Out of the wind’s embrace, she grew warmer, aided by the automaton-turned furnace that continued to feed the candle’s-flame fire stoked inside its cage. His entry room looked cozy in a way she hadn’t expected, with a large chocolate couch and rose-patterned sitting chair stationed by a fireplace. A set of narrow steps led upstairs, blooming with shadows.
Bernard flicked on a couple of aether gas lamps, the greenish flame flickering in the globes. As much as she wanted to continue what they’d begun to explore outside, a fragile tentativeness settled over her as she soaked in her surroundings.
“When did you move to a fancy spot on the street like this?” Ellie asked, striding over to the couch to take a seat. “Thought you said you lived amongst the scrappers in the squalor like the rest of us.”
His gaze landed on her, enough heat burning there to light the fireplace. Bernard took in a sharp breath and strode over to the small counter cabinet holding a few choice bottles. Her mind couldn’t shut off the rattle of coin as she considered how much each was worth. When every month became a struggle to scrape enough together for the roof over her head and Mother’s medicine, every new location became a potential grab.
Not that she’d steal from Bernard. On top of the man being far too keen, she didn’t want the lingering guilt that would follow, after all the kindness he’d shown.
“I moved here after I nabbed my first serial killer,” Bernard responded. “When they released me from the naval guard, I was lost, transitory at first. I only knew I didn’t want to return to the slums.”
“Most don’t revel in our squalor.” Her words came out wry, but the residual bitterness always gripped her heart tight—that this was their lot in life. Her sister might have been born with enough magic to elevate her, but Ellie’s skills lent themselves to underworld work—a listening ear, a sharp memory and light feet.
“Your beginning doesn’t have to be your end,” Bernard responded.
Ellie swallowed hard. If only that were true. She lifted an eyebrow. “Damfino. What glorious future does a thief from the tenements face? I’m destined for bleeding out in a back alley or rotting away in a jail cell.”
Bernard undid the top of the bottle of absinthe, and the tantalizing scent of fennel and anise filtered through the air. He passed her the bottle by the neck, and she accepted with ease. Ellie tipped back the liquid, enjoying the twist of licorice, how it scorched away the acid taste of her fear and the hesitance from her vulnerability.
Bernard took a seat beside her in the couch, his weight causing the cushions to shift. This close, he blazed hotter than any hearth. “After my mother passed, I spent most nights either sleeping on the streets or sneaking into homes when I might otherwise have frozen to death. I grew adept at stealing and lying, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have lived past ten. Bastards aren’t destined for survival either.”
The absinthe lingered on her tongue as she passed the bottle over to him. Her heart thundered at his admission. She would’ve never expected to feel this sort of kinship with a copper, but she understood those struggles more than most. He wasn’t wrong—fatherless kids often didn’t last long, especially in the tenements.
Eleanor Whitfield, her namesake, had been the sole reason they’d survived as well. She and Theo would pluck the moon from the sky for the woman who’d worked herself sick to keep a roof over their heads.
Bernard’s gaze landed on her. “You’ve got connections I couldn’t dream up and an adept mind. Don’t discount their usefulness, my dear.” The throaty way he said the endearment caused a warmth to unfurl in her chest every time. This man not only commanded her attention but also her respect, and that sort of gentleman was rarer than a Tinker’s diamond.
The absinthe glistened on his lips as he passed the bottle back over. She took a long draught. The sweet liquid scorched her throat, filling the hollow space where her hopes and dreams had once resided. Bernard’s simple statements had sparked them to life once more, the strike of a flint that hadn’t been used in far too long.
Ellie licked her lips as she returned the bottle to him. She didn’t miss how his gaze traced the motion, how he’d barely looked away from her once they’d stepped inside. Under his gaze, her core thrummed, her skin grew sensitized and her lips buzzed with the reminder of his kiss.
Around him, she’d begun to feel too deeply, which always, always turned into a dangerous gambit. Survival didn’t allow for many attachments, and definitely not to lawmen.
She needed to lose herself in pleasure, rather than chasing after the real tether that’d begun to form.
“I’m sure we both know I didn’t just come here for the absinthe,” Ellie murmured, the words coming out throaty and deeper. She snared his gaze and refused to look away, because God above, she wanted this.
The corner of Bernard’s mouth lifted. “Truly? I thought it was for my charming conversations.”
She couldn’t help the grin that bubbled up at his comment. However, he set the bottle down on the cabinet with a thump echoing through the quieted room. When Bernard stood, the way his solid form loomed over her had her squeezing her thighs tight together. All the poised muscle, the kindness and learned wisdom and his protectiveness made for one devastatingly gorgeous package.
Ellie lifted her chin to look at him with a coquettish purse of her lips. “Clearly, as I’ve found myself fixated on your mouth far too often in our time together.”
Bernard’s eyes crinkled with his grin, the shadows highlighting sturdy cheekbones and the strong delineation of his chin clear by his trimmed beard. He cut a fine figure in his slate waistcoat and slacks, the long sleeves of his shirt a bright accent against his olive skin. She’d pressed against his chest and felt his muscular arms wrapped around her. Ellie knew how much power the man hid behind those solid lines. Her mouth dried with want.
He leaned in, placing his palms into the back of the couch on either side of her.
“If you didn’t constantly command such attentions, my gaze would be caught drifting in your direction either way. You’re the most incandescent woman I’ve ever met.” Bernard’s mouth whispered a breath away from hers, those lips so achingly close.
Her heart thundered. Before she could draw the distance between them to nothing, Bernard wrapped his hand around the nape of her neck and captured her mouth in a searing kiss.
Chapter Ten
Once he leaned in and caught the intoxicating scent of her, he was done for. Ellie Whitfield had captured his attention from the start. The sight of her nestled into his couch with her wild waves of hair unfurled around her shoulders, the humor returned to her voice and the spark in her eyes—he couldn’t resist her if he tried.
This time, he closed the distance between them.
He pressed his lips to hers, her mouth falling open, warm and wanton. He slid his hand up her neck to tangle his fingers in those silken strands while he braced himself against the couch with the other hand. Ellie craned her neck up to meet his mouth again and again as their kisses grew more fevered, more desperate.
Ellie’s moans lit him on fire.
She gripped the lapels of his shirt with a strength that strained the buttons. When she’d confessed the reason for her freeze-up back in the church, he’d felt a connection he’d never experienced with another soul before. No one else understood the way the memories crept in at the worst times—at least, no one who’d admit it. He wanted to take her from the squalor she seemed determined to cling to and show her a different future from the bleak one she imagined.
However, right now, he simply wanted her.
His length stiffened in his trousers as he tasted the sharp absinthe on her lips and swept his tongue into that willing mouth. When she brought her clever fingers down the buttons of his waistcoat and seized upon the band of his trousers, his erection pulsed in response. Ellie hadn’t stopped mesmerizing him with her mouth as he coaxed kiss after kiss from her lips, his grip tightening on the inkstain strands of her hair.
When
Ellie brushed her hand across his hard length, he lost all focus.
She pulled away from his mouth. “I want to taste you,” she murmured.
His ears roared from his increased pulse. The idea of those lips wrapped around him caused precum to bead on the tip of his erection. The seams of his trousers strained against the effort. Bernard stepped back as she worked the buttons of his trousers, one by one. He rose from his crouch at the same time as Ellie sank to her knees in front of him. The fabric pooled around his ankles and his heart thudded hard, but he wove his fingers through her hair, the grip natural.
Ellie looked up at him, all raven lashes and seductive eyes. Her lips formed a pout, the glossy sheen enticing. The sight of her there on her knees sent a staggering jolt of desire through him. His legs splayed out, and her chest heaved with a rise and fall that accentuated the curve of her breasts.
His erection lay stark between them, and the breath hitched in his throat at the careful, hungry way she watched him. At once, he caught the need surfacing in her eyes, the desire.
He knew how to respond.
Bernard gave her hair a gentle tug, guiding her lips forward. Ellie rested her palms on her thighs as she followed the motion, brushing those plush lips against the head of his length. The moment she closed her hot mouth around his erection, a groan escaped his lips and he tightened his grip on her hair. Slowly, he began to thrust into her mouth, tilting his hips as her eager mouth swallowed him whole.
The velvet heat of her mouth was pure ecstasy that radiated through his entire body. He hadn’t been touched by a woman in far too long, but even if he had, little else would compare to the vivacious, stunning creature before him. He closed his eyes, surrendering to the feel of her lips wrapped around his length and the way she accepted each pump in deeper, greedy for more.
His thighs tensed, moments away from the agony of bliss. Each thrust of his hips pushed him closer and closer, her warm wetness pushing him over the edge. His grip on her hair tightened as he slid into her mouth once more. His length pulsed, releasing his seed. Divine pleasure radiated from his core outward until sweat beaded on his brow and his breaths sharpened like a blade edge.
Ellie pulled away from him, her throat bobbing as she swallowed him down. The sight almost pushed him over the edge again. Bernard released his grip on her, coming down from the supreme high with a shaky shudder. He needed to see every inch of her silken skin, to explore the wet heat between her legs and watch her grow undone beneath him.
His lobcock hung between his legs, but once he caught sight of the luscious breasts hidden beneath her blouse, it would rise to life again. Bernard offered a hand, and she placed her palm in his. He hoisted her to standing and kicked off his flats as well as the trousers dropped around his ankles.
“One of us is overdressed for the occasion,” he murmured in her ear, offering a pointed glance to her attire. Ellie’s tongue circled her defined lips, which was all the prompting he needed. His hands did the rest of the talking, tugging loose her shirt and pulling it up overhead. The flimsy fabric smacked against the ground. He rested his palms around her slender waist, pausing to admire the round globes of her breasts, perfected by the dark nipples and areolae in the center.
“You’re stunning,” he murmured again, leaning in to bite her earlobe. She shivered in response, her breasts brushing against his chest. A single layer of fabric separated him from the skin to skin seduction he longed for.
“Flatterer,” Ellie responded, flicking a finger against the buttons of his waistcoat. He undid them and shucked both the waistcoat and his shirt to the ground to join the others in the pile.
A grin lifted his lips as he glided his hand to the buttons of her trousers, popping them open one by one. Freed from constraints, her pants glided down those sloping hips to her ankles. Bernard met her gaze, a slight tilt to his head. She bit her lip and nodded.
Already, his flagging length began to respond, his groin stirring at the sight of this curvy, gorgeous woman in his arms. He reached between them to cup the juncture between her thighs. Past her downy curls, the soft folds had grown so slick that he longed to slide himself between them. Bernard glided two fingers inside her, moving with ease.
A soft breath escaped Ellie’s lips, and she settled her hands onto his bare shoulders. He pumped his fingers inside, deep enough to elicit a sensual moan from the back of her throat. He gripped tight around her waist, the warm, supple skin his undoing. His length stiffened again, jutting into the space between them. As he continued to drive his fingers into her, her nails bit into his shoulders and a sheen of sweat glossed her brow.
He pulled his fingers out, her juices glistening on them and stoking his flames further. Bernard captured her mouth, drinking her in with deep, possessive kisses. He could taste her—all sweetness and liquor—and he trailed his tongue along hers. He pulled her closer, crushing their bodies together. He brushed his length against the wetness between her legs, the sensation making him delirious.
Her nipples brushed against his chest, and he wrapped his hands around her waist, holding on to her tight. Tonight, they both needed to chase this ecstasy as far as they could. With a grunt, he lifted her off her feet, and she wrapped her toned thighs around his waist. He placed a bite along her neck, which had her thrusting her chest harder toward him. Their lips crashed together again, and they sank into the fevered kisses lighting him from the inside out.
Bernard crossed the room with her entangled in his arms until they reached the wall in a few of his long strides. Ellie clamped her thighs around his waist, her slick heat against his skin winding his clock all the more. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on as he pressed her against the wall. He brought his palms around her hips and took a step back, keeping her braced against the wall.
The aether lamps cast a soft greenish light across the swell of her breasts, the pronounced shadows deepening her curves. He guided his stiff length to the heated wetness between her legs. The moment he brushed his tip against the entrance, a shudder traveled through him at the fury of the sensation. It had been so long since he’d indulged in this blissful escape, so long since he’d come together with anyone like this.
He slid in deeper, and Ellie dug her ankles into the small of his back. She kept a firm grasp around his shoulders as he sank his full length inside her. Relief tumbled through him at the snug fit and just how perfect she felt. Their lips met again in a tentative brush, the intensity of the featherlight strokes a contrast as he began to move inside her. Bernard gripped her thighs tight, holding her aloft as he drove inside her the way he’d imagined in his filthiest daydreams.
Ellie’s moans split the air between them, and his breath came out in pants as he continued to thrust inside her. Each slide in had his mind reeling harder and harder, eliminating any coherent thought. Her back slammed against the wall, gliding up each time he drove in the whole way, and her chest heaved with the desperate breaths escaping her lips. A sheen of sweat glossed across her chest and forehead. Ellie’s perfect mouth opened in blissful abandon.
She dug her heels into his lower back as he thrust in, hard enough that the sconces trembled and the books on the nearby shelves made a concentrated effort to not topple over. Bernard swept his mouth over her shoulders, sinking his teeth in to mark her velvet skin. She enveloped him with each thrust, a drenched heat that felt like sin with the way he glided inside her. Her moans sounded like the sweetest melody, louder and more frenzied with every stroke.
Bernard’s thighs tensed, the familiar sensation rising as he came closer and closer to imminent release. The headiness swirled his mind, but somehow he remained standing, thrusting inside her with a fury that reverberated through his bones.
“Don’t stop,” Ellie moaned, her nails biting harder into his shoulders as she gripped tight.
Bernard didn’t respond but continued ramming into her as though he were chasing after something just out of reach. Sweat beaded on her forehead and the valley and peaks of her brea
sts. Her core squeezed tight around him, once, twice, three times, and a sharp, shuddering breath escaped her.
Ellie lightened her grip as the bliss rolled across her features, softening the sharp angles of her eyebrows and the intensity in her eyes. She trailed her tongue along her lower lip and tipped her head against the wall. Bernard couldn’t stop now, not when he was so close. He gripped her thighs tighter and the pressure built inside him until he was ready to spill over.
He slid in all the way, and the release stole him.
Even though his legs trembled in response as the white-hot sensation rolled through him, his grasp on Ellie didn’t budge. Sparks cascaded as if his veins were made of gunpowder, and his release poured out into Ellie in such a concentrated stream that he almost buckled.
As he descended from the high, he grew aware of the wooden floorboards, cool on the soles of his feet. Bernard pulled himself out of her, but he wasn’t ready to let go of this warm, wanton woman quite yet.
“I’ve got you,” Bernard murmured as he guided her other leg to the side and scooped her up into his arms. She leaned in, her cheek pressed against his chest. He carried them over to the couch and settled down with a creak.
Ellie brushed back a few strands of hair that glued to her cheeks as she looked at him, sitting stark naked in his lap like she belonged there. Bernard leaned against the couch, admiring the stunning sight of the woman in front of him. In the frenzy of the moment he hadn’t been able to home in on the whole vision—the devastating slope of her waist, those muscular legs and her delicate hands, all contradictions that made up the beautiful, fiery woman.
Ellie’s mouth quirked. “I’m not about to hop up and vanish in the night, you know.” She tapped a finger to his nose. “So you don’t have to keep staring at me like I’m about to bolt.”
Bernard’s lips pressed together for a moment, because the truth lingered in her statements. She might be his for tonight, but their lives weren’t destined to intersect for long. Which meant he needed to make the most of every second he got to spend with her.
Of Coppers and Cracksmen Page 8
