes of his fingertips.

  He caressed her navel then moved upward, using his hand like a breath of air, a touch so light she wasn’t even sure their flesh met in some places. Then in others. Oh, like there. Yes, he was definitely touching her breast. Her nipple. She closed her eyes and swallowed down the little cry that had choked her.

  “You’re a sensual woman. Sweet. Alive, and burning with sexual desires. So responsive. . . . ” His voice trailed away as he leaned forward and dropped a kiss above her navel.

  Then he licked her, making her shiver. This time she couldn’t help the tiny whimper. “Oh, good heavens above.” Her eyes blinked open, and her hands went unbidden to his head, trying to hold him close to her body.

  “All in
time.” He settled himself and reached for his breeches. “You have aroused me, Charis. Seduced me better than I could have believed.”

  She watched as his hands unfastened the ties of his breeches, then spread the opening wide. His cock sprang free, hard and erect, nearly exploding from the confines of the fabric. “Do you see what you have done to me?”

  She nodded, her gaze held by the sight of the rigid flesh protruding away from its nest of dark blond curls. It was smooth, yet dappled with veins and ridges, utterly fascinating. Perhaps there was something to be said for doing this sort of thing in daylight. She’d experienced nothing like it with William in the darkness of their stolen night.

  Sinjun tapped one knee. “Sit here. On my lap.”

  “Are you sure?” She looked uncertainly at his cock. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t.” He grinned at her. “Put that delectable arse of yours here on my thigh. Let me worry about everything else.”

  Cautiously, Charis did as he bade her, sitting gently on one outspread thigh and only relaxing when Sinjun had her comfortably arranged, his cock lying on her naked leg, her feet raised on a small footstool.

  One arm held her close, the other was free to stroke her body as he wished. And apparently he wished it a lot because he touched her everywhere. “You have a lovely body. I like touching you. And I want to learn about you.”

  Charis snorted. “I’m sitting naked on your lap, Sinjun. I doubt there’s much else about me to learn.”

  His lips quirked as he flicked a nipple and watched her shiver. “You are so wrong.” He dipped his head and licked her again, this time around her breast. “Your taste, for example. What gives you pleasure.” His mouth found the tight peak and he nipped at it so gently she wanted to scream with delight. “I’m guessing this is one of those things.”

  She nodded, unable to find the words to agree, just desperate to have him do it again. He did, and this time she moved, thrusting her breast closer to him, encouraging him by her movements rather than her voice.