Chapter 15

It's been twelve agonizingly long days. My love and I have finally resumed speaking.

~ The Duchess of A

T he minute he found himself alone, Cadogan dragged a hand over his face.

Bloody hell. The chit needed to get herself married. Cadogan desperately needed her to marry some good, boring, safe, respectable fellow.

When had he ever been so fascinated by a woman—at that, a goddamned lily-white virgin.

Disgusted with himself, Cadogan quit the host's office, and, after he drew the door shut behind him, he started at a quick clip, the same path Raina had taken.

Perhaps he should take Argyll up on his generous offer. Perhaps he should have the duke select two— no , three—of his filthiest, most accomplished bawds for Cadogan. Cadogan could fuck them all senseless and do the wickedest things to them and with them. Then, and only then, in relieving himself of this unbridled, irrational lust that gripped him whenever he so much as thought about Lady Raina, could he think clearly again.

At least, when he'd been instructed to lure the secrets out of the mistresses, lovers, and wives of men who were enemies to the State, he'd been able to fuck freely with work being the ultimate driving force. In each of those many encounters, sex with those wantons had been an enormous benefit that kept his head clear.

But he couldn't fuck Raina.

Oh, he wanted to. He wanted to do the dirtiest, most debauched things to her gloriously curved body.

The Princess, however, was off-limits, and her being forbidden fruit, only made him hungrier for her.

She—

Footfalls and the low murmur of voices reached him.

"There's not been a sight of the peacock," one of the men was saying, his tone wreathed in frustration.

Cadogan's eyebrows dipped.

Their voices and steps grew nearer.

"What's the matter? Afraid, she's already busy servicing some other man's cock?"

"I'm sure she is," the friend said, sounding purely disgruntled at the thought as if he had some right and possession of the lady in question.

The lady in question being…

From a place deep within, where the greatest evil and darkness dwelled inside Cadogan, a growl built.

Raina .

Balling his hands into tight fists of fury, Cadogan ducked into the nearest room, and waited.

"Worry not, old chum," the other fellow said, his voice growing nearer. "Given the stories of the late duchess's exploits, the fact someone's in her cunny right now, hardly means she wouldn't be more than happy to be stuffed full a second, third, or fourth time, right after." The gentleman paused. "In fact, maybe even at the same time," he added, as they passed by the parlor where Cadogan stood, stationed.

The pair erupted into ribald laughter.

A breathtaking and boundless rage coursed through every nerve ending in Cadogan's being.

Caught up in their crude discourse on Raina, the bastards never heard him coming.

Cadogan caught each man by the side of their necks. He sank a finger into their pressure points which held them paralyzed. Their previous levity gave way to pathetic whimpers.

Cadogan positioned himself so both men could hear the threat he'd make this day.

"If you ever speak her name, attempt to speak with her, about her, why, if you so much as breathe the beginning initials of her name, you'll pray for death, by the time I'm done with you," he vowed on a low, graveled whisper.

Without another word, Cadogan brought the men's heads colliding at the temple.

They crumpled into a noiseless heap; their hilarity of before silenced.

It wasn't enough.

His chest heaving, Cadogan stood, the savage beast that he was, looming over them; his fingers curled into claws as the monster he'd been transformed into. He itched, ached, and yearned to rip their throats out and kill them.

The urge to murder was strong as it'd ever been. Filled with a primal urge to silence them forever, Cadogan could taste their blood on his tongue like he'd already spilled it.

With a growl, he brought his heel back and kicked first one, and then the other, in their sides, over and over again.

A festering black rage hung like a curtain over his vision.

These whoresons would wear his mark this night as a reminder of the gruesome fate awaiting them should they dare defy Cadogan.

Snarling, he crowded over the unconscious pair. He unleashed his full wrath upon them. Enlivened, energized, renewed in taking down Raina's detractors, Cadogan slammed a fist into the lanky fellow's face first. The bastard's nose crumpled under that blow until blood gushed from that broken appendage and coated Cadogan's knuckles.

As he delivered the man an unforgivable beating, Cadogan's chest heaved from the thrill of punishing the ones who'd dared breathe her name.

A moan from the other prig penetrated Cadogan's all-consuming, demonic wrath.

Perspiring from his exertions, Cadogan put all his attention on the prig just starting to come through. With a feral grin, Cadogan leveraged back to deliver the neglected bounder, the same fate as his chum—when a faint whisper reached him.

"S…Severin?"

He froze.

Fuck.

Straightening, Cadogan turned toward the owner of that softly lilting voice.

Some ten yards away stood Raina. The portions of her face revealed by her mask were a stark white, her lush lips parted in a pretty moue…and those eyes. Those revelatory blues that were a window into her soul and thoughts.

His rapidly speeding pulse slowed to a dull, sickening, thump.

Christ.

What had he done?

He'd been careless. He'd never been negligent.

But that isn't really true , is it? Cadogan's inner voice mocked him. You were sloppy, once before and that slackness cost you a career.

That silent reminder alone should propel him into movement. Instead, he loomed over his vanquished foes, as immobilized as those lesser men.

He'd vowed to never again be as weak as he'd been on that failed mission, and yet, frozen in this corridor across from Raina, with discovery imminent, he found himself more impotent than ever—because of a woman.

No, not just any woman.

Her.

This Siren.

His Achille's heel.

This enchantress who, with graceful, confident strides, now moved steadily toward him, while Cadogan's own legs had been rendered useless.

As she neared, he drew his top lip back in a feral sneer. His blood coursed still with rage over the men who'd dared disparage her, at Raina for having caught him in a rare moment of weakness, and himself for having been so absorbed as to not have heard her approach.

By the time she reached him, a boiling pent-up frustration reached a crescendo, and he opened his mouth to blast her for returning.

Going up on tiptoe, Raina twined her slender limbs about his neck and effectively silenced him.

Without missing a beat, his innocent, beguiling, temptress, pressed her soft, supple body against him. His entire body went stiff, and his randy cock responded to the feel of her.

His chest rose hard and fell in time to hers. Their breaths—his harsh, hers ragged—melded and meshed.

With their gazes, they searched one another's faces.

"Thank you," she breathed against his mouth.

Cadogan took her hips in his hands; his fingers bit into her so hard, she gasped.

Narrowing his eyes, Cadogan squeezed her tightly. "You're nothing but an assignment, Princess," he ground out, that sharp, angry reminder for the both of them.

Raina, intrepid and stunningly strong-willed, held his gaze with a stunning directness. "I don't believe that, Severin," she said, so calm in that mellifluent utterance, it had the opposite effect on Cadogan.

Burned, he released his hold on her hips and made to step out of her arms, but Raina tightened her hold about him.

Sheer, mindless panic, the likes of which he'd never known, held him in its grip.

"You're wrong," he taunted. " Desperate , if you believe that ."

Me, I'm the desperate one.

The fact Raina held him, and Cadogan made not the slightest attempt to shake free of her weaker hold, when anyone, at any minute could pass by, showed her wieldy power over him.

"You didn't save my life," she said softly. "You defended my name ." The long, graceful column of her neck moved rhythmically up and down. "That was never part of your assignment, Severin. You could have let those two men continue on their way and forget you ever heard it, but you didn't."

He couldn't speak, because her words were truth, and effectively lying in this moment, to her, evaded even him.

Christ. How much had she witnessed?

Cadogan cast a frantic look back over at the still unconscious pair he'd silenced. Worse, what might she have overheard him say?

Raina brushed her fingers in a delicate, butterfly-soft caress along his jawline, and guided his focus back to her. Her tender, lingering, touch, burned Cadogan—in every way.

"You avenged my honor, Severin." Tears turned her eyes into shimmery pools.

With every word she spoke, his panic spiraled.

But the tears.

Her tears would be his downfall. Even when they glimmered from the joy expressed within.

"Why the hell are you here, Princess?" he rasped. "Why the fuck didn't you go back to the festivities like I instructed?"

Why, when by returning to this spot, she'd unsettled the universe's balance?

Raina moved her guileless eyes across his face. Suddenly, she went motionless.

Her neat, slender brows flared like some great understanding just dawned.

Cadogan tensed and reached up to untangle her graceful arms from about him.

Then, Raina lifted herself higher up onto tiptoe and brought herself close so her breath, an intoxicating blend of champagne and strawberries, teased his lips.

She pressed her mouth against his in a gentle, but full kiss.

All the while, she moved her lips over his, Cadogan remained rooted to the spot, fighting for restraint; digging deep.

She paused, with her lips a hairsbreadth away from his own. "Kiss me," she whispered, hers a plea and a command, so divergent, his shaft twitched at the unexpected—and unexpectedly, appetizing juxtaposition.

Then moaning, Raina parted her lips and gave him full dominion over her mouth, issuing an erotic invitation for Cadogan to sin and surrender—and he was lost.

He froze and then with a low, fierce growl he folded her in his arms. Without breaking contact with her lips, he drove Raina back into the previous parlor he'd secreted himself.

He didn't even dig down to salvage his habitually rigid self-control. Enflamed as he'd never been, he now knew fighting was futile. He'd not get back to a place of self-mastery until he slaked his lust with this woman.

It had to be her.

And, with his caution as fucked as Cadogan himself was, he kicked his heel back and shoved the panel shut.

In one quick movement, he drove her against the door.

The panel gave a noisy thump.

His body made a prison around her.

"They don't matter, Raina," he jeered. He bore his eyes into hers. "You spend so much of your life trying to conform yourself into some fictional, unflawed, colorless, lady to please a world that cannot be pleased."

Cadogan lowered his brow to hers. "All the while, love, you still haven't realized, there's nothing ordinary about you. You've an effervescence that cannot be dimmed, no matter how much you attempt to extinguish your own light."

Raina's breath caught; the shimmery, adoring, light that sparked to life, set off warning bells.

Refusing to focus on that deep reverence, he buried his mouth against hers.

He and Raina were both gripped by uncontrollable, mindless lust, for each other—that was it.

In life, everyone took what they wanted and needed. Cadogan did not take himself as any kind of exception to that rule.

His family, the Home Office, his clients, his bed partners, they all had wanted or did want something from him.

This innocent, firebrand, eagerly kissing him in return, was no different.

Steadied by those reminders, Cadogan glided his fingers all over Raina's shapely body. He cupped her high, buxom breasts in his hands; he squeezed and molded the plump flesh until Raina's heartfelt moans and breathy sighs filled his mouth.

Cadogan's pulse pounded in his ears. Sweat built at his brow.

Between each thumb and forefinger, he caught her nipples, and tweaked and squeezed.

Raina bucked her hips frantically into Cadogan.

A satisfied grin brought his lips up.

Yanking her flimsy skirts up, he shoved a knee between her legs, parted her, and drew her to rest on his thigh. In a rhythm as old as time, Raina, her breath coming as hard and fast as Cadogan's, sank onto leg and began to hump him.

A bead of moisture slipped down his cheek.

Gritting his teeth, Cadogan held her hips in his hands and guided Raina up and down. "Is this what you want, sweetheart?" he demanded, harshly in between each slant of his mouth over hers.

She whimpered and moaned her affirmation.

Cadogan grunted his approval.

Good, it was what he wanted, too—what he needed.

Then, he'd be fine.

She'd be well sated.

And he'd be free.

When Raina ground her core hard against him to find her climax more quickly, Cadogan tightened his hold on her hips and steered her rhythm.

"Slow, sweet," he urged, out of breath himself. "You don't rush lovemaking."

Raina's long, thick lashes fluttered, and she lifted desire-filled eyes to his. "I thought you didn't make l—"

Silencing the rest of that, Cadogan captured her mouth in a rabid kiss; he sucked her full, lower lip hard, alternately biting that crimson flush and suckling. Finally, he plunged his tongue inside and thrust wildly, angry in his desire.

Instead of maidenly fear, Raina moaned low and long; the movements of her hips grew faster and more frantic.

Pure, savage, lust consumed him.

Yanking the bodice of her gown down, Cadogan exposed her enormous breasts to his worship.

His mouth went dry at the bounteous sight before him. She'd the most beautifully formed titties he'd ever laid eyes on.

At his scrutiny, shy, virginal, Raina brought trembling hands up to cover herself.

Cadogan caught her hands in his and stopped her. "Don't shield yourself, sweet. You don't hide splendidness such as this."

Her eyes softened.

Disconcerted by the transparency in her every thought, move, and love, Cadogan threw himself back into his efforts of getting them both off this day.

He shifted his mouth; trailing a path of kisses, dragging his tongue along her heated skin, as he made his way to that place he had to taste.

Cadogan stopped with his lips a hairsbreadth away from her big, swollen, nipples.

"Look at these beautiful breasts," he praised, lifting the bounteous orbs in his palms. Her flesh overflowed even in Cadogan's large hands. "How could you ever think to hide them?"

"S-Severin," she implored.

Ignoring her pleas, he brought the heavy globes together, lowered his head, and flicked his tongue back and forth between the stiff peaks.

Exhaling a gasp, Raina sank onto his thigh and resumed grinding herself fiercely against him.

Cadogan sucked and suckled her; he kneaded and stroked her aching breasts until Raina's speech dissolved, and only incoherent utterances spilled from her swollen lips.

He stopped fast.

Raina cried out.

Her body crumpled against the door, and she stared at him with accusatory angry eyes.

Holding her desperate gaze with his amused one, he slowly, and deliberately shepherded her deeper into the room.

"Worry not, Raina," he teased, as she willingly went. "I'll give you another one of those delicious little deaths you so love." He brought her to a stop at the nearest piece of furniture. "This time," he said huskily, "this time, however, we'll both come."

She blushed as the virgin she was, even as her expressive eyes glittered with curiosity at the promise he'd made.

"Sit," he ordered sharply. "And part your legs for me."

At his crisp command, she stumbled slightly, and fell into the sofa.

Cadogan grunted his approval. "Good girl." He sank onto his knees and catching her by her hips, he dragged her to the edge.

Aside from the queen, he'd never knelt for any woman. He'd only serviced lovers in this way as a way to exact secrets from them, but never had he knelt. He'd lain in beds and placed his head between his partner's legs, making them come as he would this woman now.

Ultimately, however, he was the master of all his bed partners. They were weaker than him, so weak they'd do whatever he bid, and he'd never be so pathetic as to be submissive for anyone. Only to now discover a terrifying hunger for prostrating himself before this na?ve, innocent, but eager, siren.

"Wh-What are you doing?" The sound of Raina's voice brought him back to the moment.

He glanced up.

At some point, she'd leveled herself onto her elbows and now stared at him with a question in her passion-glazed eyes.

Slaking his lust and surrendering to this lady was the only thing that would allow him to be free of this maddening, all-consuming hunger. Better to give in to his desire for her than be devoured by it.

Restored by that thought, he flashed a feral grin.

"What am I doing?" he purred. "I'm showing you pleasure like you've never known." His pledge emerged as a harsh, bestial, gnarl. "And after me, a pleasure you'll never know again," he warned, growing harder just by the thought of her unblemished fingers wrapped about his cock.

She whimpered, and she squirmed as if the idea of belonging to him this once drove her mad with desire.

This time, he took his time, lifting her skirts. Cadogan dragged the soft, silken fabric up slowly, inching it higher and higher. As he bared her lower limbs, he drank in the sight of each exposed swath of skin: tapered ankles, rounded calves, defined knees.

He paused at her thighs.

His nostrils flared. Her well-proportioned thighs were a blend of athleticism and voluptuous flesh, and there was no other place he wanted to be than between them.

Cadogan shoved her costume all the way up about her waist. His mouth went dry, and his ballocks tightened at the sight.

Under her costume, she'd not bothered with chemise and pantalets, and now, naked from the waist down, her cunny sat on full, libidinous display.

Raina's curly mound of pale blonde curls beckoned. He slipped his fingers through that tight nest at the apex of her thighs and tested her wetness. He chuckled at the discovery. "You're dripping for me, already."

Raina moaned and arched her hips.

"I want to feel you on my tongue, sweet Raina. I want to taste you and lap you up…and I'm going to."

As he'd intended with those salacious words, her guileless eyes widened.

"I'm not even going to ask if you want it, love," he whispered, caressing his hands along the outside of her slender, but voluptuous thighs. "By the way you're dripping wet and the heavy scent of your musk, I know you do."

Cadogan dropped a quick, harsh, hard kiss upon her inner thigh. That slight brush of his lips pulled a gasp from Raina's lips. Whimpering, she splayed her legs more widely, inviting him in.

"And I'm going to do it now, sweet," he growled.

Sliding his hands under her bare arse, he drew her closer, and then, Cadogan, buried his nose against her sodden curls, and slipped his tongue in that cleft between her legs.

Raina cried out. She gripped his head in her hands, anchored him to that hot place where she wanted him, and urged him on.

And Cadogan randy like a schoolboy, was all too happy to oblige the lady.

He threw himself into the task of servicing her. He sucked her swollen, sensitive, folds. He licked them, nipped them, until Raina was writhing and moaning.

Enflamed by the heightened state of her arousal, Cadogan slipped a finger inside her tight, wet, center.

A hiss exploded from between her lips and her hips shot up. "Severin!"

"Love this, do you, Princess?" he rasped, between each glide of his tongue in her slit.

" Yes ," she moaned, stretching that one syllable into four.

The thrusts of her hips grew faster, more agitated.

Sweat beaded at his brow.

She was so fucking wet and responsive. The way she moved and begged and gave of herself drove him mad. Unlike every single lover he'd ever taken or been required to bed, who'd known precisely how to move, and who'd been false in every way, there wasn't a shade of artifice to Raina Goodheart.

He stole a glance up, and it proved a fatal error.

Raina stared down at him, with soft, desperate, eyes. The depth of emotion in them, briefly paralyzed him.

What the hell are you doing? You aren't one of those pathetic men ruled by their cocks.

But then, just as he made to stop, Raina let her head loll against the back of the sofa, and she directed her gaze to the heavens.

Cadogan knew the moment she ceased to see him, and everything within her tunneled on the glide of his tongue in and out of her. That unwitting distance she'd put up also allowed him to carry on pleasuring her.

He buried his tongue inside her channel; alternately sucking at her swollen, slick folds.

Raina lifted and lowered her hips.

"Severin," she panted his name, over and over again. "Severin." It was as if all other words had left her, and his given one was the only one she knew. " Severin ."

He stopped again.

This time, she wept.

Taking mercy on his enchantress, Cadogan pressed a kiss against the inside of her silky soft, thigh.

She whimpered.

"Aww, my Princess is in pain." Cadogan burrowed his mouth against her sopping thatch. "We cannot have that…" He gave Raina more of what she liked—nay, loved .

Her breath grew shallower. Her thrusting quicker, more agitated.

His cock responded in kind. Cadogan gritted his teeth in pain and annoyance at how badly he wanted to fuck her.

"Are you all r-right?" Raina's hesitant whisper reached across his body's tortured misery.

He leaned back, balancing on his haunches. "I'm so hard for you, I hurt," he said bluntly, confessing something he'd never confessed to another woman, for the simple fact, he'd never known desire like this before.

Raina dampened her lips with the tip of her pink tongue. Instead of turning timid, she stole another bold peek at his trousers.

Curiosity and shock brought her eyes into a full flare. "It grew ," she whispered, awe-struck.

A chuckle, equal parts amusement and desire, shook his frame. "It does that."

"Yes, I know," she prattled, her words coming quick, and filled with the excitement of one who'd made some great scientific discovery. "I just thought it grew and then…that was it." Raina renewed her study of his tented pants. "Does it just continue to grow?"

Her innocent query sent a fresh round of blood rushing to that randy organ. Cadogan attempted to tamp down a groan—and failed.

The minx scrambled to the edge of her seat. "Oh, Saint's preserved," she whispered. "It does . Will it eventually explode?"

A strained laugh exploded from Cadogan's chest, and he dropped his head forward.

She gasped. "Oh, goodness, Severin. You're in pain."

Then, before he knew what the lively beauty intended, she reached over and wrestled the buttons of his front flap free.

His cock immediately sprung free from the excruciating constraints, and he exhaled a slow, sigh of relief and he moved between her thighs again.

That allayment proved entirely too short-lived.

He felt her eyes upon him and glanced up.

Raina's puffy lips parted. She attempted to close them and failed. "You are… huge ."

This time, when he drew away from Raina, gasped. "No," she wailed.

Her long, surprisingly strong, fingers spasmed in his hair—but the lady found her grip. Holding Cadogan's head in an almost punishing hold, she forced his head back to that place where she needed him most and the only place he wanted to be in this moment.

As such, Cadogan allowed Raina that false sense of control. He let her ride his mouth and tongue and grind herself into his face.

He was even amused by it.

His chest rose and fell hard and fast.

Even more, however, he was aroused by her attempts.

"Beg me," he taunted, his breath, ragged. " Beg me , my sweet, Raina. Tell me how badly you want me to suck you until you come. Tell me, and I'll give you what you want."

And then, finally, Cadogan would have what he wanted.