A Most Unusual Mistress (Rogue Scandals) (2 page)

BOOK: A Most Unusual Mistress (Rogue Scandals)
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Naturally, he would need an heir—and a spare. With her sangfroid, she had replied with an, “Of course, my Lord.” When they had discussed the arrangement in person, with him assuring her he would not bother her overmuch, she had merely smiled.

Now sitting next to her waiting for her to speak, he wondered if his reading of her had been altogether correct. Never would he have said she had a temper; indeed, he thought her almost placid. However, as he watched her eyes flash and saw her nipples stiffen against their confines, he had pause to ponder if Molly had been right with her comment that Adriana had hidden depths.

Unthinking, he picked up one soft white hand and began to play with the elegant fingers. He pressed a kiss to each digit, enjoying the soft roundness as he did so. A tremor racked her body, sending a shudder of pleasure through his own as he became aware of the effect he was having on her.

“My dear, I apologize. I forgot myself.” He went to extract his hand, but the smaller one within his own tightened, stopping his movement. He looked up into the face next to him. Surely that was not anger he saw in her eyes?

It seemed it was.

“What ails you, my dear? Archer says you are agitated by the arrangements for our nuptials. There is no need. All will be splendid, I am sure. I will, indeed, be a fortunate man to be joined with you.”

The look she gave him made him shiver again and this time, not in a good way, for it was neither pleasant nor reassuring.

“Now, my lord, why would I be agitated with such trivial details as those pertaining to our wedding? For indeed, they would be the last things I have to worry about.” She seemed to be expecting an answer.

“Then, my dear, I am glad. So you are not agitated?”

Her eyes glinted in such a way that he felt certain...were they really sparks, he would burn.

“Agitated? Oh, no, my lord, not agitated. Angry, annoyed, and to use words I am positive you frequently hear in other spheres of your life...
you bugger!
” Her cheeks reddened, and Ash felt his cock swell even more. She was magnificent; her rapid breathing swelling her breasts and causing them to push at the bodice of her dress He opened his mouth to speak, but Adriana, it seemed, had not finished her character assassination of him.

“I,” she said forcefully. “I am bloody damned mad. Listen well, so you understand further, my lord. Getting agitated over our wedding is nowhere near my agenda. Because...” She paused, and Ash could have sworn her fingers were itching to slap him. “There will be no wedding.”

What the devil?

C
HAPTER
T
WO

Aha!
He now realized the culprit regarding some earlier, unexpected, and unwanted news, but nevertheless, he gaped, slack-a-jaw gaped.
Don’t play your hand too soon.
She was remorseless. Also breathtaking. Her face was alive with emotion as, with a flurry of skirts, she stood and faced him.
Definitely no muff.
The swirl of muslin assured him of that. His cock leapt with the thought of a smooth, soft, welcoming honeypot to incite and enclose it.

“No query from you? Wish you not to know why, my lord?” Never had the words
my
and
lord
been said to him in such a derogatory tone. “For whether you wish it or not, I will inform you. Never will I marry a cheat or liar. Especially not a man who says he has foresworn his mistress, only to be found buried to the hilt inside her cunt. He, my lord, is both.”

There was no answer to that. Ashley felt ashamed for not ceasing his activities before that day. Adriana knew he had had a mistress; it was generally accepted gentlemen of the Ton kept a mistress to pander to their carnal needs. Indeed, on their betrothal she had asked him, seeming indifferent, if he intended to continue with such an arrangement after they were married. He had assured her it would not be the case. As they were yet to be married, he had not in all honesty broken that promise, but in reality, he admitted, he had cut it a bit fine. Especially as he remembered, with dawning disquiet, a conversation the previous week in which he had assured her, unasked, that all his amorous entanglements were no more.

“Therefore, my lord...” Lud, she was definitely rolling on now. “I have taken the opportunity to send details of our separation to the news. I trust you will be man enough not to hinder any questioning from anyone who dares to ask why we no longer are to be wed.”

She thought that? That he would meekly accept such a diktat? How wrong was it possible to be?

“I fear, my love.” He kept his voice calm despite the anger now raging within him. “You do not have the facts assimilated correctly. For why am I to be blackened as a cheat and a liar?”

Her chest heaved, once more unknowingly allowing him a cock-tightening view of her breasts straining at their confines as they threatened to spill out and...and what? Demand attention? Hardly. Protest his attraction? More likely. Receive his touch? Dare he? Regretfully, Ash reminded himself just whom he was facing. He held his hands out in supplication. However, Adriana had not yet finished blackening his character.

“Because you are one? Any man who states he is no longer harboring a mistress and is then found bollocks-deep inside said mistress only days before his wedding is not to be believed,” she said, her anger evident in her words. He watched, fascinated, as she picked up two small, exquisite Sèvres vases from the mantle and threw them at the wall in quick succession. They shattered in the hearth, and Ashley waited for her reaction to such damage. Adriana showed no sign of even noticing her wanton destruction and merely dusted her hands on her skirts.

Unusually, no servant appeared to discover the reason for such noise. He wondered if such temper was the norm, and the servants well used to it.

He chose not to ask her.

“Therefore,” she said. “I do not believe anything you say to me. Lud, she is treated better than me. Have you ever touched me with such desire?” She laughed bitterly. “Perchance I should phrase that
have you ever touched me?
We both know the answer. Yet I have seen the way you look at me when you think you are unobserved. Indeed, on one occasion, my lord, I was the observer as you took yourself in hand and fisted yourself until you spilled your seed while shouting my name. So I know you are not indifferent to me. But touch me? Make
me
come? Pah. Do I not deserve the attention you paid her?”

“You are to be my wife,” Ash said stiffly. He knew his face reddened in shame, for he
was
ashamed of the discomfort he had caused her. “However,” he continued, ignoring the ripple of excitement her query had aroused, “not my whore. I respect you.”

“I would be better off as your mistress and get the body and the fucking I desire,” she said frankly. “Lud, Ash. I want your love, your body, and to be fucked. If that is not to be my culmination, then let me be your whore. For a twelvemonth, I have spied and regarded you in secret, stroking myself after peering at you without your knowledge. Lud, I ache for your touch. If, as your wife, I do not receive all that I desire, I do not desire to be your wife. Why should I settle for less than all you can—if you chose—give me?” she demanded. “Just because it is assumed women of our class do not enjoy more than the mere mechanics of sex, or indeed, merely
tolerate
a husband’s touch, do not assume that of me. If, as your mistress, I will receive more than duty demands, then make me her. However, don’t bother to make me your wife. I have too much esteem to settle for less than I deserve.”

He wondered if he imagined what he heard. “And you feel you deserve to be my mistress?”

“Well, I deserve more than a ten-minute fumble once the lamps are dimmed.”

He couldn’t believe his ears.
Bloody hell
. This was a woman after his own heart...or cock.

“Know you what you are asking? For the pictures you are conjuring have my cock throbbing. It knows, as I do, the pleasure to be had in showing you. I believe,” he said slowly, “you
do
deserve more, my love. My whore you shall be.”

***

Adriana stared as her mind began to assimilate all that had occurred that day. To find the man she dreamt of—brought herself to fruition thinking about and was due to marry shortly—deep inside another, benefitting from all the things she had been longing for, was a bitter pill. For it then to be intimated she would not be enjoying such depths was beyond acceptance. Respect, if it included none of the proclivities she had understood could be enjoyed between a man and a woman, was not respect, but duty. All her life, until setting up her own household, she had been regarded as a duty. No more! She would have what she wanted and if that entailed being a mistress to the man before her, then by God, that is what she would be. A role unknown to her. A role she would learn and assimilate quickly—before he changed his mind and her taste buds were left unsatisfied.

“My lord.” She curtsied. “I believe you do me a great honor. Where, when, and how?”

Ashley laughed. “Soon, here, and I will show you now, my love.” He pulled her close and teased her lips with his tongue until she opened them, allowing him to invade the depths of her mouth.

Adriana gasped and let her tongue dance and mesh with his, her senses reeling, her quim moistening. If this was being a mistress, how glad was she not to be a wife. She leant into him and gulped as his hand slipped under the fluted neckline of her gown, unerringly honed in on her nipple, and pinched to a degree just on the pleasure side of pain.

She caught her breath.

He smiled. “You like this.” It was a statement, not a question. “I feel sure you will like what else we do even more. Close your eyes.”

She stared, uncomprehending.

“Close. Your. Eyes. Or I blindfold you.” Still, she stood and neither moved nor spoke, shocked at her feelings of excitement. Was she at last going to discover for herself what happened between a man and a woman?

“Riana.” For the first time, he used her diminutive—so beloved of her family in her younger days, before she became
persona non grata
. “Do you hear me?’

“I hear you? Why?” She was puzzled. He gave a ghost of a smile.

“Because I desire you to use those senses other than sight. To hear, taste, and feel. Not see. So, I say again. Close your eyes. Now.”

Her breath quickened. The word
dominant
had been whispered in their circles whenever Ash had been mentioned. She knew not fully what it implied, but felt this imparting of desire was the first step in a curve of learning.

“Do as I say. You wish to be my mistress? Mistresses obey without question.”

More fool, they.
She thought the words but did not speak them. Her sense told her he wished to see how far she would acquiesce, how far he could push, until she gave notice for him to stop. For then, he could demand she cease being foolish, and return to meek and mild Adriana, a doormat and a wife.
Well,
she opined silently,
for one considered a lady’s man, he knows little of the working of a woman’s mind.
He would be the first to break. This time, she would obey without question, for it interested her to see, or she pondered inwardly,
not to see
what he chose to do.

“Good girl.” As her eyelids fluttered together, she felt his hand on her back, gently rubbing circles on her skin while he spoke his approval.

“So when and where, my love, have you regarded my
fucking?
” He spoke casually, as if he were talking of such mundane matters as the weather. She was hard-pressed not to gasp at such language. Somehow it seemed all the more shocking spoken by him in such a cavalier manner.

“Did you enjoy you your voyeurism? Make yourself
come
as I did? Wish you were the lucky lady? Or
whore?
” His hand moved lower and circled each globe of her ass.

“Did you see my cock fill my partner here, Adriana?” One finger pressed the folds of her skirt against her tiny entrance. “Did it make you wriggle, your breath quicken? Make you wonder how ‘twould feel for my cock to be in your arse? Make you wet and needy?”

Condescending whore-son.
At that moment, Riana decided her best behavior would be very, very bad. Meanwhile, she would enjoy the tingles beginning to explore her spine, moving ever downward, increasing both her excitement and her dampness. Did he know there were no curls to contain her arousal?

As she explored these feelings and let him tease and excite her, she began to plan his downfall.

“Feel my hand on your skin.” His voice was seducing, enticing her senses, as with one hand still caressing her arse, she felt the other edge farther down her bodice. Cool air on her body made her moan. How could the cool air be so arousing when her skin was covered? The answer hit her at the same time she realized her arms were immobilized. By cloth. He had loosened the ties on her gown, slipping it downward to bare her breasts and pinion her arms, allowing her no give or take. How had she been so immersed in those deliciously new sensations that his movements had been undetected?

BOOK: A Most Unusual Mistress (Rogue Scandals)
6.84Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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