Clean Regency Romance: The Earl's Temptation (The Pure Heart Triumphs Series Book 1)

by Pearl Goodfellow

  Saffron lay on her back, held down by four Bloods who were busy trying to tear her tri-color outfit from her struggling body. One alabaster breast was free and the flesh colored mask did not hide her fear or revulsion, as she screamed that she belonged to Tiberius.

  “Shut up bitch, TK ain’t here now and I want some of that sweet stuff,” growled one man holding Saffron’s arm. He drew his arm back to deliver a slap to make the writhing Deb more agreeable.

  Koln reached the quartet of Bloods just as they turned, after hearing their ruler’s cry of vengeance, fear exploding on their faces. Without a further word, Tiberius rammed his fist into the would-be slapper ,who fell like the proverbial ton of bricks. He turned on the others who had let go of Saffron.

  “What is the meaning of this, you scum! You dare to touch the woman I choose. Do you all have a death wish? I will make it come true! The scorps will be hungry when we return, or I may decide to kill you bastards myself.” TK lowered his voice as he circled a protective arm around Saffron though his fists were still clenched in anger. “Are you alright?” he asked her. She nodded as a few tears slid down and soaked into her mask.

  “Pick up your friend and go,” he addressed the three who stood before him, all looking at the floor like chastised children. “I will decide your fate later, as I have matters of real importance to consider.” To Saffron: “Come with me. These scumbags will not bother you ever again. That is an oath I swear before Jupiter.”

  Tiberius took Saffron’s small delicate hand in his and led her back to his room. She moved as if in a daze, and trembled anew, as she considered what would have occurred if not for the man she believed she was in love with showing up on the scene. Koln opened the door and scooped Saffron off her feet with tenderness new to him, like she was a young child in need of solace. She gazed into his eyes and reached up to place one hand on his rough hewn cheek while the other pulled off her mask. It was forbidden, as they both knew, but Saffron did not care; she wanted him to see her, to feel his touch, to meld their bodies into one entity that could never be separated by Blood or Terran. Was it a pipe dream? There had to be a way! But right now was what was important. Tiberius blue eyes gazed into wide gray orbs as he carried Saffron into the room and gently laid her on the bed. He marveled at her raven black tresses, as her hair fanned out across the single pillow, and he knew then he was lost.

  This time, it was Saffron who spoke. “Come to me, dear Tiberius. I know you will not hurt me. I feel your love, have dreamed of you for most of my life; you are the one, the only one that I will ever want. That I will ever need. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true.”

  “Crazy is the last word I’d use. I feel the same way and I don’t even know your name. And yes, to answer the question you asked in the corridor, before you walked the Strutway, I do know a real woman when I see one: you are that woman.”

  “Saffron, my name is Saffron Mountbatten. Now, come to me.”

  Tiberius said her name, letting it roll off his tongue as he approached and knelt beside the bed. He held her hands in his and she leaned forward, brushing her full lips across his forehead to kiss his scar, then his rough cheek, and finally found his lips. TK placed his hands on her trim waist as she slipped her arms around his neck to pull the Alpha male to her. Saffron tasted sweet and her lips parted as their tongues sought to explore this sensation, that was as old as humanity itself. A low groan escaped Tiberius as Saffron sighed and the kiss became deeper and more intense. Continuing to kiss as emotion flooded his senses, TK found her ties and undid the basque/teddy holding her breasts. Freed, the perky, alabaster orbs seemed to find and fit into his eager hands: he kneaded the soft flesh and felt her nipples stiffen in anticipation

  Saffron reacted without conscious thought, moaning deep in her throat to urge Tiberius on, while at the same time reaching out to touch his chest, reveling in the hard muscle. Her hands moved down his torso and she marveled at the six-pack abs before unbuckling the worn leather belt and unzipping his leather pants. He groaned again as Saffron wrapped her hand around his burgeoning member.

  She was smiling inside when they broke off their sensuous kiss. Tiberius smiled too and he laid her back on the bed. Deftly, he slid her sheer bottoms off and peeled the fishnet hose down her legs. The scent of her ready sex, and her vulnerability in the supine position almost drove him mad with passion, but TK checked his primal urges. He kissed the inside of her thighs, working his way slowly to her lightly haired pubis.

  “Please,” she whispered, “please. I want you Tiberius, I need you. Please!”

  TK needed no further encouragement and his tongue delved into her nether region, bringing a gasp of pleasure from her parted lips. He found the engorged nub and circled it until Saffron wound her fingers into his tousled hair. She begged Tiberius to stop teasing, with the steady stream of moans emanating from deep within her being. He acquiesced to her demands for sweet release, and applied light pressure to her pleasure organ. Within seconds, she felt warmth spread throughout her body, radiating from her sex in wave after wave of unmitigated passion. Saffron thought she might literally explode, and thought that if she did, she would die a happy and satiated woman.

  “I never knew,” she gasped, “Oh Tiberius, I never knew. Take me! Make love to me now. I need you inside me,” she nearly shrieked as her hips continued to buck as he drank her in.

  Koln’s glistening face appeared and he climbed atop his lover who reached down and roughly grabbed his throbbing erection. Saffron guided the head to her sex where TK could feel the slickness of her passion, but he held back.

  “Slow down, Saffron, I don’t wanna’ hurt you. You’re a virgin and it can hurt at first.”

  “I don’t care my love! I just want, I have to have you inside me. Make love to me. Make me a woman,” she pleaded. “I am yours’ and you are mine, forever.”

  Tiberius entered Saffron slowly, fighting his instinct to do otherwise. When he felt her hymen give way she yelped but she clutched his buttocks and pulled him deeper.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” she cried as he withdrew and then sank back into her tightness. Though an experienced lover of many women in his time, TK could feel the pressure building within a minute. He fought for self control as his pace quickened and he went deeper with every stroke. ‘This is so much more than sex,’ he thought fleetingly, ‘this is two becoming one.’

  And then he could take it no longer and released his seed deep in Saffron’s velveteen vault. This set off a chain reaction of new orgasms for the pair, as they desperately clung to one another, panting, sweating and clawing. They lay entwined together for how long? Was it minutes? Hours? Days? Neither one knew nor cared. When he finally rolled off of Saffron, she snuggled up and put her head on his still heaving chest while she stroked his stomach. They lay like that for awhile, enjoying the tactile feel of each other and the closeness both had been missing.

  “Why does this have to end?” Saffron asked

  “Who says it does?” answered TK.

  “Earth does, my family does, the government and the Fecund Clinic does. Mars does, even,” Saffron’s look was crestfallen.

  “Well, I say screw all of them. I’ve got a plan forming in my head, but it’d be risky for both of us, especially you. And we’d have to live on Mars.”

  “Tiberius, don’t you know? I would go anywhere, as long as it’s with you. I don’t care about credits or the elite. I don’t care about any of it. There is nothing here for me on Earth. There is only you.”

  “Mars is a tough place, my love, especially for one who is not adapted. Bloods have had hundreds of years to change…”

  “But the first ones, the real criminals, they survived, and now look at you. Do you think I can’t do it? Is that what you believe?” Saffron’s voice filled with righteous indignation as she propped herself up on one elbow and started to poke TK in the chest. “I’m just some delicate little flower? I’ll wilt in Mars’ atmosphere? Well buster, you have another think coming!”


  Tiberius, still on his back, put his hands up as if being held at gunpoint and try though he might, could not help the smile creeping over his face. Man, but this woman was a real firecracker! “Then first of all, call me TK. Everyone does, well, most of the time anyway. Second, we got to make some plans and execute them soon. In two or three hours, Bloods won’t be welcome on this rock. third…”

  “Third,” Saffron interrupted, “Wipe that damn smile off your face, Tiberius Koln! How I wish we could just stay here forever and let the universe pass us by, but I know that’s unrealistic to say the least.”

  “Well, the ride back to Mars takes some time and there’s not much to do so we could…” Even though Saffron mock admonished him, TK could not stop smiling. Whatever happened, it would be the two of them together. Of that, he was certain.

  Chapter 17

  The first dull boom, and then the second and third were ignored by those in the Socialization complex. They were busy, and all figured it to be fireworks, celebrating yet another successful Haute Societe event. The 4th explosion was nearer, and finally alarm rippled through the Bloods and Debs. Most of the men from Mars had witnessed their leader’s rage, and then subsequent tenderness toward his chosen woman, and while somewhat puzzled, they followed suit in his gentle ways. They were much softer than in the past, though one could not say tender and giving, and the Debutantes, although still unprepared for the ways of sexual congress, seemed to appreciate it, after seeing the near rape of Saffron.

  Madeleine “Maddie” Pallister gave the signal to begin the assault, by launching a mortar shell, that exploded directly over the Palace de Versailles, and sent a shower of phosphorous streaks cascading down upon a few people strolling the grounds. Most were inside, which was right where she wanted them. The first blast was followed in quick succession by others, which lit the star studded sky. Maddie’s troops cut the power to the palace grounds, rendering the sensors useless. And then they charged into battle. Easily breaching the perimeter walls, with explosives in several sections, others scaled the barrier, to slip unseen onto the palace proper. ‘Maddie,’ her sanctimonious, blowhard of a father had often said, ‘make them watch one hand while the other one gets away with murder.’ She took those words of wisdom to heart and was doing just that. For every explosion, used as distraction to lure the defenders away from the palace, a number of her troops infiltrated the grounds, and headed for the ballroom. She decided to burn the maze as a political statement. The fire started on the side farthest from the palace, in order to draw the Hover-bots as far away as possible. The electric shock they delivered was painful and incapacitating, and her troops would want to avoid that, if at all possible.

  Some of the Bloods went to investigate. They congregated at the front doors of the complex and strained to see what was happening outside in the night. Flashes of laser light streaked across the landscape and explosions momentarily lit up the scene. Word filtered back to those still unaware that it appeared that the Palace de Versailles was under attack by forces unknown. Guards and Bots could be seen at intervals as they raced to and fro, but the complex was largely ignored for the time being. Tiberius and Saffron appeared and he asked what was happening.

  “Not sure, TK, but it looks like the palace is under assault. And something’s on fire over there.”

  Saffron turned in the direction of the pointing Blood and realized, “That’s the maze,” she said. She left off the part about how the elite entertained themselves at the expense of the poor as shame burned her cheeks. Fortunately, no one in the ever growing crowd at the doors noticed.

  Tiberius contemplated this new development and a grin spread across his features. It was perfect, the subterfuge he needed to accomplish the task of “kidnapping” a famous Deb, and so he turned to his men and the other Debutantes.

  “Listen up, you mongrels, and…ladies! You Debs will stay here. It’s the safest place for you to be. I want all Bloods to make your way to the Unlucky Co--, I mean XXX-1369, and tell Smokey to get it ready for departure ASAP. We gotta’ be ready to fire that thing up! Ladies, go to the large common room in the middle of this building. You’ll be safest there until guards come and get you. If I know Terrans, and I do, they won’t be long in protecting the next generation. Men, be careful. I don’t want any Martian blood spilled because of Terran stupidity. It is not our fight, and we don’t have any weapons anyway. You,” he turned to Saffron, “come with me.”

  The commanding tone of Tiberius Koln, a man who knew how to lead, was not to be argued with or denied. The frightened Debs rushed down the corridor with Sasha Posy herding them along and shouting encouragement. The Bloods slipped out into the night. Not one guard or Hover-Bot was in sight as they were busy elsewhere with defense. TK took Saffron by the hand and led her in the opposite direction from the ship, towards the maze. He knew that the Terrans did a scan of the XXX-1369 when it disembarked to ensure that no humans were taken hostage by the barbaric Bloods. An attempt had occurred only once, in the distant past, but the lesson stuck and a scan was performed every time since that date. Taking Saffron with him was one thing, but Koln would not risk a war between Earth and the Blood Empire.

  “We gotta’ hide for a little while, Saffron, until your people have scanned my ship. If they were to find you on board all Hell would break loose for both planets. So you have to die in the fighting. As in vaporized. You get me?”

  “Perfectly, my love,” she answered as they sprinted toward the now glowing maze haloed in gray smoke.

  The first explosion caught Francois Biscayne by surprise as it did everyone else in or near the Palace de Versailles. He ducked and rolled away just as a tendril of burning phosphorous scorched the marble bench where he had been sitting moments before. He stood to brush himself off as the succeeding explosions rocked the atmosphere. Without thinking or considering, an anomaly to a man who planned everything to the last detail, he ran-waddled toward the Fecund Clinic. In a panic, Francois dodged through one of the doors that had been pushed aside and hung by a single hinge. One of the shells had hit the reception area and it lay in ruins as small blazes burned here and there. With trepidation, he made his way around debris to the only structure left standing: the large desk where she would have been.

  Dread gripped his choked voice as he neared, “Winifred, are you there? It is I, Francois Biscayne. Please say something if you are there!”

  The distraught man peered over the desk into the plain brown eyes of a disheveled woman whose smile showed through her soot stained face. “You, you know my name?” was what she said

  Relief flooded through Francois as he rounded the reception desk and helped her to shaky feet. “Mais oui, Winifred. I have been a fool, not told you that I have loved you from afar for too long, oh far too long. Come now, we must leave this place.”

  “I too, have longed for you, Francois. I did not know how to approach you and feared your rejection.”

  “So we are both tres stupide!”

  “Where are we going?” she asked as Francois slipped his arm around her waist to steady her. Instead of answering, he led her around chunks of glass and furniture with cushions still sizzling, and out into the night. They ignored the chaos and din of battle as the darkness swallowed their linked forms.

  Tiberius and Saffron reached the entrance to the maze now in a smoky haze, the fire throwing strange shadows on the billowing grayness, and huddled just inside to wait. He explained that they had to wait until the Terrans scanned his craft so she would not be detected, and once the eerie blue beam ceased, they would run for the ship. He wondered if they would even bother to scan the ship while under attack, but could not risk it. The XXX-1369 glowed silver in the intermittent flashes of laser light and occasional explosion, so close, but also so far away. Tiberius silently cursed the fact that he had no way to communicate with his captain and ticked off the seconds in his mind to liftoff. Smokey could only wait so long, and if to punctuate his thoughts, the spaceship’s lights blinked on in preparation to
leave Earth. He could not hear the hum of the hyper-engines, but knew they were coming to life.

  Suddenly, a Hover-Bot and three guards appeared at the entrance to the maze, but did not see the pair crouched to the side. The smoke hampered the Bot’s sensory array and the night vision goggles could not penetrate the ever changing miasma. Tiberius put a finger to his lips. Saffron understood the sign for “Shhh” and stayed behind the coiled and ready to strike TK.

  “I know I saw them come in here. It was a frickin’ Blood and a Deb.”

  “Who?”

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “Maybe they went into the maze. We gotta’ go after them if it was a Deb, you idiot. Tell me again why I put up with you, Franz?”

  “Cuz I married your sister, asshole!”

  “Knock it off you two,” a third voice said. “Anything Bot?”

  The Bot answered in a generated monotone, “Negative, insufficient input to make determination.”

  The third guard, the man obviously in charge said, “Switch to infrared and rescan.”

  TK did not wait for the Bot to report. He leapt up and clothes lined the first two guards across their throats, killing them instantly. They fell back as one and crashed into the Bot which fell to the ground under the limp bodies. Before the last guard could react, Koln rolled to the side and swept his legs. The Bot was disentangling itself from the dead guards and brought the shocking device to bear on TK