Her Notorious Viscount (20 page)

He seemed mesmerized by the sight of their entangled fingers as well, for he watched them as intently as she did.

“A serious head injury can be deadly if you sleep too soon,” he explained. “I don’t think I have one, nor does Rage or he would have stayed, but it’s best to be safe.”

Jane shook her head as she lifted her gaze to his face. “You say these things so matter-of-factly. You lived in quite a world.”

He nodded. “I did. There was danger and uncertainty there, but it made me feel alive.”

“And could have killed you at any moment,” Jane pointed out, smoothing her fingers against his skin as she spoke. “You should find something else to make you feel alive.”

He sat up until they were nose to nose. “What do you suggest, Jane?”

She didn’t pause to think or ponder the consequences. Instead, she tilted her head and kissed him. His arms came around her, flattening her breasts to his chest, and they both moaned in unison.

The kiss rapidly spun out of control as her hands met around his broad back and her fingers dug into the smooth flesh. She was hungry for him, and desperate to assure herself that he was unharmed.

And in some way, she wanted to express her love for him. Not in words, for that would only complicate the situation, but in her touch. In her surrender.

It might be the only chance she got.

If he sensed her desperation, Nicholas made no attempt to pull away from it. In fact, he maneuvered closer, forcing her further onto the bed, almost into his lap. He devoured her mouth, sucking her in and holding her captive with the sensual stroke of his rough tongue on hers.

Just when she thought she could die from the pleasure of the kiss, he went further. His mouth glided away from hers, moving down her throat as he urged her up on her knees, straddling his prone form beneath the sheets, her skirts bunched between them.

His mouth continued down, heating the delicate skin of her throat to her collarbone and finally to the edge of her scoop-necked gown where the swell of her breasts just peeked over the top. He cupped each one, lifting them as he blew hot air through the inexpensive fabric to heat the sensitive nipples beneath.

Jane’s hips bucked forward, pressing into his chest, as pleasure unlike any she had ever known careened through her, as wildly out of control as the beating of her heart.

“I’m sorry,” she panted. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

He looked up at her as he slid his mouth away from her breast. “Hurt me? Angel, trust me when I say that there is no pain.”

He found the buttons around the back of her gown as he spoke, and suddenly the fabric gaped around her waist and tangled at her wrists. He didn’t allow her to pull free before he returned his hot mouth to its place against her breast. This time, though, there was no heavy fabric to separate them. Her chemise was thin, a worn silk left over from before her father’s death.

The wet heat of his tongue cut through it, and suddenly she felt every moment, every breath. Any lingering sense of hesitation left her. Whatever happened tonight, whatever happened afterward, it would be worth it.

She shrugged away from the loose arms of her gown, freeing her hands so that she could glide them along Nicholas’s bare chest. He hissed in a harsh breath when she did that, his eyes shutting and his head dipping back over his shoulders for a brief moment.

“Careful,” he admonished softly. “You don’t know what you’re inviting.”

“I know
exactly
what I’m inviting,” she murmured back as she pressed her mouth to the curve of his throat. “And I don’t want to be careful. Not anymore. Not with you.”

His eyes came open and he stared at her, un-blinking, for what felt like an eternity. She could feel him fighting a war between desire and the very gentlemanly hesitations she herself had instilled in him. For the first time, she prayed her lessons hadn’t stuck.

She smiled when he glided his fingertips up her bare arms and slipped her chemise straps away, baring her breasts. She shimmied and got the dress and undergarments out from under her, kicking them away so that she was naked before him except for her stockings and little worn kid boots.

“My God, you are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined,” he whispered, his voice dark and husky. “And trust me, I have an exquisite imagination.”

She blushed as his warm hands cupped her naked breasts. He kneaded the tender flesh there, strummed his rough thumbs over her nipples until they tingled and ached with pleasure.

“Normally I would be a bit more in charge of this,” he continued before he leaned forward and stroked his tongue over her nipple lazily. “But with my injuries, I’m afraid I’m at your mercy.”

She almost laughed at the idea of Nicholas being at
anyone’s
mercy, but he cut off her giggle with another sucking taste of her flesh.

“Tell me what to do,” she whispered. “And I will.”

She might think she wanted this, but if he took her maidenhead it would make her life infinitely more complicated. And his. So he had to keep some control.

Something he would have been fully capable of with any other woman. But tonight it was going to take far more effort than ever before.

Still, he couldn’t deny himself a taste of her, a moment with her. He needed it too much now. It was practically in his blood.

“Take off the rest,” he managed past dry lips.

She nodded before she slid down from his bed. He nearly strangled on his moan as she put a foot up on the edge of the nearest chair and unlaced her boots. Damn, but she had no idea what a pretty picture she made, her naked body curved over in profile.

The stockings went next, rolling down creamy thighs until she was utterly naked and his cock was throbbing with anticipation of pleasure he couldn’t allow.

“Come into bed with me,” he said softly, pulling the covers back.

Her eyes widened as he revealed himself to her. She had the same expression she’d had the last time she saw him naked. In this very bed. When he had made her come with just his fingers.

God, how he was going to enjoy doing that again tonight. None of his wounds hurt him in the slightest anymore, nothing else in the world mattered. Just Jane.

She came up into the bed, covering his body with her own for a brief moment before she began to slide over to the other side. He caught her hips, holding her still with her legs entangled in his, her breasts rubbing his chest, her red-brown hair tumbling over his skin like a silken waterfall.

“Stay,” he managed with difficulty. “Stay here.”

She nodded and shifted her weight so that she could lie fully against him. He groaned with pleasure as she settled against his chest and he felt the full, soft length of her body.

“I promise you,” he whispered against her hair. “That I will not take you, no matter how much I may want to. I promise to give you pleasure, but I won’t take away your innocence.”

Jane lifted up to look at him and her face was filled with surprise, desire, and something even deeper. An emotion he couldn’t read, even though she had always been an open book to him.

“Don’t you know what I want, Nicholas?” she whispered, touching his face gently. “Don’t you know I am offering my innocence to you with no qualms, no hesitation? Don’t you know that I want you to be the one to take it, tonight?”

He shook his head. A little more temptation and he wouldn’t be able to maintain whatever thin thread of gentlemanly fabric she had instilled in him.

“I can’t do that—” he began.

She covered his lips with her fingertips to hush his refusal. “Tonight is the last one we will have together. I don’t want to waste it. Not after seeing you injured. I have wasted so much time in my life already. I refuse to regret
you
.”

She lifted herself and her legs came open, straddling his lap until his erection nudged the sweet slickness of her body. He gripped his fingers into fists against the sheets as hot pleasure cut through him.

“Please,” she whispered, close to his ear. “Please, Nicholas.”

“Yes,” he finally said, his resolve broken under her innocent, yet powerful, seduction. “But not yet. Not until you are so ready that you are begging me.”

Her eyes first widened, then fluttered shut when he placed his palm between her breasts and slowly slid downward. Over the flat plane of her belly, then lower still until his fingers found the wet heat of her body. He stroked his fingers through the folds, eliciting a sigh of pleasure from her parted lips.

“Did you like it when I touched you here?” he murmured, finding it hard to formulate words.

She nodded, pink darkening her cheeks. “I thought of that morning so many times since then. I dreamed of it.”

“So did I,” he admitted as he teased the hard bud of nerves hidden within the silky softness. “And I thought of something more. I wanted to taste you then, Jane.”

Her eyes flew open in surprise. “T-taste?”

He nodded. “Let me.”

“I would let you do anything right now,” she whispered, her voice cracking with desire and sweet anticipation.

He urged her forward as he slid down farther on the pillows. Finally the juncture of her thighs was close enough and he spread her open again and pressed his mouth to her.

Jane clutched at the headboard, her eyes widening as she finally understood what Nicholas meant by
taste
. Only
taste
didn’t fully describe what he was doing with his wicked mouth. He teased. He tormented. He explored. He awoke every part of her that she hadn’t even known existed. He made her a wanton.

Soon her hips rocked in time with the slide of his tongue and her body clenched. He cupped her backside, holding her steady as he tortured her with pure and exquisite pleasure. And then he slipped a finger into her empty body, added a thumb to the place where she tingled and trembled most, and she was lost.

Her body was no longer her own to control. Nicholas had stolen her breath, her pleasure, and her heart. She cried out, her voice wild and husky in the quiet room, and she no longer cared if anyone heard her. For the first time in a long time, nothing else in the world mattered.

Her body trembled as the pleasure faded and she slowly made her way back down the length of his body, being careful not to jar his injuries any more than had already been done. Back on his lap, straddling the hard length of his erection, she caught her breath. Now was the moment. Now he would claim her.

Only he held back. He was positioned perfectly. Just the slightest lift of his hips and he would be inside her. But he only stared up at her, lips glistening from her pleasure, eyes bright with his own desire.

“If I do this, it might hurt you. In more ways than one.”

“I don’t care,” she whispered, and she meant it. Then she took the choice away from him by positioning herself a little differently and gliding down.

Her body accepted him slowly, stretching to accommodate his hardness and size. It was not painful, it was not unpleasant, only strange. Strange to think that they were joined as one body now. That he was hers as much as she was his.

“Here it is, sweet,” he groaned, his neck straining as he entered her. “Hold on to me.”

She did as he ordered, clinging to his forearms as he thrust up and filled her completely. The pain burst, causing her to gasp out a reaction. But as Nicholas held steady, watching her, waiting, it began to fade.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”

She cupped his cheeks and leaned down to press her mouth to his. He returned the kiss with passion just as powerful as they had shared before. More powerful.

“I wanted this,” she said when they broke apart. “I still do.”

“Then let me make it good for you,” he said, and slowly eased himself into a seated position.

The covers that had been wrapped around them fell away, but Jane wasn’t cold as Nicholas began to lift his hips, thrusting himself in and out of her body with slow, steady movements. She found herself grinding down in response, rubbing herself against him with no shame, reveling in the feel of his body deep inside her own.

The pain was gone. The world outside the room was gone. The only thing she saw or felt or acknowledged was the way they touched. The pleasure as he rocked into her. The feeling of wrapping her legs around his back, of lifting herself to grasp for even more pleasure. And when it came, it tore her even further from reality, making her body shake and arch while she called out his name again and again and again.

And as he called out hers in response, they fell back onto the pillows and all was still.

Nicholas had never been much for holding a woman after he took his pleasure. Women had spent the night in his bed, of course, but he had almost always slipped into immediate sleep and not bothered to wrap himself around them and talk.

With Jane, as with everything else, it was different. As she settled her head into the crook of his good shoulder, he let out a contented sigh. He could easily stay in this fantasy world forever. It wasn’t possible, but it was a lovely dream nonetheless.

Jane smoothed her hand along the muscles of his belly, absently tracing a pattern against the skin there.

“Tonight when you were hurt, you were looking for information on my brother, weren’t you?”

Nicholas looked down at her. The light in the room was dimming as the fire died, but he could still see the crease of her frown.

“I was in a bad neighborhood,” he said, not lying, but avoiding her question.

While he was injured and while Jane writhed in his arms, he had allowed himself to forget what he had uncovered about Marcus. Now he wasn’t willing to share it and ruin this bliss.

“But Rage was in the opium dens,” she said, glancing up and spearing him with a gaze filled with trust. “And that is where Marcus might have been.”

He hesitated, but then nodded.

Her frown grew deeper. “I’m sorry you were hurt because of my request of you.”

He cupped her chin and tilted her face so she had to look into his eyes. “I was hurt because I was foolishly distracted.”

“By what?”

He dropped his hand away. “What do you mean by what?”

“Well, Rage was right. You’ve been in that underground world for so long. I cannot imagine you being so distracted as to not look for an attack. What was on your mind that would so trouble you?”

Nicholas bit his tongue. He couldn’t tell her he’d been thinking about breaking her heart. It would only feed her guilt and ruin their remarkable evening.

Plus it would lead to more questions. And ultimately he would have to confess what he’d heard from the gambling opium fiend. And what his ramblings suggested about Marcus’s whereabouts would break this amazing, unexpected woman. Until he had more proof, Nicholas wasn’t prepared to do that.

Jane seemed to sense his hesitance and tilted her head to the side. “Very well, you do not have to tell me what was on your mind. But while in the underground, did you at least discover anything about my brother?”

Again, Nicholas was speechless. Did he lie outright or tell the truth?

“No,” he finally said, making the easier choice and hating himself for it. “I did not.”

She settled her head back on his shoulder. “I want you to know I will understand if your dedication to the project changes after tonight. After your injury, and with your—”

“Stop.” He cut her off with the one word, and she glanced up at him again. “I said I would help you and I will.”

“I have faith in that,” she whispered.

Faith. He almost laughed. He hadn’t had faith in anyone, nor had anyone trust in him, for so long he could hardly recall it. And now Jane offered him faith and trust even while he lied to her.

“You deserve to be happy,” he said softly, brushing hair away from her face. He longed to change the subject. “Are you ready for my mother’s ball?”

Jane frowned, but it was a far less troubled expression than it had been when they spoke of her brother. “Almost. Tomorrow I have my last fitting for my gown. But I am more worried about you, Nicholas. Tonight we were to train so you could dance at her ball.”

“Well, that will not happen,” he said with a sigh. “I much prefer what we
did
do, at any rate.”

She laughed and he bathed in it, letting it clean his soul after the troubling night he had endured.

“You are a cad, sir,” she said with a little pinch against his stomach.

He laughed with her, swatting her hand away playfully until he finally caught her chin and brought her in for a kiss that took her laughter and his breath away.

When they parted, she immediately turned her face. He frowned. There was a sense of sadness in her tonight. A feeling that she was pulling away from him, even though they had been as intimate as two people could be.

“Why do you move away from me?” he whispered, pulling her closer. “Why do you turn your face?”

She shrugged. “In two days, you will debut at the ball, and if all goes well, you will be accepted.”

He nodded, still uncertain as to why that fact would trouble her. He knew his own reasons for the dread that made him nauseous when he thought of it, but not hers.

“Our training, our bargain, it ends tonight.” She touched his face. “There is nothing else I can do for you.”

He threaded his fingers into her hair, watching as the light played off her face. She was correct, of course. By the terms of their agreement, once he made that entrance back into Society, they would never meet in secret again.

His heart sank at the idea.

“I can think of a few more things you can do for me,” he said, pushing away the emotions she inspired, but allowing the desire to come forward.

“What are they?” she asked, but he could see by the sparkle in her eyes that she already knew. And welcomed his touch.