Desire n-3

by Nicole Jordan

  Fingers of dawn were filtering beneath the brocade draperies when she came fully awake. She lay there, indulging in the guilty pleasure of watching Lucian, studying the chiseled planes and angles of his beautiful face.

  It was still early when he stirred awake. His eyes opened abruptly, fixing on her in startlement. Then recognizing her, he gave her a slow smile. “Are you watching over me, guardian angel?” he asked, his voice a husky rasp.

  Embarrassed to be caught staring, Brynn blushed and sat up, giving him her back. This would be hard enough without having to face him directly.

  “Thank you for staying with me, love. My dreams were only pleasant ones.”

  She felt his hand stroke her back lightly and winced. Clutching the sheet to her breast, she drew her knees up, girding herself for what she would have to say.

  “I have been thinking about your offer, Lucian,” she began in a low voice.

  There was a brief silence. “And?”

  “And I agree it would be good to stop fighting, but… I prefer we adhere to the original terms of our arrangement. You promised you would leave me alone if I gave you an heir.”

  “I said that, yes. But I think perhaps our circumstances have changed.” His fingers were warm at her back, distracting her.

  “Not really.” Brynn turned to glance down at him. “I never wanted this marriage, and nothing has occurred to convince me otherwise.”

  She was watching his face and saw his disappointment before a mask fell over his eyes.

  “You said it was my choice,” she reminded him.

  “It is,” he replied evenly.

  “Well, I would like to keep our relationship strictly business.”

  “Because you fear the curse.”

  “Primarily.”

  Lucian studied her for a moment. “You realize that for you to conceive,” he said finally, “we will have to resume carnal relations?”

  “Yes, I realize that. And I intend to do my part. I will submit to you whenever you wish.”

  “It’s not submission I want, love,” he murmured. “I want you hot and twisting in my arms, as you were the last time. Do you remember how wild you were in the carriage, Brynn?”

  She felt herself blush. “You will have to be satisfied with submission.”

  “I don’t believe that is possible any longer.”

  Brynn gave him a questioning glance. “Why not?”

  “Because the thought of forcing myself upon you to get you with child has become supremely distasteful to me.”

  “You would not be forcing me. I told you, I am willing to bear your child.”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t good enough, Brynn. You’re suggesting in effect that I stand at stud. But to service you, I will have to be aroused enough to perform. And your reluctance is the surest way to kill my interest.” His mouth twisted wryly. “Regrettably, love, you can’t conceive without my full participation.”

  Brynn dropped her gaze to his mouth. She could remember the feel and the taste of it on hers. “I would not be reluctant,” she assured him in a low voice.

  “You will have to convince me otherwise.” When she lifted her gaze, he expounded. “I told you, I am not going to force myself on you again. You will have to take the lead.”

  “What do you mean, take the lead?”

  “If you want me to make love to you, you will have to be the one to initiate it. You will have to arouse me, siren, rather than the other way around.”

  Her heartbeat quickened at the thought of arousing Lucian to passion, while her face flushed. “I’m sure I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

  “I would be willing to instruct you.” Lucian paused, surveying her. “Perhaps you had best get started.”

  Her eyes widened. “You want to make love now?”

  “Can you think of a better time?” He gave her a flicker of a smile. “If I’m to get you with child, we should make love frequently, to improve the likelihood my seed will take root.”

  Brynn remained totally mute.

  “Very well,” Lucian said, grasping the sheet as if preparing to get out of bed. “It’s your choice.”

  “No, wait!” She looked at him, their gazes locking. “What do I have to do?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  He cocked his head, contemplating her with tender amusement. “Do you actually need me to tell you what to do? The legendary siren who can inflame a man with merely a glance? ”

  Brynn flushed, reluctant to initiate their love-making as Lucian demanded. It would be too wanton, and she had spent most of her life quelling any trace of wantonness.

  “You could begin by taking off your nightdress,” he suggested helpfully. “It’s very arousing for a man to see a beautiful woman’s body.”

  In all the weeks of their marriage, she had never undressed fully for him. “It is broad daylight,” Brynn muttered in protest.

  “It is barely dawn. And making love at all hours of the day or night will help us achieve our aim.

  “Come now, love,” Lucian prodded when she hesitated. “A bride can claim shyness for only so long. You will have to shed some of your inhibitions if you hope to keep me interested.”

  Gathering her courage, Brynn drew her nightdress off and let it drop to the floor. His gaze fixed on her breasts, making her throat go dry.

  “That’s better,” he murmured, his eyes sweeping her peaked nipples, then lower to the dark curls between her thighs. “Now then… I believe you were about to arouse me.”

  She glanced down at the sheet, which barely draped his loins. The large ridge beneath clearly evinced the huge size of his erection. “I would say you are aroused quite enough already.”

  He flashed a smile as tempting as sin itself. “Not nearly enough.” With a casual thrust of his leg, he pushed the sheet aside, exposing his magnificent body.

  Brynn felt her breath catch at the sight of him. He was beautiful and lithe and strong, his shaft already darkly engorged. The thick swollen length rose nearly to his navel.

  Moving his hands behind his head then, he laced them together at his nape. “I’m waiting, wife.”

  His brazen attitude about his nakedness still flustered her, but it was the heat he roused in her that she deplored. “You don’t intend to help me?”

  “Not at all. I intend to lie perfectly still and allow you to have your wicked way with me.”

  Her flush deepened. “You cannot expect me to behave like a tart.”

  “I can, love. I am your husband, remember? You needn’t be shy with me. You’ve seen my cock before, felt it. You’ve had it inside you, pleasuring you.”

  She felt her inner muscles spasm at the thought of having that hard length inside her again, pleasuring her. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to move.

  “Shall I show you?” he finally asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He reached down and touched himself. “Watch what I’m doing, Brynn.” He took his rigid length in his hand, curling his fingers around the base, slowly stroking the huge shaft, mesmerizing her with his boldness. Her gaze remained riveted on him as he moved lower, cupping the swollen sacs, which made his erection jerk and tighten against his groin.

  His voice was a bit huskier when he spoke. “Now it’s your turn. Touch me like that. You can arouse me with the slightest caress.”

  Taking a deep breath, she moved her hand to his thigh. It was rock hard to the touch, dusted with silky hair. “I am still not certain what to do…”

  “Use your instincts. You are totally in command.”

  This beautiful, elegant man was her husband. She had the right to touch him, indeed, the duty. She reached for him.

  He tensed when her own fingers curled around his rigid flesh. Brynn felt a strange sense of triumph as the thick shaft surged in her hand, hot and hard and pulsing with life. She explored him with her touch for a moment before he urged her to greater boldness.

  “Use your mouth, love. Taste me.”

  She bent to him,
tentative as she touched him with her tongue. He was hot and silken and so very fascinating. She smelled the hot musk of his arousal.

  “You taste silky… and mysterious,” she whispered.

  The raw sound from his throat might have been a laugh or a groan. “You can investigate the mystery for as long as you wish, sweet.”

  Experimentally, she let her lips slide down over the swollen tip. Lucian gave a soft groan and closed his eyes. Gaining courage, she took more of him in her mouth, gently suckling him while her fingers stroked his heavy testicles. She might have gone on for some time, but he suddenly pulled away, his hand tangling in her hair.

  “You had best stop,” he said, his voice rasping, “before I spend myself in your mouth.”

  Brynn felt another surge of triumph to realize Lucian wasn’t as complacent as he pretended. But then neither was she. Her skin was fevered; her flesh ached to be even closer to him. When he drew her up to straddle him, she went willingly, almost melting against him when he took her breast in her mouth.

  As he suckled her quivering nipple, Brynn gave a gasp and arched against him.

  “I believe I’m aroused enough. Are you?”

  “Yes,” she breathed. She was incredibly aroused. The ache between her thighs was a fiery throbbing, while her nipples had hardened to stiff crimson buds.

  “Don’t fight it then. Come here and let me taste you.”

  He held her hips, almost lifting her up so that her thighs straddled his shoulders. “Even closer, Brynn.”

  She shivered at the raw demand in his voice.

  Drawing her nearer, he raised his head to press a hard, hot kiss to her soft mound. Brynn felt a shaft of liquid fire shoot through her.

  She clutched at his hair as his tongue deliberately delved into her quivering cleft. The incendiary sensation of his mouth stunned her. Aching with delight, she tried to pull away, but Lucian refused to allow it. He had taken control in some wild and thrilling way and would not be denied.

  Gripping her hips with both hands to steady her, he tasted and nipped and licked, running his long, rasping tongue up and then down her swollen folds, stroking the engorged bud of her femininity. Intense pleasure shot darkly through her like spears of flame, its white heat searing her.

  Brynn gasped, writhing restlessly against the unrelenting caress of his tongue. She was hot and feverish… and suddenly she could no longer remain still. She arched and exploded in a shuddering climax, grinding her pubis against his blazing, eager mouth.

  She was still moaning helplessly as the savage ripples died away, but no sooner had she started to sag limply in Lucian’s arms than he shifted her bodily, lowering her onto his swollen shaft. Gritting his teeth, he thrust urgently into her, forcing her to yet another fierce climb toward brutal, exquisite sensation. In only moments she was writhing again. She bucked against him as he plunged even more deeply, almost sobbing. Soon wave after wave of rapture racked her quivering body, until finally he relented and sought his own shattering explosion.

  Brynn collapsed bonelessly on his chest. She lay dazed, her hair tumbled and wild around them, Lucian’s ragged breathing harsh in her ear, the taste of him lingering on her lips.

  “That was adequate enough for your first effort, wife,” he murmured wryly, “but you will have to do better than that in future.”

  The barest hint of laughter edged his passion-weary voice, making her realize he was deliberately provoking her. Yet Brynn could barely find the energy to retort. “Perhaps it was your tutelage at fault, rather than my efforts.”

  “Perhaps. I see I should teach you other ways to arouse me.”

  She lifted her head from his bare shoulder. “There are other ways?”

  His mouth curved in a rakish smile. “Indeed. There are any number of methods.”

  “What is wrong with what I just did?”

  “Nothing was wrong-in fact, it was very right. But you don’t want me to grow bored, do you? If you learn to keep me satisfied, it stands to reason I will be more willing to accommodate your sexual needs, and that you will be more likely to conceive. Isn’t that what you want? To conceive a child so you can be done with me?”

  Brynn gazed down into his blue, blue eyes. She could feel him swelling again inside her, huge and hot and potent. “Yes,” she lied. “That is what I want.”

  “Well then, wife,” he said huskily, drawing her mouth down to his. “We had best move on to the next lesson.”

  Lucian proved quite serious about requiring Brynn to initiate their lovemaking. He insisted that she come to his bed and wouldn’t allow her to confine their frequent sessions to merely the dark hours of night.

  He also made good on his pledge to teach her to arouse him, showing her how to move, how to caress, how to pleasure. Brynn was sometimes shocked by the intimacies he suggested, but he had only to coax her with his tantalizing brand of charm, and her body melted to his touch. She was helpless against such overwhelming sensuality and raw magnetism. Thus it relieved her greatly to develop defensive weapons of her own to use in their erotic battles.

  She had always possessed the power to incite masculine desire, but under his tutelage, Brynn developed the skills to purposely drive a man wild. Her newfound mastery worked even on Lucian, whose legendary tastes had become jaded and acutely discriminating.

  Within a few days of commencing her lessons, she was able to demonstrate the extent of her expanded powers. They lay in his bed, with Brynn draped over her husband, lazily pressing kisses along his naked chest, his hard, flat belly, his swelling erection. When she eventually took him in her mouth, Lucian quivered like a stallion. Moments later, he clenched his teeth and drew away with a groan.

  “What is wrong?” she asked curiously, though not with any real concern.

  “You know very well what is wrong, wife. Enduring your torment is an agony.”

  Brynn smiled, triumphant to know this man trembled for her. Deliberately she smoothed her hands up his torso and drew her tongue along his throbbing sex, teasing the sensitive ridge. “Pray tell, how do I torment you?”

  Taking her by surprise, Lucian rolled over her, pinning her lightly beneath his weight. His eyes dark with desire, he gazed down at her with unexpected seriousness. “Your very remoteness, love. Even when you are provoking me to savage hunger, you remain distant.” His frown deepened as he brushed a flaming tendril from her forehead. “You hide your passion behind a deliberate coolness, which only makes a man burn for you all the more.”

  Brynn forced a smile, not at all convinced that her attempt at coolness was succeeding. “Is that not what I am supposed to be learning? How to make you burn for me?”

  “Devil it is. And it’s damned effective,” he murmured against her lips.

  Drawing him down, she surrendered to his kiss, eager to distract him from his probing scrutiny. She was indeed desperately struggling to repress any emotion, any feeling for Lucian, yet maintaining a strict detachment was proving lamentably arduous.

  Making love to him was no longer a duty she resented. No longer merely a means to achieve her goal of conceiving his child. She wanted Lucian. She wanted to arouse his hunger. Wanted to feel the hot rise of his desire, the hot tremor of his flesh between her thighs, moving inside her. She had begun to crave his touch with a dismaying intensity.

  If she managed to hide her response, it was only due to years of practice, presenting a chill facade to her admirers. But he had only to caress her to send blood rushing through her veins, filling her with hot yearning. She had only to glimpse the passion flaming in his eyes to feel an answering passion burning deep within her own body. She could feel his enchantment, drawing her ever closer, tugging on her heartstrings, pushing her toward the dark inferno of an impossible dilemma.

  The magnitude of the danger became even clearer a fortnight later when her dearest friend, Meredith, finally arrived in London with her husband, Viscount Audley, and their new infant son. Meredith had retired from society when her pregnancy became obvious but h
ad returned in time for the Little Season.

  For a duke’s daughter, Meredith was not at all arrogant or highbrowed. In both disposition and looks, she resembled a cheerful, pretty Cupid, with her pleasantly plump figure and laughing mouth and short blond curls. Brynn called on her at the first opportunity and received a fervent welcome. After catching up on Meredith’s account of her pregnancy, they went upstairs to admire the napping baby Rupert, who promptly woke and began fussing.

  “May I hold him?” Brynn asked.

  “Of course. Although don’t be upset if he spits on your gown. I cannot tell you how many bodices he has ruined.”

  “I won’t mind. Theo regularly spit up on me when he was a baby.”

  Brynn took the mewling infant in her arms and immediately began rocking him, reminded of the countless hours she had soothed her baby brother after their mother’s untimely death in childbirth. To Brynn’s delight, Rupert shortly stopped his fretting and gave her a gurgling smile.

  She winced, unprepared for the sweet, responsive pangs in her breast as she cradled the darling child or the powerful maternal instincts he stirred. Perhaps her reaction was because she missed her youngest brother so dreadfully. Or perhaps because the thought of conceiving Lucian’s child had been so much on her mind of late…

  “You should see yourself, Brynn,” her friend observed quietly. “You are positively glowing.”

  Pressing a tender kiss on Rupert’s silken forehead, Brynn smiled. “I have always wanted a child of my own.”

  “But not a husband?”

  “No, not a husband.”

  “Well, marriage obviously agrees with you.”

  Brynn didn’t reply.

  “So do you ever mean to satisfy my curiosity? I was never so shocked in my life as when I received your letter informing me you had wed Wycliff. I gather he proposed because of the curse, but I thought you meant never to marry. I am simply dying to know how it came about. Especially since he was considered such a profoundly elusive prize.”