Chapter 21

In the end, Letty decided to send the note.

She found a writing desk in the corner of an empty parlor and scrawled a quick message while Emily stood guard. She then slipped it to a boy who was loitering out front in hopes that someone might hire him to perform just such an errand, along with a penny.

Vander, I need your help. Meet me at my house, but don't come to the front door. Sneak into the gardens. I'll meet you there at midnight.

Letty

At five minutes before the appointed hour, she slipped down the back stairs unnoticed. Now there was nothing left to do but stand wringing her hands in the shadows to see if he would come.

There were a thousand reasons he might not. Vander might be out tonight. Or maybe he would receive her note but decide he had better things to do. The boy might have taken her penny and thrown the note into the gutter. The boy might have tried and failed to find the right address. She might have given him the wrong address, because, of course, she had never been to Vander's bachelor apartments. But David had once mentioned that he had a large first-floor suite at the Albany, and naturally, she had committed it to memory because she was pathetic when it came to anything relating to Vander, and—

A soft creak pierced the night sounds of the garden. Letty's eyes shot to the garden gate, which was swinging open. A familiar head of tousled black hair appeared around the edge of the door.

"Vander!" she hissed. "Over here."

As he moved to shut the door, Letty reminded herself how happy she was that he had come. It was perfectly normal to feel incandescently happy and as if you might cast your accounts, simultaneously and in equal measure.

Apparently.

She marked the flare of recognition in his eyes as he picked her out in the shadows. He hurried over. "Letty, what's wrong? Are you in danger?"

"Nothing like that," she reassured him. "I just…" She swallowed thickly, gathering her courage. "I need to ask a favor of you."

"Of course." He stared down at her in the moonlight, waiting for her to elaborate.

"Um… why don't we go up to my room?"

Vander's soft laugh echoed against the garden walls. "I may not be an expert on propriety, but even I know I can't set foot in your room."

"It's all right. My parents and brother are all away, remember? So there's no one on the second floor. So long as we manage to slip past the servants, no one will know you're there."

Vander's expression was pained. "Still, I'm not sure it's a good idea."

Letty's nostrils flared. Of all the times for him to become concerned about propriety! She struggled to sound nonchalant as she asked, "Whyever not? If no one but us knows about it—"

"It would be too tempting," Vander said, a note of finality in his voice.

This was both good and bad. Good because he actually found her tempting! But bad in that he seemed determined to resist this temptation.

Letty forced herself to lift her chin rather than cringe. It was time to lay her cards on the table. "That isn't a problem. The temptation to which you refer is the very reason I summoned you tonight."

Vander's eyes flew open. "Letty, I… I think I misunderstood."

She grabbed his hand and started for the house, relieved that he stumbled after her without complaint. "You did not misunderstand. You understood perfectly." She paused just shy of the door. "Now hush. The servants are having a gathering downstairs. It was noisy when I slipped out, so I don't think they'll hear us, but we should be careful all the same."

"Careful," Vander muttered as she led him inside. "It doesn't strike me that there's anything careful about—"

"Quiet!" Letty hissed as they came to the back stairs. From below came the sounds of clapping, accompanied by a solitary fiddle. Seeing no one about, Letty hustled him up two flights of stairs.

She poked her head into the hallway and peered about. Seeing no one there, she dragged Vander to her room at the end of the hall and shoved him inside.

"I shouldn't be here," Vander murmured even as he glanced around her room, curious. "This is a terrible idea. What the…" He blanched as he noticed the sheath Letty had stolen from David's bedroom, which was sitting on her bedside table.

Vander ran a hand over his face. "You're serious about this."

"Of course, I am." Letty thought she might die of mortification, but she forced herself to ask, "Do you not want to?"

Vander's response was a startled laugh, which Letty did not find entirely flattering. "Do you have the faintest idea what it is you're proposing we do?"

"I do!" Letty protested, then added weakly, "Theoretically."

"Because if you knew the first thing about the act, then you wouldn't have to ask. Just one look at me and you would know that I'm interested."

In her embarrassment, Letty had been keeping her gaze fixed upon the wall behind his head. Now she chanced a glance at him, her eyes going immediately to the falls of his trousers.

"Oh, my gracious!" Surely enough, there was a large bulge tenting Vander's falls, suggesting that he was more than slightly interested.

Letty cleared her throat. Goodness, but this was awkward! "What's the problem, then?"

Vander cast his eyes to the heavens. "I wouldn't describe it as a problem, per se. Not for me, in any case. But there are a variety of disastrous outcomes that might befall you."

"That's why I have the, um…" Letty gestured to the translucent tube she had pilfered from David's room. "What is it properly called?"

Vander groaned, then placed his hands on her shoulders. "Letty, this is precisely why I can't make love to you. You scarcely know what it is you're asking for."

"And that is precisely why you should make love to me!" Letty shot back. "If my first lover is not you, then it will be either Bertie Strickleton or Lord Throckmorton. Does either strike you as the type to unlock the secrets of a woman's pleasure?"

Vander shifted awkwardly. "Um…"

"No. You know full well they are not. Bertie never thinks of anyone but himself. And, in the unlikely event that he felt inclined to do anything for me, he probably wouldn't have the faintest idea how to go about it. Meanwhile, I doubt it has occurred to Lord Throckmorton that a woman might find pleasure in the act, or that he should make it his concern."

Judging by Vander's guilty expression, her assessment was spot on.

She looped her arms up around his neck. "And that is why I need you, Vander. Because you're right—I am ignorant. And, if you will not help me, I am doomed to remain ignorant, and I might go my entire life without experiencing this."

She closed the distance between them, pressing her body against his. He groaned, his head lolling back. She felt him shift his hips, unable to stop himself from rubbing against her softness.

She almost had him. "Please, Vander? Please, won't you show me?"

He pulled away, and Letty's heart sank. But then she noticed that he had gone to scoop up the sheath. Walking over to her washstand, he poured a little water from the ewer into the basin and dropped the sheath in.

"Vander?" she asked uncertainly.

He looked up from prodding the sheath with his finger. "You have to soak them in water before you use them."

"Does that mean we're going to use it?" she blurted. She felt her cheeks flame.

Vander smiled as he crossed back over to her. Taking her in his arms, he kissed her ear. "As if I could deny you."

And then his lips found hers. This kiss was different from the ones they'd previously shared. She had thought those kisses had been scorching in their intensity, but they didn't hold a candle to this one. Vander devoured her, completely and utterly, and Letty had no thought of asking him to stop. Her heart was racing, her body was trembling, and when her knees gave out, he scooped her up and carried her to the bed.

She was dressed for bed in her night rail and wrapper with her hair in a plait. Vander groaned as he opened her outer robe like he was unwrapping a present, leaving her in only a thin linen nightgown. He tugged the ribbon from the bottom of her plait and began undoing it. Once her hair was falling down her back in waves, he rose from the bed.

His eyes never leaving her, he unknotted his cravat with hands that weren't entirely steady. He stripped to his shirtsleeves, then sat on the edge of the bed.

Vander glanced around her room as he pulled off his boots. "I really wish we had some oil, especially as this is your first time. I don't suppose you have anything like that?"

Letty wracked her brain. "Just the coconut oil I use on my hair."

Vander glanced at her and grinned. "You have coconut oil? That's perfect." He padded over to her dressing table. "Where is it?"

"It's in the little tin on the left side… Yes, that one."

He deposited the tin on her bedside table, then crawled up the bed to join her. He wore nothing but an open-necked shirt and trousers, and Letty trembled as he took her into his arms. "I want to make this beautiful for you," he whispered.

He kissed her again, but it wasn't enough for either of them, and his hands soon strayed to her breasts. He somehow unerringly found the places that made her squirm upon the bed. By the time he moved his mouth down to kiss her through the fine linen of her nightgown, she was crying out for him.

He pulled the ribbon tie at the neck of her night rail, then pushed it down around her shoulders. Her bust was distinctly modest in size, but Vander made an appreciative sound as her breasts came into view. "So beautiful," he murmured, kissing her throat and moving his hands to cup her.

He had touched her there the other night at Vauxhall, but this was more intense. He had better access, for one. But also, something about the sight of Vander's strong hands touching her roused Letty even higher. How many hours had she spent dreaming of this moment that was finally coming true?

He kissed his way across her collarbone and replaced his hands with his lips. He started by pressing soft kisses all over her chest, which made her breath come fast, and when he finally sucked a nipple between his lips, Letty's back arched upon the bed and her fingers raked through his thick black hair.

He repeated the same delicious torture on the other side, until she was squirming upon the bed. She heard his voice as if from far away. "Lift your hips. That's it." She realized he was stripping her of her nightgown, which would leave her fully exposed to his gaze, but she was too lost in a haze of pleasure to feel embarrassed about it.

He started to join her on the mattress, but Letty stopped him with a hand to his chest. "Wait."

She wasn't the only one whose breath was coming fast. "What is it?"

Flushing, she tugged at the hem of his shirt. "Take this off. I want to see… you know."

That earned her a smile. He pushed himself up to kneeling and peeled the shirt up over his head. Letty felt her mouth go a little bit dry. She had secretly wondered if the Brazen Belle's assertion that women fell into a swoon at the sight of Vander's shirtless form in the boxing ring had been an exaggeration.

She could easily believe it, now that she was seeing him in the flesh. He wasn't overly bulky, but there wasn't an ounce of fat on him. Corded muscles stretched the length of his arms, then swelled through the breadth of his shoulders. His stomach was no less gorgeous, with little rows of square muscles that disappeared beneath the waistband of his trousers, just as a trail of black hair cropped up on his stomach.

He was exquisite enough to put the discus thrower at the British Museum to shame.

She reached a tentative hand toward his chest, then paused.

Vander chuckled. "Touch me everywhere," he said, pressing her hand against his stomach.

Letty couldn't help but give a start. His stomach was hard as marble, yet warm. She stroked up his chest, marveling that his body could be so different from hers.

Vander groaned, rolling onto the bed and scooping her up in his arms.

Letty gave a startled gasp of pleasure as all of his smooth, warm skin came into contact with hers. "V-Vander!" she gasped.

"I have good news for you."

"What's that?" she breathed.

He kissed her soundly on the lips, and his voice was as dark as midnight as he said, "It's time for the good part."

He took control then, giving her a kiss worthy of the most wicked rake in London. His hands roved the length of her body, finding tender spots she hadn't known existed.

By the time he started kissing his way down her body, her skin was flushed and her heart was flying. That place between her legs was throbbing like a heartbeat, and she held her breath as he trailed a hand ever so slowly across her stomach.

He sat up just long enough to snag the little tin of coconut oil from her bedside table. Slicking some over his fingers, he delved between her legs.

He had incinerated every fiber of her maidenly modesty, as was evidenced by the fact that her thighs fell open for him without the slightest hesitation. But strangely, she didn't feel embarrassed. Being here with Vander felt like the most natural thing in the world.

It felt… right.

His thumb settled upon that little pearl between her legs, the one he had titillated to such good effect on the swing at Vauxhall. And—dear God—she could see why he had wanted to use the coconut oil. It made his fingers slick and delicious, even better than they had been when he had touched her for the first time.

This time, he slid a finger inside of her as well. Which felt… curious. Thanks to the coconut oil, it slid in easily, and there wasn't any pain, at least, not yet. Just a sensation of being stretched.

She could not help but wonder, if his solitary finger felt so tight, how was it possible that his member was going to fit? She had held it in her hand at Vauxhall, after all, and knew it to be significantly bigger than a finger.

Vander pressed a kiss against her temple. "Stop thinking."

Letty gave a startled laugh. "Easier said than done."

She felt him smile against her skin. "I can help you with that."

Then he slid down the bed, positioning his head between the apex of her thighs and pressing them open. Gently, far too gently, he started flicking his tongue over that magic little spot. It felt so good, Letty shot up on the bed, sitting halfway up before collapsing back on the mattress.

He brought his hands to the petals that surrounded her opening and proceeded to touch every inch of them with a stroke that was half caress, half massage.

It felt so good, divine, really, and yet Letty's fingers were fisting in his thick, dark hair. Because she needed him to go faster, to give her more, at that little spot he was circling with his tongue.

"Vander!" she gasped. "Vander, please!"

He responded by removing his tongue from that spot, but only to trace great circles around it. Letty desperately tried to pull him back to the place she was discovering she needed him the most, but he continued to torment her.

After a few minutes of torture, he finally brought his tongue back to that magical nub, and Letty cried out, the pleasure was so intense. Now he was going slightly faster, laving her with the flat of his tongue, and she could feel herself climbing toward that peak she had reached for the first time at Vauxhall. She barely had the presence of mind to note Vander sliding a finger, then two, into her passage. This time, they slid in smoothly, with no resistance, although she did feel pleasantly full.

"Oh, Vander!" she cried. "I'm so close! I'm so—"

Suddenly, he stopped using his tongue altogether, and Letty cried out in frustration. But her torment only lasted a moment, because Vander was only changing position. He brought his lips around that wonderful little spot.

And then, he started to suck.

Letty understood in an instant why those eight women Vander had seduced and abandoned had been disconsolate.

Because this was the purest, most unadulterated form of pleasure on the face of this earth. There was nothing, nothing in the world, that could compare to the absolute bliss Vander was giving her between her thighs. She felt drunk on it, knew nothing but the pleasure as he carried her higher, and higher, and—and—

Letty screamed when she came. She clapped a hand over her mouth afterward, because—the servants! But she couldn't help it. She had no control over her body. Her thighs were shaking almost violently, her hips were bucking off the bed, and every inch of her was trembling, other than the area between her thighs, which was squeezing in pulse after rhythmic pulse.

The next thing Letty was conscience of was Vander sliding up and taking her in his arms. He had removed his trousers, and Letty groaned at the feeling of all of his warm skin pressed against hers. She could feel the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her stomach, but he just held her, making no move to do something to relieve his own ache.

After the room stopped spinning, Letty said, "I thought we were going to make love."

She felt Vander smile against her cheek. "We are making love. What we just did is part of lovemaking, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It just happens that we're not finished yet."

"Good," Letty said fiercely, burying her face in his neck. God, she loved the familiar scent of his cinnamon-and-ginger shaving tonic and the slight rasp of his shaved cheek against hers…

He kissed her cheek. "I'll go and get ready for the rest of it."

He rose from the bed and padded over to the washstand. She watched in fascination as he fished the sheath out of the basin, dried it on a towel, and slid it over his engorged shaft. He made quick work of the ribbons at the base of the sheath, then returned to the bed.

He took another dollop of coconut oil from the tin and smoothed it up and down his own length. His eyes went slightly glassy as he stroked himself, and Letty propped herself up on one elbow, enjoying the look of pleasure written so clearly on his face.

He climbed back onto the bed and pulled her into his arms. Letty tried to enjoy his embrace, but now that the moment had come, the moment in which he would claim her maidenhead, she couldn't help but feel nervous.

"Stop thinking," Vander whispered in her ear again.

"I can't," Letty protested, then pulled back enough to peer at him. "Wait… how did you know?"

Vander ran a warm hand down the length of her spine. "You're stiff as a board. Let's see if I can't fix that."

Sitting up, he flipped her onto her stomach. He proceeded to caress every inch of her backside, starting with her scalp and finishing with her toes. He then repeated the process, this time scouring her scalp with his fingernails, then kneading and massaging the rest of the way down.

Letty groaned, it felt so wonderful. And it did indeed have the effect of helping her relax.

But as he reached her bottom and began to squeeze and stroke her there, she noticed an additional effect.

She had started to feel aroused again.

As Vander moved down her thighs, she began to squirm on the bed, searching for a little friction. Her efforts were in vain.

By the time he reached her calves, she was breathing hard.

By the time he began to massage her feet, she was making the most embarrassing sounds.

Completing his ministrations, Vander moved back up to sit beside her. But he didn't flip her over, as she had expected.

Instead, he reached between her legs, exploring her folds as he had done before. Letty cried out as he gave her the touch she had been craving for some time.

"Aha!" She could hear the smug satisfaction in Vander's voice. "Just as I suspected."

"Please, Vander!" were the only words she could manage.

He did flip her over then and settled between her thighs. His weight on top of her felt delicious. Reaching for the little tin of coconut oil, he slicked his cock once again, then positioned himself at her entrance. Letty was so far gone with desire, and so boneless from the massage he had given her minutes ago, she didn't even tense up.

Then Vander was sliding forward. It felt strange, having his thickness inside of her. She felt… full. Stretched, even. But…

"Vander!" she gasped, realizing that he was fully sheathed. "It… it didn't hurt!"

He brushed her fringe back from her forehead. "No?" His voice sounded strained.

She gave an experimental wiggle. "Not really. I feel… very full. But I wouldn't say that it hurts."

He kissed her temple. "That's wonderful. I'm going to try moving now. Let me know if it's too much."

Letty nodded, biting her lip. She felt herself start to tense again.

But before Vander moved, he threaded an arm between their bodies and brought his thumb to that magical spot between her legs. He started tracing small circles there, and Letty moaned, it felt so good.

Only then did he withdraw most of the way, then slowly press forward. All the time he kept his thumb busy titillating her.

"Oh, Vander!" she groaned.

He laughed, a breathless sound. "Oh, Letty," he replied, slowly withdrawing and sliding back in. "Is it all right if I move a little more?"

It was the strangest thing, but his cock inside of her didn't feel overly tight anymore. Her passage was entirely slick, between the wetness between her legs and the coconut oil. In truth… she didn't feel all that much, either in terms of pain or pleasure, from Vander's cock moving inside her.

His thumb on her little rosebud, on the other hand…

"Go ahead," she gasped as his fingers traced a wicked figure eight that made her hips buck.

And so he proceeded. She loved having Vander's weight upon her, loved the way his body rubbed against hers, loved hearing him groan in her ear as his pleasure built and built.

And she especially loved the way he was stroking her between her thighs.

The pleasure became almost unbearable. Letty felt like she was going to shatter. Her body started to quiver, and her thighs started to shake. "Vander!" she gasped. "Vander, I'm… I'm…"

He swirled his thumb faster, and the bliss swept over Letty like a wave, pulling her under. She was vaguely conscious of her thighs spasming uncontrollably as she clung desperately to his shoulders.

He was thrusting fast and hard, and she felt him go rigid in her arms. "Letty. Oh, my… Oh, fuck… Letty!"

Then it was his turn to shudder in her arms while grunting a mixture of curses and endearments.

Eventually, he slumped down on top of her, breathing hard, his head resting beside hers on the pillow. His eyes were closed, but he looked drowsy and happy and deliciously rumpled. Letty traced patterns over the satiny skin of his back, which was damp with the barest sheen of sweat.

The moment was indescribably sweet. She had literally been dreaming of it for half her life.

And yet, she couldn't seem to silence the nagging little voice that wondered whether this would be the only such moment she and Vander would ever have.