by Lynne Silver
She looked around, pretending she could examine the furnishings in the dark. “Yes, I can see that. You clearly have the superior room. I shall demand my rights and share it with you.” Her words were lighthearted, but she wondered why an earl’s son had slept in hovels. He was no pampered aristocrat.
“You want to sleep here? On the rug?”
She sank to her knees and patted the spot beside her. “Nice and cozy. Come on over.” She tried to hide her regret over leaving the blasted blanket upstairs.
He stared at her for a moment then shook his head with a chuckle. “You’re not what I expected.”
“No?” She adopted her finest lady-of-the-manor accent. “It has become apparent to me that life does not always give one what he expects.” She thought about her life since her parents had died and she’d been forced into early adulthood forgoing a London Season and a beneficial marriage. Expectations for one’s life were never certain.
Lucas sat down next to her with bent legs and leaned back on his hands. “You’re absolutely right about that.” He leaned toward her. “How did a young girl get so wise about life?”
She’d revealed too much. Madame Bella repeatedly warned them. Always keep the illusion. You are a pretty young thing with nothing in your head other than pleasure. According to her, men didn’t want realities of life invading their mistress’s bedroom. They had that at home with their wives.
Charlotte released her perfected airy giggle and gently slapped at his forearm. “Oh, you. How silly. Me? Wise? Surely you jest?” She launched herself onto his lap and curled into his heat. “Now, tell me how you plan on keeping me warm tonight?”
Chapter Four
Lucas cradled the armful of luscious woman and inwardly groaned. He was an idiot. Every other man would have either remained upstairs in bed with their new mistress or dropped an unwanted one off before allowing her access to his home. Only he was unwise enough to play host to an unwanted woman on a cold, hard floor.
Worse, he was starting to like her. She was smart. She’d figured out in less than two minutes that he’d given her the only habitable room. The few women of his acquaintance would’ve hopped into bed without a thought for her host. Second, she’d exhibited deeper insight about life than he’d expect from a young lady. There was more to Charlotte than met the eye.
So now what? Should he take her offer at face value and accept what she offered? If she kept wiggling around on his lap, there’d be no thinking about it, only doing. “If I go upstairs, are you going to follow me?”
Her smile spread across her face. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Extracting her from his lap, he stood, picked up the candle and made his way out of the room toward the stairs. Surprisingly, Charlotte stayed put. He turned to look at her then held out a hand. “Come on. Neither of us is stupid enough to sleep in the cold when there’s a warm bed upstairs.” He accepted the cool hand she placed in his and led her silently from the room.
His legs started to feel heavy and leaden as they trooped back up the stairs. The events of the past days finally caught up to him. He’d barely slept the previous evening in his haste to discover his brother’s whereabouts and look into John’s rumors of the virgin mistress auction. When that was accomplished, he’d set off to Madame Bella’s where he’d bullied a footman into gaining entrance then participated in the auction. All in all, a full night. If he were to take Charlotte’s offer it would have to wait until he’d had a few hours of rest.
*
“Mmm, move over, Meggie. You’re on top of me.” With closed eyes, Charlotte batted at her sister’s shoulder, grumbling at Meggie’s bed-stealing ways. To conserve resources in the cold winter nights, she and her sisters had doubled up in bedrooms. Her hand pushed again at Meggie’s shoulder, only instead of feeling a thin, cloth-covered shoulder, her palm grazed a bare, full, masculine-feeling one. Definitely dreaming then.
Only…something was nibbling at her breasts and a chill brushed her bare skin. “Meggie, you’ve stolen the covers.”
She opened her eyes to yank back the covers from her sister to the sight of unfamiliar dark curls at her chest. The face attached to these curls nuzzled and licked at her bared chest. Her nightclothes? Where had they…? With a flash, everything came flooding back. Her family’s loss, Madame Bella, the auction… Lucas.
“Lucas,” she whispered.
“Mmm,” he said and pressed his body firmly against hers.
Muscles and coarse hair covered her from neck to ankles with an interesting, unfamiliar pressure between her thighs. Realization dawned. This was the morning passion Madame Bella had spoken of. According to her, men woke up hungry for bed sport. Evidence of that prodded at the juncture of her legs.
Lucas didn’t even seem to be aware he was beginning to make love to her. As soon as they’d entered the bedroom last night, he’d collapsed onto the bed and begun snoring. She’d pulled off his boots with some difficulty then watched him sleep, trying to decide whether to take advantage of his slumber. The months with Madame Bella taught her it was possible to lose her virginity to a mostly sleeping man, but a deep-rooted romantic side of her wanted the illusion of a marriage bed. This was different. Lucas was caught in that dreamlike state between sleep and awake.
Tentatively she wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and ran her palms down the smoothly muscled planes of his back. Her head tilted to give him access to the column of her neck in which he burrowed his face and planted tiny kisses.
Their bodies moved together in a sinuous flow, which came naturally to Charlotte. Her hips rose and fell under Lucas’ thrusting, insistent weight. She unlocked her hands from his back and slithered them between their bodies to pull up her skirts and push down his trousers. Her hand grazed his hot shaft and he released a groan. When he lifted his hips, she grasped him firmly. He continued to thrust as she marveled in the heat and textures of the skin moving along a column of steel.
She was fully awake now, but wasn’t sure if Lucas was awake yet until his lips met hers in a devouring kiss. His eyes remained closed. Did he know what he was doing?
“Oh.” A surprised gasp flew from her lips when his fingers found the dampening folds of her inner lips. Even in sleep, Lucas’ fingers unerringly found her points of intense pleasure, circling and probing.
“So tight,” he moaned against her lips.
Passion and heat invaded Charlotte, but reality set in too. She was inches and moments away from losing her virginity to a man who thought her a whore. If he didn’t wake up soon, he’d miss the evidence of her innocence. Give him your innocence, and he’s yours. Madame Bella’s prescient words echoed.
She needed Lucas to be hers, at least for the next few months. Her sisters depended on it.
“Lucas,” she said and caught his lips in another kiss, biting down gently.
“Mmm,” was his only response.
His fingers left her core and she was left holding his cock between them. She guided him to her entrance and spread her legs as wide as they could go.
“Lucas,” she said loudly and pinched his shoulder.
His eyes opened then widened as his body’s position registered. She arched against him, inviting him closer, deeper and he responded involuntarily with a thrust that seated him deeply in her.
Tears filled her eyes at the combination of pleasure and pain riding through her.
“Virgin,” he whispered and tried to retreat, but she wrapped her legs around his hips as Madame had told her to and kept him in place.
“Charlotte,” he said with a groan that sounded like a prayer, but he remained still. “Why?”
“I want you,” she told him half the truth. Whoring herself out to the highest bidder was her future, she might as well seize her first experience with a handsome young gentleman.
She wriggled her hips a bit and he sank deeper.
Charlotte’s warm heat wrapped tightly around his cock and spread throughout his abdomen and down his legs. He wasn�
��t quite sure how he’d got in this position. Well, he had some idea, but no clear memory of it. He’d been dreaming a vivid, real dream and responded to the warm female body pressed against his.
At this early hour, every reason for keeping his distance from her fled along with rational thought. His only purpose was to slake the fire burning in his groin. Charlotte lay under him with shiny eyes and a warm, welcoming body.
He stared down, trying to read her expression, but she only seemed eager and willing and, god help him, he was not strong enough to pull out.
Taking her mouth in a deep kiss, he moved his hips forward, shuddering at the pleasure it brought. Her inner muscles squeezed his cock and he wanted to move in permanently. He took advantage, plundering and taking her as he’d never taken another woman. Snippets of the auction replayed in his mind, particularly the parts where he won.
Yours.
She is yours.
In his wildest imaginings, he’d never thought it to be an aphrodisiac to own a woman, but it surged to his brain and cock like a heady brandy. Her cries of pleasure were a distant wave in his ears as he pounded in and out of her tight warmth. The reasons for his acquisition of Charlotte fell away, replaced by the reality of her lithe body and sweet scent. He pounded into her, feeling the slide of his hair-roughened chest against the smooth swell of her breasts.
“Lucas.” His name on her lips was music in his ears. The last woman he’d bedded had not spoken English well. It had been years since he’d heard the sweet gasp of his name in his native tongue.
“Charlotte,” he said, his voice an unfamiliar rasp. He opened his eyes to enjoy the view of the flushed, glistening woman beneath him and quickened his thrusts. He was near release if the tightness in his balls was any indication. He allowed himself one more dive into her luscious body before he pulled out and spilled his seed onto her belly.
“Oh,” she released a little gasp, whether in surprise at the mess on her stomach or disappointment at the suddenness of the finale, he didn’t know. Nor did he care to guess.
“I’ll get you a damp cloth,” he said and rolled away, squinting at the sunlight streaming through the window.
Charlotte murmured something from the bed, but he didn’t catch it. His mind reeled with the implications of taking her innocence as he exited the bedroom. He’d never taken a virgin before. Christ, part of him felt as if he needed to seek out her father and go for a special license. But she was a whore, and if she had a father, what kind of useless cur would allow his daughter to auction off her virginity?
He leaned against the closed bedroom door to get a hold of his confused thoughts.
“A good night, sir?”
Bellamy entered the hallway with a nary a blink at Lucas’ nudity. After seven years traveling the world together, very little rattled Bellamy.
“An unexpected night, Bell.”
“Then I take it you found your brother?” Bellamy stepped past him and put a hand on the doorknob to the bedroom.
He grabbed Bellamy by the wrist. “Don’t go in there. As I said, the night had unexpected consequences.”
“And one of them is in your room?”
He nodded.
“And is the consequence in the same state of undress as you?”
Another nod.
“Well then, I believe I’ll go find some breakfast. Shall I set the table for three?”
Was Charlotte staying for breakfast? Hell, even he wasn’t wicked enough to send her packing mere minutes after taking her. He could afford to feed her first. “She’ll be leaving straight away after breakfast.”
“She will not,” came a call from behind the bedroom door.
Bellamy was too disciplined to laugh, but his eyes brightened.
“Breakfast, Bell,” he warned and stood guard outside the door until his friend disappeared down the stairs.
*
“Oh, are we going out?” Charlotte asked, smiling at Lucas and Bellamy, who stood in the foyer wearing coats and hats. Lucas twirled a menacing-looking cane. It was a calculated risk, this, brazenly inviting herself along. However she couldn’t show Lucas how wonderful she’d be in his life if he didn’t allow her entry. She had to force her way in.
“You are not going out. We are,” Lucas said, taking a step toward her. Her lover from this morning was gone. Any softness in his eyes was now hardened to flint. He towered over her, forcing her back an inch. Only his warm, appealing scent was the same. She knew he’d bathed after breakfast in the water once she’d finished. She’d offered to stay and wash his hair, but he’d locked her out of the room.
He was back to Lucas the Distant, and she needed to do something. Her sisters were anxiously waiting for her letter and accounts so they could begin preparing for a London Season. It would all be for naught if Lucas pushed her out.
She took a breath and sashayed closer to him, daring to place her hands on his lapels and drag him down for a light kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Nonsense. I’ll join you. You’ll have more fun with me than at a stuffy old gentleman’s club.”
His hands fisted on her upper arms and moved her back a step. “We’re not after fun.”
“Oh?” She cocked her head. “I thought all gentlemen your age were after fun before settling down to matrimonial dullness. Where are you off to then? A walk in the park? Horse races? It’s too early for a brothel, so I know you’re not headed there.” She gave a light laugh, as if he could do that when he had everything he needed in a woman already at home. Her stomach turned to ice when she saw the exchange of looks between Bellamy and Lucas.
“A woman? Really? Are you so debauched, my virginity wasn’t enough? What more could you need?” She folded her arms below her breasts, feeling her cheeks flame with ire. She wasn’t the only one with red cheeks. Bellamy’s whole face turned red as a hot poker at her mention of her lost virginity.
Lucas had the good grace to look uncomfortable. “It’s not what you think. We’re only going to question her.”
“His brother’s former mistress, you see,” Bellamy confided, as if it explained everything.
Lucas shot Bellamy a look of extreme annoyance for revealing that fact then turned his glare to her.
She delivered her own if-looks-could-kill glance. “Why are you doing that? Are you so obsessed with your twin, you wish to be identical in every way? Are you collecting a harem of his discarded women?”
A shriek lodged in her throat as Lucas yanked her to his side and forcibly walked them to the parlor and thrust her onto the couch.
He stalked to the cold fireplace and poked at the logs with his cane. “If I seem obsessed with my brother, it is because I wish to expose him, not emulate him.” His shoulders gave a series of small shudders. “Never that.”
She walked behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder blade. The hot skin she remembered from this morning was hidden under cloth layers, but the strength of his muscle still flexed through. “Tell me. What has the earl done?”
The room filled with silence as she waited, her nails biting indentations into her palm, hoping he’d open up and confide in her.
Lucas whirled to face her, his eyes blazing. His calm, even voice didn’t match the anger in his face. “I have reason to believe my twin murdered our eldest brother to gain the title for himself.”
She heard a gasp and realized it was her own. Now she understood why he’d bid on her last night. Lucas was rescuing her. Underneath the cloak of his piratical looks, beat the heart of a true knight. “Murder. Your brother? Are you certain?”
He gave a curt nod. “And that is why you will stay here while we go question his former mistress. Men talk to their lovers. Perhaps he let something slip. And when I return, you will give me the name of your family so I can return you to their loving bosom.”
“I cannot. I will not.”
His eyes narrowed at her. “You can and you will. You were a virgin until a few hours ago and you dress like a governess.” He gestured toward her sensibl
e gray dress she’d slipped into from her old life. Her two new gowns from Madame Bella’s were ridiculous for daytime and difficult to put on without the help of a maid. “You’ve had your fun in the big, bad city, now it’s time to return to real life. Surely, you have a concerned parent or maiden aunt looking for you?”
She smoothed down the front of her skirts, grateful the high neck of the dress hid her flush. “Please don’t send me away. I need this.”
He snorted. “Why?”
Her mind raced with indecision. How much to tell him. Madame Bella had warned them to be like Aphrodite, rising from nowhere to become the perfect lover. But he’d confided in her about his brother. It was only fair to share too. Lucas seemed a different sort then Madame Bella’s usual client.
“I need to stay for my sisters.” She walked to the sofa and sat, hoping he’d follow her example.
“Your sisters,” he said.
She nodded. “Three of them. I’m the eldest. They rely on me.”
“And what of your parents?”
She smiled wryly. “You called me a governess, and you’re not so far off. Mama was a governess, Papa a baron who took one look at her and fell in love. He gave up everything to be with her.”
“Not his title?”
“Well, of course not that, but his family needed money. He needed to marry well.”
Lucas nodded. “A fortune hunter.”
“But he refused and ran away with Mama. After a few years of living in genteel poverty in a cottage, my grandfather passed and we moved into the estate.” The rundown, money-bleeding estate.
“What happened? Love doesn’t cover the bills, so they whored you out?”
She shuddered at his words, but felt compelled to defend her family. “No. It wasn’t like that. It was my decision.”
He finally came over to sit too close to her on the sofa. “And your parents allowed this?”
“Mama died ten years ago giving birth to Meggie. Papa died last month. A distant cousin we’ve never met inherited the estate and is now our guardian. I escaped to Madame Bella’s before he arrived and dictated our futures.”
