Lisette had no doubt that the now familiar tingling of her breasts and the almost uncomfortable warmth between her thighs was in direct response to Christian’s close proximity. The hard arousal now pressing so insistently against the softness of her bottom was demonstration of Christian’s response to that closeness.
Just as she had no doubt that it was not each other’s ‘company’ they now wished to enjoy.
Chapter Nine
Christian gave a sigh of contentment as he held Lisette in his arms once again and breathed in the familiar perfume of the softness of her hair, a heady mixture of lemon and the light scent of flowers. A perfume he had missed these past two days. As he had missed holding the sweet curves of her body pressed against his own.
Marcus had warned of it being a dangerous attraction yesterday evening, as the two men talked quietly and enjoyed a brandy together before retiring for the night.
Dangerous, and as undeniable to Christian as his next breath.
‘What are you doing...?’
Christian laughed huskily. ‘I do believe I am placing my hands upon your breasts.’ His hands now cupped beneath that delicious fullness, allowing him to feel the hardened nipples pressing against his palms. Evidence that, no matter what she might now say to the contrary, Lisette enjoyed having her breasts held and fondled as much as he enjoyed holding them.
‘The windows, Christian,’ she protested half-heartedly. ‘Anyone might ride by and see—and see what we are doing.’
Christian felt heartened by the ‘we’ in that statement. ‘Pull down the blinds if it bothers you,’ he encouraged softly as his lips now tasted the creaminess of her throat.
‘Of course it bothers me—’
‘Why?’
‘I am not an exhibit for people to gawk at!’
‘Then pull the damned blinds!’
‘You are not well enough for such exertion.’
‘Certain parts of my body appear to have other ideas.’ He gave another husky chuckle. ‘Does anything else about my intentions bother you?’
‘I— Well—it is full daylight outside—’
‘Pull down the blinds and it will not seem to be.’
‘We really cannot, Christian.’
Christian could hear the lack of conviction in her breathy voice. ‘Do it, Lisette, and you will see how easily we can,’ he prompted more insistently, filled with an urgency to do more than fondle those full and tempting breasts.
He must indeed be feeling better.
These past few days had been a torment to him. Not because of his injury but because he had disliked intensely the distance that now lay between Lisette and himself, both emotionally and physically.
Here and now he wanted to dispense with that distance, to bare Lisette’s breasts completely, pull on those roused nipples until they were as red as ripe strawberries, before taking them into his mouth and suckling. Deep and hard.
He smiled his satisfaction as Lisette moved up onto her knees on the seat to pull down first one blind and then another. ‘If Monsieur le Duc should return—’
‘Then he will know by the lowered blinds not to intrude,’ Christian assured her softly.
She turned to look at him, eyes glittering in the now semi-darkness of the coach. ‘Is that how you usually signal to each other that you are...engaged in such pursuits?’
‘Hardly, when Marcus is married to my sister!’ Christian drawled.
‘I was referring to before he married your sister—’
‘I believe you are deliberately trying to annoy me, Lisette.’ Christian looked at her sternly. ‘But, just so that we are clear on the subject, I do not make love to women in coaches. Ever. Does that satisfy your outraged sensibilities?’
She raised her brows. ‘You have made love to me in a coach.’
‘I will be putting you over my knee and spanking your bottom in a coach if you continue with this delaying tactic!’ How could one tiny woman incite such desire within him and yet annoy him equally at the same time?
‘Tactics are your forte, Christian.’ Lisette pulled down the last of the blinds before once again turning to face him, chin lifted challengingly. ‘And if you even attempt to spank my bottom, I will tell the Duke of Worthing and your sister, if I should meet her, what a brute you are!’
Christian gave an unconcerned grin.
He arched one blond brow. ‘Unless I am mistaken, you now sound more curious at the prospect than distressed, Lisette...?’
She was. There was no denying it.
Having a man—Christian—spank her bottom sounded barbaric, and yet—
And yet...
If that was so, then why had the warm flush increased between her thighs and those already tingling buds that tipped her breasts become so hard and aching?
Unfortunately, her knowledge of physical pleasure was limited to these occasions with Christian, and so she could not answer that question.
She looked up at Christian through her lashes. ‘Would you lift up my gown and remove my...my undergarments first, or spank me through my clothing?’
Just when Christian thought he might, for once, have the upper hand in a conversation with Lisette, she very neatly turned the tables on him in that totally disarming manner she had. ‘Which do you think you would prefer?’
She appeared to give the matter some thought, arousing Christian even further. ‘I do not believe such punishment would be as effective if administered through one’s clothing. Do you?’ she finally answered curiously.
Christian’s lengthening manhood was now taking more than a passing interest in their conversation. ‘Probably not,’ he acknowledged gruffly. ‘Perhaps we might carry out a little experiment on the matter...?’
Her eyes widened. ‘Now?’
Unless he was mistaken, there was now an edge of anticipation in Lisette’s tone. ‘If that is what you would like?’ He eyed her curiously.
He knew that some whores and courtesans enjoyed having their bottom spanked, as some gentlemen paid to administer such treatment. Behaviour which would no doubt have shocked their wives.
‘Christian...?’
Lisette’s eyes glowed a feverish blue in the semi-darkness of the carriage. With excitement? At the thought of Christian laying a hand on her bare bottom?
It was an intriguing and arousing thought.
‘I believe I should enjoy...fondling your bare bottom rather than spanking it,’ he ventured cautiously. He did not wish to misunderstand the situation; he knew better than most how heated Lisette’s temper might be if he should proceed with a course of action she did not wish for.
His suggestion was answered with a slight lessening of that feverish glow in Lisette’s eyes, but no less curiosity. ‘Is that something that all men enjoy?’
The thought of any other man, singular or otherwise, touching any part of Lisette in pleasure or otherwise, was enough to cause Christian to want to forget the fondling and go straight to the spanking.
Besides which, he had no answer to her question; his own dealings with women these past fifteen years, in society or out of it, had been straightforward bed sport, enjoyable and satisfying, if not particularly memorable. Although he could not deny he had been tempted to put Lisette over his knee more than once for the rashness of her actions.
But surely it was the thin end of the wedge to indulge in such practices in bed?
You are not in a bed but a carriage, a little voice reminded inside his head.
Having started this conversation, was he not now duty-bound—?
Duty-bound be damned; having talked of the possibility, Christian now wanted Lisette over his knee, skirts thrown up, bottom bared, and once he had achieved that he could then decide what was best for the lady’s pleasure as well as his own.
‘
Turn around so that I might unfasten and remove your gown.’
Lisette felt a delicious tremor of fear curl down the length of her spine as she heard the deep intensity of Christian’s voice. At the same time she knew she had taken this conversation much further than she had intended.
At least she did not think she had intended it to go this far.
She had begun the conversation with the idea of shocking, only to have that audacity immediately turned back on her.
Her actions since first meeting Christian Seaton had not been at all how she would normally behave. He seemed to bring some devilment out of her which, once released, she did not seem to be able to take back under her control.
Added to which, Christian did not appear to be either surprised or shocked by her conversation. Indeed, that glitter of interest in his eyes seemed to be the same excitement as Lisette was now feeling.
She ran the moistness of her tongue across the sensitivity of her lips. ‘I meant our conversation to be in the abstract only, Your Grace.’
‘Liar.’
She was a liar, Lisette acknowledged slightly breathlessly. What had been intended to shock had now become completely, intimately personal.
She gave a shake of her head. ‘I do not think I should like being spanked after all, Your Grace.’
He gave a hard smile. ‘And perhaps that is the very reason that you need to be?’
She eyed him warily. ‘I do not understand.’
‘Turn around.’
‘I—’
‘I said turn around, Lisette.’
She swallowed at the implacability of his tone. ‘I believe this was not such a good idea—’
‘I am afraid you are a little too late in making that decision.’
Her heart fluttered in her chest. ‘Too late...?’
‘Turn,’ he instructed again harshly.
At some time in their conversation, Lisette realised, she had ceased being the antagonist and instead had become the hunted. And in a confined space such as this carriage, she had nowhere to run or hide.
Except, perhaps, behind her earlier anger and indignation?
‘Do not even attempt it, Lisette,’ the Duke growled in warning. ‘I was quite prepared to pass the time pleasantly on this journey to London, but instead I was first subjected to another of your lengthy and wholly undeserved rebukes, when it was Marcus who lifted you and put you in the carriage, not I. That was followed by another of your icy silences. I now believe you have traversed along a path from which there is no turning back.’
As Lisette had feared might be the case. ‘I am overly impetuous sometimes, Your Grace—’
‘It would seem that you are overly impetuous all the time, Lisette,’ he corrected impatiently. ‘A habit that needs to be curbed if we are to progress together.’
Lisette had no idea what that meant; there could not be much further to go on this journey to London, after which she was to be handed over to this man Maystone. She had no idea what was to become of her after that.
‘Turn around, Lisette!’
She tensed at Christian’s increasingly uncompromising tone, realising that she had pushed him too far with her taunting and curiosity, that there really was no ‘turning back’.
She quickly turned her back towards him. ‘You will not hurt me, Christian...?’ she ventured nervously as she felt those deft fingers unfastening the tiny buttons at the back of her gown.
‘I have not decided as yet,’ he answered her gruffly.
Lisette did not move as the unfastened bodice of her gown slid down her arms before falling about her knees as she still knelt on the seat between his parted thighs, leaving her dressed only in her chemise, drawers, stockings and slippers.
‘Now turn and face me.’
Lisette felt like a marionette as she slowly turned, face blazing with heat as Christian openly enjoyed staring at her breasts, the pleasurably hard pebbles of her nipples no doubt visible through the thin material of her chemise.
She wrapped her arms about her protectively. ‘I am cold—’
‘You are aroused,’ Christian corrected huskily, ‘which is not the same thing at all. Lower your arms, Lisette.’
She wanted to deny him, to berate him with her ready temper, but something in his eyes, a dark and unrelenting intensity, prevented her from doing so as she slowly, oh-so-slowly, lowered her arms instead.
‘Now slip the straps of your chemise off your shoulders.’
Lisette gasped, even as she felt her breasts swell and tingle in response to the instruction. ‘This cannot be at all correct, Christian— What is so funny?’ she demanded as he chuckled throatily.
He gave a shake of his head. ‘I do not believe you have done one “correct” thing since I first met you! Seeking me out in the darkness and coming back to my home with me. Running out into the street in the middle of the night, without hat or cloak, when you heard guns being fired.’ His voice had hardened perceptibly. ‘Driving my carriage as if you were born to it. Tending to not only my own wound but also Pierre’s. Sailing on a boat back to England with me completely unchaperoned. Spending a night at an inn with me under the same circumstances. And now travelling in a coach alone with me—’
‘That is most unfair!’ Lisette protested. ‘The circumstances under which we have so far been acquainted have not been conducive to—’
‘I am known for my patience, Lisette—indeed, I believe I am praised far and wide for it,’ Christian snapped impatiently. ‘You, however, have the ability to make me forget how to be patient, let alone behave the gentleman!’ With this last comment he reached out to grasp the flimsy material of the neckline of her chemise and with one sharp pull ripped it from top to bottom.
‘Christian!’ Lisette’s shocked gasp was accompanied by her raising her hands and placing them over her completely exposed breasts.
For once in their acquaintance Lisette was at a loss for words. Whether as the Comte de Saint-Cloud, the Duke of Sutherland or simply Christian, she did not appear to have any defences against this man.
‘I can smell your arousal, Lisette,’ he told her softly. ‘Yes,’ he insisted as she gasped in protest. ‘Peaches, or perhaps apricots, mixed with a musky wholly feminine smell.’
‘You would know of such things better than I!’ she accused in an attempt to regain some of her lost dignity.
‘Your insults do not bother me, Lisette,’ Christian dismissed derisively. ‘Not when I know they are made with the intention of annoying and distracting me.’
That had indeed been Lisette’s intention. But this arrogant duke was obviously not going to allow himself to be distracted.
‘Remove your hands, Lisette,’ Christian bit out between his clenched teeth; he could not decide which was throbbing the most—his injured thigh because of these physical exertions, or the hardness of him. He did know that the heady smell of Lisette’s arousal was causing him to fast lose all sense of control, let alone his usual veneer of civility. ‘Now, Lisette!’
Her back straightened, her chin rising defensively. ‘I am not a servant or a horse you may instruct to your will, Your Grace.’
‘No—you are about to become my lover, which requires even more instruction from me, it seems!’ Christian growled. ‘And do not “Your Grace” me, Lisette, when you obviously have little or no respect for the title.’
A frown creased her brow. ‘It is not my intention to be disrespectful.’
Christian sighed. ‘It is not my intention to behave with disrespect towards you either. I am simply a man pushed beyond his limits.’
She eyed him warily even as her hands slowly lowered back down to her sides.
Christian’s eyes had now completely adjusted to the dim light of the carriage, allowing him to see the soft fullness of Lisette’s naked breasts, tipped wi
th fully engorged and pouting nipples, her waist incredibly slender before curving out to luscious hips. She wore white stockings held up by pretty white garters decorated with rosebuds the same deep fuchsia colour as her nipples.
‘What do you instruct now, Christian?’ She held herself proudly, shoulders back, breasts thrust forward.
He should never have started this, should not have allowed Lisette to challenge him so much that it was now almost too late for him to pull back from the brink— Damn it; it was too late! ‘Help me to undress,’ he encouraged huskily as he reached up and deftly removed the neck cloth from about his throat before unfastening his shirt.
Her throat moved as she swallowed. ‘You intend to completely compromise me?’
He gave a hard, humourless grin. ‘If that bothers you then we can always say that it was you who compromised me.’
‘We will not need to say anything at all if you stop insisting upon this—this—’
‘Lovemaking,’ he supplied evenly.
‘Lovemaking takes place between two people when they are married.’
‘To each other?’
Another tirade of French insults—ones that Christian decided were best not translated—followed this remark.
‘If not married, then at least in love with each other,’ Lisette finally added primly.
Christian looked up at her through narrowed lids. ‘How do you feel when I touch you here?’ He reached out to push her ripped chemise completely aside before stroking his fingertips across the turgid tip of her breast, nodding his satisfaction as Lisette drew her breath in sharply, her back arching instinctively into that caress. ‘Or do this?’ He took her now fully erect nipple between his thumb and finger and gently squeezed, the scent of Lisette’s arousal now so strong in the heaviness of the air Christian could almost taste it.
He intended to taste it before they reached London.
‘I— That is—’ Lisette now moved restlessly at the unfamiliar sensations coursing through her body. Unfamiliar before she had met Christian, that was.
No matter how angry she became with him, how uncertain she was about her future, this man only had to touch her with intimacy to arouse her. Sometimes he did not need to even touch her!
Christian Seaton: Duke of Danger Page 12
