A Measured Risk (25 page)

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He unlatched her wrists from the post. Then he brought them back behind her back and refastened them. Hands on her arms, he eased her down on her knees, the little silver balls jostling the whole way, rendering her immobile with exquisite agony. Shuddering with desire.

He removed the silken gag. She worked her mouth against the dryness it left behind. His hand gently pressed the angle of her jaw. “Open, Nan.”

Despite her anger, his commanding tone had the same weak-in-the-knees effect on her as it always had. She wanted nothing more than to obey him. To do anything he wanted. Especially to let him shove his cock into her. Anywhere he wanted to.

Desire to suck him, to take him as deeply as possible and savour him, warred with the pain the little balls caused her each time she moved. He seemed to take pity on her predicament, finally holding her head still and doing the thrusting himself. It didn’t help. She trembled hard all over and her inner walls contracted. His harsh groan caught her by surprise. Against her tongue, his cock shook, the roiling up of his semen.
Oh God—no!
Her cunt clenched, sending another agonising wave of hunger through her. The first jet of his hot seed rushed into her mouth and she moaned, a deep anguished sound in her throat. He gripped her head and groaned in gluttonous pleasure as his cock delivered forceful surges of honey-thick fluid into her mouth.

His cock jerked in her mouth so violently, she had a very hard time keeping her mouth closed around it. She had to swallow and swallow and swallow. He was coming so hard, so fast, that she couldn’t get a breath.

His ejaculations finally ended. He withdrew and she gulped air.

He made a sound like a cross between an exhalation and a groan as he stroked her hair vigorously. “Damn, my girl.” He chuckled breathlessly.
“Damn.”

Caught up on her breathing, she sat back on her heels in dull shock.

“You said you were going to fuck me! You promised!” she exclaimed without thought.

“And so I am. You must learn to trust me, Nan,” he said, his tone tender as he unfastened her cuffed ankles. His fingers gently massaged her legs. Then he removed her handcuffs and did the same with her hands. “As soon as you can walk, I want you to go back inside, prepare yourself and wait for me.”

“Will you remove those hideous little balls?”

He shook his head. “No, I am afraid I shan’t and you cannot remove them either. Elsewise I shall make you wait until midnight.”

“I cannot possibly walk with these little devils inside.”

“You cannot know what you are capable of, until you try.”

“Oh God, you couldn’t be that cruel!”

“What will you give me in return, if I relent on this point?” he asked.

“Anything, anything you want,” she vowed.

“All right, Nan, you get your way…this time.” He removed the orbs from her.

He backed away and stripped out of his clothes with unhurried movements. Nearly drooling with her mindless need, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him as he slowly revealed his powerful body. Then he approached and took her hand and wrapped it around heated, half-hard warmth.

He hardened into a full erection almost instantly. Already. She cried out.

“Do you see? That’s for you, Nan. All for you.”

Tears of relief streamed down her cheeks. She was too far-gone to care. She couldn’t help squeezing his erection, feeling its thick weight. The prize she held in her hand.

“Do you think it’s like that for anyone else?” he asked.

The press of her emotions in her throat wouldn’t allow her to speak. She could only moan.

“You have to trust me, Nan. I am not going to break my promises. It was simply too arousing to watch you in your sweet torments. If I had merely fallen on you and fucked you, it would already be over and neither of us would have enjoyed that much.” He caressed her straining nipples. “I always know what’s best. For us both.”

His too-gentle touch made her desire flare, crackling along her skin and through to her core like lightning. It forced everything out of her mind but need. Unbearable, overwhelming need.

“Oh
,
shut up and fuck me!” She grasped his shoulders, gripping him with her fingernails.

He took her wrists and pulled her hands away from him.

“On second thought, I can’t have you ripping my back to shreds.” The velvet cuffs slid back over her wrists. No matter. Whatever he wanted, he could do, so long as he put his cock into her.

She moaned, her hips pushing up and down. She couldn’t control them. Tears still flowed down her cheeks and she was sobbing openly. She had never come apart like this. Not in front of someone else. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now but getting closer to that strong, hard body that she craved. She whimpered and writhed.

With his tongue, he traced a tear’s track.

“I know, my darling, I know.” His tone sounded oddly tender for a man who had been bent on tormenting her. “I’ll make you come quickly.”

He mounted her then thrust into her, almost instantly finding that same sweet spot he’d located before. He hit it again and again and again. He touched her nub and bit the side of her neck. She hung on the edge of release.

“That’s it
,
sweetheart, that’s it—give yourself over to me,” he crooned in her ear.

He worked her with such finesse and control that her orgasm went deeper and stronger and longer than any she’d ever known. Wave after wave of pleasure coursed through her. Pleasure so strong she couldn’t bear it. She shrieked and shrieked until she was spent.

As she floated back, he nipped her neck and crooned words she couldn’t comprehend. Then he fucked her long and hard, wringing four orgasms from her, each one just as intense as the last. She hadn’t even realised she could come that much.

She lay underneath him as he rested against her. Maybe he’d come. But no, he moved within her now. To her alarm, her desire swelled once more. She couldn’t again. Surely she couldn’t—

The familiar spiral pulled her under, exploded within her, her cunt contracting.

“No, more.” She panted. “Please, no more.”

“Who owns you, wench?”

Her eyes fluttered open. He was staring down at her, his eyes like blades of blue flame
,
and he encompassed everything.
Everything
. She’d do anything he wanted. Give him anything he wished.

“You do,” she breathed.

“Try again. Repeat Jonathon Lloyd owns my cunt.”

“Jonathon Lloyd…owns my cunt.” She sighed the words.

He thrust quickly, three more times, holding her gaze the whole time. The intensity seared her, like racing up to the sun and being burnt to cinders. Then, with his eyes closed, he withdrew and shuddered against her. Hot seed spurted against her stomach, the scent hitting the air
,
earthy and sharp. She’d been waiting for that. Now she could die. Just die, she thought as the blackness consumed her.

Jon removed Anne’s handcuffs, then after he’d used his handkerchief to clean her of his seed, he watched while she slept. How natural she felt there by his side. It was a strike in the heart, how much he wanted to keep her. But she wilfully resisted any changes to her plans. Moreover, each step he took her along the road to recovery took her a step further away from him.

Anyway, it was a losing battle for him to even try to hold on to her. He was pledged to marry Lady Waterbury. Anne was far too proud and prickly to be happy for long in the position of mistress. She would need to be a man’s wife. She’d experienced power and position and had enjoyed her responsibilities. She’d eventually want to be a countess again—or even a duchess this time.

She was a duke’s daughter. She deserved a coronet of her own.

However
,
knowing that didn’t stop him from wanting to keep her.

In the next stall, Sally moved about restively, bumping the wall between them. Anne startled, her body jerking, and he tightened his arm and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “It’s all right, I’ve got you. We’re quite safe.”

Anne focused her eyes on his
,
half awake. He caressed her neck, wanting her to stay subdued for a while longer.

“That’s just Sally, getting restless next door.”

Her eyes came fully open and she looked around, her mouth falling open. “We’re still in the stable?”

“Yes.”

“My God,” she said, a touch of awe in her voice. “I can’t believe I am not bolting out of here.”

He rolled over and covered her body with his, seeking to make her feel safe. He pulled her hand up to his lips. “I warned you there were far greater dangers to a wench in the stables than the gentle horses.”

“So you did.” She laughed softly. “I have missed the smell of horses. It takes me back to my girlhood in Ireland.”

“You may go to Ireland but you’ll never find the duke. Whatever you missed in your childhood is gone forever.”

“I realise that. I don’t expect to find the duke anywhere. I don’t need or want him.”

“Then what do you expect to find there that you can’t have here in England?”

 
She went quiet for a moment and a faraway look entered her eyes as if she’d gone to a place he could not follow.

It maddened him.

Finally, she spoke. “Peace and independence. To live my life as I choose.”

“Why do you believe you must isolate yourself in Ireland to have peace and the ability to live your life as you chose?”

“Well, it is not isolation that I am seeking.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No, it about having a plan. Having purpose to my life. Being needed. The people on the horse farm
need
me.”

“Yet you can’t get two feet within sight of a horse now.”

“But you’re helping me with that.”

“It isn’t going to go so fast, Anne. If you came with me to Scotland, we could work together on your fears.”

She sat up and hugged her shoulders. With purple shadows on her eyelids and her hair tangled about her, she looked very young. Very vulnerable.

He touched one of those mussed tresses and felt its silken texture between his fingers. “Anne, will you come with me to Scotland for the winter? Then in the spring, I shall go with you to Ireland. I shall have a look at this horse farm your father left you and assess it for you.”

“You needn’t worry yourself over it. I know much about horse farms.”

“From a girl’s memory of what her father concerned himself with?”

“No, I mean I have studied the matter. Deeply.”

“Reading books cannot prepare you for the reality of managing a horse farm. I happen to know much about horses and their care myself.”

“We couldn’t be alone there.”

“The devil you say
.
Don’t you have a maiden aunt or two you could dredge up to play chaperone?” He touched her cheek. He wanted to help her with this. He needed to help her with this. She had been left alone all her life, to cope as she could. She wasn’t his responsibility, that much was true. They could play at being lovers for the remainder of the month. He could do his damnedest to get his fill of her and part at the end without any obligation to her. But he needed to be her friend
,
now
,
as well as her lover. “I wouldn’t stay at the estate, I could simply visit during the day.”

“I don’t think our continued association would be a favourable idea.” She looked up at him, her eyes large and earnest. “Y-you know I am correct. We both entered into this knowing it would last a short time.”

Her prickly tone settled over him like freezing rain. “Well, I am no longer satisfied with that.”

“You must be.” Her expression was cold, resolute.

She went aloof when she felt threatened. And she felt threatened when she felt deeply beyond sensuality. Those two thoughts eased his ire. Softened his heart. “You’re that afraid of needing someone else? You will not allow yourself to accept my help?”