My mouth fell, along with all my shining expectations. ‘But Monique heard him say —’
‘Oh, he was at the Club earlier. But he left.’
‘But where —’
‘You don’t want to know, sugah.’
I shivered, and then flushed with the truth he was trying not to tell me. ‘He left with her?’
‘Had I known of your seduction today, I’d have talked him into —’
‘You’re not my husband’s watchdog, dammit! Of all the filthy, low-down —’
‘Cheating, dastardly, bastardly things to do,’ Dewel muttered in agreement.
But my shattered hopes rose up into my throat, until I had to sob for breath. ‘Shut up, Dewel! Get out of here!’ I shrieked. ‘I want to go home. Rémy, please —’
My brother-in-law crossed the carriage in one fluid move, to cover my mouth. ‘I’m sorry, Eve,’ he murmured against my ear. ‘I didn’t intend to make light of your efforts, or this unforgivable situation. You have every right to be upset.’
Upset? Was that why my entire body quaked while I tried not to wail like a baby deprived of its most basic needs? Like a woman denied her rightful place beside her husband? Like a widow…mourning her marriage?
Hot tears rushed down my face. I turned away from the man who tried to comfort me, for comfort was the last thing I could accept. It was humiliating to learn Chapin was off with that floozy Savanna again, but even more degrading to have his smug half-brother witness my disgrace. My failure to entice my man.
Yet when Dewel slipped an arm around my shoulders, I railed against this injustice — the hopes nurtured like flowers, now evaporated like the dew. Driven by a shame rapidly turning to anger, I sobbed against his shoulder. How could I feel so weak and defeated when only moments ago I’d been flying like a kite?
How, indeed.
I sniffled. Pulled myself together by thinking how Monique would handle this unanticipated detour, on my road to becoming Chapin Proffit’s undeniable wife. Or had I come to a crossroads? A realisation that I might never reach the destination I’d set out for…and that perhaps I needed a whole new travel plan.
I sat up, blinking away my tears. ‘Please excuse me for acting so —’
‘Loyal? Lovin’?’ Dewel thumbed a tear from my cheek, lifting my chin. ‘Any man should consider himself damn lucky to have a woman like you waitin’ for him in this carriage, Miss Eve. I certainly would.’
Even in consolation, his words were edged with egotism: he’d probably had dozens of women awaiting him over the years, for his animal magnetism drew them like moths to the proverbial flame. Yet, as he focused those blue eyes on me, studying my face and my rumpled hair and the dress that now seemed extremely inappropriate, I felt a compassion I hadn’t anticipated.
‘So here we are again. Brought together by Chapin’s cheatin’.’
It was such an opportunistic observation, I wondered if Dewel had lied. What if he’d simply seized the moment to beat Chapin to the punch — enrage him again — after Monique had hinted I’d be coming for my husband?
Yet his hands remained chastely on my forearms. And he wasn’t kissing me, or making lewd suggestions, or unbuttoning his fly — although I couldn’t miss the ridge that had risen there, and the way his breathing filled the quiet carriage.
‘So we are.’ I sighed, deflating like a balloon. I wasn’t looking forward to facing my maid, to report the failure of our mission. We’d both worked so hard, for so long.
‘What happens now, Eve?’ he whispered. ‘What would you have me do?’
Again it struck me as extreme arrogance, his linking those two thoughts as though they naturally belonged together. When I looked at him, however, I couldn’t miss the longing in those fiery blue eyes, the heat that would scorch me if I got too close — if I allowed myself to bask in his warmth for these few moments of my recovery. Dewel Proffit was the last man to whom I should entrust my feelings, or confess my fears about what did happen now.
Is he really so wrong? my heart retorted. Seven years of your life you’ve given to Chapin, and he repays you by slipping off with Savanna, and sneaking another woman into his suite. Damned heartless of him. And careless. Very, very careless.
As my thoughts shifted, so did the expression on Dewel’s dusky face. I caught the brandy on his breath now, and that subtle, musky scent of a man who flaunted himself and his taste for loose women. Preferably bored society wives who only wanted a skilful, willing cock in exchange for keeping their marriages and reputations intact.
That was Dewel, down to his diamond-studded cuff links and his cold, calculating heart.
‘You haven’t answered me, Eve. I can leave, and let you go home.’
Or? coiled around me, like the tight spirals that preceded an earth-shattering climax. My heart thudded. To fill the silence that was giving me far too many ideas, I blurted, ‘Do you find me attractive, Dewel? Monique swears I could excite any man, but —’
‘Oh, you excite the livin’ daylights out of me, sugah,’ he drawled, his chuckle rumbling like thunder. ‘Unfortunately, that leaves only my darkness to find your way in. And who knows what evil lurks in this black sheep’s heart? Knock on my door and you might never make it home again.’
A blinding streak of awareness — of wanting — shot through me. And while my proper mind wondered if I’d married the wrong Proffit, my body reached its own wayward, damning conclusion. I’d resisted this dangerous train of thought before, but now it raced along its track, like the fear and adrenaline in my veins, never to return to its proper station.
‘Take me, Dewel,’ I whispered. ‘High time I found out what I’ve been missing with a man.’
He was on me, his mouth burning into mine as he pulled me roughly against his body. The buttons of his coat bit my breasts as his hands found my hips, holding me captive for a kiss that left nothing to assumption. Shoving his tongue between my teeth, he slanted his face to give his passion full reign, stealing my breath with the sheer force of his arousal.
Then he pulled away, leaving me dazed. ‘We’re going to do this right,’ he muttered.
He disengaged himself to open the carriage door — to give our driver instructions brusque with urgency. The carriage lurched, clattering down the cobblestones so loudly I thought all the world must surely know that Chapin Proffit’s wife was now racing towards perdition, falling from grace into the arms of the man who’d ruin her.
Yet I was smiling. Welcoming Dewel with open arms and a body barely covered by lace I hoped he’d rip right off me.
But no, Dewel was ever the Southern gentleman, in his rakish way. ‘You look good enough to eat,’ he breathed, loosening his cravat. ‘But for now we’ll just nibble and suck and lick at each other. When I get you home, I’m gonna swallow you whole.’
So this was how it felt to be devoured by a man’s eyes, while he delivered delicious, intoxicating promises. The lace dress, insubstantial as it was, suddenly felt too confining. But he was right: better to be shut away from prying eyes. Better to be off the gossiping streets and in the safe haven — if any place with Dewel Proffit was safe — of Bayou Belle.
He lifted me into his lap, making me so very aware of his size, his power, his…rigid erection. As he cradled me in one arm, his fingers took their sweet time caressing my breast, watching the play of the unfettered flesh beneath the filmy black fabric.
‘I knew you were an eyeful, Eve, but Lord have mercy! There’s just nothin’ to this dress, but it does everything right.’ He caught my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, grinning when I twitched. ‘Ripe as a cherry, beggin’ to be plucked.’
‘No, fucked,’ I corrected, feeling brazen beyond belief. ‘I didn’t dress like this to go to church, after all.’
‘Good. ’Cause the way I want you to play my organ, nobody’s gonna be singin’ hymns anyway.’
With a flick of his wrist, he parted the flimsy lace to run his fingernail up the inside of my thigh. I held my breath, knowing where
that finger would go — gasping when it slid into my wet slit, and was then joined by a second, and a third. My eyes closed with this incredible fullness, and as my head fell back over his elbow, I could feel his wicked grin.
‘You don’t yet know the meanin’ of surrender, Miss Eve,’ he promised in a sultry baritone, ‘but you’re gonna find out.’
19 Perdition
A lady should never detail her adventures in the bed of a devil like Dewel, but then, by the time I got there, I was no lady. Once he carried me up the oak stairway, burning away my clothes and my best intentions with a gaze like a blue gas flame, my seat in hell was guaranteed. So I decided to enjoy every inch of the trip.
‘There’s worse places than hell,’ Dewel remarked when I mentioned this. ‘I’ll do my best to see you never visit them, but who can say? The next few weeks’ll take you a lot of places you never thought you’d go.’
Was that a promise or a threat? His look of raw passion filled me with an anticipation I could barely stand, yet his words had an ominous ring. ‘If Chapin finds out —’
He shushed me with his finger. ‘He won’t hear about it from me, Eve. No matter what incriminatin’ things he’s told you over the years, I’m the soul of discretion. Which means I know a lot of things I’ve never told anybody — and for your own protection, that includes you, sugah.’
I opened my mouth, but he stifled my protest with another mind-altering kiss.
‘But never mind that,’ he breathed, running the tip of his tongue along my neck. ‘From this point on, while you’re with me, Chapin doesn’t exist. I don’t want to hear his name, or anything about him. I only want to hear you hollerin’ out with a pleasure so extreme, you’ll never leave me — and then hear what you want me to do next.’
And I did shriek, with the sheer exhilaration of being tossed on to his four-poster bed! Chapin could never have managed such a feat — but I put my husband out of my thoughts. He’d had his chance, and I was tired of trying to entice him. His half-brother stood at the foot of the bed, stripping off his silk shirt with the determined grace of a man who intended to ravish me so completely, I might not get all my pieces back afterwards.
A frightening, provocative thought. As decidedly indecent as the way Dewel’s cock jumped free of his fly to sway like a divining rod pointing him towards water. My sex, completely open to his inspection as I sprawled on his bed, was already so wet his rod couldn’t possibly miss. And as he stepped from his pants, I once again marvelled at this man’s masculine beauty, at the strong symmetry of corded arms and muscled thighs and the solid body in between.
‘Yours for the askin’,’ he suggested, taking himself in hand.
‘Oh, God — please. I want it now.’
His rich laughter wrapped around us as he stepped closer, teasing me. ‘Gotta sound more desperate than that, Eve. Don’t you know I won’t leave you one shred of pride, woman?’
I fumbled with the pearl clasp at my shoulder, already writhing beneath his relentless gaze. Did I really have any pride? All I could think about was his body lowering over mine, watching that cock as it plunged inside my aching hole.
‘Leave it on.’
His breathy command stilled my fingers, while his smile gave me goose bumps. ‘You went to a lot of trouble to look this trashy, Miss Eve. Let’s enjoy it for awhile, before I rip that dress clean off you. I intend to spend all day fuckin’ you. And all night.’
Dewel took hold of my legs, to lift and spread them so the lace slithered to my waist. I couldn’t stop watching him watch my pussy while he toyed with me; his cock’s eye beaded with a drop of honey. When his thumb found the centre of my sole, I sighed with the exquisite pressure there — and then jerked with the sensation of having my toes sucked.
‘That’s not fair! I can’t reach you to —’
‘Who said I’d play fair, darlin’? It’s my game and the rules’ll change from one minute to the next.’
He kissed his way down my inner thigh, his eyes on the prize as he coaxed my legs closer to my shoulders. There was no modesty in my position, nor mercy in his face, as he wagged his pointed tongue at me — and then drew a teasing circle around my open hole with it. I was squirming with such torment, already thrusting as though he were inside me.
‘Dewel,’ I murmured, ‘oh please, Dewel, I want it hard and fast. I want it now.’
His chuckle infuriated me. ‘I’m not always gonna give you what you want, Miss Eve. Certainly not because you say I should.’
Damn his control! His arrogant way of putting me in my place even as he held me hostage. With blithe disregard for my quivering need, he kissed his way up the other thigh, leaving a wet trail that tickled when the air hit it…a trail punctuated by little nips that only intensified my predicament.
‘You bastard, give me —’
‘That I am, and I’m damn proud of it.’
‘— what I came here for!’
He leaned between my legs, his cock prodding just below the hole that so badly wanted to swallow it. ‘Sorry, sugah. You don’t get to come till I decide it’s your time. And to make my point —’
Dewel slid his shaft over my slit and then back again, spreading my wetness with a furtive slurping sound that drove me further to distraction. For a man so enraptured by my assets, he was doing his damnedest to avoid penetration. His slippery friction was just enough to rekindle my itch. Thinking to get around his tricks, I flexed my hips downward to catch his next thrust.
Again he laughed, levering himself on the backs of my thighs. Now he was looking down into my face, his raven hair mussed and the faintest sheen of sweat on his upper lip. I fixed my gaze on that lush fullness, and the soft mauve contrast to the shadow of his clean-shaven face. I reminded myself that patience was a virtue, even with a silver-tongued devil to whom virtue seemed a foreign concept. I held very still, hypnotised by the flare of his nostrils as he breathed, and the corresponding movement of his chest. If I dared look into those sparkling blue eyes, I was lost.
‘Eve,’ he whispered.
Just that easily I fell. When I saw myself mirrored in those huge black pupils, framed in cerulean rings that glowed with frightening desire, the air left my lungs with a wanton hiss.
He entered me then, moving only his hips, pressing me into the mattress with the slightest effort, letting those eyes take me captive…his willing, wayward prisoner in this battle he’d already won. Oh, so slowly he rocked, in and out. Filling me with his rigid cock, and then slipping it out. Waiting just a second too long, so my jaw would drop further with my need, before shoving it up me again.
Then, when I thought I couldn’t stand any more, he thrust all the way in, grinding his root high and hard against my bone — knowing he’d caught my clit, and knowing when my spasms began, even before I did. With a satisfied smile, Dewel held himself hard against me, his minimal movements making the wildfire leap until I shook uncontrollably.
‘Give it to me,’ he rasped, so close to my ear the dampness gathered in its shell. ‘Writhe with it, Eve. Yield yourself so completely that no other man can ever have you. And then call out the name of the demon that just stole your soul.’
I gritted my teeth, determined he wouldn’t dictate my body’s response. But Dewel was still rocking, showing no sign of letting up. His body was curled completely around mine, suspended just enough that I wouldn’t be crushed while holding me helpless. His victim. The woman who’d begun her day in search of her husband’s love, and would end it in the arms of his lifelong rival.
I heard a keening sound, and realised it came from my own throat. My head jerked back and my hips surged forward. The friction of his body hair against my lace rose to a sibilant hiss that drove me over the precipice. I arched, racked by spasms that claimed me from my pussy outward and didn’t let go.
‘Dewel! Oh, Dewel, my God —’
His hips kicked into a frenzy then, and he slapped against my wetness, grunting with each stroke. Between my slitted eyelids I saw his grimace g
row tight, and when his body went stiff, I instinctively curled upward with one last seizure. He shot into me, grabbing me hard to squeeze out the last of it.
We collapsed. For several seconds we could only pant desperately. As the fragments of my rational mind returned, I realised the magnitude of what I’d just done: I had now sunk as low as the husband I’d set out to seduce. I had broken vows I considered sacred, even under the sad circumstances of a marriage arranged for my family’s financial benefit.
But I had also become a woman who gave herself over to desire, and I’d taken a man into oblivion with me.
This observation struck like a storm as my lover rolled to his side, taking me with him. Dewel still quivered with the force of our climax, and as he held me against his chest I felt the beating of a powerful heart. My epiphany seemed far too important not to share, in his rare moment of vulnerability.
‘Dewel,’ I whispered. ‘How can I ever thank you for —’
‘Don’t jump the gun, thinkin’ I’ve done you any favours, sugah,’ he sighed. Then, to soften the emotional blow, he kissed me so sweetly I wanted to cry. ‘And don’t start talkin’. I’m not nearly finished yet.’
20 Over the Edge
I awoke from a doze to find Dewel grinning lasciviously as he sat on the edge of the bed, studying my nude body. Unaccustomed to being so closely observed, I scrambled for the length of black lace now rumpled among the covers, but he grabbed my hands.
‘No need for modesty on my account,’ he said with a low laugh. ‘You’re the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen, and my brother doesn’t deserve you. Should’ve kept you for myself, Miss Eve. Should’ve approached your daddy before Chapin had the chance.’
How different might the past seven years have been, had that happened?
‘Why didn’t you?’ I asked softly. ‘I know very little about that arrangement. I suspect my parents were deeper in debt than they let on, but when I asked Chapin for details, I was told not to worry my pretty little head over it.’
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