She shut her eyes as relief and desire rushed through her. She wasn’t sure which one was more powerful at first, but of course Sin made the desire stronger with each glide of his tongue against her skin.
“By God, you’re like a drug,” he groaned against her skin. “I cannot get enough, no matter how I try. But the pleasure is all mine in the trying.”
She laughed, though she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of being nothing more than a drug to him. A poison in his system. “I promise you, Sin, the pleasure isn’t all yours.”
His gaze came up, sharp and dark green. “Hmmm,” he practically purred as a smile tilted up his lips. He offered her an arm. “Come with me.”
She nodded, unable to resist him even if she tried, which she didn’t foresee herself doing… at least until this bargain ended. He led her out of the parlor and down the hall until they reached the private office where she had first met with him. He shut the door behind them and released her arm.
“Do you remember when you first came here?” he asked, his voice husky.
She nodded, her muscles jerking. “When I arrived.”
He smiled again, but this expression had heat and animalistic desire dark within it. Her body responded without him even touching her. Her thighs grew moist with desire and her nipples beaded. Sin didn’t fail to notice that thanks to his ‘no undergarments’ policy and that animal smile grew in width and intensity.
“Do you recall what you were doing when I came upon you here?”
She hesitated, her gaze flitting to the erotic sketches on the walls that had so enraptured her. It seemed so long ago. She straightened her shoulders. Sin had already coaxed things much more intimate from her than this confession.
“I was looking at your erotic artwork, Sin.”
His brow arched at her direct answer. “Yes. You were.”
When he stepped forward, her heart skittered, but she held her ground. Even when he turned her around and gave her a little push toward the wall.
“Look now.”
She followed the order without thinking about refusing. The art called to her, but she understood it far more now. Understood the look of rapture on one woman’s face as she arched beneath her lover’s skilled hands. She understood the way another portrait portrayed a woman’s legs latched tightly around a man’s waist as he drove deep into her.
She moved along the wall, taking in the portraits with that deeper understanding. And with no fear or embarrassment. Sin wouldn’t judge her for her interest. He wouldn’t mock her for her desire.
She stopped in front of one portrait. This one depicted an act she’d seen many a time, but had not yet taken part in. A woman taking her lover’s cock into her mouth. In the piece, the woman had the man firmly in hand, her red lips latched onto the head of his penis and her wet tongue stroking him. The man’s head was lolled back, an expression of utter satisfaction in his every feature.
Suddenly Sin was behind her, his hand on the small of her back as he moved her closer. His breath was hot on her neck, just as it had been the night before when they watched his three friends. She shivered at the memory of him flipping up her skirts and having her right there. That joining had been powerful and given her so much pleasure.
“Is that what you want?” he whispered, his mouth close enough to her ear that she felt the steam of his breath on the delicate shell.
She nodded. It was. She wanted to make Sin look like the man in this portrait. She wanted to make him surrender like she always surrendered.
She wanted to please him. With a desperation that was almost terrifying.
“You must say it, Evelyn.”
“Yes,” she said, her voice shaking.
He chuckled. “That’s cheating, my darling. You must say the words.”
She sucked in a breath as his lips brushed her neck. “I want this, Sin. I want to take you into my mouth. I want you to teach me how to touch you, suck you, lick you like this.”
He swore behind her, but when he turned her toward him, he looked anything but upset. In fact, his face was alive, his eyes bright with desire.
“Very nice, Evelyn,” he said as he reached forward and unbuttoned her dress. “And you shall have what you desire. After.”
“After?” she all but whimpered as he let her dress fall to her feet. Of course she was naked beneath and his gaze roved over her with as much hunger as she’d seen the first time. That fact gave her an inordinate amount of pride.
“After.” He moved her back to sit on the edge of his desk, spreading her legs wide.
She watched as he knelt between them and a thrill shot low in her belly as she recalled watching him kiss her there just the day before. It had been like magic, his tongue on her, in her.
“I want to taste you first,” he murmured, his mouth against her body before he let his tongue move against her.
Her fingernails dug into his shoulders as he swirled his tongue around her clit, sucking the little nub and sending shots of pure bliss through her entire body. He could bring her to the brink with no trouble at all. It was thrilling.
And terrifying. Sin made no promises. In fact, he shunned them. After their time together ended, he would set her free. Perhaps one day her father would sell her body again… or perhaps she would find someone she actually wished to marry and could forgive her the family and past she brought along with her.
But would any other man ever give her this intense pleasure again?
Would any other man accept her darkest desires, encourage them, teach her to love them and herself? She couldn’t imagine that. Women of her station were taught to deny passion. She could only imagine what another man would say if she begged him to kiss her where Sin’s tongue was working her so skillfully.
Was this to be her only chance at pleasure and fulfillment?
Sin’s mouth pushed away her maudlin thoughts of a future devoid of passion. He sucked at the nub of her clit even as he snaked two fingers up her thigh. He stroked the entrance to her slit gently, then glided inside, curling his fingers in time to the persistent motion of his tongue.
She arched her back, clutching at anything on the desktop to give her purchase as the waves of pleasure built low in her belly. Then they crested and she shivered, moaning as release moved through her with lightening-like speed and intensity. Sin continued to work her through the tremors. Only when her body finally stilled did he look up at her.
“I want to give you that, Sin,” she whispered, blinking away the tears that had formed in her eyes. “Please teach me.”
He nodded, solemn now. He took her hand and moved her over to the settee in the middle of the room. He shrugged out of his clothing, shocking her yet again with how beautiful he was naked. Then he sat back on the chair, slouching down. He put one of the velvety pillows between his feet on the floor and motioned to her to kneel before him.
Her heart raced as she did as he indicated. His cock was already hard, thrusting up proudly with arousal after the way he’d brought her pleasure.
“Touch me.” His voice was low, but there was a heat and desperation to his tone that matched her own. He needed this as much as she needed him. That gave her power.
She reached out, thinking about the portrait on the wall behind her. She grasped the base of his thick cock, wrapping her fingers around his length and thrilling at the pulse of his desire that pounded through the hard thrust. His eyes closed and he swore again, just below his breath.
“Now lean forward and-” he began.
But now that Evelyn was holding him, her face close to this instrument that seemed to be built to bring her pleasure, she didn’t really need instruction. Instinct took over. Wild and uncontrolled as she leaned forward and darted out her tongue to swipe it over the swollen head of his cock.
Sin’s hips arched and she had the feeling he couldn’t have controlled that motion if she offered him all the gold in the King’s Treasury. The reaction emboldened her further. She licked again, rolling her tongue around h
im like he was a child’s candy.
She used memory to guide her as well as instinct. She’d seen this act. In the pictures on Sin’s wall, in the darkness of her servants’ quarters when she hid and last night in the blazing light of the chamber where Sin’s three friends had pleasured each other.
Evelyn wrapped her lips around him and glided down as far as her throat would allow, taking inch after inch of him inside her mouth. Sin moaned and she let her gaze dart up. His eyes were half-closed, his hands fisted on the cushions above. He watched her every move, though. Always aware, though not as much in control as she had become accustomed to.
“Glide up and down,” he said softly, his voice broken. “Like you would ride me.”
She nodded, understanding now. She moved, pulling back until his member almost left her lips, then forward. Each time she took him deeper as her throat relaxed, and each time Sin’s groans grew louder and more insistent. Every movement of her mouth gave him pleasure.
And it gave her pleasure, too. She realized, as she sucked and rolled her tongue around his girth, that this act wasn’t only about his pleasure. It was also about hers. The power of taking him between her lips, the sound of his moans, the way his muscles flexed every time she took him deep, they made her body ache just as much as she did when he put his hands on her, his fingers inside of her.
“Evelyn,” he moaned from above her. “Stop, you must stop…”
She let her mouth pop off him and looked up, continuing to stroke the length of his shaft. “Why?” she asked and immediately latched her lips back around him.
“Oh God, Evelyn, because I won’t last if you continue like this.”
She smiled around him and pulled away a second time. “But I want more.”
He caught her elbows and pulled her up. She didn’t resist as he moved her to straddle his lap.
“More later,” he growled as he positioned her over his wet cock. “I want this now.”
He thrust up hard, filling her completely in one harsh movement. She let her head loll back as she gasped out her pleasure. She would never tire of this feeling of completion. Of utter bliss. Her body had been made for it, for him, and she was going to enjoy every fleeting moment she had been given.
“Ride, Evie,” he murmured as he cupped her breast and brought the tight nipple to his mouth.
She obeyed, rolling her hips in jerky motions. His cock rubbed against her clit every time she pushed forward and already she could feel the quivering edges of release building deep within her womb. How could he do this to her so easily?
It didn’t matter. Her mind cleared as every part of her shifted focus to the place where they joined. She groaned as her orgasm began, building in intensity as she jerked against him. He caught her hips, driving inside her when her body went limp and weak with pleasure, and pulling even more of it from her when she felt she had no more to give. He groaned out his own pleasure, capturing her lips for a deep, hot kiss as he let his seed flow into her.
She collapsed forward, letting her head rest in the crook of his shoulder. He cupped her close, holding her so gently that she could almost forget that the time they shared was temporary.
And almost hope that when the time was over that she could still remain in Sin’s life, in Sin’s bed, in Sin’s arms. Even though she knew how foolish that empty hope was.
*
Sin pulled the blanket up around Evelyn’s body a little tighter and held her close. They were balanced precariously on the settee, only his embrace keeping her from finding her backside deposited on the hardwood floor below. It should have been uncomfortable, but somehow being here with Evelyn was the only place he wanted to be.
She looked up as he threaded his fingers through her tangled hair. When she smiled his heart lurched with feelings he couldn’t name… refused to acknowledge. He didn’t feel for women. He pleasured them. He accepted their pleasure.
But he did not feel. He’d learned early on not to bother.
Evie smiled. “You know, you do not seem to be the kind of man who gambles.”
He pushed away those deeper thoughts and unwanted emotions. They were of no use. “And why is that?”
She shrugged delicately, moving her fingertips across his chest in gentle circles. “You are always in control.”
Sin bit back a bark of laughter. If only she knew the truth. Every since she arrived… hell, since he met her, he’d been teetering at the edge of control. So much so that he had been forced to fold having her into his larger plan.
“Appearances can be deceiving.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, watching the way her eyes fluttered shut with pleasure. “You are proof of that, aren’t you?”
Her eyes opened and her brow wrinkled in confusion. “Me?”
He laughed. “Come now. Don’t be coy. By every appearance you are a demure lady.”
Now a tiny smile tilted the corners of her cheeks. “Are you implying I am not a lady, sir?”
“No, not at all. I’m simply saying there is far more to you than outward appearances would suggest. For example, the little book I pilfered from your father’s home.”
A blush tinged her cheeks at the mention of that book of fantasies that was now safely upstairs in his chamber.
“How long have you been writing down those wicked little fantasies?”
To Sin’s utter surprise, the teasing light in Evie’s eyes faded, replaced by the wide eyed surprise of an animal who had been cornered by a hunter. He cocked his head. Certainly, Evie had been shy about sex when she arrived, but he’d never seen her like this. Trapped and frightened by a mere question.
“Evelyn?” he cupped her chin, tilting her gaze to his.
She skirted away from his touch. “I would rather not say.”
He watched as she slipped to a sitting position, abandoning the warmth of his arms. He was the one left cold by that movement, though. She looked at the fire across the room, her expression one of far away memory. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps he didn’t really want to know the answer to his question. Despite everything they had shared, it was clear the answer meant something to her.
And perhaps that made it too intimate. Too close to her heart, or too close to his own.
“Very well, you don’t have to share that with me,” he said with a shrug was far from his true feelings.
“What about you?” she asked, her gaze coming back to him briefly. “If my outward appearance is not a true reflection of my heart, does that mean your outward appearance is no more than a mask, as well?”
He stiffened. No one had ever asked him that question before. Prior lovers took his stance, that pleasure was meant for the moment. Nothing deeper should come out of a physical union. But Evie wasn’t like any woman he’d bedded before. With just a look, she could pierce his soul.
And his soul was a place he rarely let anyone glimpse. It wasn’t a place he even liked to visit, himself.
“Perhaps you are correct that some things should remain secret between us,” he said.
She held his stare for a long, uncomfortable moment. A moment where he started to wonder if she would accept that statement… or would she pursue the answers she demanded? And would he deny her if she pushed him on matters best left unexplored?
“Perhaps,” she finally whispered as she got to her feet and found her tangled gown on the floor.
A strange sense of disappointment flooded him and he pushed it away violently. What, did he want to share some part of himself with her? Foolish, ridiculous notion. What would he tell her? About the lies and the pains of the past? About betrayal and heartache? Those things were weak. Thinking about them made him weak. The last thing he wanted was to share them.
He sat up. No, the remainder of the time they had left was better spent in sexual exploration. That was all there was and all there ever could be between him and this woman who had proven herself to be so much more than he expected or dared to dream.
“You should not be ashamed by your writings,
Evelyn.”
She stiffened at the mention of the subject she had declared closed. Straightening up, she glanced over her shoulder. “I am not.”
“Good.” He got up and came across the room. Turning her to face him, he began to rebutton her gown, allowing his fingers to brush the soft valley between her breasts before he covered her. “Because you are very talented.”
She blushed again, but this time it was surprise and pleasure that tinted her cheeks a soft pink. His heart jumped at the sight and the fact that saying something so simple and so true could bring such simple joy to her bright eyes. He wanted to do it again. And again. And again.
Instead, he smiled and let his fingers slide down the front of her now buttoned gown. “With a bit more education, you could be even better.”
A little laugh bubbled from her lips. “And I still have a few more days with you as my teacher.”
“Yes.”
The reminder that their time was so short brought Sin out of any playful interaction. It also raised his desperation level. He needed to get this woman out of his system before the time between them ran out. And that meant one thing.
“But,” he said, letting her go. “You will have to surrender.”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been doing?” she asked, but the teasing light in her eyes was beginning to fade in the face of his seriousness.
He shook his head. “You have given yourself freely, of course. But I’m not talking about letting me pleasure you. I’m not talking about giving me your body without argument. I’m telling you that I want to take you further. Further than you ever imagined. Ever saw your servants do. You will have to trust me. Do you trust me?”
He held his breath as he waited for the answer, watching her face for every slight movement. Every nuance of emotion. Evelyn met his eyes, holding his gaze with an even strength that he had always sensed under the delicate surface. Despite everything she’d been through, Evie was a powerful woman.
“Yes. I trust you.”
Those words were so simple, yet they touched him in a powerful way that surprised him. Her trust was a gift. Knowing her father and the way he behaved, Sin doubted Evelyn gave her trust lightly. And yet, he was lying to her. She didn’t really know the whole reason why she was here. She didn’t know his plans. Guilt soured his pride, his joy at what she gave.
Jess Michaels Page 31
