She pulled back, swallowing hard as she looked up at him.
Could she trust him? Could she trust her instincts?
Not where he was concerned. Lennox was a forbidden pleasure for her, and he was dangerous. He could easily weave a tall tale and make promises that his magic would make the stars fall at her feet. She feared her desire for him would blind her to the reality of her existence. But today she had gone home, and she’d opened her eyes to everything—to the truth of the past, the reality of her future. “It cannot be.”
“It can. I do not want you to hide anything from me ever again.” He gestured at her nightgown. “Let me see you.”
It was a command.
The look in his eyes made her wonder if he was working magic on her. But no, he needed to see, and she was shocked to discover that she was compelled to show him, to reveal her shame to someone who cared for her in some way.
Her fingers trembled as she went to the silk bow that held her thin nightgown in place around her shoulders. As she undid it and let it fall away, he surprised her once more by capturing the fabric before it fell from her breasts. Holding it in place there, he stepped behind her to examine her exposed back.
Chloris expected her shame to deepen. Instead she found herself distracted by sensations—the sheer lawn cotton gathered around the curve of her hips, embracing her. The heat of his body so close to hers. His scent, so familiar, so redolent with his power. With his hand covering her chest as it was, her breasts ached for more contact. Was this his doing? Was it simply his presence, or was he seducing her by magic?
Chloris did not care. She leaned into his touch.
With his fingertips he touched the uppermost of her scars.
She arched her back in response.
He traced the lines, and warmth traveled into the places he touched. Not just the heat of his fingers—more than that—and it seeped as deep as her bones.
Was he using magic on her? Trembling, she clutched her nightdress over her chest where it was sliding away because he had loosed it. “Lennox, what are you doing?”
“Hush.” His warm breath stirred over her bare shoulder. “Trust me, I am healing you.”
She tried to respond but couldn’t, for the sensation was too intense. Her body arched under his touch, for it was as if he had opened the wounds. “Lennox!”
“Forgive me.” He withdrew his fingers. “I can feel it, every ounce of pain, and yet I am compelled to seek it out and quell it because I cannot abide the fact it was done to you.”
The room crackled with his vitality just as it had when he had first performed his rituals on her. The fire leaped in the hearth. A warm draft of air raced around them—a draft carrying with it the scent of a laden orchard and ripe berries. Heat like a candle flame licked her back.
The state of her skin altered, the tightness that she always felt there easing. More than that, something deeper occurred, for it felt as if he drew the very experience of being beaten to the surface, before taking it away from her.
Chloris felt the tears come when memories of the beating flashed within her mind, shocking her. She had foolishly questioned Gavin on some minor matter. His mood had not been good and he’d fast become enraged. He’d hit her before that night, but on this occasion he’d taken a strap to her, a sturdy length of stable leather.
The first crack had floored her, but he did not stop there. Before he was done, she had fainted away from the pain. She saw herself lying there, where he left her, and then that image, too, was pulled from her memory. She’d crawled to her bed. Or at least, she thought she had. When she tried to remember what had happened it was suddenly vague, as if it had happened to someone else, someone she cared about.
Lennox kissed the back of her shoulder. Then lower, across her back, as if he needed to be certain of his own magic. His kisses entranced her, making her back feel warm and supple, shooing the badness and shame that she had carried there for so long.
She swayed, for she felt as if she might faint away entirely.
“Chloris,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “Come, sit down.”
He guided her to the edge of the bed, where she sank down gratefully.
Her body shivered, not with cold, pain or fear, but with sensual pleasure and relief. He truly had unburdened her.
It was only after she had recuperated somewhat that she realized he was no longer close by. Chloris lifted her head, seeking him out. He was facing away, pacing back and forth, close to the fireplace. As she looked at him her chest swelled, for his actions meant so much to her. Not because of what he had done, but why. He had wanted to ease her suffering. She had not even asked him to do so. However, as she looked at him she also saw the turmoil in his expression.
Had he truly taken it into himself?
Eventually he stopped pacing and faced her way. His head was lowered, his hair shrouding his face in shadows. Tension emanated from the place where he stood. “You cannot go back to him.”
Yes, he really had taken her burden into himself.
Chloris knew from the way he was that he had felt and seen it all. “I have to,” she whispered. “I made marriage vows.”
“Vows that you have already forsaken.”
Shame engulfed her, but it was the truth and she could not chastise him for his words. “That may well be, but it was with honorable motives to begin with.” Then I fell in love with you, and that has torn me asunder.
“What is there to lose by leaving?”
“Honor. Redemption.”
“Redemption? You do not believe in it, otherwise you wouldn’t have come to me and my kind, desperate for our help.”
Even though he spoke the truth, his words wounded her to the core. She lowered her head. “Please, Lennox. Take pity.”
He closed on her. Forcing her chin up with his fingers under her jaw, he looked down into her eyes. “Pity? I do not want to pity you. It is not something you deserve and you should never ask for it.”
His eyes narrowed, his expression determined. “Leave him.”
“And where would I go? I cannot stay here. Tamhas will have nothing to do with me if I leave my husband.” Discomfort assailed her, but there was no way to make her situation clear to Lennox without telling him its true nature. “They have an agreement. I was the seal. If I break it Tamhas would cast me out. Trade, money and power depend on it, for them both.” She wanted him to see there was no way out, but her words only seemed to make him more possessive and angry.
His eyes were wild. “Damn their agreement! Neither one of them are worthy of you.”
“Lennox, please. There is no one else, all my kin have gone. Tamhas currently harbors me under certain conditions, and being a loyal wife to Gavin is one of them. That is why you should not be here. I was foolish in allowing you to come here in the first place.”
Was that guilt she saw flit through his expression? Had he woven magic over her that day in the market? Before she could quiz him on it, he shook his head.
“You will come to me for safe harbor, not Tamhas Keavey.” His tone was low and commanding.
She shook her head. “It cannot be. We are too different. Your people would treat me with suspicion. I would not be welcome amongst them.”
“They will grow to understand. They will grow to care for you, just as I have.”
He cared for her. Hours earlier he had spilled scorn on her for being beaten at her husband’s hands, turning away from her as if she sickened him. Now he turned her in his hands as if she were a mere rag doll he tended to. Although it gave her sweet succor, she could not risk letting him toy with her again.
“Do not make promises that cannot be kept.” She showed him she was serious. She was the stronger one now, the one who had faced the reality of this. It could only bring trouble to them both. Nevertheless, it was hard to stop him making these wild statements, because deep down she wanted him more than life itself.
His mouth set in a tense line. He was a passionate man, and she felt that he
meant it—in this strange moment of honesty he did believe he could make it happen, but it could not be. She expected him to argue, but he did not.
Once again he surprised her.
He drew her to her feet, then moved her hand from the place where she held her nightdress in place over her breasts, allowing the garment to drop completely.
The pale fabric pooled around her feet like a garland of May lilies.
It was the first time she had stood completely bared before him, but she did not feel shame. She felt desire. The man before her exuded power, and she wanted to feel it again. One last time.
He gazed at her naked form in the bedside candlelight, and the look in his eyes was both passionate and possessive. Chloris swayed under his scrutiny, her body pulsing. Yet he stood tall and unwavering, studying her as if she were the most important thing he would ever see. The man was a consummate seducer, for he had ways in which to make a woman feel his desire that were too powerful to resist. His gaze made her tremble. She wanted him so badly. Wanted him to take her and fill her and join them together completely. Was it so wrong? Her mind said it was, but her heart and body craved him like no other.
Beyond him she caught sight of the door and what it represented—a futile barrier between them and discovery. “Lennox, there is not even a key here to lock the door.”
His gaze lifted and held hers, silencing her. “No one will enter.”
Had he made sure of that by magic because of what had happened the last time he came here?
“Let me make love to you.”
It was so hard to deny him. She stepped closer until she was right against him and cupped his face in her hands. “I want that, too, but I am afraid you will be discovered here. I have heard Tamhas ranting about you. I dread his mood if he found us this way.”
His mouth tightened for a moment, but he ignored her comment.
Instead he ran his fingers over her up-tilted breasts, and his eyes glimmered with firelight that was of his own making. “I sense your need. Let me slake it, let me bring you sweeter dreams than you might have had tonight.”
Oh, how his words stoked her fires. The ache at her center grew.
When her body shivered and her head dropped back, he covered her neck with fevered kisses. “I was ready to be inside you this morning, and that need has only grown.”
She could not fight it.
He bent, lifted her easily into his arms and laid her out on the bed. Looming over her, he sighed deeply. Slowly, he began to caress her body, trailing his fingertips over the surface of her skin. As he touched her, from shin to thigh, from hipbone to breast, he seemed to draw the breath from her body, quickening her blood, sending wild her senses.
“Lennox.” She ached for him desperately. Desire the likes of which she had never experienced before washed over her and it made her eyes smart, for her emotions could come undone far too easily.
“Let me love you,” he replied.
Chloris shut her eyes, savoring the words. Let me love you.
She felt him shift and he breathed over her nipples, then kissed them, one after the other, his tongue swirling over the peaked surfaces. Chloris melted into the bed, yet his intimate attentions were almost too gentle. Every moment they had seemed stolen, and she wanted to clasp him to her, frenzied, to bond with him hard and fast for as long as she could before their paths were forced to diverge.
Instead, Lennox shifted down the bed and lifted one of her feet, clasping her gently around the ankle with one strong hand. When she realized his intentions, she moaned softly. He parted her legs, his hands moving along the inside of her legs as he climbed onto the bed between her knees.
Glancing down, she stroked his thick black hair with trembling hands while he kissed the inside of her thighs. Each kiss was like sunlight dancing on her skin, teasing her. Worse still was the pounding she felt deep at her center and at the crest of her folds, where her swollen nub was tingling wildly, anticipating his touch.
“You are adorable.” His breath was warm on her sensitive skin.
“Oh, please, Lennox,” she murmured, her body shifting, her hands clutching at the bedcovers.
Splaying his hands around the top of her thighs, he sank his mouth onto the mound of her sex and kissed her deeply, his tongue moving between her folds.
Arching, her head fell back against the pillows. She moaned and twisted on the bed when his tongue moved faster. Pleasure blossomed fast, her heightened emotions bringing her closer still to him. He buried his face between her legs and tongued her faster. Her back arched, her bud growing tight and sensitive under his ministrations. A sudden tremor ran through her and she bloomed into climax. Still he kissed her there, making her spend again. In the distance she heard her own voice crying out. She all but fainted away.
His voice drew her back to him. “I want to hold you in my arms forever.”
“Hush,” she whispered. “Please, let us only think of this night, for the rest is an intrusion.”
A shadowy smile passed over his face. “It is, but we will have more than this one night, mark my words.”
He pulled his shirt over his head and off, casting it aside.
Chloris savored the sight of his muscular shoulders. Then, when he stood up to undo his breeches, the bulge of his cock made her mouth go dry.
He eyed her possessively as he kicked his boots off and undid his breeches, shoving them off. His cock sprang out, long and thick, its head beautifully defined and dark with blood. Her thighs instinctively rolled together as she took in the sight of him and damp heat trickled onto her thighs. This is what he had done to her, and it was so intense that she could only wish it could be the way he suggested, that they might lie together every night.
Then he was over her, his cock resting against the tingling folds of her sex. His closeness overwhelmed her with a renewed fever of desire. She was intoxicated by him, wanting him above and beyond anything. When he entered her she clutched him in welcome and let out a loud moan of relief.
His eyes flashed, his mouth in a passionate curl. He nudged then drove the full length of his shaft inside her slick channel, until the blunt head was pressed to her center.
Chloris arched up from the bed in response. She reached up to wrap her hands around his head. “Lennox, when you...when we are like this, it is the most beautiful thing I have ever known.”
“I know.” He looked down at her, studying her face, his body supported on his arms, his hips hard against hers. “It is the same for me.”
They stayed that way, locked together by the intensity of the moment, until a sob escaped her. “You have made me know what it is like to be a woman—” she paused, because she had to swallow back her emotion “—a woman fulfilled.”
“We were meant to be this way,” Lennox replied, and then he lay over her, stroking her hair as he kissed her mouth, soothing her.
His cock throbbed inside her. It made her desperate.
Shifting her legs to wrap them around his hips, she invited him deeper still.
He began to thrust. Slowly at first, tenderly.
Oh, how she wanted it to last forever. Desire, fate and circumstance would not allow it. That made each point of contact between them more poignant. She reached around to caress his broad back, her body rocking to meet his, each and every time he thrust into her. In the candlelight she saw how he held back, how he made every moment last. Each thrust was so exquisitely full of sensation that she felt as if she was about to spill again, every time his swollen crown crushed against her center. All the while, he locked her gaze to his, not allowing her to look away as they shared the intensity of their joining.
When their movements became more fevered she clung to him. She felt another sob building at the back of her throat. When it escaped her, he slammed home and she tipped over the precipice.
“Oh, yes,” he whispered, and she felt his cock jerk.
Release flooded her, her entire groin filled with heat, her body alight as far as her peaked nipple
s and her throat. Then Lennox spilled his seed, and in the moment of their mutual release, his mouth covered hers, owning her inside and out, and Chloris thought she would die of the pleasure.
* * *
Lennox lay on his side and drew her tightly against him, arranging her body inside the curve of his. That warmth and closeness made her feel cherished.
At first Chloris dozed in his arms, supine with pleasure, comforted and loved. But before long her mind pushed forward objections. She fought sleep, concerned for his safety. “Please, go before you are discovered here.”
He did not seem surprised, but he had an answer ready. “I will go if you promise to meet me at dawn in the usual place.”
“But—”
He hushed her with his finger on her lips. “We will talk then. Now promise me you will come.”
Uneasily, she considered the suggestion. He would not rest if she said no, he would keep coming back here, and that had to end. “I will come, Lennox. However, it is only talking we will do.”
The closer she allowed him to get, the harder it was.
He narrowed his eyes, his lips curving.
“That was not meant to be a challenge,” she added.
“I agree, we need to talk, because I need to convince you that we will lie together, every night.”
She attempted to give him a chastising look. “And I need to convince you of the many reasons it cannot be.”
The brooding look in his eyes was only belied by his lingering smile.
She clasped his arm. “Lennox, I promise to meet you, if you promise me you will not seduce me by magic or otherwise.”
He lifted her fingers in his and kissed her palm. “I promise.” Then he rose and began to dress. “However, should you change your mind about doing anything other than talking, I will not argue.”
Chloris couldn’t help herself, she laughed. “You are a dangerous man.”
“Only if I am wronged.” He shrugged. “Tenacity is my strongest characteristic, keep that in mind.”
Chloris caught the serious note in his tone, and it made her long for a different life, a life where they could be together.
She rose and pulled on her nightgown in order to say goodbye. As they stood by the door, and she strained to hear any movement in the corridor outside, she noticed he looked only at her. “Please, take care when you go through the house, I fear for your discovery.”
The Libertine Page 15
