Redemption for the Rakish Earl

by Jilian Rouge

  It was almost all over for him when she glanced up at him with her mouth filled with him. Feeling what she did to him, then to be blasted with the force of that gaze was almost enough to embarrass himself. That one look seared him with an innate sensuality that outshone any practiced look that an experienced woman could ever produce. How was it that his Rue could shatter him with one look, one touch when no other woman could before?

  Because she’s mine, he possessively thought. Feeling so close to the edge with that telltale throb deep in his ballocks, he roughly pulled her from him only to drag her to back her up against a large rock. Surprise flared in her eyes at the suddenness of his movements, but she could not miss the urgency with which he spread her legs apart with a muscled thigh and then fumbled at her skirts.

  “Alex?” she questioned him breathlessly. “What are we doing? This is mad!”

  “Mad to say that I want you as badly as you want me, you mean? Don’t worry, I won’t crush your skirts too badly if you hold them, like so,” he said as he raised a fistful of her skirts above her waist, held them to the side, and urged her to hold them there.

  “That’s not what I’m worried about! What if someone were to come?”

  “Then, it’s best that you stay quiet. Here, now, I must have you before I go mad!”

  Alex delved a hand between her parted legs and dipped a finger into the honeyed crevice there. “Ah! You are ready for me before I had the chance to properly seduce you! What were you doing to make you so wet for me?” He lifted his hand close to her face so that she could not fail to see the evidence of her own arousal gleaming on his fingers.

  Rue blushed and looked away, only to have Alex gently reprimand, “Rue, there’s no need for shyness between us. Tell me what you were doing. I want to hear it.” To add to her already befuddled senses, he began to lick a slow path up her neck to reach her earlobe.

  The heat and wetness of his tongue against her sensitized skin had her moaning and closing her eyes against the force of her own heightened arousal. He had her mindful of only what he was doing to her, forgetting all else.

  “Tell me,” he urged before he swirled his tongue at the whorls of her delicate lobe, while

  “What?” she said as if in a daze. “I forgot the question.” Panting now, Rue had no defenses left against such an onslaught.

  He said, “Tell me how you come to be in this wanton state of arousal, or—”

  “Or what?”

  “Or, I’ll stop.” And he did stop, his lips leaving her neck as he looked down at her with a wicked, teasing smile. He made no move to do anything, almost stubborn in his stillness.

  With the pleasant heat and weight of his mouth absent from her skin, she felt bereft and achingly empty. Not to mention, slightly scandalized, as she found his need for candor of a sexual nature between them highly unusual. But then again, she herself had kept her own sensuousness nature under wraps during her Seasons in London, afraid that other gentlemen would find her too much of a wanton.

  “All right!” she cried, wanting only to have him touch her again. “If you must know so badly, then I’ll tell you.” All Alex did was give her a patient look, waiting for her to continue.

  “While I had you in my mouth, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing your pleasure as I was pleasuring you. And it thrilled me that I was doing that to you. Me! Then, I couldn’t help it! Doing that to you made me feel so achy I just had to touch myself there!”

  Smiling broadly at her, Alex asked, “You couldn’t help yourself? Darling, when you are with me, I want you to always be as free with yourself just as you would with me and my own body. Never hold back any part of you from me. Do you promise me this? I want a promise of complete honesty between us. Do you agree to it?”

  “Yes, I would like that,” she murmured. By this time, his fingers played at a nipple, softly teasing the hardened nub, and her head fell back against the rock wall behind her.

  “Very well. Then, as I promised,” he said, then commenced to fulfill his part of their bargain by renewing his gentle assault on her senses with his inflaming caresses.

  This time, Alex dove a hand between her legs once more. Finding the little pearl nestled there, he sustained pressure against it with the heel of his hand while he inserted two fingers deep inside her.

  She gasped at the feel of him there, exulting in what his fingers were doing inside, knowing it was what she needed to soon reach her own pleasure.

  With great finesse that spoke of his accumulated experience over the years, Alex kept up a steady, rhythmic in-and-out motion which drove Rue wild. With her own hips, she answered the movements of his fingers with cadenced undulations born from a need to bring herself closer to an earth-shattering climax.

  Triumphant at the response he alone produced in Rue, Alex whispered silkily in her ear, “Do you know how you feel on my fingers? I quite imagine that the tiny clenching you are doing about my fingers would feel tremendous on my cock.”

  Panting in tempo with the motions of his thrusting fingers, Rue managed to choke out between breaths, “I do know how it feels. So, yes, I have some idea of what you would feel.”

  Shooting her a questioning glance, Alex asked in surprise, “You do?” As well-versed as he was in the ways of pleasure, he soon came to understand her meaning and realized he had to re-assess his original view of his seemingly innocent wife-to-be.

  Arching a brow at her with a wicked glint in his eye and increasing the pace of his maddening fingers, he urged roguishly, “Tell me how it is you came by such knowledge. Tell me every. Dirty. Detail.”

  Rue’s present state was in no condition to even form a lucid thought, not when the pleasure was so great and not when she was so close to coming undone. But recalling his previous threat to stop his actions if she didn’t comply, she did her best to formulate a satisfactory answer.

  “At night—I sometimes—fill myself—down there—with my—own fingers,” she stated breathlessly, her words broken up by her heavy panting.

  An ear-splitting grin crossed Alex’s face as he pictured what naughty things Rue must have gotten up to, alone in her bed at night. Again, she amazed him with how candidly she made the admission, suggesting heavily to him of the extent of Rue’s spontaneity. No other woman he’d known in the past had been able to draw him in or charm him as deftly as Rue just did by admitting her naughtiest of secrets.

  “Do you mean to tell me that you touch yourself, bringing yourself to climax?” he asked, his tone tinged with feigned surprise. That mental picture of her touching herself was vivid enough to make him want to shuck off his clothes and ravish her there against the cave wall without a shred of his usual flair and finesse. But he knew that the key to heightening both of their pleasures was in the anticipation of the event.

  “Yes!” she confessed in a rapid exhale. Alex was now furious with his thrusting and was rewarded for his efforts by the sudden effusion of her desire dripping down his hand. Anxious now to reach the penultimate crescendo of her pleasure, Rue squeezed her inner muscles to better capture his fingers within her, creating a delicious friction that brought her closer.

  As hard and aching as he was watching Rue enjoy herself, Alex was anxious to see Rue fracture about him and even more desperate to see his woman truly satisfied by him and him alone. He fairly pistoned his fingers in and out of her, slamming the heel of his hand against the little nub at the apex of her opening. Then, without a word of warning, Alex felt the significant tightening of her sheath around his fingers and the drawn-out pulsebeat of her climax that was echoed in tandem with her deep, panting cries.

  With his desire incited at the sight of Rue’s pleasure, Alex threw aside all gentlemanly intentions and pounced. The urgency was too great for him to slow down now, wild with a fever to have her in the most basic, animalistic way he could take her. Bending low to touch the tip of his cock at her still-throbbing entrance, his knuckles brushed against her and Rue whimpered at the brief contact. Then he surged upward and inward, strai
ghtening his legs to fully impale Rue while almost flattening her against the rock wall, hoisting her several inches upwards at the force of his thrust.

  They both cried out in unison at the initial surge of his penetration. Rue’s swollen, sensitive flesh rejoiced at the welcome invasion while Alex took a moment to properly revere the sweet, hot feel of her surrounding him. With echoes of her previous orgasm still fluttering about him, Alex began to move with frantic, deep thrusts within her.

  Rue’s cries began anew in time with his inward strokes, her longing sighs accompanying his outward strokes. Clamping her inner muscles to keep him deep inside her, Alex grunted at the feeling but kept pace with his thrusting, relentless in his drive to reach his own pleasure.

  Helpless against his ruthless plunging into her body, Rue could do little else than hang limply between the rock wall and Alex’s hard, driving body. But she gloried in this animalistic side of him, knowing she was the cause for his having lost control to the violent impulses of his lust. She was almost overcome by the myriad sensations churned out by his assault: the pulsebeat of her heart thudding in her ears; the intensified feeling of his body pressing hard and deep against her little sexual nub; and the heat of desire exploding inside her each time he strained against her.

  Rue heard her own panting breath each time he filled her with a hard thrust, her body delighting in the delicious rasping of his cock against her inner walls. With the pleasure he created within her mounting to greater heights, she knew it wouldn’t be much longer before she exploded around him. Her panting breaths became shallower and more hurried, as little involuntary spasms of her sensitive tissues began increasing in frequency. With renewed vigor, Alex picked up the pace of his thrusts while battering at her little nub with the base of his groin, forcing her towards the pinnacle of her pleasure.

  In seconds, Rue’s body arched tautly against him, her eyes shut tightly against the ecstatic bliss of her shuddering climax around him. Her mouth fell open at the first wave of it, poised to scream with the force of such rewarding release, but Alex caught her mouth with his in time to block the sound. He swallowed her cries as she bucked against him, riding out the drawn-out length of her orgasm around him.

  Her spasms had barely melted away before he felt his own balls tighten, signaling the inevitable eruption. He pumped his hips furiously against her, his own orgasm imminent. He bucked violently into her when he finally came, his neck cording with the release, and he released her lips to throw back his head and utter a guttural groan aimed at the cave’s ceiling.

  When their breathing slowed, he swung his head back down to look at Rue, his breathing harsh as he said with finality, “Only you, Rue. There will never be anyone for me but you.”

  17

  As they assisted each other with the righting of their clothing, soft kisses and caresses accompanied each act of aid, but the need to hurry and leave their little hideout was growing urgent as the day wore on. It wouldn’t be long before the riding party made their way back for the luncheon bell, and neither Rue nor Alex wanted to be caught in flagrante delicto before the nature of their relationship was fully revealed to their own families.

  Shaking out her skirts, which were now horribly rumpled, Rue smiled at the memory of how they had arrived at such a disgraceful state and could not be bothered to dredge up any shame for it. Alex caught her little smile as they emerged from their hideaway, and asked, “What are you smiling about?”

  Her cheeks pinkened at having been caught with her thoughts plain on her face. But she beamed a bright smile at him as she said, “Although I must look a mess, I cannot find it in me to care overmuch. Not after being thoroughly ravished by you.” Without waiting for his answer, she ducked through the undergrowth and reached the horse path before he could catch up.

  With a remark like that, Alex was reminded of what he had done to her and the way her sweet, hot body welcomed him so pliantly. He felt his cock stir, wanting her all over again as if they hadn’t just slaked their lust moments before. Later, he told himself and rushed to catch up to her.

  Reaching her side, he gathered her close against his side with one arm about her shoulders. Chuckling, Alex retorted, “Make another comment like that and that just might earn you another example of my brand of ravishment.” Touching her, having her this close was playing havoc with his control, and he was already conspiring for the next time they made love. It would be soon if he had his way, and this time he hoped that they would be rolling amidst the comfort of a bed.

  Rue’s smile didn’t waver when she replied with gravity, “Yes, well, perhaps we should be refraining from such activities for the time being. At least until we’ve announced our engagement.”

  “With you making me randy as a goat whenever you’re near, we should be announcing it today.”

  “That’s all very well for you, I suppose. But there’s still Christian to consider, and I think—”

  Alex’s brows slammed down as he looked down at her, frowning. He halted their steps as he accused, “I know very well what you’re about to say. You want to spare his feelings a little longer before we spread the word! Is that what you were about to say?”

  “That wasn’t what I was going to say, you oaf! Well, not exactly, but I had promised Christian an answer to his proposal for the day of your mother’s ball. Which is three days hence.”

  Anger blossomed in Alex’s cheeks, and Rue felt dreadful for making a mess of her explanation. She protested, “But if I tell him my answer is no this minute, it would make the rest of his stay a trifle awkward until the ball.”

  “And what of my feelings on the matter? I bared my soul to you just moments ago, and you want to treat me like a dirty secret of yours. I’ve had almost a decade of such treatment and I will be subjected to no more.” Shaking with disgust, Alex sped up his pace, leaving a dumbfounded Rue behind on the horse path.

  Knowing she hurt him, Rue raced after him just as he reached his stallion, Ulysses, who had been tied to a post and left grazing. “Alex, wait a moment!” she cried, desperate to make him listen to her. In spry movements, Rue deftly dashed at Ulysses’ reins before Alex could do so and she quickly untied the horse and held the reins fast.

  Alex blew out a breath of impatience and said in clipped tones, “Rue, give me back my horse.”

  Stubbornly, she shook her head and started off down the path with Ulysses in the direction of her own horse, Daisy. “No, not until you listen to me.” To Ulysses, she urged softly, “Come, Ulysses. There’s a sugar lump waiting for you if you come with me.” She strode some distance with Ulysses trailing after her before coming upon Daisy getting fat on a tasty shrub. After untying Daisy, Rue turned back to spy Alex still standing where she had left him.

  Alex used his long legs to eat up the distance separating them to gain back his horse and wrest the reins from Rue’s grasp. “What are you doing?” he cried in outrage. “With Ulysses’ temperament, he could easily crush you if he had the mind to!”

  As though he hadn’t just reprimanded her, Rue exclaimed, “If you would just listen to me, I can explain my reasons! Someone under your own roof doesn’t want us together and has made threats. We can’t just blindly do whatever we want without a care for your safety.” Both horses nickered nervously, sensing the charged tension in the air between Alex and Rue.

  Sighing, Alex shook his head at her disregard for her own safety. “And what of yours, Rue?” he asked softly. He had mistakenly thought the reason for delaying their announcement had everything to do with placing Christian’s feelings over his own. Ashamed of his display of his own insecurities where Rue was concerned, he vowed, “I would never let anything happen to you, and I will find whomever has sent you those notes. You have my word on that.”

  Instead of answering, Rue turned to mount Daisy without assistance and easily swung up onto the saddle. Seated with the reins firmly in both hands, Rue replied to both of his vows, “I know you will.”

  From the direction of the main hous
e in the distance, a bell rang, the familiar sound broadcasting the call to luncheon. With a tilt of her head, Rue beckoned, “We should head back. Everyone will be coming this way to fill their empty bellies up at the house.”

  Nodding, Alex turned to Ulysses and placed a booted foot into the stirrup. At the motion, Ulysses danced nervously, unable to keep still while his master swung his leg around to sit astride. Only, Alex, no sooner than seating himself upright in the saddle, with one foot unable to locate the other stirrup, did Ulysses neigh loudly and suddenly rear back onto his hind legs. With Ulysses’ front hooves pawing at the air, Rue narrowly missed having her head bashed in by the powerful, rearing stallion, and she ducked, flattening herself against Daisy’s neck.

  Rue saw white ringing around Ulysses’ irises, the animal’s distress clear in his gaze. Alex struggled with the reins, vying for control of his horse. With a neighing scream, Ulysses stamped his front legs once, hard on the ground, only to spring back up to finally unseat his master.

  Rue only had time to scream Alex’s name before he tumbled down the horse’s back and fell to the ground, his broad back taking the brunt of his fall. Ulysses, now free of Alex’s weight, took off like the hounds of hell were at his heels and disappeared through the trees in the direction of the main house.