Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)

by Carole Mortimer

She drew in a shaky breath. “My maid and I have packed what little I wish to take with me. My clothes and a few personal belongings.”

  “Alys—”

  “Please, I would rather you did not touch me.” She held up defensive hands to ward Devil off as he would have taken her in his arms. “I am dealing with my change in circumstances very well, do you not think?” she prompted tautly.

  He nodded gravely. “Very well.”

  “And yet, if you touch me, I know I will no longer be able to maintain my dignity,” she revealed shakily. “That I shall shatter and fall apart.”

  Devil’s arms dropped back to his sides. “I do not want that to happen.”

  Tears swam in her eyes as she looked at him. “I know I have not said this before but you—you have been kind to me in regard to this situation. I know this is not what you must have wished for either, and I shall—I shall endeavor to do my best to be a good wife to you.”

  Devil could see now how fragile Alys’s emotions were. It was there in those tear-filled eyes. The slight trembling of her lips. The shaking of the hands she had clasped together so tightly, her knuckles showed white. She also looked thinner than she had five days ago: her cheekbones and chin were more defined, the skin stretched tautly across her shoulder blades. Her breasts were still as full, thank God. Devil had a newfound partiality for those full and ripe breasts, could still feel how delicious her engorged nipples had felt and tasted in his mouth.

  But her fragility of emotion prevented him from saying anything on that subject. “As I shall endeavor to be a good husband to you.”

  She gave a rueful smile. “He may not know all the circumstances, but I am sure the earl must have an opinion on our hasty marriage.”

  “If he has, then it is an opinion I have advised he keep to himself,” Devil acknowledged dryly.

  Alys laughed softly. “I hope you were not too rude to him.”

  He snorted. “Maxim can take it.”

  She looked at him curiously. “Is that his name?”

  “Maximillian,” Devil confirmed.

  Alys’s frown was pained. “I know nothing about your life or your friends.”

  “We will have plenty of time for such conversations once we are far away from here,” he assured her.

  Alys looked about the bedchamber that had been hers since she left the nursery twelve years ago. It was as familiar to her as it had always been, and yet, in another way, it was not. Her father was gone, and her brother had proven his perfidiousness by selling her into marriage. Alys no longer felt as if she belonged at Newcomb Manor. As if she belonged anywhere.

  She turned back to Sebastian. “Where shall we go once we are married? To London or one of your country estates?”

  “You choose,” he encouraged. “Perhaps not London, now that everyone has left for the summer. So, my estate in Ireland or the one in Herefordshire?”

  “I should like to go with you to Ireland one day, but for now, I believe Herefordshire is far enough,” Alys decided after giving the matter some thought. Her emotions felt as fragile as glass, and she doubted she was up to the sea journey to Ireland at present.

  Sebastian nodded. “I shall send word immediately that they are to expect the two of us to arrive sometime tomorrow evening.”

  To expect the Marchioness of Deveril as well as the marquis.

  For that was what Alys would be after the wedding tomorrow. Sebastian’s marchioness.

  How grand and important it sounded.

  And yet it all seemed to be happening to someone else rather than Alys. The wedding. The title. The husband. All belonging to another woman.

  The woman Sebastian should have married rather than the one he felt obliged to marry?

  Probably.

  Alys only knew it all felt false to her. Undeserved. Sebastian was not in love with her, and she had no idea what she felt for him. Except that overwhelming desire, of course.

  She had no doubt they would deal well enough together in the bedchamber, but how things would be between them when they were outside of that room was unknown. All of her previous hopes and dreams, of one day falling in love, of having a husband who loved her, had been crushed underfoot beneath her brother’s greed.

  All Alys had was Sebastian’s promise not to be deliberately cruel to her.

  Which was perhaps more than a lot of men would have promised her given the circumstances under which he was making her his wife.

  She must learn to be grateful for what she had and not wish for things she could never have.

  Such as Sebastian’s love and respect.

  Devil had no idea what thoughts had been running through Alys’s head the past few minutes, only that they had made her sadder than ever. A deep unhappiness that robbed her of all the vivaciousness and fire he loved about her. He decided then and there he would do everything in his power to see those things were returned to her.

  “Shall I collect you from here this evening and escort you down to dinner?” he offered.

  Alys knew what Sebastian was doing, could see the concern for her in the darkness of his eyes. This evening would be the first time she had faced her brother since he had blackmailed Sebastian out of twenty thousand pounds. That amount of money still made her gasp.

  Tonight would also be the first time since Sebastian had announced he intended to marry her that she would see any of the friends Teddy had invited here for the shoot.

  As for the Earl of Carlton…

  Alys had always found that gentleman to be austere and unapproachable in the past. And that was before he became aware one of his closest friends was being blackmailed and now intended to marry a woman he barely knew.

  She drew in a deep breath. “No, I shall come down alone.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Very.” She gave a tight smile. “But thank you for your concern.” If she was to do this, then Alys intended to do it alone rather than using Sebastian as a prop.

  His smile was rueful. “I am not sure I know this quietly dignified Alys.”

  Her brows rose. “You prefer the rude and outspoken one you met on the first day of your visit here?”

  He grimaced. “To be truthful, yes.”

  She laughed softly. “Do not worry yourself overmuch. I am sure it is not a permanent transformation.”

  Sebastian chuckled. “I shall hope not. I very much enjoy the company of my sparring partner.”

  Her eyes widened. “You do?”

  “Oh yes.”

  There did not seem anything else left to say, and yet Sebastian did not seem in a hurry to leave either. Nor was Alys inclined to make him go if he did not wish to. Her solitude these past five days had been self-imposed, but now that she was in Sebastian’s company again, she realized her feelings of loneliness went soul deep.

  They stood and stared at each other, the tension between them deepening with each passing second.

  Sebastian finally cleared his throat before speaking. “I should like to kiss you again. Not because our betrothal makes you feel obliged to concede to my wishes,” he added firmly. “But because you would like to kiss me too.”

  Alys tilted her head as she studied him for several silent seconds. “Are you Deveril or Sebastian just now?”

  He looked puzzled by the question. “I had not realized there was a distinction.”

  “Oh, there most certainly is,” she assured him.

  Devil hesitated, not quite knowing how to answer. Did Alys wish for him to be Deveril or Sebastian?

  He had wanted to kiss her again since the moment she opened her bedchamber door to him. He still wanted that. Which was why he did not wish to choose unwisely as to who she wanted him to be, Deveril or Sebastian.

  Alys had called him Sebastian that day in the hayloft. She had responded to Sebastian.

  “I am Sebastian,” he stated decisively.

  A smile lit up her face, causing her eyes to glow and color to return to her cheeks as she stepped forward and into his arms. “Then of cou
rse you may kiss me,” she invited huskily.

  Devil tempered the hot desire that flared inside him, forcing a gentleness he was far from feeling as he claimed Alys’s lips with his own.

  The slight trembling of her lips beneath his reminded him that Alys’s emotions were currently as brittle as glass. As was she.

  He sipped and tasted those delicious lips with his own, his arms holding her but not crushing her to him as they so longed to do.

  It was sheer bloody torture on his control, his cock rock hard inside his pantaloons.

  Alys looked at him quizzically when he finally raised his head to look at her. “I will not break if you hold me a little closer.”

  Devil drew in a sharp breath. “I am trying to behave the gentleman.”

  While Alys appreciated his thoughtfulness, her body demanded more than Sebastian was currently giving her. Her nipples tingled and were engorged, that now-familiar slick heat between her thighs. “You have my permission to kiss me as if you mean it.” She had not shut herself away from Sebastian these past five days, only from Teddy, and now she needed the sensual demands Sebastian made upon her body. To lose herself in his masterfulness and the pleasure only he could give her.

  He scowled. “I do mean it, damn it.”

  “Then show me that you do,” she invited.

  Devil decided he would never understand the contrariness of women, this woman in particular. He had given her gentleness because he had thought that was what she needed, only to learn it was not what she wanted at all.

  He crushed Alys’s body against his and fiercely claimed her mouth with his lips and tongue, knowing his cock was a fierce and demanding throb against the softness of her abdomen.

  “Kiss me as if you mean it,” Alys had invited.

  How could he do any other when he wanted to strip her naked, devour her, to eat her up, to once again drink the sweetness of her arousal straight from her swollen pussy lips.

  His teeth ate at the swell of her lips, his tongue becoming a marauder, running along the sensual length of hers before claiming every inch of the wet heat of her mouth.

  When he finally broke the kiss, Alys was limp in his arms, her face flushed with her arousal. Her eyes glittered a deep blue as she slowly raised her lids, a smile curving her swollen lips, leaving him in no doubt as to her pleasure in the kisses they had just shared.

  Even so, Devil was ill prepared for what Alys said next.

  “I want to make love to you.”

  Chapter 8

  Alys wanted to laugh at the look of astonishment on Sebastian’s face. Except she did not think it appropriate to do so when she was completely in earnest. Sebastian had made love to her five days ago, and now she wished to give that same pleasure back to him. The throb of his aroused cock said she could at least do that for him, if he wanted nothing more from her.

  “I suggested making love to you because you said you did not want us to make love fully until our wedding night,” she added uncertainly when long seconds passed and he made no reply to her statement. “Unless you think my amateur attempt at lovemaking will not satisfy you? Or perhaps you are merely shocked at my forwardness?” She winced, straightening her spine self-consciously as that possibility occurred to her. She was to become the Marquis of Deveril’s wife, not his whore.

  He made no answer as he released her to stride across the room to the door.

  “Sebastian—” She broke off her plea as he turned the key in the lock before turning back to face her.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Oh yes,” she assured him eagerly. “We are to be married tomorrow anyway.”

  Sebastian slowly began to unfasten the buttons securing the fold of his pantaloons, his intention obviously to stay rather than leave, as Alys had assumed.

  “I am neither shocked nor doubtful of your ability to give me pleasure,” he assured her gruffly.

  “Then perhaps you could instruct me on what pleases you best?”

  He nodded. “If you wish it.”

  “My wish is to give you pleasure.”

  “Then so you shall.”

  Alys felt hot and feverish as she watched Sebastian’s long and elegant fingers slowly release each of the buttons before the unfastened flap of material at the front of his pantaloons fell down and allowed Sebastian’s cock to burst free of its confinement.

  Her eyes widened as she stared at his engorged arousal. It was easily eight or nine inches long, and so thick around, she doubted her fingers would be able to encircle it. The mushroomed top was a deep purple, and slick with the juices escaping from the slit at the top. A thick and engorged vein ran along its length, from the thatch of dark curls at its base to just below that bulbous tip.

  “Come here to me,” Sebastian instructed gruffly.

  Alys crossed the room as if in a dream, her mouth dry, her gaze still riveted on that burgeoning and naked flesh jutting up and outward from between Sebastian’s thighs.

  “Kneel,” he encouraged when she stood in front of him, his gaze darkening as she obediently moved down onto her knees in front of him. “Open your mouth.”

  Alys flicked him a nervous glance before slowly parting her lips.

  “Wider.”

  She parted her lips as wide as they would go.

  “Put out your tongue.”

  Alys did so hesitantly, not sure…

  Oh.

  Her breathing became ragged as Sebastian placed the damp and swollen tip of his cock on her tongue and she tasted his viscous juices for the first time. It was a combination of sweetness and salt. Alys lapped up more of those juices as they bubbled from the slit at the top.

  Sebastian’s hands moved to the back of her head, his fingers gently removing the pins before allowing her hair to cascade down her back. His fingers then became entangled in those locks, holding her in place as he stepped forward and his cock moved past her lips to enter the heat of her mouth.

  “Yes,” he groaned, fingers relaxing their grip on her hair but not releasing her completely.

  Alys glanced up at him. Sebastian’s neck was arched, his head tilted back, eyes closed, cheeks flushed, lips slightly parted, and his breathing labored.

  From the pleasure of being inside her mouth, Alys realized.

  She continued to watch Sebastian’s face, taking her cues from his expression, groans, and the deepening flush to his cheeks as she began to make love to him.

  Her fingers tightened about the throb of his cock, her lips firming as she sucked it deeper into the wetness of her mouth.

  The flush deepened in his cheeks.

  Her tongue laved that silky length as she pulled back until only that bulbous tip was still in her mouth.

  Sebastian groaned low in his throat.

  Alys stroked her tongue across and then inside the sensitive slit at the top.

  Sebastian’s fingers tightened in her hair once again.

  Alys took that as her cue to plunge the length of his cock deep to the back of her throat.

  “Cup my balls with your other hand.” His voice sounded strained. “Squeeze them. Gently. Perfect.” His breath left him in a pleasurable sigh. “Your mouth is as hot and wet as your pussy will be tomorrow night when I put my cock inside it.” He continued to use his fingers entangled in her hair to hold her in place as he began to thrust his cock into and then out of her mouth.

  Slowly.

  In and then out.

  Before repeating the thrust.

  His groans became longer and deeper as he maintained that slow and intrusive thrust and removal.

  Alys shifted restlessly as the tingling deepened in her breasts, her nipples so hard she could feel them pushing against the bodice of her gown. She was hot and swollen between her thighs too, her nether lips slick with her arousal.

  “Show me your pussy.”

  Sebastian’s cock was still in her mouth as she looked up to find him watching her through narrowed lids.

  “Lift up the skirt of your gown, part yo
ur legs and the slit in your drawers, and let me look at your pussy.”

  Alys’s cheeks burned. She could not— It was scandalous of Sebastian to expect her to—

  “There is nothing we cannot do together, Alys,” he pleaded softly as he drew his cock fully out of her mouth and looked down at her expectantly. “Please.”

  She had asked Sebastian to instruct her on what pleased him…

  Alys’s hands moved to do as he asked, tucking the skirt of her gown up at her waist before moving her knees apart and pulling wide the slit in her drawers. Her slick and swollen pussy was now bared to Sebastian’s heated gaze.

  “Now touch yourself— I wish to watch as your stroke and pleasure your clit when I put my cock back in your mouth,” he encouraged gruffly as she stilled.

  Surely touching herself in such an intimate way was forbidden—

  “Nothing is forbidden between a man and a woman as long as it is consensual and it pleases the other.” Sebastian’s reply told Alys she had spoken those words out loud. “Put your hand inside the slit of your drawers, gather up some of your juices on your fingers, and then stroke your little nubbin.”

  Alys gasped at the first touch of her own fingers against her hot flesh. Her wet nether lips felt swollen to twice their normal size as she dampened her fingers before moving them higher. Her nubbin was also swollen, but also hard as she stroked her fingers along its length. Almost like a much smaller version of Sebastian’s cock.

  “Keep doing that until you come.” Devil had never seen anything as erotic as watching Alys’s wet fingers stroking along her own red and swollen slit and clit. “Now part your lips for me again, and do not stop touching yourself until I tell you to do so.” He pushed his cock deep inside her mouth the moment she parted her lips, instantly feeling his control slipping. “Rub and stroke yourself harder,” he encouraged hoarsely, the heat and pleasure of Alys’s mouth too intense for him to be able to control his release for much longer.

  This was the last thing he had imagined happening when he came to Alys’s bedchamber.

  She was a woman of constant surprises.

  A woman whose body was so responsive, she made him lose control without even trying.