Holding his staff in one hand, she caressed his heavy sac with the other while plying whisper-soft kisses around the periphery and down the underside of his kamış. She closed her eyes, relishing the softness of his flesh against her mouth before parting her lips. A subtle shudder overtook him as she drew him into her mouth, and she smiled inwardly. He will soon be reduced to wet clay, indeed!
Or so she thought...until the first touch of his hand. He cupped the globes of her buttocks, stroking both his thumbs along her cleft in a light and rhythmic caress that was impossible to ignore. Intent on distraction, she drew another inch of him into her mouth, gliding and swirling her tongue along his length and sucking hard upon the near-release.
He slid his hands lower, his thumbs caressing the moist folds of her labia. Dear God! It has been so long. He delved deeper, parting her folds, tracing, teasing, locating her hidden nub, circling it with those all-too-skillful fingers. She couldn’t suppress it any longer. She moaned, a noise that reverberated in her mouth, the vibrations eliciting a low guttural sound.
In a tit-for-tat, she focused on her breathing, relaxing, taking him deeper, to the back of her throat. She teased with her tongue and suckled with her mouth, bent on driving him mad. She could feel the tension coiling in him, his release building, but then he raised her hips.
Suddenly it was his tongue, swirling, teasing, licking, and laving her mindless with pleasure. The flames lapping at her belly ignited, sending heat and moisture and mayhem through a body that had been neglected for so very long. Her body quivered, her passage ached and convulsed with the need to be filled. She tried to suppress it, to focus on his pleasure and ignore her own, yet her climax continued to grow. It is too much! She couldn’t allow him that power over her again, that mind-numbing, intoxicating pleasure that had turned her inside out and destroyed her will.
“No! Stop!” she cried out. “That was not the bargain we made. I won’t let you do it again.”
Grasping her hips, he pivoted her to face him, his expression perplexed. “You won’t let me give you pleasure?”
Diana’s heart squeezed, and her eyes burned. “Yes! No! I don’t want it. I have given you all you asked and have upheld the bargain. Why isn’t it enough? Why do you wish to take more? You have my body. Are you the devil that you must also demand my soul?”
“Why?” he replied in a gravelly voice. “Because I have a need to see, touch, and taste your reciprocal pleasure. It’s all I can offer you. Fucking is what I’m good at. It’s what I know. I am an indisputable master of it, and so it’s my gift to you—mindless, bone-melting, heart-sundering pleasure.”
“What do you mean it’s all you can offer? You speak as if you have no capacity for greater feeling.”
He laughed. “But haven’t you already implied that all of my feelings terminate in my cock?”
“You would like me to believe that, wouldn’t you? It’s a convenient excuse for you. I spoke out of resentment, but I know better now. I have seen your weak moments, Ludovic—your protectiveness, your generosity. These are proofs of underlying sentiment, even of sensibility. You are more than capable of love, yet you repress it within yourself and refuse to accept it from others.”
“Bollocks!” he exclaimed. “Is that what you really think?”
“It’s what I know.”
“All right, Diana. While we are at it, why can’t you let go? Why can’t you trust anyone?”
“You already know why. I let my guard down once in my life, only to later regret it.”
He gripped her shoulders. “I told you why I left. Why do you still refuse to understand?”
She could no longer hold in the wave of emotion. It burst from her with violence. “Because you turned my life upside down and disappeared! I never heard from you, either while you were away, or even worse, upon your return!”
“But it never could have worked between us as things were, don’t you see that? The scandal would have destroyed a woman like you. Caroline would have ensured it. That’s why I left, Diana, in hope time and distance would diminish the threat to you. Caroline wanted to use you to control me, but when I left, she could do nothing.
“I also knew I wasn’t prepared then to give you what you needed. I thought it best that you move on with your life. I wanted you to find the contentment I denied myself by leaving.”
“I found no contentment, just resignation to my misery,” she said. “And what could you possibly know about what I needed?”
“I know you much better than you think, my dear. You have a two-sided nature, one that craves to be cherished on the one hand and to be fucked senseless on the other. The second I could easily and willingly meet, yet I suffered reservations about being able to provide the first. You know I have never believed in monogamy.”
“Yes,” she said tightly. “You have made that clear on many occasions.”
He made a frustrated sound. “Because I have seen so few true examples of it in my life. Look no further than my own originations, for God’s sake!”
“What of Ned and Annalee? And what of your own brother, Hew?” she demanded. “Do you not believe him capable of fidelity to Vesta?”
“I expect Hew will cherish his bride.”
“And I believe she will adore him in turn for all of her days. But love requires a desire to sacrifice, Ludovic. To give up purely self-indulgent pleasure in return for something deeper and more meaningful.”
“Have you ever loved before, Diana?” he asked, deftly turning the tables.
The question caught her off guard. “No,” she said softly, but then her armor came up. “I once thought perhaps I could have, but I never really had the chance to find out.”
“Is that what truly eats at you?” he asked. “Incessantly and relentlessly plagues you? Refuses to ever give you any peace?” He dug deeper. “The lost opportunity? Never knowing for certain whether you have the capacity for it or not?” He twisted the knife.
“Yes! Damn you!” she cried, feeling the brunt of his counterstrike full force.
“Damn me, indeed,” he murmured, “for I suffer the same.”
Diana was stunned by his confession. She regarded him, breathless. Speechless. Thoughtless. She searched his face long and deep, but found no trace of guile or mockery in his fathomless blue eyes.
“I told you that you were always more to me than the others,” he said. “I did and still do feel something for you, but is it lasting? How can I know this? How can I promise you my interest won’t wane in a month, a year, or perhaps two? How can I trust myself to be all that you need?”
“All?” she said at last. “You think I would expect so very much?”
“Frankly, yes.” He scowled. “I cannot and will not be ruled by another, Diana.”
“But I have asked nothing of you.”
“But you would.”
“And you actually care what I would expect? You fear you would disappoint?”
“Yes!” He raked his damp hair with a groan. “Damn, but this exchange is excruciating!”
“Why must it be so difficult, Ludovic?” She kissed one corner of his mouth. “Do you not think I have some of the same concerns?” And then she kissed the other.
“I cannot wed you,” he said woodenly.
“Then it’s good I haven’t proposed,” she replied, now tasting and fully luxuriating in his soft lips.
“I told you already this is a dangerous game. I will give you no quarter.” He claimed her mouth, taking his time in a ruinous kiss.
He released her slowly, and it took another moment for her to regain both breath and senses. She cupped his sac, with a smile, lightly fondling him and then teasing his shaft. “What makes you think I will show you the least mercy?” His countenance darkened, and his manhood reared almost instantly, evidence of his lust roaring back to life.
At the heated look in his eyes, Diana’s heart hammered an erratic tattoo. This game had at first been just a challenge to her. She had come to DeVere girded with illi
citly acquired knowledge and mentally prepared to do battle, to use these newfound skills and erotic arts to his own detriment, to turn his voluptuary nature against him. She had desired to see if she did, indeed, have the capacity to enslave him, to wreak the same devastation upon him as he had done to her four years earlier, but now she found herself the victim of her own stratagem. The further they had advanced on their erotic chessboard, the more her own yearnings consumed her.
Certainly DeVere the lover, knew the secrets of women and could please her beyond her wildest imaginings, but Diana’s feelings, her innermost cravings, represented much more than a culmination of unslaked desire, for she had finally seen DeVere the man—the bored and jaded soul who had tired of the meaningless, carnal pursuits, the one who now thirsted for something more but feared it was beyond his capacity, beyond his reach. But this was what she yearned for above all things, to touch this man in the hidden places, to quell his doubts and fears—as well as her own.
“I am told the most expert of women can bring a man to completion by milking his kamış with her kilif alone.” She boldly guided his pulsing length into the hot, wet cleft between her thighs, the most delicious torment of all, which made them both closed their eyes on a groan. “And that if I master this,” she continued with her next breath, “you will belong to me and no other. I have practiced this skill, Efendi. Shall I show you how?”
***
“Hell yes.” He moaned. “But not in here.” They were both coated with oil and a light sheen of sweat. He retrieved the bar of soap and the rough mitt. “Let us finish, for if we’re going to finally do this properly and thoroughly, and I promise you we shall, I will have you in my own bed.”
The next few minutes were spent making brisk work of washing one another between fevered kisses and hot, soapy caresses. The touching and mutual cleansing did nothing to palliate the intensity of desire; on the contrary, it was another erotic encounter that served to fuel their burning lust until Diana thought she would soon combust. Without ado, DeVere threw down the soap and mitt and pulled her back into his arms, crushing her against his chest and devouring her equally hungry mouth.
To Diana’s chagrin, they didn’t even dress before she found herself swept into his arms and carried through the second and third chambers into his apartments beyond. She closed her eyes in mortification upon encountering DeVere’s valet, but a guttural curse from the viscount sent the man scrambling. “No one will dare disturb us unless summoned,” he promised, kicking the door closed with such force the windows rattled. He carried her across the room and dropped her without ceremony onto the midnight-blue satin counterpane.
He came over her at once, pulling her legs apart and kneeling between. “Playtime is over.” He growled. “I will have satisfaction now—as much I want for as long as I please—third heaven be damned!”
***
Positioned between her supple thighs, the tangy, musky scent of pure arousal hit Ludovic in a dizzying wave. His cock still throbbed with a vengeance, and her wet sheath beckoned to him, calling out to be filled, a cry he wasn’t about to ignore. Indeed, he vowed this time nothing would hold him back...but he would make her pay...and pay dearly.
He lifted one of her legs, positioning it on his shoulder, rubbing his cheek back and forth along the softness of her inner thigh before applying his lips and tongue. Slowly, he worked his way toward his goal, with nibbles and hot kisses, all the while savoring her anticipation, the quiver in her legs, the raspy puffs of breath. He paused at the juncture of pubis and thigh, tracing the delicate groove with his tongue, relishing her sultry sounds. She reached out to grip his hair, urging him toward her sex.
“All in good time, my sweet.” He chuckled and withdrew to apply himself to the opposite thigh in like manner. This time, however, he dipped his head, parting her folds with one long, wet swipe of his tongue. She whimpered.
“But you didn’t want the pleasure,” he taunted. He plied teasing kisses to her belly just above her mons while his free hand delved into her wetness. He circled her passage with swirling strokes of his thumb. Her body tensed beneath him. “Have you changed your mind now, Diana?”
“Please,” she whispered.
“Please what? Please pleasure me, Ludovic? Please, oh please, put your magnificent mouth in my sweet cunny?”
“Yes! I want your mouth. I want all of you. I’ve waited so very long!”
“How unchivalrous of me to keep you waiting.” He chuckled. “But then again, I would have been happy to oblige you much sooner, had you only asked.”
“You know I couldn’t have. Stop tormenting me!”
“My dear, I have only just begun.”
***
His laugh fired her ire as much as his breath tickled her skin. But then, dear God, her mind became a blur, lost in the sublime sensation of his glorious mouth buried in her sex. His hot tongue lapped, circled, and swirled, flicking over her clit, while his equally clever fingers finessed her labial folds and pierced her passage with wonderfully, rhythmic penetrations, filling her body with ineffable bliss. The past hour or more spent in sex play had reawakened her deepest and innermost yearnings. Her body craved the joining with him as desperately as her lungs craved air. She wondered why she had fought him so long and hard when surrender was so utterly sweet and sublime...yet it still wasn’t enough. “Please, Ludovic, let me go!” She stifled a sob. “I need more than this. I want you. I need you!”
It was as if she’d uttered some magical phrase that suddenly caused the earth to halt on its axis. He fixed upon her with glimmering eyes, his expression enigmatic. “More? You want me inside you?”
She met his gaze steadily and shook her head. “I do, but that’s not what I meant.”
He came over her, grasping both her shoulders in a fierce grip. “It is merely your passion that speaks,” he said. “We are all of us mindless fools whilst in the grip of lust.”
“And I am a mindless fool for ever accepting this wager. For ever thinking I could resist you.” She pulled his hand to her left breast. “But it is not only my passion that speaks. It is also my heart. I can’t do this anymore. So I ask you now to please let me go.”
He answered by crushing her to him with a fierce kiss that tasted of her essence. “No, Diana. I’m not prepared to do that. I have no desire to let you go—not now or at any time in the foreseeable future.”
“But you can’t mean that,” she said. “It’s only because you haven’t—”
“Untrue,” he interrupted. “Shall I spend my seed just to prove it to you?”
She regarded him blankly. “Then where does this leave us? I’m completely at sea.”
He caressed her cheek. “Didn’t you just say it needn’t be so complicated?”
“But how can we be together? May heaven forgive me, I would be your mistress for as long as this lasted, but how could we do such a thing to your brother and our friends? How could we inflict them with such a scandal?”
“Devil take them all! I’m not accustomed to living for others, Diana.”
“Therein lies the gulf between us,” she answered softly, feeling as if the weight of respectability, responsibility, and mostly regret were crushing the life out of her.
He cupped her cheek and murmured against her lips. “I won’t be denied in this.”
“And I won’t deny you,” she answered. This one last time.
When their lovemaking continued, the tone was transformed. No longer playful and challenging, it was slow, deliberate, almost reverent, as if they each wished to savor every moment. They kissed as he entered her in one deep, smooth thrust, their tongues engaging in the same languid lovers’ dance as their bodies but then responding more fervently with the delicious, wet friction and the slap of flesh on flesh. Her own soft pants and sultry sounds of pleasure, her heels hooking his flanks, all seemed to incite him further, to drive him harder. Pounding into her with ragged breaths, he propelled them both ever closer to the brink of the abyss. As the first tremors
of a magnificent climax broke over her in rushing waves, Diana raised her hips. Squeezing and milking him with her inner muscles, she offered all she had to give, sobbing in ecstasy even as she hurtled them both into rapturous oblivion.
He met her in that precious instant, roaring out her name with his release as his body convulsed in ceaseless spasms, spurting almost endless, scalding streams of his seed inside her. He collapsed into her beckoning arms and rolled beside her with a deep and guttural groan, completely and utterly spent.
Chapter Sixteen
It was barely dawn when Diana crept into her bedchamber at the house on Upper Grosvenor Street. Her bleary-eyed maid met her, candle in one hand and fireplace poker in the other. “Ye gave me a fright, my lady!” Polly exclaimed, dropping the poker with a clatter.
“Is everything awright, luv?” chimed a distinctly male voice, the body of which promptly emerged from the maid’s chamber beyond Diana’s dressing room.
“Pratt?” Diana exclaimed upon recognizing DeVere’s head groom dressed in only his nightshirt. Polly flushed crimson. The groom and maid exchanged guilty glances. The candle flickered in the maid’s trembling hand. Diana took it from her and set it on the mantle.
Freed now of candle and poker, Polly wrung her hands. “It’s just...you said...we was not expecting ye for some days yet, my lady.”
“Please, my lady.” Pratt stepped forward protectively and took Polly’s hand. “’Tisn’t quite what it appears. I’ve every intention to make an honest woman o’ her.”
“You do?” Polly cried, appearing as if she would burst into tears.
“Then I suppose that gives me one less thing to worry about,” Diana said with a wry smile.
“What do you mean?” Polly asked.
“There’s been a change of plans,” Diana said. “I’m leaving London immediately. There is a carriage awaiting me in the mews. I will need you to help me pack.”
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