by HELEN HARDT
Something in Sophie snapped—something animal. The need to touch him warred with the fact that she was in the parlor where anyone could walk in. She loosened his cravat and began unbuttoning his shirt. His beautiful chest beckoned. Sophie gripped his muscular torso and pressed her lips to his chest.
Zach shuddered. He cupped her cheeks and brought her up to his mouth where he kissed her, forcing her lips open. They kissed passionately, their tongues tangling, as Sophie continued to trail her fingertips over Zach’s hard chest. When they broke the kiss for a much-needed breath, Sophie kissed his neck, shoulders, his upper arms.
“You’re driving me mad.” He leaned down and licked her neck, gliding up to her earlobe and sucking on it. He pulled one of her legs up against him so her pussy met the bulge in his britches.
She nearly shattered then and there, gasping against his shoulder. He pulled the other leg up, lifting her off the ground so he was holding her, her dress still draped around her, her swollen bud now tight against his erection. She sighed into him, moving her hips slightly to increase the friction. So good…
But they were in the parlor. Anyone could walk in. Of course, Ally was still bedridden, and Evan wouldn’t leave her side. Iris probably wouldn’t bother them, and the earl was gone. A servant wouldn’t dare come in. Would he?
She couldn’t take the chance. “Zach,” she said.
“Yes, sweet?” He nipped the outer edge of her ear.
“If we sneak out of here and go to the servants’ stairwell, we can go to my bedchamber. I’m on the second level. My mother and the earl and Ally and Evan are on the third level. No one would hear us.”
“Are you sure? Are you actually suggesting…”
Sophie amazed even herself. “Yes, that is exactly what I’m suggesting. I want you to take me to my bed.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Safely ensconced in her bedchamber behind a locked door, Sophie turned to Zach. “Undress me.”
A sound left his throat, kind of like a growl. Within minutes, Sophie’s gown, petticoats, corset, chemise, and drawers all lay in a pile on her leather reading chair. Zach’s shirt was still open from when she’d unbuttoned it in the parlor. She leaned into his chest and inhaled. His scent—tobacco, cinnamon, male musk—nothing like it. She inhaled again. “Zach, you smell so good.”
“As do you, my love. I can smell that honey from your pussy. Are you wet for me?”
Brazenly, she lifted one of her legs, spearing it around his hip. “Why don’t you see for yourself?”
He slid one hand down her arm, over her waist and buttocks, and between her legs. “Yes. Your sweet essence.” He slid his fingers through her folds, brought them up to his mouth, and sucked on them. “You’re delicious, Sophie. I’ll never tire of your flavor.”
Still standing, they moved slowly, as they had in the parlor, dancing. Sophie finished unbuttoning Zach’s shirt and removed his cravat. She brushed his jacket over his shoulders, and then his shirt and cravat, leaving them in a pile of wool and linen on the floor.
She kissed his chest again, twirling her tongue around one of his nipples, and then she tilted her head up for a sweet kiss from her lover. Zach threaded his fingers into her hair and removed her hairpins, letting her blond tresses cascade down her back in a soft curtain. He lifted one of her legs around his hip again, grasping her buttocks. Sophie continued trailing her fingers over his hard chest, kissing his muscular torso.
Zach licked her neck, her shoulders. “God, you smell good. Like vanilla and sex.” He again pulled her up in his arms, holding her as she straddled him. “You’re so small, Sophie, so light. It’s like holding feathers.” He put her down and turned her around so her back was against his front. He kissed the side of her neck as he toyed with her breasts. Then he slithered down her back and kissed the crease between the cheeks of her bottom.
So good. She closed her eyes, reveling in his moist assault.
He turned her around again and kissed her navel, kneeling before her as though worshiping her. He rose a bit and took a nipple into his mouth. The hard nub throbbed for his touch. With his other hand, he toyed with the folds of her wet pussy.
Eyes still closed, she quivered, the sensations arrowing to her core.
Up again he glided to her mouth, continuing to torture her pussy with his fingers. A raw kiss, a kiss of two animals branding each other, frantic and hurried. He brushed his fingers over her nipples, and her pussy creamed. She began working the belt to his trousers as he tugged and twisted her nipple. Though it pained her to escape the nipple and pussy torment, she needed his cock. She knelt down before him and put her mouth over the bulge in his trousers.
“God, Sophie. You drive me insane.”
She smiled against his erection, pulling the belt off his trousers. He grabbed it from her and, quick as a jackrabbit, scampered around her and tied the leather strap around her wrists, capturing them behind her back.
“Oh!” she gasped.
“Is this okay, Sophie? I promise I will not harm you.”
Sophie trusted him. Trusted him with her life. Somehow she knew he would never hurt her and that his only quest was pleasure.
She nodded.
He moved back in front of her, brushed his trousers and drawers over his hips, and held out his hard cock to her. “Suck me.”
Sophie never considered disobeying. She took his arousal between her lips and sucked hard. She pulled back and licked the tip, longing to touch its warmth with her fingers. The fact that she couldn’t was oddly arousing.
Zach grabbed her hair and helped her find his rhythm, pushing her upon him until she nearly gagged and then seeming to know instinctively when to pull back. “Yes, sweet, fuck me with your mouth.”
Sophie swirled her tongue around the head of his cock and then took him to the back of her throat again.
She again fought the urge to gag but soon got used to the sensation.
“God, love, that’s wonderful.” Zach pulled his cock away from her and leaned down to kiss her lips.
They kissed with passion and desire, Sophie’s hands still bound behind her back. Zach stood, and Sophie slid up his body, kissing his taut abdomen and chest and then finding his lips again. Nectar trickled down her thighs. Something about being bound, about being completely vulnerable to him—she was hotter than an inferno.
Zach broke the kiss, turned her around, and prodded her toward the bed, bending her over it, her hands still shackled. He leaned down, his chest warm against her back, the fine hairs tickling her. He whispered in her ear, “I’m going to spank you now, Sophie. Tell me that you understand. Tell me that you understand why I need to spank you.”
And suddenly the truth came to Sophie in a sparkling vision. Zach needed to spank Sophie for the same reason that she need to be spanked. It was as integral to his psyche as it was to hers. He enjoyed it as much as she did, and it was part of his sexual experience. Who knew why they were both wired this way? Did it really matter, if it brought them both pleasure?
No, it did not.
“I understand,” Sophie said. “I understand perfectly. Tell me that you understand why I want you to spank me.”
“Oh, I do,” he said, nibbling on her earlobe. “I understand, Sophie.”
“Then spank me, Zach. Please. Spank me hard.”
He rose and…swat! His palm came down on her bare behind.
Sophie jolted, her pussy throbbing. Oh, God, how she wanted this—the pleasure-pain. She ached to feel nothing but his hand coming down upon her, longed to sink toward the depths of hell until—snap!—the agony transformed into nirvana, and instead of plummeting, she was floating to the heavens, each cell in her body bursting into a joy so thorough, so profound, that every horrible event in her past ceased to exist and only she was left.
A pure Sophie. An unbroken Sophie. A whole Sophie.
Unadulterated.
Real.
Only Sophie.
He spanked her again, and then again. “Such a beautiful bum you have. I
love how it becomes a luscious cherry when I spank it.” His palm came down on her once more.
The sting, the pain, the amazing pleasure. Sparks shot through her, radiating to every nerve in her body and then spiraling inward again to her pussy. Her nipples were so hard they were poking into her mattress. She needed more. So much more.
Her wrists were still bound, so she couldn’t grip the covers. Her body slid on the silk comforter as Zach continued to spank her.
“I have a wooden paddle at home,” he said. “But on you, my love, I prefer to use my hand. I like to gauge how much force I’m using. I like the feel of your smooth skin against my palm. When I strike you… God, it’s so arousing. You cry out, and then you drip from your pussy. So bewitching… So erotic… Sophie, I’m… I’m…”
You’re what? she wanted to ask, but she was biting into the comforter as he struck her again. The sting flowed through every fiber of her body and again melded into her core.
And then…the softest sensation against her bottom. Zach was kissing her, licking her, blowing on the places where he had struck her.
“So beautiful, Sophie. So lovely.”
She gasped when he licked a quite forbidden place, circling his tongue around her tight rim.
“This is paradise, Sophie”—his breath was scorching against her sensitive skin—“for both of us. Will you let me take you there?”
She shuddered. She hadn’t talked to Ally about this particular act. No, she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready, though the soft swipes of his tongue made her tremble, shooting flaming arrows to her center.
He continued to lick her puckered hole, at the same time inserting two fingers into her pussy. “So beautiful,” he said against her skin.
She whimpered when he moved away from her pussy and brought his face to hers on the bed. “May I? May I take your arse?”
She turned her head so she could speak. “I’m sorry. I’m just not ready for that yet.” Someday. Someday soon. Right now, she wanted his cock jammed inside her wet pussy.
“I understand. I was just thinking… Because you’re probably sore from yesterday… Maybe it would be better to try…”
“Zach, I’m not that sore. I need you inside me. I think I might die an untimely death if you don’t get inside me.”
“My love…” He rose and pulled her off the bed, unbinding her wrists. He crushed her against him, bending his legs, lifting her, and forcing his cock inside her heat.
Sophie cried out, the pleasure was so intense. She cupped his cheeks and kissed him as he lifted her on and off his cock. When they broke the kiss to breathe, Sophie looked down. Her breasts jiggled as he pounded into her. A few minutes later, he knelt down, still within her, and laid her on the floor. Positioning her legs upon his shoulders, he continued to fuck her, thrusting hard and fast. She slid her hands up his arms, caressing his taut muscles.
Sophie whimpered, the feeling so deep and intense. A great sense of loss enveloped her when Zach removed his cock and pulled her onto his knees, forcing her mouth upon him. But, oh, the taste of him, salty with the appley tang of her own juices. She slid all the way to his bollocks, licked his shaft, and kissed his sac. Zach slowly lowered himself to the floor, and Sophie still hovered above him, her mouth upon his cock.
“Come here, my love.” He gently maneuvered her so that she was sitting on his face, his lips tormenting her wet folds as she continued to suck on him. God, his mouth on her pussy… She exploded.
After her climax subsided, she rolled off of him. He pulled her onto the bed, laying her so her hips graced the edge. He stuffed her pussy full of his cock again, pounding, thrusting, plunging, deeper and deeper. He pinched one of her nipples, and she shattered again, coming around his cock. He continued fucking her hard.
Tension built within her, and she was ready to shatter again.
And still he fucked her. “I want to see how much you can take, Sophie. How much of my cock can you take tonight?” He looked into her eyes, piercing her with his glowing glaze.
She climaxed once, twice, thrice more, her body melting into the silk of the bed, her energy drained. “Zach, please. Enough. I…can’t…”
Finally, he pulled out and spewed onto her stomach and breasts.
He leaned down and kissed her lips—one soft, sweet, wet kiss. And with that kiss, Sophie said to him the words she couldn’t say aloud.
I love you, Zach.
* * *
Zach rolled off Sophie, completely sated. He had never had such an intense experience with a woman. To think, a day earlier he had taken her virginity, and still she had opened so completely for him this evening in her own bed. She, a lady of the peerage, had invited him to her bedchamber to make love to her. This had been the most erotic, intense, and loving experience of his life.
Loving? Had he truly thought the word? The words had been on the tip of his tongue as he was making love to her. He had wanted to tell her he was in love with her, but it was too soon.
Was it? Zach had never been in love before. He had never even thought he had been in love. Now, these intense feelings, this desire to be with her, the need for her to understand his dominance… Never before had he asked a woman to understand why he was striking her. Sophie was different. He needed to know that she understood, even though he wasn’t sure he understood himself.
And she did. Her own need was as great as his. Perhaps one day they would figure out why they both shared this need. Perhaps they could figure it out together.
“I should leave you now, love.”
“No, Zach. Please, stay. It’s late, and I would love to sleep in your arms.”
Zach would love nothing more. Sophie was a grown woman, and if she wanted this, why should he not oblige?
He kissed her lips softly. “I would love to spend the night here with you.”
* * *
Zach awoke before dawn and smiled. Sophie was nestled against him. The moon shone in through her window, casting its glow on the curves of her face. Her blond hair was fanned out on her pillow in a soft curtain. Her lips were still swollen and red from his kisses, parted slightly in sleep.
He hated to wake her, but he didn’t want to her to awaken and find him gone. He rose from the bed to find his jacket. He pulled his timepiece out of the pocket and looked at it in the moonlight. Four o’clock. He had to leave before daylight. If he were found on the grounds, Sophie could be in for a world of hurt. He dressed quickly.
He sat down on the bed gently and nudged her shoulder. “Sophie?” he said in a low voice. “Sophie, wake up, love.”
She stirred slightly and then stretched her arms above her head, her breasts peeking out from the covers. So beautiful, she was. He had to fight the urge to reach for and make love to her again. Already his cock was stirring.
He nudged her again. “Sophie?”
Her eyes fluttered open, big and bright, even though they were clouded with sleep. “Yes? Is everything all right, Zach?”
Zach smiled. “Everything is perfect. However, I must leave you now.”
She reached for him. “No. Don’t leave…”
Oh, the temptation. If only he could stay… Forever if she’d have him.
“I must. I must leave before anyone is awake and I can sneak out quietly. If I were caught here, in your bedchamber, or even on the premises at this hour, your reputation would be ruined.”
“I don’t care about my reputation.”
Zach chuckled quietly. “That’s sleep talking, sweet. Trust me, it’s for the best if I leave now. Besides, I have to get home and prepare for today’s rehearsal. I’m usually up two hours from now anyway.”
She smiled. “If you insist.”
Zach leaned down and kissed her lips. “I do. And you will be due at rehearsal at nine o’clock this morning. My leading lady must not be late.”
“Just one more kiss…” She reached for him.
He was not made of steel. He descended to her. His shirt was still open, and his chest pressed against he
r stunning breasts. She parted her lips for him, and he delved inside, tasting of her sweetness. Far from wanting to, he broke the kiss.
“Sleep now, my sweet. I’ll see you soon at the theatre.”
With all the strength he possessed, Zach rose from the bed, leaving his sleeping beauty there. Quickly, he adjusted his cravat and headed out.
* * *
Upon returning home, Zach lay down in his own bed for a bit, thinking of the previous evening. Sophie was a prize. How had some young gentleman not snatched her off the market yet? Her shy nature, most likely. It certainly wasn’t her lack of beauty. The only lack of beauty was in her own mind. He checked his timepiece again and rose. Time to get to the theatre. He washed quickly at his basin, dressed, and was descending to the first level when a rap sounded at his door.
At this hour? He opened the door and was surprised to see two peelers standing there, one of whom he recognized, the brother of one of his actresses. “Harkins, what is it? What are you doing here?”
“Are you Mr. Zachary Newland?” the other peeler, sporting a moustache so orange it looked painted on, asked.
Zach nodded. “I am, as Harkins here can tell you.”
“I must ask you to turn around, sir,” Moustache said.
What in the world was going on? “Turn around? I don’t understand.” Then he spied the handcuffs.
“I’m truly sorry about this, Newland,” Harkins said. “But you do need to turn around.”
Moustache cuffed him. “Mr. Newland, we’re taking you in on suspicion of murder.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Sophie awoke a couple of hours later, feeling more rested than she had in…well, her entire life. She welcomed the soreness between her legs and on her bum. She felt deliciously used. And used was a good thing, if she consented to it. It made her feel good, gave her immense pleasure. What could be wrong with that?
She summoned Hannah to help her with a bath and then clothed herself quickly in one of her weekday dresses, a light-green calico. She was a working girl now, and silk morning dresses would not do. She would save them for Saturday and Sunday mornings.
