He gripped her waist to stop himself from doing anything that she didn’t want, like burying his face between her breasts or sliding his fingers up her inner thigh to find the soft curls hiding her sex. With an effort, he strove to keep his voice light as he said, “What next?”
She sank her teeth into her lip and looked up at him through the dark fan of her lashes. “Even though I have qualms about removing my own clothes, would you consider taking off your waistcoat and shirt, Max? You haven’t minded going shirtless in front of me before. As far as I can tell.”
He grinned. “Gladly.” While he loosened his cravat and his collar, Charlie applied herself to the task of undoing his waistcoat buttons. When she pulled his shirt from the waistband of his trousers, her fingertips grazed his hips, and his flesh jumped at the contact.
“Are you ticklish down there, Max?” she asked with a coquettish smile.
“Perhaps…” He tossed his cravat on the floor and undid his cuffs. “You’ll have to excuse me while I sit forward to remove the rest.”
“I don’t mind at all,” she said, so he arched his back, shrugged out of his waistcoat, then tugged his shirt over his head. Both garments landed on the floor unheeded.
Leaning back, Max took pleasure in watching Charlie’s gaze roam over his nakedness. The way her eyes had darkened and the fact she was biting her lip again was making him harder than an iron rod. “Well, my lady. What do you think?” he asked with a deliberately wicked smile. He was a keen Corinthian, and he knew that he was lean and particularly well-muscled. In the past, other women had always been complimentary about his appearance. But their opinions no longer mattered. Only Charlie’s did, and he burned to know if she really did find him attractive too.
“I…” A blush flooded her cheeks. “I think you are the perfect male specimen,” she murmured huskily.
He caught her chin lightly and captured her gaze. “Thank you.” His voice was gentle yet solemn. “My male pride is definitely appeased, but I assure you that I’m not perfect. You’ve seen my damaged foot. And I have scars on various parts of my person. My left arm and my lower back.” And then there are the scars on my frostbitten heart…
Charlie splayed her fingers over his bare chest. “They don’t matter to me, Max. You’re beautiful.”
“And that’s how I feel about you,” he said softly. “I adore your wild hair and your abundant curves.” His hands, curled about her waist, slid to her hips. “How lush and ripe you feel beneath my palms. You’re beautiful to me because you’re Charlie. You’re not like anyone else. And it’s you that I want…only you.” Plunging his fingers into the silky hair at her nape, he straightened a little until they were chest to chest. Mouth to mouth. “This yearning, this burning and overwhelming need to have you, I’ve tried to deny it, but I can’t. Not any longer. No one else will do.”
He wasn’t sure who moved first, but in the next instant, he and Charlie were kissing hungrily, like both of them were starving and couldn’t get enough of each other. Frantically tasting and licking and devouring.
And Charlie’s hands, they were everywhere. In his hair. Kneading his shoulders. Sliding over his biceps and the hard wall of his chest. Across his torso, tracing his ribs, making his heated flesh twitch and leap. And her mouth… Good God, her hot, sweet mouth. She nipped at his ear and grazed her lips across the line of his jaw where his night beard was beginning to form. Dropped a trail of feverish kisses down the tight cords of his neck to his pectoral muscles. She made him hot and breathless and desperate, and as he gripped her luscious arse and bucked his hips, his cock uselessly strained toward the very center of her. He inwardly cursed himself for already breaking his vow to exercise restraint and take things slowly.
But then, he’d also given Charlie free rein to make the rules and set the pace. And really, what could he do when she was using the tip of her tongue to torment one of his nipples, just like he would do to her if her breasts were unbound and free? When she began to lick and suckle his other nipple, pulling a throttled moan from deep within his throat, he wasn’t sure how much more he could bear.
He buried one of his hands in her tumbling tresses, and at last, she took pity on him. She raised her head and murmured urgently, “Undo my gown, Max.”
“With pleasure,” he groaned. He reached behind her, then cursed beneath his breath when he discovered his fingers were trembling. Good God, his fierce desire for this woman was making him as clumsy as an inexperienced youth. Somehow, he managed to release the row of damnably small pearl buttons, then he loosened the laces of her corset and the ribbon tie securing the neckline of her chemise.
At long last, her delightfully plump breasts with their taut apricot tips spilled free. Free for him to gaze at and fondle and taste with tongue and lips until Charlie was moaning and clutching mindlessly at his head and grinding her hips in blatant invitation against his.
“Max.” She tugged at his hair, and he reluctantly lifted his head. He stared into her golden-brown eyes, their dilated pupils deep enough to drown in.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, his voice hoarse and thick with lust.
“No…I want you to touch me.” She reached for one of his hands and guided it between her thighs. “Here.”
God in heaven. His fingers brushed her curls, and beneath them, she was hot and oh, so wet. “I can do better than that,” he whispered. “I can taste you there…if you want me to.”
He held his breath. Please say yes.
She smiled. “Well, if you’re offering…”
“I am. Wrap your legs around me.” Lashing one arm beneath Charlie’s buttocks and one about her waist, he surged to his feet and headed across the room.
There was no time like the present to move things to his bed.
Chapter 25
“I never knew before, what such a love as you have made me feel, was; I did not believe in it; my Fancy was afraid of it, lest it should burn me up. But if you will fully love me, though there may be some fire, 'twill not be more than we can bear when moistened and bedewed with Pleasures.” —An exclusive extract from a Love Sonnet by Mr. John Keats
The Beau Monde Mirror: The Literary Arts
As soon as Max settled her upon his wide four-poster bed, Charlie closed her eyes. Not because she was nervous or ashamed, but because she wanted to give herself over to the delicious sensations that Max was about to evoke with his hands and mouth. She’d heard all about this decadent act before—indeed, she’d often imagined it while she’d touched herself in her own bed—and she couldn’t wait to experience it with Max.
His mouth ravished hers briefly, the kiss dark and hot and intense. Then he shifted his weight, moving down her body, lifting her skirts and petticoats, exposing her legs and her sex to his gaze.
Even though she’d resolved not to watch, she couldn’t resist cracking open an eyelid to sneak a look at Max’s face. Would he like what was on display?
She needn’t have worried because his expression was rapt as he studied her. He wedged his broad shoulders between her thighs, pushing her legs even wider. A blush burning her from head to toe, she tried to imagine what she looked like down there, so open and exposed to him, but couldn’t.
And then her thoughts all but disintegrated as he parted her throbbing, no doubt slippery folds with his wicked fingers and blew across her swollen bud where her pleasure was centered. Oh my…
“Peaches,” he murmured against her fevered wet flesh. “I can almost hear your mind working, my darling Charlotte, so I thought you might like to know your pretty pussy reminds me of summer peaches. So slick and sweet and too delicious for words.”
And then he set his mouth on her, and Charlie’s eyelids slammed shut again.
Oh. Dear. God.
Max’s tongue teased her clitoris, circling and flicking and laving and… Oh, it felt so good. So wonderful. So wicked…
Charlie moaned when he slid two long fingers inside her, plunging in and out, in and out while his lips circled
her bud, drawing on it with exquisite, delicate suction. The tension that always heralded her release was building, spiraling… She began to gasp and pant, and she speared her fingers into Max’s hair, gripping his scalp. With one large hand splayed over her belly, he held her captive, his tongue working her mercilessly, flicking and lapping the pulsing, straining peak of her sex, and oh…she was so close to finding heaven…
And with one last suckle, she was there, tossed skyward into the stars. Her whole body arched, and she let loose an abandoned, pleasure-soaked cry. She clutched at Max’s head as sublime satisfaction coursed through her veins, rendering her boneless with contentment.
Max moved alongside her and gathered her into his arms. He rubbed his nose against hers. “Thank you for allowing me to pleasure you that way, Charlie.”
“You’re thanking me?” Charlie caressed his stubbled jaw. “I think it’s supposed to be the other way round. In fact…” She slid a hand between their bodies and stroked Max’s hard, heavy length through the fall of his trousers. “I can think of the perfect way to say thank you. Do you want me to use my mouth or—”
Max kissed her, and Charlie tasted her own essence on his tongue. “I want to be inside you,” he murmured against her lips. “Most desperately. If you’ll let me.”
He wanted her desperately? Charlie couldn’t help but smile. To hear Max make such an admission was both thrilling and heart-melting in equal measure. “I want that too,” she whispered. “And of course I’ll let you. Only, I don’t want any barriers between us. I’m ready to take everything off, Max. I want you to see all of me.” And it wasn’t a lie. He’d pleasured her so intimately, and she’d reveled in it. There was nothing left to fear or to hide. She trusted Max completely.
He drew back a little and searched her gaze. “Are you sure?”
“I haven’t a single doubt in my mind.”
Max kissed her again, then set to work, sliding off her loosened gown, corset, and chemise, tugging petticoat tapes undone, and very soon, nothing remained except for her silk stockings.
Max sat back on his haunches, and as his heated gaze wandered over her naked body, she didn’t try to cover any part of herself. Not her breasts, nor her softly rounded belly or full hips, nor the chestnut thatch between her thighs. At long last, she felt entirely beautiful. Not just desired but adored. Max might not have made any declarations of love, but the way he was worshipping her with his eyes, she could sense there was more than lust behind his heavy-lidded gaze. And when he whispered, “Charlie, you’re a goddess,” in a voice that was brimming with awe, she believed him.
Charlie was gloriously naked. Her thick chestnut curls spread around her like a fiery halo upon his cobalt-blue silk counterpane. Her almost translucent skin was as pale and voluptuous as cream. And her nipples, so tight and mouth-wateringly pink…
There were so many things Max wanted to do with her, and none of them involved him wearing trousers. With rough, impatient movements, he dispensed with his remaining clothes and slid over her, covering her body with his, reveling in the contact of his bare flesh against hers.
She wound her arms around his neck. “Make love to me, Max,” she whispered, her eyes bright with desire and some other, deeper emotion that went beyond affection.
Max stilled, his breath hitching as a profound realization slammed into him. Not that Charlie loved him. He’d suspected that for some time. No, it was the dawning awareness that his feelings for Charlie were far stronger than he’d been willing to acknowledge. No, not willing. That was the wrong word. Able to acknowledge.
As tenderness like a soft glowing fire unfurled inside his chest, he closed his eyes and twisted his fingers into the counterpane, waiting for the bone-deep chill that he dreaded to take over and blast through him, turning him into a quaking, useless mess. But nothing happened. Yes, his erection still throbbed, and his pulse continued to race, but the ache in the vicinity of his heart was sweet and warm. So not really an ache, and not terrifying at all.
It was a feeling he could no longer deny. Nor did he want to.
“Max?” Charlie stroked his hair away from his fevered brow. “Are you all right?”
He opened his eyes and smiled. “I’m fine. Never better.” He kissed her with lingering fervor laced with gentleness. This, what he and Charlie were doing right now, it wasn’t just about satisfying his own lust and hers. This was making love, and that was something he’d never, ever done before.
And it was all because of Charlie. She was the woman of his dreams.
Nudging her thighs apart with his knees, Max settled his length along the hot damp cleft of her sex.
Oh God, she felt good. So good… His cock was pulsing, ready to explode, but he would take care. She might not be a virgin, but it had been a long time since she’d done this.
He dipped his head and lavished attention on her bountiful breasts, alternately suckling, then swirling his tongue around each sweet, tight peak. He wanted to make sure Charlie was absolutely ready for his entry. He wanted her wet and desperate with desire, just like he was.
When Charlie mewled in frustration and tilted her hips, his erection slid between her dew-slick folds, and he almost lost control. He couldn’t delay their joining any longer. Gritting his teeth, he gripped his pulsating shaft in one hand and skimmed the head of his cock through the welling moisture at her entrance before pressing forward, nudging slowly into her.
Charlie’s body tensed, and when she sucked in a sharp breath, Max’s heart contracted with guilt.
He froze. “I’m sorry if I’m hurting you,” he said, staring down into her face. A slight furrow had appeared between her brows, and her eyes were screwed shut.
“It’s all right. I’m fine,” she whispered. She opened her eyes and offered him a smile. “It burned a little at first, but that’s all. I won’t break. Don’t hold back on my account.”
He feathered a light kiss across her lips. “If you’re sure…”
She firmed her gaze and gripped his shoulders. “I am. Take me, Max. I’m more than ready. I want this. I want you.”
“Very well.” Max drew a bracing breath, then surged forward in one long, slow glide, burying himself to the hilt.
Oh, God. Charlie was so hot and tight and slick. He nuzzled the delicious curve of her neck, licking the hollow of her throat as her body clasped his. He couldn’t get enough of her. Her taste. Her scent. Her everything. “You’re so sweet, my darling,” he groaned against her satiny skin. “So warm and wet…so lovely.”
He felt her body quiver with mirth. “And you’re so big. But not in a bad ‘I think I’m going to burst’ way. More of a ‘I’m so wonderfully full’ way.” Her hands slid from his shoulders, down the tense muscles of his back until they reached his clenched buttocks and she squeezed. “I can’t wait to feel you move inside me.”
Her words were all the encouragement Max needed. He began to pulse in and out of Charlie with a smooth, gentle rocking motion. But all too soon, it wasn’t enough for either of them.
“I want more…I need…oh yes, that’s it,” Charlie moaned as Max’s thrusts became more urgent. With each sure stroke, he plunged harder and deeper, his rhythm growing faster, more frantic. And Charlie kept up with his pace. She met him thrust for thrust, tilting her hips, welcoming his body as he pounded in and out of her with increasing desperation. Taking everything he had to give.
Her gasps and soft moans were music to his ears, the scrape of her teeth against his shoulder pure delight. He prayed she was almost there because he couldn’t hold off for much longer. He was panting and sweating, and his orgasm was gathering force. Passion raced like fire through his veins, tightening his balls… Oh, sweet Jesus…
He took his weight on one arm and lifted one of Charlie’s legs, altering the angle of his penetration. All at once, she bucked her hips and cried out his name. Her nails dug into his back, and she spasmed around him, gripping his plunging cock so tightly he saw stars.
The feel of her losin
g all control was Max’s own undoing. On a harsh cry, he withdrew and came in hot, hard spurts between Charlie’s trembling thighs before collapsing on the bed beside her. Chest heaving, muscles twitching, he was utterly spent and so goddamned replete, he’d probably be smiling for a year and a day.
If Charlie would have him, maybe for the rest of his life…
Sometime later, when they’d both washed and donned robes—Charlie’s crushed dress had been sent belowstairs with a maid to be pressed—Max ordered a tray, and they sat together before his sitting-room fire, dining on an array of cheeses and fruit, all washed down with a fine claret.
Once sated, Charlie snuggled up to Max on the settee and watched the play of the dancing firelight in the depths of the ruby-red wine in her glass. Surrounded by Max’s arms and his velvet robe that smelled exactly like him, Charlie thought she must be in heaven. Indeed, she was so drowsy and content, she could have purred like Peridot.
When Max shifted and stretched his bare lower legs and toes toward the fire, Charlie couldn’t help but notice his damaged foot. She wanted to ask him about his past but was too timid to bring up the subject. Of course, she already knew the story behind the freshly healed scar on his left bicep. But how he’d come to lose a toe and why his lower back bore a significant scar—she’d felt the ridge when they’d made love and had seen the angry welt just below the dimples at the bottom of his spine when they’d bathed in his dressing room—was a complete mystery to her.
Every time she thought about Max suffering, her own heart contracted with pain.
Whether he’d noticed the direction of her gaze or his thoughts were simply in concert with hers, Charlie wasn’t sure. In any event, it seemed Max was in the mood to share his past history with her. She was nothing but touched as he said quietly, “I suppose you’re wondering about my injuries. What happened to my foot and my back?”
How to Catch a Devilish Duke: The Disreputable Debutantes Page 30
