Seduced

by Jess Michaels

  “Knowing Noah, he wouldn’t have.” She tilted her head. “But the moment you entered my body tonight, you knew there was something wrong. And the second you saw that blood—virgin’s blood, you called it—you realized exactly what that something was. If I had turned to some other man, some man in our circle, or if I pursued a man of title now either to bed or to wed, he would have seen the same thing. Noah’s lack of consummation could have easily become a topic of gossip, scandal. And his secret, and Aaron’s secret along with it, could have been revealed for all to judge and mock and revile.”

  He drew back, the color draining from his face. “You needed someone who didn’t matter. A man like me who was a nothing in the eyes of your class. Exact a promise or find someone no one would believe, let him take that virginity and your future changes.”

  She nodded slowly. “Yes. Now that the deed is done, I could marry, Jack. I could have a future. You did that by touching me, by claiming me in the way my husband never could. So I thank you.”

  Jack stared at Letitia for a long moment, letting her shocking confession burn into his body. Letting her reasons for choosing him tear him from the inside out. Here he thought she had come to him because their attraction was mutual. That she couldn’t resist despite his past.

  Instead it was because he was a gutter rat that she chose him. She could use him as a tool because he didn’t matter. That truth hurt more than he would ever let her see.

  “Well, then you’ve gotten what you want,” Jack said through clenched teeth. “So off you go, my lady.”

  Her face twisted in pain. “I—you—you don’t want me anymore?” she whispered. “Because of what I told you?”

  “My understanding is that you needed your virginity removed. Have I not provided that service?” he asked, glad he had practiced keeping his emotions in check for so many years. Now he could be cold.

  “You have,” she said softly. “And if that is all you are willing to do, then I thank you for it. But the fact is that when you touched me, I felt things I’ve never felt before. Before you entered me and there was…was the pain, I felt pleasure, such pleasure.” She lifted her gaze to him, so clear and sweet. “I want more. I want you, Jack.”

  Those four words hit him in the gut like a punch, and he clenched his fists at his sides as he drew in a few cleansing breaths. The idea that she still wanted him left his unsatisfied body aching all over again.

  “What do you want, Letitia?” he asked.

  She blushed. “Must I say it?”

  He nodded. “I’m afraid you must, my dear. I can’t afford misunderstandings.”

  “I asked you to be my lover,” she said, shoving her shaking hands behind her back. “I still want that. I want you to teach me pleasure and show me what I missed during the years I was married to Noah.”

  She still wanted to use him. He could never forget that.

  “You want my help,” he said. “What would I get?”

  She jolted at the question and he saw panic cross her face. She hadn’t thought he would ask that. Now he waited to see her answer. She struggled for a moment, then said, “Well, you see, I have been studying this book. A book that talks about how to please a man.”

  His eyes went wide. “A book?” he repeated. “What book?”

  “It’s called The Ladies Book of Pleasures,” she admitted.

  Jack took a step back in surprise. He’d heard of that book, though he’d never seen it. A naughty little guide to all things physical pleasure that was the secret vice of many a wicked lady. And innocent Letitia had a copy?

  Very interesting.

  “You are learning from this book?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s hard to understand the concepts without practicing on a subject. Half the time, I don’t even know what the author is talking about. So if you take me, Jack, I’d like to try to please you. Would that be repayment enough?”

  Jack squeezed his eyes shut, his heart throbbing, his cock twitching. “Shit,” he muttered.

  He was caught in her web now. Needing her more than he needed air, wanting her more than he wanted food. She was offering herself, and even if he had a thousand reasons to reject her, he wasn’t going to do that.

  So he moved on her, catching her arms and claiming her mouth once more.

  Chapter Eleven

  Letty bit back a gasp of surprise as Jack plundered her mouth once more. Noah’s kisses had always been the same: gentle, chaste, brief. But Jack never kissed the same way twice. Sometimes he teased, sometimes he tormented. Right now he claimed with a hungry quality that made her knees weak.

  His strong arms wrapped around her, folding her into heat and dark promises of pleasures to come. She surrendered to it all, opening to him, molding against his body and reveling at the coiled strength of his muscles. He could break her if he wanted to and yet she didn’t fear that. With him she felt…safe.

  He withdrew after what seemed like an eternity and stared down at her intently. “You deserve better than what I gave you a short time ago,” he said.

  She shivered as she recalled the blossoming pleasure of his touch. “I liked it.”

  His eyes lit up and his pupils dilated. “Oh, sweet, you didn’t even get to the best part. But now that I know what a fragile and valuable thing you have given to me, I’m going to make sure you never forget this night. Will you come upstairs with me?”

  She blinked. She hadn’t expected to be given anything more than what she’d already shared with him. That was enough, for certain. She had liked it a great deal until the pain.

  She nodded, though. She would have agreed to anything at that point, just to feel his hands on her, his mouth on her, his body on her again.

  He took her hand, sliding his fingers with hers, lifting that hand to his lips to kiss it. He smiled and her heart stuttered. This was a very dangerous man. Not just because he was a criminal, but because he could make her feel things, want things, things she couldn’t have. Not with him.

  She shook her thoughts away and let him lead her from the room. They went up the stairs without a word and down a long hall. There Jack stopped and looked around with a frown.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I don’t live here, remember? I just realized I have absolutely no idea which room is the master,” he admitted with a chuckle. “I suppose we’ll have to try one and see.”

  He closed his eyes and pointed a finger, swirling it around in the air before he jabbed it toward a door and grinned at her. “Dare we?”

  She couldn’t help but smile even through her nerves. He made it so easy, when this had always been an act fraught with emotion and fear and disappointment for her. Jack seemed to see it as fun.

  He opened the door and they peeked in together. The room was a smaller bedchamber and the furniture was all covered with sheets.

  “Wrong,” he muttered.

  “Try that one,” she suggested, pointing farther up the hall. “There is more space between that door and any other. It would suggest the chamber is larger.”

  He glanced down at her in surprise. “Beautiful, desirable and observant too. Are you an angel, my lady? Or perhaps a temping devil sent to torment me?”

  She smiled at his teasing. “Just try the door, Jack.”

  “We’ll add eager to your list of assets,” he said as he took her to the door she had indicated. It swung open, and he sighed with what sounded like relief. “Ah, the lady wins a prize. Come into my castle, my dear.”

  He stepped aside and motioned her in. The room was large, with a big bed along the wall opposite the fireplace and two chairs placed around it. Of course, at present there were sheets on the furniture and the fireplace sat cold and empty.

  She looked at Jack with a shrug. “We could return to the parlor, Jack. It’s warm and light.”

  He shook his head. “Nonsense. What I want to do will require far more room, privacy and a bed. The parlor doesn’t ha
ve enough of any of those things. Why don’t you remove the sheets while I make the fire?”

  He squeezed her hand gently and then went off to the fireplace. Slowly, she circled the room, taking away dusty sheets to reveal what were actually very nice pieces of furniture and a comfortable enough looking bed that was fully made and ready to be slept in.

  “It will take a while to warm the room,” Jack said as he stepped away from the now glowing fire and proceeded to light the lamps around the room, filling the chamber with a welcoming, golden radiance. “But I have something to do that will keep you from getting a chill and will help you be ready for me.”

  His eyes lit up as he said those words, and deep inside herself, Letty began to ache. But it was a good ache, an intense one that came from longing. She sank into the feeling and didn’t resist as Jack backed her toward the bed. The mattress hit her thighs and she jolted, but he caught her and lowered her gently.

  “Get comfortable,” he urged her, taking a place beside her as she settled against the cool pillows.

  He slid his hands into her hair and the pins that held her complicated style in place came loose. Her locks fell around her face as he combed them down around her shoulders. It was funny that she was fully clothed, but that simple action made her feel revealed. There weren’t many people who’d seen her with her hair like that. Only one man.

  And Jack was very much not Noah.

  “You are beautiful,” Jack murmured as he leaned in to press a few light, teasing kisses along the column of her throat.

  “If you say so,” she muttered, hardly able to think when his tongue flicked out to taste her flesh.

  He lifted his head and positioned his hands on the pillows to imprison her. “I do say so,” he said, locking eyes with her. The teasing was gone from his expression. “And I am never wrong.”

  She laughed, and the sound shocked her. Once again, his demeanor made her comfortable, even as one of his hands strayed down her body, sliding back and forth against the exposed skin above her bodice, then lower so the back of his hand traced over her covered breasts.

  The friction of her gown tugged over her nipples made them hard and achy. She found her back arching slightly.

  “I have been obsessed with these luscious breasts for a while now,” he growled, his tone low and calm and utterly seductive. “Dreaming of what they look like and taste like. Later I’m going to find out.”

  She swallowed. “I think I would like that.”

  “You will like it,” he replied as he hand crested lower, trailing over her flat stomach and across the swell of one hip. She thought of when he’d touched her between her legs and heat rose in her entire body. That had been so wicked and wonderful, and she couldn’t wait for more.

  He grinned, and as if he read her mind, he began to ratchet her skirts up once more, revealing her to him as he had in the parlor. And as she had then, she blushed and turned away from his gaze. To her surprise, he tucked a finger beneath her chin and turned her face back.

  “Don’t look away,” he whispered. “This act is about pleasure, not shame, no matter what you were told by stuffy old biddies or what you felt when you were refused by a man with limitations. I want you to revel in this, Letitia. To use all your senses, including sight, to drown in what is about to happen.”

  She hesitated. To fully immerse herself in what he was doing? To give in to what he offered and what she would surrender? It was terrifying, given the disappointments of the past.

  “I am not Noah,” he murmured, slowly and succinctly.

  She sighed. “No, you are not. You are exactly what I want, Jack. Exactly what I need.”

  His gaze darkened a fraction, and she thought she saw heavier emotion enter his face, but then he ducked his head, sliding down her body with his lips along the trail his hand had taken earlier. She stiffened in confusion as he rubbed his cheek along the apex of her body, pressed closed-mouth kisses across her hip and finally settled between her legs, just inches from her most intimate areas.

  “Open,” he encouraged, placing his warm hands on her thighs and pushing.

  She did as he asked even as her heart throbbed, her body shook with fear and need combined. He let out a low groan as he tugged the opening of her drawers apart and revealed her sex a second time that night.

  Although she wanted to squeeze her legs shut, to push him away, she forced herself to remain still as he looked at her. His face was so close to her now, he could see every fold, every inch of pink flesh, every droplet of moisture she felt pooling there.

  “My God, Letitia,” he grunted. “You are temptation embodied.”

  She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, he leaned in and pressed a hot, wet, open-mouthed kiss on her sex. She stiffened at the heated caress, shocked and surprised by it. But Jack didn’t stop. He continued to brush his lips back and forth against her sensitive flesh as she gasped and jolted beneath him, even as he untied her garters. Then he tugged the drawers from her legs, easing them down so that she was entirely bared to him.

  She could hardly breathe as he tossed the flimsy fabric aside and returned his attention to her sex. This time, he pressed her open wider and kissed her again, sliding his tongue out to trace her outer lips.

  “Jack!” she cried out, arching her back as electric pleasure jolted through her. It was similar to the feelings that had stirred in her body when he’d touched her there earlier, only far more intense and focused.

  “Relax,” he murmured against her, the vibration of his words, the heat of his breath making her anything but relaxed. “Let me.”

  She had no choice but to let him. Her body felt weak and heavy. She was mesmerized as he glided his tongue along her over and over. He spread her open and the feelings intensified. He sucked at her, he stroked her, he swirled his tongue against her as she shut her eyes and sank into the sensations that mobbed her body all at once.

  She found her hips lifting to the relentless rhythm of his tongue, as if her body were naturally reaching for something. Something. She was on the edge of it, she knew, but what it was she didn’t fully understand.

  The pressure between her legs built, and just as she thought she would die from waiting, he drew the little bundle of nerves at the top of her sex between his lips, swirling his tongue around it as he sucked.

  Her world exploded in a burst of color and sensation. Wave upon wave of pleasure rolled through her, and all she could do was writhe as the sensations swallowed her up. She cried out Jack’s name, her hands coming down to clench his hair out of reflex, though she wasn’t certain whether to push him away to limit the intensity or push him closer to make it last longer.

  At last the tremors that wracked her body slowed and she realized there was a sound in the room around her now. A low moaning. And as Jack lifted his head from between her legs and met her stare with a heated one of her own, she realized that sound was coming from deep within herself.

  He crawled up the length of her body and cupped her head, tilting her face back as he kissed her deeply. She tasted an earthy flavor on his lips and realized it was the essence of her sex clinging to him. Her body jolted a little at that fact as she wrapped her arms around him and held tight.

  “That was what you’ve been missing, my lady,” he whispered as he pulled away.

  She nodded. “Missing and didn’t even understand. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

  “And you’re going to feel it again,” he promised as he caught her hands and helped her sit up. “The room is warm enough now. Let me help you undress.”

  Letty let him assist her to her feet and found her legs wobbly after the incredible release of pleasure she had just experienced. Jack smiled as he steadied her. Then his hands strayed to the line of buttons on the front of her silk gown. She watched his long fingers move to unfasten them one by one, feeling almost disconnected from the experience.

  But when he slid the shoulders of her gown away, pus
hing the fabric off her arms to dangle at her waist, she jolted awake. He was undressing her. Completely. In a moment she would be naked with him. She had never been completely naked with anyone but her maid, and even then she always tried to cover herself swiftly.

  “Jack,” she whispered, reaching up to cover his hands before he could slide his fingers beneath her chemise straps.

  He met her gaze. “Yes?”

  “I’m—I don’t want you to be disappointed,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

  He tilted his head. “Do you think I could be? Letitia, I have wanted you since the first moment you stormed across the ballroom to come to your brother’s rescue. I want you even more now. Let me do this.”

  She took a long breath to calm herself. Then she nodded and removed her hands from his. He stroked his thumb over her shoulder gently before he hooked it beneath her chemise strap and tugged that down as well.

  She was naked from the waist up, and she felt it as the warm air caressed her skin. But she forced herself not to turn away, forced herself to remain in her spot as Jack stared at her.

  “Perfect,” he whispered, then bent his dark head and took one nipple into his lips.

  The sensation was immediate, starting with a tingling pleasure at her breast and rapidly increasing the pressure and tugging between her legs. Her knees buckled, but he caught her, massaging her backside gently as he held her upright and continued his assault on her sensitive flesh.

  How had she never known this pleasure existed? It was like she’d been asleep for years and now he was waking her, slowly, seductively.

  As he slid his lips across her chest, tending to her opposite nipple, he pulled at her gown, tugging it over her hips and letting it and her chemise fall at a pool at her feet. Then he shimmied her drawers away and that left her only in silken stockings and her slippers.