Seduced By A Devil

by Vella, Wendy

  “You are my sister’s friend, and once my employee.” He raised a hand as she opened her mouth. “That man you have called brother your entire life had no right to treat you that way. Sisters are to be cherished, and he should bloody well know that.”

  “I am unsure he is my brother.” He heard the pain in her voice.

  “He said as much,” Gabe said gently. “But I want you to tell me why he made those claims.”

  “He told you that he is not my brother?” She looked devastated.

  “He told me your father said you were his daughter in every way but blood.”

  “My father told him but not me.” Dimity looked into her teacup, and Gabe knew she was close to tears. “I had a right to know.”

  “You did, and I’m sorry he did not tell you, Dimity.” Gabe lowered his hand over hers where it lay clenched on the table.

  “I am glad he is not my brother.”

  “Yes, that is one positive to come from the knowledge. I’m sorry, but your brother is not a man of strong moral fiber, Dimity. He needed a little persuasion to see the error of his ways.”

  She giggled and then clapped a hand over her mouth. The giggles kept coming no matter how much she tried to stop them. Gabe couldn’t remember hearing her laugh like this. Her eyes twinkled, and her face came alive.

  “Are you hysterical? Do I need to slap you?”

  He could not allow himself to be any more enamored by this woman.

  “Forgive me.” She waved a hand at him. “I was imagining in what form your persuasion came, considering I have seen what you are capable of.”

  “You are quite the bloodthirsty woman, Miss Brown.”

  “The thought of my ex-brother intimidated does make me smile.”

  “Well then, please laugh away.” He smiled back. “I would rather have this than you scowling and reproaching me constantly. I also do not like to see tears in a woman’s eyes.”

  “I don’t reproach you,” she managed to get out as her giggles eased. “A piano teacher does not reproach an earl.”

  “Will that be in your rule book somewhere?”

  “It should be,” she said, inhaling a deep, steadying breath. “And while you should not have approached that man who was once my brother, I find I am grateful that you did. So, thank you.”

  Gabe placed a hand over his heart. “Dimity, I’m not sure I can take much more of this. You said thank you and that you are glad I did what I did. Please yell at me so I may feel more comfortable.”

  “Extremely amusing, but I am happy to have my father’s things, and the money I received is being put to good use. So, thank you.”

  She eased her hand from beneath his. Her fingers were long and slender. What would they feel like touching him?

  “You are welcome. What are you planning to do with the money?”

  And just like that, the open expression in her eyes changed. Her lashes lowered, and her eyes were now focused on the cup before her.

  “I have not decided.”

  “Now that’s a lie.”

  She exhaled slowly. “I am doing some investigating, and that is all you need to know. Now I must go. Thank you for the tea, my lord.” She got to her feet and was heading out the door in seconds. Gabe left some money on the table and followed. He caught up with her outside.

  “What kind of investigating? Please tell me it is not something dangerous.” Gabe grabbed her upper arm.

  “I did not ask for your company, Lord Raine.” Her words were cool now. “Go back and finish your food.”

  “But if I do that, you will not get to see my secret.” Gabe urged her to the right.

  “I need to return to the duchess’s house.”

  “And the French fop?”

  “Mr. Diard is a nice man who is kind enough to have invited me to the theater.”

  “I’ll take you, then you will not have to suffer his company and those feminine lace cuffs.”

  Gabe watched as she tried to muffle her smile.

  “Unhand me.”

  Her words had no strength, because she was intrigued and wanted to know his secret.

  “I will only keep you a few minutes.”

  “Oh, very well, but it is— “

  “Not right?”

  Her teeth snapped together.

  The houses here all butted up against each other, the doors right on the street. Reaching the fifth one from the tea shop, Gabe opened it and walked inside.

  “What is this place?” She stood in the entrance and turned on her heel, taking in the small space. White walls, no adornment. Gabe had not decorated the place with much, just what he needed.

  “It is my place.”

  “But why do you have it?” She frowned.

  “I wanted somewhere to come where I can think and be alone. Come, I will give you a tour.”

  “You said you had a room. This is a house.”

  “Pardon me for not clarifying.”

  She hesitated when he nudged her in the back.

  “No one will see you here, Dimity. But of course, if you wish to leave, I will not stop you. But if you go, you will not see my other secret.”

  She looked from him to the stairs.

  “I can stay a few minutes.”

  She followed him up, and he showed her the small parlor that held a table and two chairs, and the bedroom, which merely held a bed. He tensed as they approached the second bedroom but opened the door and waved her inside.

  She walked into the room and went to the easel by the window. Gabe liked to paint, but he was just learning. It had been something he’d started as a child, but after the death of his mother, he’d not done so again.

  His father had been ravaged by sorrow and needed his eldest son’s help managing estates and helping to raise the other Deville siblings.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

  He exhaled slowly. Moving forward, he stood behind her and looked at the canvas. It was a painting of the rooftops outside the window. Smoke, blue skies, and floating clouds.

  “It’s wonderful,” Dimity added, looking up at him. “You have a talent, my lord. Why is it you do not paint at home with your brothers?”

  He wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that, and if he was honest there was no reason not to share this with his siblings. They would not mock him for it.

  “I don’t know, really. I just wanted it to be something I did alone.”

  “Well, it seems you have a great deal more in common with Mr. Diard than I first thought.” Her smile was full of mischief.

  She studied the painting again; he studied the soft tendrils at the base of her neck beneath her bonnet. The curve of her gown’s neckline left skin exposed, and he wanted to place his lips there. Gabe was alone with a woman he dreamed hot, erotic dreams about, and suddenly that was a very bad idea.

  “Dimity,” Gabe rasped. “You should go.”

  Her eyes shot to his. Turning slightly, her body now angled toward him.

  “Yes.” She didn’t move.

  “The door, you should leave through it,” he managed to get out.

  “Yes,” she whispered, still not moving.

  He touched her cheek, running a single finger down the silken skin before untying the ribbons that held her bonnet in place. Removing it, he dropped it to the floor.

  “I shouldn’t kiss you,” he said, lowering his head.

  “No, you shouldn’t,” she said, turning fully to face him.

  This was nothing like their other kisses. This was soft and sensual. He took her mouth in a slow, heated exploration. She made a small sound in her throat as he wrapped an arm around her back, pulling her closer. So close that every curve was soon pressed to his body.

  Blood pounded through him.

  Her hands went to his shoulders, then around his neck. The kiss deepened, his body hardened, and he wanted more. So much more of her.

  “I have wanted you from the first day I met you.” He said the words into the sweet-smelling skin of her neck.<
br />
  “I know. I felt the same. It was this way between us from the beginning.”

  “It was.” He drank from her lips again. Desperation to be closer to her had him lifting Dimity to her toes so he could take more of her mouth. Deepen the contact.

  He’d lifted her into his arms before he’d realized what he was doing and made for the room next door.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Dimity couldn’t think. Her head was full of Gabriel Deville. His lips drugged her with need. Those skilled, strong hands of his were traveling over her body, and through her dress she felt everywhere they landed.

  “Do you want this?” He whispered the words into her neck, each breath making her shiver as it caressed her skin.

  She couldn’t think, only managed a sound she hoped was an affirmative. He understood, as his fingers went to the hem of her dress and slowly eased it up her body. Dimity shuddered when he reached the naked skin of her upper thigh.

  Heat, need—it was all there and pushed rational thought aside. Never had she felt anything like this. Felt what others talked of. No kiss had ever before unleashed the demons of passion inside her.

  “I want to see you, Dimity. Have dreamed of that for so long.”

  “Yes.” She reached for his shirt as he reached for the buttons of her dress. He won, and her dress soon loosened. He pushed it from her shoulders and down her body.

  “So beautiful.” His mouth caressed a bare shoulder.

  She would surely melt to a puddle right there at his feet.

  “You skin is like silk.” His lips traveled down her shoulder. Dimity’s eyes closed to savor the sensations.

  She felt his hands in her hair, pins being released, and then it fell in a heavy weight down her spine.

  “Since that night when I found you in that bar, I’ve wanted to see your hair like this again.”

  “You were so angry,” she managed to rasp as he picked up her hand and kissed each of her fingers.

  “I was angry for what had put you there when clearly you did not wish to be, but that did not mean I was unaware of you.” He moved to the next hand and wove the web of passion tighter around her as he kissed each finger. The last he sucked into his mouth slowly.

  “My lord,” she whispered, unsure what else to say. She only knew that if he stopped, she’d beg him to continue.

  “Gabe. I want to hear you call me Gabe.”

  He eased the chemise down her body, and she watched his eyes darken as they looked at what he’d uncovered.

  “I imagined you, but my imagination is sorely lacking when faced with reality. Your beauty eclipses all others, Dimity.” Such strength, yet so delicate, his hand ran up her side in a feather-soft touch, his thumb stroking close to her breast. “I am your slave, madam,” he whispered.

  “Gabe….”

  “Easy.” He kissed her softly as his thumb moved closer. Then he was cupping her full flesh, his palm stroking a pebbled nipple.

  The pleasure was exquisite and almost too much. Heat pooled between her thighs and she wanted him… wanted more.

  “Christ, you inflame me.” He stepped back.

  She watched him pull off his boots, then tear the shirt from his body. Lastly, he eased down his breeches.

  Her eyes flew over what he’d uncovered. Taking in the golden skin stretched across broad shoulders and wide chest covered with slopes and planes of muscle. He was magnificent.

  “I want to touch you,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he gritted out.

  The muscles in his jaw bunched as she stroked his shoulder, before traveling down his body, over the warm flesh of his chest. Hot and hard, she thought.

  “You have a beautiful body, my lord.”

  “Gabe. And it is you that are beautiful.” He tilted her chin and kissed her softly. The passion that simmered, flared to life as he pressed her to him, skin touching skin, igniting them both.

  She felt his arousal pressed to her belly, the thickness and size, and had a momentary doubt, and then his hand was there between her legs. Stroking the curls that led to her secret places.

  “I will never hurt you.”

  “I know.” She sighed as the finger stroked deeper between her legs. Soft, yet probing.

  “Oh, Gabe.” Dimity felt the tension inside her rise.

  He eased her back onto the bed, then lay down beside her. His mouth and hands began a sensual journey, touching every dip and curve of her body.

  “I have dreamt of you, but nothing prepared me for this… for you,” he leaned over to kiss the curve of her breast.

  She’d never wanted a man like she did this one. Even through her innocence she understood this for what it was. Not just any man would make her feel this way.

  “Let go, sweetheart.”

  When his lips closed around a nipple, she sighed. His fingers pushed inside her, and suddenly she was filled with a sensation that had her fingers digging into his shoulders.

  “Oh my,” Dimity managed when she could think again.

  “Oh my, indeed.” He straddled her thighs looking down at her. The circle of dots on her thigh drew his eyes. He touched it with a finger, and she shivered.

  “Each is perfectly formed, and they make a circle, almost as if someone has drawn it.”

  “I have had that since birth.”

  “It’s exquisite, as are you.”

  His eyes burned into hers. She read the fire and need in the dark depths.

  Dimity reached for him, and he lowered his body, bracing himself above her. She touched the line of his jaw, then stroked her hand down his chest to his waist. She felt his arousal against her fingers and ran a finger over the slick tip.

  “Wrap your fingers around me, Dimity.” Gabe gritted out the words. “Yesss” hissed from his lips as she did as he directed and let her fingers slide up and down the hard length. “So good,” he moaned.

  “I need you, Gabe,” Dimity begged, knowing that only he could ease the ache inside her. And in seconds there he was, probing her entrance.

  She tried not to stiffen as she felt the unfamiliar penetration. He took her mouth in a kiss, robbing her wits once more, and she opened her legs wider. He eased forward more, filling her, stretching her, and then he was at the barrier of her innocence.

  “You’re a virgin?” He looked at her, shocked.

  Dimity said nothing, simply arching up and taking him deep inside her. Gabe moaned and thrust, burying himself completely in her.

  There was a stinging sensation, but also so much more than just pain. To feel so possessed by him was indescribable. Closer than she had ever been with anyone before.

  “You should have told me,” he gritted out, once again braced above her. His eyes ran over her face, and in that moment, he looked like a fierce warrior, his gentlemanly veneer stripped away.

  “Take me, Gabe.”

  Three simple words that seemed to unlock his restraint.

  The delicious slide of friction was both pleasure and pain as he eased out of her and drove back in. Dimity wanted more. He did it again and again, and the delicious tension rose inside her. Different from the last one, this climax threw her into a vortex of sensation. His kiss was hard, teeth clashing as he drove into her. His hand cupped her breast, rolling her nipple, and she shattered, scaling the summit of pleasure once more. Gabe collapsed on her seconds later.

  He pinned her to the bed, and Dimity wrapped her arms around him, holding him there.

  Their breathing was ragged, hearts beating hard in their chests.

  She’d always wondered what could be between a man and woman, and yet had never thought to experience it unless she married. Today, Lord Raine had given her that understanding. He’d given her passion too.

  “Are you all right?” He rolled to lie beside her. “Why did you not tell me you were a virgin?”

  “Why would I not be?” Suddenly she felt unsettled and defensive. Now the passion that had clouded her thoughts was gone, doubt had taken its place. Defensive, Dim
ity went on the attack. “Just because I am not of noble birth does not mean I’m promiscuous. Or did you believe because I worked in that bar I naturally had slept with the patrons?”

  She turned her head, and their eyes collided. He was no longer touching her. There was no fierce look of longing in his eyes.

  “Don’t put words in my mouth, Dimity. I believed it because your neighbor alluded to you entertaining men in your rooms the night I found you.”

  “And because I was desperate, I did so? How restrained of you not to mention it, or to want to touch me considering how you must feel about me.” She looked away from him, hurting.

  “You’re being irrational. That’s not how I feel at all. He said he hoped I paid you well. I took his words to mean you were entertaining men.”

  She was being irrational, but then this was new to her. She’d lain with a man, and not just any man: an earl. Her friend’s brother. Dimity was struggling to think straight.

  “Is that why you brought me here, because you thought I’d…” She couldn’t say the words.

  “Don’t be insulting.”

  “Me, insulting? You just told me you thought I’d turned to prostitution to survive!” He winced as she shrieked.

  “I told you why I believed that. Now calm down. You can move your things here tomorrow.” He got off the bed, and she watched him pour water in a bowl. He came back with a cloth that he handed her.

  “Pardon?”

  “There will be blood,” he said calmly. “Use the cloth for that.”

  He lay back on the bed, sated, body relaxed like a bloody Roman emperor, while inside she was all over the place like Chibbers’s eyebrows.

  “You must move in here now.”

  “Why?” All that lovely softness she’d felt after the lovemaking was gone. In its place was tension. Lots of tension. And pain; her heart had begun to ache.

  “Dimity, I just took your innocence,” he said, as if that answered everything.

  She climbed off the bed and walked to the water. Once there, she quickly washed herself before grabbing her chemise.

  “I am not a nobleman’s daughter, Lord Raine. The rules your delicate ladies adhere to do not apply to me. I can lie with a man and carry on with my life without falling about the place in a fit of vapors.”