Rebel Love (Heart's Temptation Book 2)

by Scarlett Scott

  Ah, his friendship with Thornton. Hellfire.

  It was an uncomfortable nettle in his conscience. He had never known a better man and yet he repaid him by planning to deflower his sister. He felt like the worst sort of lecher.

  Thornton had asked him to share a brandy and soda-water after the ball and he’d refused. In fact, he’d spent much of the house party avoiding the marquis. It was damn difficult to look a friend in the eye when lusting after the man’s sister, particularly when he’d long since crossed the boundary of mere lusting and had lain naked with her.

  The thought of her glorious curves was enough to make him hard, even in the chill of the evening. Images of their stolen encounters flitted through his brain. She was his already. He had caressed her, kissed her, tasted her on his lips. He’d given Bella her first kiss, her first initiation into lovemaking. But it wasn’t enough. He still wanted more. Everything she had to give.

  He raked a hand through his hair, nearing the exit to the maze. He’d halfheartedly hoped he’d get lost within its dark confines, making it impossible for him to go to her. No luck in that, it seemed. His feet were steadfast in taking him to her.

  He couldn’t define what had changed for him, but his defenses had been blown to bits. Watching her dance with the duke had done something to him, caused a shifting deep inside where he hadn’t thought he’d had feeling anymore.

  He was jealous of a man who was as interesting as a blade of grass. But it didn’t matter how dull the duke was. It didn’t matter if the man was Bella’s social equal, a fine match approved by her cunning mother. All that mattered was that he didn’t want to see another man trying to woo her. He couldn’t bear it.

  Nothing could have prepared him for the mad attraction he felt for her. In his life, he had known many women, some of them beautiful, some of them worthy mates. But since Lavinia, he had never longed for a woman as if she were his life breath. It had been enough to mutually slake passions and leave emotions to romantics and fools.

  Maybe he was the worst sort of fool. He wouldn’t say he was in love. He didn’t think himself capable of it. The war had hollowed him out, but not completely, it would seem. There was something left yet of the ideal dreamer he’d been. He knew that if he went to her, it would not be the end but only the beginning, and that scared the hell out of him.

  He also knew that he didn’t give a damn.

  She’d begun to fear he wouldn’t come. It was hours past midnight. Bella had stayed up in her dressing gown, attempting to read The Eustace Diamonds but not meeting with much success. Then came an unmistakable tap at her door. She threw the book to the side and ran a frantic hand over her hair. She had allowed Smith to take down her elaborate coiffure, but she had taken great pains to make certain her tresses were properly curled. If Smith had noticed the extra worry she’d taken with her evening toilette, she wisely hadn’t spoken a word.

  Bella didn’t dare call out for him to enter lest someone overhear. She rose from her bed and nearly ran across the chamber. With great care, she opened the door slowly to avoid any unwanted squeaking.

  He stood waiting in the shadows of the unlit corridor, his expression intense. Wordlessly, Bella stepped aside to allow him entrance. He followed and the door clicked closed behind him. Just like that, everything had changed. She watched him, suddenly unsure of herself. He had removed his jacket and wore only a loose white shirt and trousers. In the soft light of the gas lamp she’d left lit, he was sinfully handsome.

  “You came to me,” she said, still feeling somehow as if she’d wandered into a dream and that at any moment, she’d wake.

  “I couldn’t stay away.” He closed the distance between them in two long strides. His hands went to her waist, anchoring her against his powerful body.

  Bella slid her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “I’m glad.”

  He kissed her back, a brief, passionate claiming. “It isn’t too late to change your mind.”

  “I have never been more certain of anything in my life.” She meant it, much as the words frightened her. The dowager had raised her to be intelligent in matters of romance, if not in many other subjects. From a young age, she knew her worth was based as much upon the skills a lady should possess as her chastity. A lady must, above, all, retain her innocence. But Bella was a woman in love, and she cared far less for her worth on the marriage mart than for the man in her arms.

  She couldn’t be certain of what would happen after this night. Perhaps he would gaze at her with the expression of an aloof stranger. Perhaps they never would touch again. After all, the house party was at an end. She had no way of knowing if she would ever chance to find herself in his handsome shadow once more. Bella didn’t give a fig. She wanted him, always had, and always would.

  He growled, pressing her body closer to his, and bestowed another hungry kiss upon her. “Do you think we should?”

  She sighed, her hands in his hair. It was silken and wonderful to her seeking fingers. Molten heat pooled between her thighs. She felt for the first time in her life a surge of feminine power, and she found she rather relished it. Bella rubbed her lower lip against his, at once teasing and seductive. “Do you think we shouldn’t?”

  “Christ no.” He kissed her, then stopped for a ragged breath. “I mean yes. Ah, hell, what you do to me, woman.”

  Passion sluiced over her like honey, slow and tantalizing, sweet and delicious. “What do I do to you, Jesse?” Feeling brave, she ran her tongue along the seam of his gorgeous mouth.

  He opened, sucking her tongue. Another growl sounded low in his throat. Their kiss became wet, downright voracious. “My darling, I cannot stay away.”

  “I don’t want you to stay away from me,” she murmured, wrapping her bare leg around his trouser-clad one. She didn’t care if she was a wanton. He brought it out in her, and she had ever been one to be open, honest and free. Despite what the dowager and finishing school had instilled in her.

  “You don’t?” He framed her face in his large, strong hands. His calloused fingertips were a welcome abrasion on her cheeks.

  They were teasing one another, and Bella had to admit the prolonging heightened her desire. “No indeed, sir.” She turned her head to kiss his fingers. “On the contrary, I want you to be very, very near.”

  “Mmm.” He brushed his thumb over her lower lip once, twice. His handsome countenance was tantalizingly close. “How near?”

  Ah, so he was encouraging her boldness in their lovemaking. Awareness swept through her. Did she dare? There was so much she wanted, so much for which she longed. She’d never before even considered it, but with Jesse, her desires seemed natural.

  She reached for his hand and slid it, ever so slowly, inside the gaping vee of her dressing gown. His warm hand settled upon her bare breast. Her nipple tightened instantly into his palm. Their gazes clashed, his astoundingly blue. “Would this near do, Mr. Whitney?”

  She found the pretense of formality added an element of excitement to their dangerous, sensual taunts. There was no mistaking this encounter. It wasn’t an innocent garden maze in which they met. No, indeed. This was her bedchamber. His hand cupped her naked breast. His leg slid between hers, his muscular thigh creating an intense and pleasurable pressure upon her mound. She wanted him to make her his, to possess her. Their mouths were a kiss apart. The entire affair was naughty, forbidden, and utterly heavenly.

  He swallowed, the only outward suggestion he was moved as much as she by their banter. “Perhaps nearer would do, my dear.”

  “Pray forgive me,” she whispered. “What would you have me do, sir?”

  “Do you love me?” His voice was nearly guttural, desire evident in the intensity of his blue gaze.

  She kissed him. “And if I do?”

  “I don’t deserve it, my darling.” With his free hand, he pulled her dressing gown away from her shoulders. It pooled at her waist, snagged by her belt, leaving both her breasts bared for his appreciative gaze. He cupped her with
his hands, sending a wave of sensation skittering through her. She adored the feeling of his skin upon hers.

  “But if I do love you,” she persisted, knowing somehow that they were not so much playing as revealing. She was not well-versed in the art of seduction, but neither was she an insipid miss. After all, she prided herself upon the knowledge she’d collected through the many novels she’d read. Though she was a neophyte, she was not entirely ignorant, thanks to him. “What then?”

  His gaze darkened upon hers, his intent clear. “Then I am at your mercy. What would you have me do, my lady?”

  Oh dear. She very much wanted to tantalize him as he did her, but she hadn’t an inkling what to say next. Best, she reckoned through her passion-addled mind, to allow him to be the one to direct. “What would you like, sir?” As she asked him, her fingers sought the belt at her waist. She undid the knot and pulled the sash free. Her dressing gown fell to the carpeted floor in a whisper of fabric.

  She was completely naked.

  “I would very much like if you kissed me,” he said, his voice soft. “I have been looking upon you all evening, wishing you were mine. I should like nothing more than to believe you are.”

  “I am yours,” she confirmed. “I have been, from the moment you caught me in the library at Marleigh Manor with my spectacles beneath my bustle.” She smiled, reveling in the wonder of how quickly, yet how imperceptibly, life could alter. She had never dared to dream Jesse Whitney would ever come to her like this, hold her in his arms, make love to her.

  “You are more beautiful than I deserve.”

  “Never,” she denied, bestowing another kiss upon his lips. “By far, sir, you are the most handsome suitor upon whom I have ever laid eyes.” And she wanted him as naked as she. Her hands went to his shirt, undoing the line of buttons.

  “Bella, are you utterly certain, my darling girl? I fear this is the last time I can ask you with any hope of putting an end to this madness.”

  “I am completely certain in every way. I love you so very much.” She kissed his neck, inhaling deeply of his scent. How she wanted him. She felt it possible that he loved her, even if he couldn’t put words to the emotions he felt. She was certain she knew Jesse well enough to know he would never be familiar with his best friend’s sister unless theirs was an inescapable attraction. He was, after all, an honorable man. Was he not?

  She hadn’t long to consider the question her dowager-forged conscience asked, for in the next instant, he had whisked away his shirt. Her fingers went to the fastening of his trousers. Nudity was a lonesome state.

  “Is it love?” He kissed her again, his tongue going inside her mouth to tease and taste, to own. “How can you be certain?”

  “I’ve never known anything comparing to the emotions I feel for you.” She kissed him back with all the fervor in her soul. Their tongues tangled. Desire was a heated thing snaking through her body. How she needed this man. Perhaps she still didn’t know entirely what that meant since he had not fully taken her before, but she needed him regardless, whatever may come.

  He nipped her full lower lip and simultaneously rubbed his thumbs over her hard nipples. “Do you want me, darling?”

  Did she want him? Good heavens, did she want to breathe in the air that gave her life? She sighed again, arching into his strong body. He wore only his trousers now. “Oh yes.”

  He dropped a path of kisses beginning from her mouth and trailing down her neck, to her collarbone. Then lower still. He kissed his way to her breasts. “I have wanted you ever since the first moment I saw you in the library at Marleigh Manor. But I knew I could never have you.”

  She was fascinated to know he too had wanted her even then. She’d thought herself too young, too awkward. He had been older, wiser, unbearably handsome. How could he have ever been attracted to her quiet self?

  Bella couldn’t quite squelch a moan when he sucked a nipple into his knowing mouth. “Why did you think you could not have me?” she asked, almost unable to string a proper sentence with the naughty things he was doing to her.

  Jesse raked the sensitive bud with his teeth before releasing it and looking up to meet her gaze. “You are far too good for the likes of me. I’ve seen too much of the world. Be certain you want me, Bella, with your mind and not just your pretty body.”

  “Of course I want you.” She finally opened his trousers. Perhaps she wasn’t thinking with her reasonable mind, but even when she wasn’t in his arms, she always longed for him. “It is only your honor that says I don’t.”

  Bella took him into her palm, loving the velvety, warm feel of him. She had very much wanted to touch him before, but he had separated himself from her before it was possible. He was rigid and long, and holding him made the ache in her all the more potent. She wanted to feel him inside her. Now.

  His breath hissed from his lungs as she tightened her fingers around his arousal. She didn’t care that he was older than she, that there had been other women he had loved before her. All that mattered was that she had found in him a heart to answer hers. She wasn’t about to let him to turn away from her again this night as he had before. No indeed, this night, he was to make her his in every sense.

  “You must be very sure,” he urged again, his voice sounding strained. He cupped her face in his large, rough hands. His golden beauty awed her. “There can be no reversal.”

  She knew he was giving her every opportunity to save her innocence. He had done so once before, introducing her to pleasure without ruining her. But there was no other man for whom she would save herself. He almost appeared vulnerable, naked and towering over her. She had never loved him more.

  “I know my own mind, Jesse.” She reached up and wound her arms around his neck. “I love you.”

  “Christ.” He lowered his mouth to hers for a crushing kiss. His tongue slid against hers, dipping in to taste and tantalize. “I can’t wait any longer,” he whispered before taking her up in his arms.

  Startled, she let out a squeak, tightening her grip on him. “No one has ever carried me before.”

  He strode across the chamber with her and then deposited her upon the bed. His eyes were dark with desire as he joined her, his strong, naked body equally hot at her side. “Then this is a night of many firsts.” He dragged one hand gently through her unbound black curls and caressed her cheek with the other, kissing her again.

  It began slowly, almost tentatively, as he molded his lips to hers. Bella turned into him, wanting to feel him against her. Her breasts grazed his chest, his arousal pressing into the soft swell of her stomach. She rested her palms on his brawny shoulders, arching into him. Everything felt right. Perfect. She never wanted the evening to end.

  He dragged his sinful mouth down over her throat to her breasts, leaving behind a trail of fire on her sensitive skin. The slight roughness of his golden stubble scraped her in the most delicious way. When he took her nipple into his mouth, she moaned again, unhinged by the sensation on the tight bud.

  “Hush, darling,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to the side of her breast. He looked up at her and grinned, his dimple flashing for a moment. “You must be as quiet as you can or else we’ll have the dowager storming in to rescue you from this horrid American.”

  He was gorgeous, her horrid American, and she almost couldn’t fathom he was lying with her. “I don’t need rescuing,” she told him with an answering smile at his levity. “I shall endeavor to be as quiet as possible.”

  “Good.” He took her other nipple in his mouth, delivering the same bold torture to it. “Because I’m about to do this.” Jesse kissed a path down over her belly, pulling her legs apart as he did so.

  She was open to him once more, but this time she wasn’t embarrassed. She knew all too well the pleasure awaiting her. Her heart kicking into a gallop, she ran her fingers through his thick golden hair. He kissed her slowly, his tongue darting out against her. She pressed the back of her right hand to her mouth, stifling another moan as best she could. Dear heaven
s, it was the most glorious feeling, entirely scandalous, completely sinful. And she loved every second.

  He sucked and toyed with his tongue, bringing her the same powerful ecstasy she’d felt before. She moaned, closing her eyes to relish the powerful desire rocking through her. He teased her with a maddening rhythm, using his thumb on the nub of her sex until she was shuddering against him. She reached her pinnacle, twisting against him as she felt herself coming, the pleasure so intense she didn’t know if she wanted to push him away or keep him there forever. He held her still against him, absorbing the ripples of her pleasure against his mouth.

  Her breath left her in heaving gasps. Somehow, it was even more intense this time than the last. She realized through the haze of passion fogging her mind that she had forever crossed the line from girlhood to womanhood. There was no reversal, as he’d said, and neither did she want one.

  He looked up at her and pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh. “Do you like my mouth on you, Bella?”

  She swallowed as another wave of desire crashed over her. There was more to this heady dance, and she wanted to know it. “You know I do.”

  With a groan, he rose, pressing his big body over hers. Her legs fell apart easily, welcoming him as if it were the most natural position in the world. His cock was between them, prodding her hungry entrance. She wanted him inside her so badly. Longing swept through her. Bella wriggled beneath him, restless with the wait. She had waited so very long for him to make her his.

  He kissed her, again, propping himself up with his large hands splayed on either side of her head. “Be still, darling. I want to go slowly.”

  “I can’t help it.” Bella ran her hands down the sleek planes of his shoulders, feeling the corded muscle beneath. “I need you, Jesse.”