Chapter 10

10

If sin had a flavor,it would be the taste of his mouth. Slow, sensual strokes of his lips, the gliding of his tongue against hers.

She should stop him, came a distant thought. She wasn’t this woman.

But her body wouldn’t let her. Her skin flushed, burning under his touch. Her very bones melted from the feeling of his lips on hers. The kiss lasted so long her head began to spin. Her breasts ached, and her nipples hardened. She laid her hands on his hard, muscular shoulders, the warmth of his body making her hotter than that fire behind him.

He smelled of manly musk and woodsmoke, of sandalwood and vanilla. She could taste the port on his tongue, and his own delicious taste that she couldn’t get enough of.

Soon, she couldn’t breathe, and when he pulled back, his own chest rose and fell quickly. His eyes were dark and glistened with hunger…with longing…for her. The thought made the floor slip from under her feet.

“Emma,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “Tell me to stop, and I will. But I want very much to show you what it would be like to be with a man that puts you first. Puts your pleasure first.”

She swallowed hard. A man who put her pleasure first… That was a novel idea. Sir Jasper never did anything that felt good. His kisses felt like he wanted to perform a medical examination in her mouth with his tongue. And when he was inside her, it hurt more than anything else, and all she could think about was how long it would take until he finished and she could be free.

But with Sebastian…she wanted more. She never wanted that kiss to finish. Her pleasure…she never thought intercourse could be pleasant. Except, the very touch of his fingertips against her skin brought a jolt of sweetness through her. And when he’d washed her with the sponge that first night, his touch was so sensual, she’d felt like leaning her head back against the bathtub, closing her eyes, and moaning.

So she had two choices.

She could keep putting everyone else before her as she’d done when she’d married Sir Jasper. Sir Jasper, who’d trapped her in a fraudulent marriage. Sir Jasper, who slept with other women every chance he got and did not even deny it. Sir Jasper, who’d sold her to a strange man to punish her and teach her a lesson, to control her.

Or, for once in her life, she could be selfish and allow herself one night that would be all about her. She could reclaim the power she had allowed Sir Jasper to take from her. For one night, she could pretend that she could love and be loved and that there was no one to control, manipulate, or punish her.

Sebastian was giving her that choice.

And then she knew what she had to do. She wouldn’t have any regrets. Because even though Sir Jasper was her husband on paper, he wasn’t in any other sense. He had betrayed her by selling her, he had betrayed her every time he’d cheated on her, and he’d betrayed her and her family when he had committed fraud in their very marriage contract.

She would start that marriage annulment as soon as she could.

Suddenly, she felt as light as a feather, soaring up from the ground, weightless and free. She felt like she could reach out and hug the whole world.

Like she could hug the handsome man kneeling before her.

“I won’t stop you,” she said, and he inhaled sharply, closing his eyes, the echo of a smile dancing on his handsome lips. “Under one condition.”

“Which is?”

“You cannot get me pregnant.”

She couldn’t be a ruined governess with an illegitimate child. And any poor baby that resulted from her actions deserved better than a single, ruined mother trying to find a job.

A corner of his mouth twitched upward. “No. There won’t be a pregnancy, darling. I promise you that. Now, come here.”

He took her by the hands and lifted her to her feet, then picked her up like a groom picked up his bride and carried her to the bed. He laid her on the bed and stretched himself next to her. Then he kissed her again, the lashes of his tongue, long and urgent, made her squirm under him. Some sort of throaty noises started to come out of her mouth, and her skin was so hot, she thought the room was suddenly ablaze.

He broke the kiss. “Emma, you’re going to be the death of me…”

He turned her over on her side and expertly undid the hooks of her dress, then unlaced her corset. He was faster than her maid. He let her sit upright and dragged the dress and then the corset up and over her head. She was left in only a petticoat.

She froze as he looked her over, his dark gaze slowly dragging over her skin. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Merciful heavens, you’re beautiful,” he croaked out.

She was beautiful? No one had ever called her that. Sir Jasper had been pleased with her breasts, but he’d never said anything about her was beautiful.

But this man did. And he himself was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. Muscles corded over his hard torso; the powerful chest had just enough dark blond hair to make him look masculine, and she craved to touch him there, to see if the hairs were soft or coarse. His strong stomach was sculpted like marble. He was in his male prime, a big, hard, hot man, burning for her, calling her beautiful.

“It’s you,” she said. “You are beautiful, Sebastian.”

He chuckled. “I like hearing you call me by my Christian name.” His gaze dropped to her petticoat. “Off.”

He dragged it down from her body, and there she was, every inch of her bare for him to see. “Magnificent, Emma,” he said, his gaze lingering at the apex of her thighs, and, despite herself, she wasn’t ashamed or self-conscious. On the contrary, something hot and wet gathered at her very entrance. She breathed harder as he lowered himself to her lips and kissed her again.

One hand cupped her breast and massaged it, circling her nipple around and around. Liquid ache spilled through her as her nipple hardened. She moaned into his lips and arched herself into his hand.

“Love, what are you doing to me with those sounds?” he murmured.

Then he kissed down her chin, down her neck, his hot mouth leaving burning traces behind. She breathed faster, barely able to take in any air at all. What was this desire, this pleasure he was stirring in her body like an expert chef?

And then he took the nipple in his mouth and sucked. “Ah…” she cried out. Sir Jasper had done this to her, but it always felt strange and somewhat painful when he squeezed too hard, probably trying to elicit any reaction from her. Frigid, he’d called her.

She wasn’t frigid. This couldn’t be frigid at all.

Sebastian gently nibbled on her nipple with his teeth, circling it with his tongue. His other hand worked on her other breast, teasing and tugging and rolling and rubbing… She was on fire. Her entire being became like a succubus, aching and wanting and demanding.

“Do you like this?” he asked, murmuring against her breast.

“Yes, oh heavens, yes!”

He went to her other breast with his mouth, but this time, he used his hand to squeeze her breast as he sucked hard. She cried out as pleasure intensified.

And then, with his free hand, he brushed down her stomach and lower and lower. She squirmed in anticipation, wondering if it would hurt, like with Sir Jasper. But so far, nothing hurt, and nothing was uncomfortable. On the contrary, a burning in her sex made her want to urge him to touch her, to soothe her need. He spread her folds and dipped his finger between them, and she jerked from the intense pleasure. He moved around there and found…something…a place so sensitive that she froze and moaned.

“By Jupiter, Emma, you’re so wet for me already…” he murmured. “I have to taste you.”

As he moved his lips down her stomach, she sat up, alarmed. “Taste me?”

His face was devilish. “Yes, darling. Taste you. I bet you taste as sweet there as everywhere else.”

He spread her thighs as she watched him with her mouth open. “Are you going to kiss me…there?”

She didn’t know that was possible. Sir Jasper never did anything like that to her.

“Oh, yes, love,” he said and dipped his head right there.

She lay back with a cry, clutching at the silky spread as his mouth claimed her sex. His wicked tongue licked her length, up and down and in circles all over her. Then it found that sweet spot again and started doing something…something that melted her bones. She panted, unable to do anything else but try not to burst as the pleasure built and built.

“Oh, Sebastian,” she cried. “Oh, please…”

“Please what, darling,” he said, his voice low and seductive.

“Oh, what are you doing to me?”

“I told you I’d give you all the pleasure in the world, didn’t I?”

“Oh, dratted man, you did,” she moaned.

“And there will be more,” he said as he rose from the bed, and for the first time, she became aware of the significant bulge between his legs.

She swallowed hard as he pulled down his buckskins and his erection sprang forth and stood at attention. It was long and thick, with veins cording it.

How would it ever fit into her? It was only the second male organ she had seen in her life. She didn’t know they could be this big.

She eyed his glorious body, roving from his broad shoulders, one of which was bandaged, to his narrow waist, to the side of his beautiful, round male arse—that she suddenly had an urge to dig her fingers into as he’d drive into her over and over again—to his long, muscular legs and big feet.

“I will not release into you,” he said as he climbed back onto the bed. “To avoid the pregnancy.”

All she could do was nod. She had forgotten all about her request. But he showed his consideration by remembering.

And then he hung over her, glorious and muscular and manly, pushing her thighs to the sides. His hard cock was pressing into her entrance, and he sucked in a loud breath as he moved it.

“Merciful heavens,” he muttered, “you feel so good.”

And then he was pushing into her, deliciously stretching her, and instead of pain like every time before, despite his size, all she felt was pleasure. She grabbed him by his magnificent arse and urged him deeper in as she stretched and accommodated him, wanting all of him.

When he had entered her completely, he didn’t move. “Are you all right?” he asked.

His amber eyes were on her, mahogany in the glowing semidarkness of the room. She didn’t say anything for a while, sinking in their depths, an emotion she couldn’t discern making her throat clench.

“I am very much all right,” she said.

“Thank heavens!” he said and started moving without breaking eye contact.

The friction was sweet and aching, and every time he plunged in and out of her, the pleasure he’d brought her with his mouth grew. But it was also deeper, and it built from the inside, and soon he was pounding in and out of her. Without ever looking away.

And she was dissolving into him, this man who was grumpy and yet caring and protective. This man who had saved her from Sir Jasper and his thugs.

She wanted more, so much more with him. She moved her hips with his rhythm, chasing that something, that pleasure, never knowing where it would lead, only that she never wanted for it to end.

And then there was something in her body that went over the edge, right when she was with him, high up and bathing in the sunlight. And she cried out from the burst that radiated from inside of her and spread all over.

He pulled out of her and found his release on her stomach with almost pained grunts. When he finished, he stood kneeling over her, holding on to her knees and panting, his eyes never leaving hers.

Then he cleaned her with a cloth lying on the bedside table, collapsed by her side, pulled her under the cover, and wrapped her into his arms. She sighed into him, inhaling his delicious, fresh sweat, and his male musk, and the scent of their release.

They breathed together as she melted into his arms. If she’d die tomorrow, this would be one of the greatest nights of her short life.

“I’ll have my solicitor work on annulling your marriage,” he said into her hair. “You will be free from him. Until then, you can stay here, with me.”

She swallowed hard, wondering what would become of her name. If there would be more scandal now than she’d bargained for, now that her real name had been pronounced in the ton.

And if Sir Jasper would, indeed, agree to the annulment. Knowing him, he’d do something to stop her and get her back into his clutches.