by Matilda Hart
Pulling himself away from her was the hardest thing he had done so far, but he managed it as he said,
“You do not know how you tempt me.” His voice was hoarse, and there was little he could do to control it. “But I am a man of honor. I will see you at dinner.”
Turning sharply on his heel, he swung away from her and headed for the door. Her voice stopped him in his tracks.
“What if now were the only time you had?”
Ryde turned slowly to face her again. “Is it?”
“I do not wish it to be,” she said, her voice low and strained.
He walked back to where she stood and tipped her face up with a finger beneath her chin. “Your wish is my command, my lady. Until then.”
And then he bent his head and kissed her lips again, sucking them both into his mouth, letting her feel his passion for a moment. This time, when he walked away, he kept going. And after dinner, he disappeared into the study, and did not leave its confines until he heard the ladies going up to bed. He wondered if his brave Lottie would come back to him. And he wondered what he would do with her when she did. Nothing had changed for them, except that now they had each acknowledged an illicit passion. And in two more days, her husband would return and his chances with her would be gone for good. He found himself unwilling to let them pass.
The house was quiet for some time before he saw a light bloom under the door frame, and then it opened, and she stood before him. He rose from the chair he had not left since they had gone up, and went to meet her.
“Come,” he whispered, and closed the door behind her.
Taking the candle she held, he put it high, where it would cast no suspicious light, should anyone else in the household stir before morning. Pulling her into his hard body, he let her feel him, while he accustomed himself to her soft curves . Wrapping his arms around her, he leaned his head to the side so he could smell the fragrance she used. It was the scent of lavender, and he inhaled deeply, moaning when she lifted her arms and encircled his neck.
“Are you sure that this is what you wish, my Lottie?” he asked, nibbling her ear as he did so. “For once I have begun, it will be almost impossible for me to stop. So you must be sure.”
Her breathing sped up, and he could feel her pulse beating wildly in the vein at her throat. He kissed her there, pressing a hand to her heart, and said,
“You are a wild thing beneath this nightrail, aren’t you, my sweet?”
“I only feel this way when I think of you, or now, when you touch me as you are doing,” she confessed.
“You did not feel this way when you were with my cousin last night?” he asked.
And when she gasped in shock, he raided her open mouth, introducing her to the other kind of kiss, the one that made her wet, the one that said he wanted to take her, to stroke inside her, to make her groan and writhe and cry out his name. She moaned, and primal lust flooded his system.
“Tell me you wish to know me, Lottie,” he demanded, dragging his mouth away from hers. “I wish to hear you say the words.”
“I wish to know you, Barry,” she whispered.
Their kisses grew more fevered, and Ryde showed her with each touch of his hand, each slide of his tongue and nip of his teeth, how much he wanted to know her, too. Lifting her in his arms, he placed her gently on the couch, but something made him turn his head, and that was when he saw the light. Someone was approaching.
Hastily, he scooped her up and walked toward the door. Setting her on her feet, he cautioned her to silence with a finger to her lips and stepped from behind the door just as it opened.
“Oh, I am sorry, my Lord,” Bates said. “I did not know you were still up. I thought I heard an intruder, but I suppose it was just you.”
“That’s all right, Bates,” Ryde replied. “I have found myself unable to sleep these last few nights, so tonight I decided to read until I grew weary.”
“The kitchen staff have all retired for the night, but if you wish I can make you something that helps me sleep, my Lord,” Bates offered. When Ryde shook his head, murmuring his thanks, Bates said, “Well then, I will wish you a goodnight, my Lord.”
He closed the door quietly behind him, and Ryde waited until he could no longer hear footsteps. Then, still silently, he retrieved Lottie’s candle and handed it to her.
“Wait until I say it is safe, and then go back to your rooms. I will meet you there,” he whispered.
“But…”
“Trust me, my sweet. I will not compromise your reputation by being seen either entering or leaving your bedchamber. Remember, I know this house.”
Ten long minutes later, he let Lottie leave, certain that no one else was astir. Watching her make her cautious way up the wide staircase, he asked himself if it was worth it to betray his cousin’s trust, and to endanger the reputation of an innocent, merely to gain an entrance to her coveted body. And as he scolded himself, it occurred to him that what he wanted from Lottie was more than just the fulfillment of their mutual passion. He had not had much time with her, but he had known from the day she married his cousin that she was a prize he would have loved to win.
Making his way to his own rooms, he used the key he had to make his way through his cousin’s rooms to where Lottie lay upon her bed, under a downy cover, waiting wide-eyed for him to come. He thought he would need to build her passion once again, to regain the mood of reckless abandon with which she had entered into their illicit pact. But when he put the candle on the nightstand, he saw that rather than being afraid, she was excited. Her eyes sparkled, and when he stood over her, she reached up to him. He lay beside her, willing himself not to rush, knowing he could give her so much pleasure before he had to leave her.
This time, he began by stripping her bare for his hungry eyes to devour, and then he set about taking her to the highest peak of feeling. He started with kisses, from her forehead down the sides of her neck, where he licked her and nipped her, though not hard enough to leave any telltale signs. He nibbled her earlobes, whispering as he passed by them,
“Sigh for me, my sweet. It tells me how I make you feel.”
She began to writhe beneath his hands and mouth as he stroked her arms and slid his hands under her heavy breasts. She moaned when he pinched a nipple, and as he sucked it into his mouth, she gasped. He silenced her heated cries with hungry kisses, all the while treating her breasts to equal pleasure. His hand slid next to her mound, and she opened her legs to give him entrance. Still kissing her, he slid a finger between the lips of her sex, and found her so wet, he groaned.
“Mmmm...you taste so sweet, my love,” he whispered, when he withdrew his finger and sucked it clean. “Never doubt how much I want you.”
She mewled as he stroked her hard clitoris, and he remembered the sounds she had made the night before in this very bed. Banishing those thoughts from his mind, he plunged a finger into her core, and she cried out.
“You will wake the house, my lady,” he teased, and kissed her when she groaned again.
She was so ready for him that he could not tease her long before she exploded, writhing against his hand.
“Oh...oh…” she was incoherent, and Ryde felt his chest swell with the sheer joy of having given her pleasure. And he would do it again, only this time, he would be inside her.
Rising from the bed, he removed his nightshirt and breeches and stood before her naked, letting her get a good view of his body. Her sharp intake of breath on seeing his cock made him smile. He knew he was large, and by her reaction his cousin was not so well-endowed. He felt unaccountably proud of the fact, as though it had anything to do with his efforts. Lying next to her again, he teased her nipples and licked his way down to her tender parts, spreading her legs so he could the more easily reach the prize his tongue sought. She tried to close her legs, and he restrained her.
“Shhh! Trust me, my sweet, it will be better than the first time,” he promised her, and then proceeded to show her with the skillful swipes of his tong
ue on her sex, the teasing passes over her clitoris, and the plunges into her wet hole.
Ryde enjoyed the way her body undulated under his hands as he loved her, and when he felt her gushing on his tongue once more, he rose up swiftly, and kissed her as he plunged himself into her waiting body. Her walls were still contracting when he took her, and he had to fight not to come along with her. He rode out her orgasm inside her, and when she slumped, limp and sated, he began to move. She gasped, and he realized that she must have been sorely used the night before. He stopped and held her face between his hands.
“Are you too sore, my love?” he asked, though he knew it would be almost impossible for him to withdraw. He was too far gone, but he would try to do the gentlemanly thing.
“No,” she gasped. “You’re just so big!”
“Shall I go slow, like this, for you then, my sweet?” he wondered, sliding out of her almost completely, then pushing excruciatingly slowly back in.
“No!” she wailed, “go faster!”
He chuckled. “If I go too fast, it will be over too soon,” he protested. But he plunged back into her body and withdrew in rapid fire thrusts, shallow and deep, until she was scratching his back and begging him to finish her.
“Please, Barry, please I beg you, do not tease me any longer!”
He rested his forearms on either side of her head on the pillows and said,
“Because you asked so nicely, I will reward you.”
And then he let go, and took her hard and fast and deep, her tight channel holding him, taking a toll on his control, as she squeezed him and milked his cock of every last drop of semen. To stop himself from roaring as he came, he kissed her slack mouth, growling and ramming her until he was empty. He leaned his forehead against hers for a moment, breathing hard, and whispered,
“Thank you, my sweet.” Kissing her deeply once more, he slid off her and lay until he had caught his breath.
Using his night shirt, he cleaned her body while she drowsed, and put her chemise back on her before covering her with the warm blankets.
“Goodnight, my love,” he whispered in her ear, kissing her cheek tenderly. “Sweet dreams.”
He smiled at her mumbled reply. Before he reached the connecting door, she was snoring lightly.
Chapter 7 -- Charlotte
No sleep had ever been sweeter, Lottie thought, than the one from which she awoke the next morning. The sun was well up in the sky, and she smiled as she sat up and examined her body. Everything looked the same, and yet she knew nothing ever would be again. She had taken a lover, after a mere three months of marriage, but she could not find it in her heart to be ashamed. Ryde made her feel. Her skin was on fire, her heart pumping strongly, her spirit alive. This was what she had been missing, this soul connection. She knew that what they had shared the night before was more than just a physical coupling, and though she was eager to do it again, if it never happened, she had this one memory of the perfect night.
“Where are the Lady Regina and Lord Ryde this morning, Alice?” she asked as the maid brushed her long hair.
“Lady Regina is still in her bedchamber, Your Grace, and Lord Ryde went down to the stables earlier.”
“Please have breakfast brought to the sitting room in an hour.”
After breakfast, as Ryde had not yet returned, Regina and Lottie took a stroll around the grounds.
“You seem much more relaxed this morning, Lottie,” Regina commented.
“I slept very well last night, for a change,” she replied honestly.
“That would account for it,” Regina said with a smile.
Lottie wondered if there was some sign on her that said she had been well and thoroughly loved. However, she merely smiled and asked how Regina had slept.
“I was restless, but then I usually am,” she said.
“Why have you never married,” Lottie asked. “I have heard that you have turned down more than one suitable match.”
Regina laughed. “I have indeed. But then, I would have made a terrible wife. I am too independent, too inquisitive, and much too demanding for the average man, my dear. I honestly think that the only man I would have married, were he not my cousin, is John.”
Lottie gaped at her. “What are you saying?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing too dramatic, don’t worry,” Regina said, chuckling. “I am not in love with him or anything like that at all. I am just pointing out the kind of man that I think would be able to deal with me.”
A carriage appeared in the distance, and the ladies walked back indoors, wondering who was arriving unannounced. When the duke walked in, Lottie felt her cheeks grow warm, and she had to remind herself sternly that he could tell nothing from her demure gray gown or the bun at the nape of her neck that she had done anything that would enrage him. She was glad that Ryde was not around, or she would not have been able to hold her color.
“My Lord, you are home unexpectedly early,” she remarked. “Did all go well in London?”
The duke kissed her cheek, and the hand of his cousin Regina, and asked after Ryde.
“He apparently went riding,” Lottie said.
“The meeting has been moved to the day after tomorrow,” he said, “and your father sent me word that he needs me to sit in for him as he is indisposed.”
“My father is ill?” Lottie asked. “Why did no one tell me?”
“There is little to be done, my dear. It is a severe cold with fever, and must run its course. They do not wish for it to become pneumonia.”
“And why the hasty change?” Regina inquired.
“Things are growing more volatile, and the weavers are demanding that the meeting be held immediately. They fear the millers will have the advantage if it is delayed too long.”
“Is there merit to this?” Lottie asked.
“There may be some small advantage, but I fear their aims are more nefarious than that.”
He accepted the glass of sherry that Bates handed him, and walked over to the window.
“The people grow restless, and the weavers are demanding that no further mills be established in this parish. Of course, you know that that will not sit well with the landowners who wish to modernize their system. I fear a violent conflict will erupt if something isn’t done soon to calm the waters. So perhaps this change of the meeting date is for the best.”
When Ryde returned, he and the duke sequestered themselves in the study, leaving the women to their own devices.
“I’m glad I shall be away before all this unfolds,” Regina said. “For all my modern ways, I feel for the weavers.” She sighed heavily.
“It is sad, isn’t it, that we cannot see our way to a compromise in these trying times,” Lottie said.
“The rich do not compromise, my dear, as I’m sure you know from firsthand experience. John is a breed apart, because he thinks more broadly than most of his peers.” Regina sounded almost wistful, and Lottie had to wonder, once again, if the woman had been totally honest about her feelings for the duke. She didn’t mind, because she herself had none whatsoever for him. Should he wish to take a mistress, and should Regina be willing, Lottie wished them well.
Dinner was quiet, and afterwards, no one was interested in pursuing the usual games. The ladies retired to their bedchambers, and Lottie did not see either her husband or Ryde again until the next morning when she went down for breakfast. Ryde was alone in the dining room, sipping a cup of tea.
“Good morning,” she said quietly, and he turned to look at her.
“Good morning,” he replied, and came to stand beside her. “Did you sleep well last night also, my sweet?” he whispered.
“Very well, thank you,” she said, and moved away to help herself to the what she wanted from the sideboard. She felt unaccountably shy with him, although no one else was there.
“Your husband has gone to visit your father to finalize the details of the meeting, and perhaps to try and persuade him to take a more moderate stance.”
�
�I wish him well,” Lottie said, “but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope.”
She sat at the table just as Regina walked in, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She was not ready to handle being alone with her lover. The thought that she had a lover made her shiver.
“Are you ready for your journey back today, Regina?” she asked, needing to maintain a degree of normalcy.
“I am packed and awaiting the carriage,” she said.
They ate in companionable silence, and when Bates announced that the carriage was waiting, Regina hugged Lottie and whispered in her ear before she let her go,
