Secret Pleasures

by Cheryl Howe

  “How am I going to seduce Robert if I can’t even tie my own garters?” Arianna clutched her fingers together to steady herself. “I do know how the physical process works. Blood flows to the genitalia,” she began, to assure herself she did know the anatomical logistics.

  “Stop thinking about what you’ve read in books and focus on what you feel in your body when you imagine Robert touching you.”

  Ivy’s words were soft, coaxing, but all Arianna could conjure was Robert’s harsh pronouncement at their last private meeting.

  “I can only imagine his anger. Robert has already rejected my advances once. What if he does so again?”

  Arianna slipped high-heeled slippers on her feet and gathered her cloak around her. The carriage slowed and made a turn, then pulled to a stop. Perhaps this was a mistake after all.

  “I saw the way Robert stared at you tonight. He said he would not attend the dinner at all, but he arrived, did he not? He’s under your spell. Believe me. I think we are here,” Ivy said excitedly.

  Arianna grabbed Ivy’s hand. “But you have not instructed me on what to do. I’ve no idea how to seduce a man.”

  Darien climbed from the carriage and his boots crunched in the dirt. He yanked open the carriage door.

  “One moment, Darien.” Ivy shut it in his gaping face. She gripped Arianna’s hand as if she were about to reveal her most reverent secret. “Do you masturbate?”

  Arianna pursed her lips. Her first instinct was to lie.

  “Don’t feel like you must answer. It’s only that I have discovered the best way to please a man is to know what pleases you. It makes them feel powerful to discover our secret rhythms. Guide him gently and moan loudly when he hits the mark.”

  “I believe I can do that.” Arianna swallowed and nodded. That was the most useful advice anyone had ever given her. “But what if he sends me away before we get that far?”

  Ivy pushed the door open. “Drop the cloak and let nature do the rest. Trust me.”

  Lord Blackmore stood at the carriage door. He helped Ivy down. Arianna tugged the cloak more tightly around her and lowered her head, suddenly very much aware she wore next to nothing underneath. Arianna had no choice but to grip Lord Blackmore’s hand while he guided her to the ground, though she tried not to look at him.

  “I don’t bite, Miss Maddox.” He laughed.

  “Pardon me, my lord. This is all slightly unseemly.” Arianna dared a glance at his face. Against his dark features, his teeth shone white in the dark night.

  “Nothing makes me happier than the unseemly. My nephew, on the other hand, does not share my tastes. We should be off before he can do the honorable thing.”

  Ivy slipped between them and hugged Arianna.

  “We can’t accompany you further. Now, if he tries to take the moral high road, which he might, talk him into one last kiss. If he resists that …”

  “If he resists that, I will have to question both his sanity and health,” Lord Blackmore finished. “There is a small blue door on the left-hand side of the church. Can you manage without a lantern?”

  Arianna studied the shadowed stone church. A mist had settled, veiling the bright stars in the moonless night.

  “You’ll walk into the front room,” he continued quickly, as if Arianna hadn’t already begun to change her mind. “Robert’s bedroom is in a small room leading off of the larger one.”

  Arianna marched down the dark path that led to the addition with the gabled slate roof. She wouldn’t even allow herself to glance behind her as the carriage jangled away. A wild overgrown garden surrounded by a fence on her left forced her to hug the side of the church. Fog rose from the wet grass and everything shone with ghostly dew. A faint trail of smoke curled from the chimney. The robin’s egg blue door glowed against grey stone.

  Suddenly, her anticipation turned to determination. At least she would have one last chance to plead her case with Robert. She intended to make the most of it.

  She eased open the door, cringing at the loud squeak Lord Blackmore failed to mention. A low fire glowed in the fireplace. In one corner, a desk was scattered with books and papers. A single padded-chair had been pulled in front of the fire. An open book perched precariously on its fat arm. She took a step into the room, but Robert jumped from the chair, a rifle raised to his shoulder, pointed at her.

  “Who goes there?” he said in a rough voice.

  “It’s me, Arianna.” She had meant to surprise him, but not quite like this. Her heart thudded against her rib cage. She gripped the edges of her cloak, not sure she would have the courage to peel it off as Ivy instructed.

  He slowly lowered the gun.

  “Don’t tell me you rode here alone. I thought I told you—”

  “Ivy and Lord Blackmore drove me in their carriage.” She stepped toward him.

  Robert lowered the musket and set it beside the fireplace. “Good. I would like a word with my bloody uncle. Thanks to him, my mother expects me to go traipsing around in the damp woods at dawn to keep him from shooting your father.”

  “He wouldn’t.” Arianna held her ground.

  “Don’t worry.” He strode to the door, skirting Arianna in the process. “He’s just as likely to shoot his own father. Come on. They can take you back to Westhaven before anyone is the wiser.”

  “They are already gone.” Arianna made her way to the fireplace lest he took a notion to drag her from his home. She fiddled with the button at the neck of her cloak.

  Robert rubbed his forehead. He slowly walked to the center of the room, shook his head. “You should not be here. I thought I made myself clear.”

  Before he could say another word and destroy her already fragile confidence, Arianna took a deep breath. She let the cloak fall to the floor. She turned to face him, knowing the glow from the fire no doubt made the gown Ivy had loaned her completely transparent. Except for the satin corset that cinched in her waist and spilled her breasts. Curiously, that’s exactly what his gaze locked upon.

  “But I did not have the opportunity to do the same. I want you, Robert. I thought you should know how much.”

  Robert did not take his gaze from her at his approach. His face was unreadable. He paused at the chair, keeping it between them like a barrier.

  “Where did you come across that costume?”

  “Do you like it?” she said. The heat in his stare warned her he did.

  He came to stand in front of her. His neat hair had been mussed. He smelled of wine and wood smoke.

  “Yes, I bloody like it. This packaging isn’t for your wedding night, is it?” He stood close enough for her to feel his hot breath on her neck.

  She stepped into him, not letting him retreat. “This is the only night that matters. I’ll be happy to take it off if it displeases you.”

  He growled low in his throat and crushed her against him. His mouth was hot and hard. He cupped her bare bottom beneath her skirt. She gasped at the feel of his warm hand against her tender flanks. He kissed her deeper, raising her off her toes to press against the hardness in his groin. Just as abruptly, he released her. But he did not let her go or she was sure her knees would buckle.

  His grip tightened on her shoulders. “You are to be another man’s wife.”

  “It’s not of my choosing. Let me decide my fate in this at least. I choose you.”

  He cupped her face. “You are a fool, but so am I. You win. If I scorch in hell for this, I don’t care.”

  He kissed her with unleashed need. His hands gripped her bottom again, this time kneading and squeezing. He bucked against her as he pulled her to him. Arianna’s pelvis tightened and tingled, her every nerve ending engaged. Suddenly, she had no fear, no doubt. She yearned for their joining. She slipped her fingers behind his neck, yanked at the open lacing of his shirt with the other hand.

  “Take off your clothes,” she whispered near his ear. The next time she needed to imagine Robert touching her, it would be this moment. Always. “I want to see you.”


  He released her, tugged off his shirt. “I must warn you.” He sat on the chair and yanked off his boots. “I’m not the most experienced lover.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “But you know more about anatomy then any rogue haunting London.” He shucked his pants and stood.

  Arianna’s gaze dropped directly to his large phallus. She had no idea the human body could initiate such a drastic change in such a short period of time.

  He faced her, muscles flexing in his arms as he clenched and unclenched his fists. In her most intimate thoughts of Robert, she had imagined his broad shoulders, his narrow waist. Of being held by his strong arms. Oh, but the highlight of Robert’s physique was so much more intriguing than any of her innocent musings.

  She stepped closer and laid her hands on his chest, forced her gaze to his eyes. He leaned down and kissed her lightly. She let her hands drift over his ribs, she needed to touch him intimately, test his hardness, but feared it might shock him

  She urged his mouth open with her own, entwined her tongue with his. His breathing deepened along with his kiss, but he kept his hands lightly on her waist. His cock stirred against her skirt. She drew him closer, anchoring an arm at his back. At the same time, she circled her fingers around his solid girth.

  He made a tortured sound in his throat, gripped her shoulders, but apparently just to steady himself. She drew her hand lightly along his length.

  His hands found the hem of her skirt. He cupped her bottom again and buried his mouth in her neck, sucking on the hollow. She gripped him tighter, feeling a strange tension building within the center of her enflamed womanhood. The head of his ungiving cock brushed her wet folds. Arianna gasped and he gripped her tighter. He moved away from her, backed into the chair, taking her with him.

  Once he arranged her across his lap, he tugged down her bodice and took her nipple in his mouth. She moaned as the new sensation burst from the tips of her breast. He gripped her thighs from behind, pulled her legs slightly apart. She arched against him, his palms hot and heavy against her sensitized skin. He eased his hands higher, finding her round bottom, kneading and separating her. His long fingers brushed the crease of her inner folds. She rocked her hips, unable to take the spiraling need clawing at her insides.

  When he switched his mouth to her other nipple, Arianna moaned in frustrated pleasure. She placed her hand on his and guided him to touch her wet heat.

  He moaned when she pressed his fingers over her engorged clitoris. Arianna pulsed against him in an abrupt spasm of pleasure. Instead of release, her tension only built tenfold. She needed to feel him solidly inside her.

  “I’m not going to break,” she whispered near his ear.

  He pulled back to face her, his breathing ragged. “I might.” Sweat beaded across his skin. “I’ve never been with a virgin before and I want to do this right.”

  “You are.” She struggled from his arms, intending to straddle him, but he whisked her from the chair and onto her feet.

  He glanced to a pile of quilts in the corner. “I don’t even have a proper bed. All the mattresses have been invaded by mice and are out in the side yard.”

  She laughed at his frown. “I don’t care.”

  He nodded and got to his feet. “Stay put.”

  “I’m in no condition to go anywhere.” She glanced down at her exposed nipples, wet and swollen from his attention. Her gown was hopelessly twisted, exposing as much as it covered.

  Robert returned with the quilts and arranged them in front of the fire.

  “Someday I want to make love to you in this chair. But not for the first time.”

  Both of them stared at the pile for a moment, taken aback by what they were about to do. She gripped both of his hands, intending to pull him down before he turned moral on her again.

  Instead, he brought her close to him and hugged her tightly.

  “I lied when I said I didn’t have feelings for you. You know that, don’t you?”

  She smiled against his chest. “I was not sure, but I did not care. It only made me more adamant in my conviction to love you.”

  He squeezed her shoulders. “I would marry you if that were possible.”

  She kissed his chest. “I know.”

  “But I will cherish you as if I had.” His voice was husky, causing an erotic shiver to spread down her body. The ache between her legs pulsed a reminder of her earlier urgency.

  “Turn around,” he said.

  She did and he attacked the lacing on the bodice, struggling enough times to let her know he did not undress ladies often. With her help, he removed the gown. She kicked off the shoes, and he slid off the stockings.

  They faced each other. He drew a finger down her neck. She stood on her toes to trail kisses across his collar bone. They joined hands and knelt on the pallet together.

  She stretched on her back while Robert braced above her. A chaste brush of his lips forced her to grip the back of his neck. She caught his bottom lip between hers, coaxing him with a brush of her tongue. He pulled his mouth away, raining kisses down her neck, across her belly. Arianna gasped at his direction. She spread her legs and braced her heels as he slipped his head between her thighs.

  A flick of his tongue over her erotic center, the pleasure point she had directed him to earlier, forced Arianna to close her eyes against spiraling sensation. Once he slipped a testing finger past her sex’s swollen lips, she could not stop herself from rocking against him. He picked up her rhythm, licking and stretching her with each stroke.

  He slipped a second finger inside her and Arianna’s breath came hard and fast. Her soft moans urged his pace quicker, deeper.

  “Please, Robert,” she gasped.

  He crawled over her to replace his mouth with the probing head of his cock. His mouth found hers, possessing her with his tongue while he pressed forward, unrelenting and persistent.

  “Tell me if it hurts and I’ll stop.”

  Arianna’s anticipation quickly turned to shock and discomfort. After the maddening pleasure of the build up to this moment, she had forgotten there still might be pain. She had begun to hope her mother’s warnings had been rumors begun by the same people who believed women could not enjoy sex. Luckily for Arianna, she knew that was not the way the human body operated and a woman was meant to experience pleasure from the union as well as a man.

  “Oh. Ouch.” She could not stop herself from stiffening, despite her regret that she had cried out.

  Robert paused but was only momentarily deterred. He rocked against her in shallow, urgent thrusts. Arianna pulled her mouth away from his, despite his gentle, coaxing kisses. The constant pressure below her waist was anything but. Perhaps if he just would get on with it, the pleasure would return. He withdrew and pushed again but stopped abruptly.

  “Is something wrong?” she said, her anxiety growing by the moment.

  “You are a bit tight.” Sweat beaded on his forehead.

  “Can you go all the way? You must break my hymen.”

  “I’m aware of that,” he said through gritted teeth.

  He eased in again and out, gaining shallow ground each time. Pleasure returned thick and warm, but it arrived with a deeper tightening around Robert’s invasion.

  He must have felt it, too, because he moaned into her neck. She gripped his flank, braced her feet and readied herself to meet his next thrust. Despite her efforts, Robert remained poised above her, suddenly unmoving but breathing as if he’d just sprinted around the church.

  “I think it would be more efficient—”

  “Please stop talking.” His face hovered above hers and he remained motionless. “Kiss me instead.”

  She did, and his tongue entwined with hers in a penetrating kiss. His next hard thrust brought him fully against her. Stars danced in front of her eyes for a brief moment. He kissed her face, her cheek, down her neck.

  “Sorry,” he said near her ear.

  She caught her breath but his fullness was intense, forcing
her to push against his shoulders.

  “How do you feel?” He didn’t move.

  The pain began to fade and pleasure came to the forefront. She caressed his face and squirmed against him.

  “Wonderful.”

  She sucked his finger into her mouth and withdrew. Instantly she ached for him to fill her again. His next thrust came hard, followed by another. Her body gripped him, welcomed him. Pleasure flooded through her limbs, spilling from her woman’s heat like a breaking damn. Nothing existed except the pulsing in the center of her being and the friction of Robert moving inside her. She cried out and shattered around him in blinding bliss.

  “Arianna,” she heard him say on a moan. His hot seed filled her and he shuddered above her.

  After they caught their breaths, he kissed her face, her eyelids.

  “I love you, Arianna. Nothing will change that.”

  Arianna’s throat instantly tightened. She gasped against the tears but they came hard and fast. She had made a terrible miscalculation. How would she be able to look into the same brown eyes swimming before her and commit herself to cherish another man?

  ***

  Darien kept one arm wrapped firmly around Ivy’s corseted waist, holding her against his hip while bracing his boots on the driver seat’s footboard.

  “Loosen the reins,” Darien yelled over the horses pounding hooves and jangling harnesses. The carriage rocked over the dark country road. “The horses want to run.”

  Instead of whipping the frothing beasts into full gallop, something Ivy would not have hesitated to do in her youth, she tugged on the reins, slowing the horses to a brisk walk. Their hot breath puffed white smoke in the glow of lantern light.

  “Has Miss Templeton lost her nerve? Say it is not true.” Darien brushed her hair away and kissed her neck, damp from their wild ride in the middle of the night.

  “It’s been a while since I handled a coach-and-four, nor do I know the road all that well.”

  “Marcus never let you drive?” he said teasingly, kissing down to the hollow of her neck. The perfume she wore mixed with her own heat stirred Darien’s lust. “You may drive me anywhere, anytime. I’ll even provide the horse power.”