Night of Pleasure (17 page)

Right. Moving around him and that erection that was still nudging his robe outward, she hurried to the bed, knowing her legs weren’t going to hold her up for much longer. She quickly seated herself on the side of its edge, feeling the back of her dress flop open. She cringed and yanked up the sleeves of her gown that was slipping off her shoulder. “Mrs. Langley told me a gentleman always starts with kissing a lady on the lips. But you didn’t. You went to undressing me. Is that normal?”

He winced and puffed out a breath. “Nothing about this situation is normal.” He swiped his face and crossed the room, his bare feet peering out from beneath his long robe. Lingering for a moment, he sat beside her, causing the mattress to tilt her toward him. His eyes trailed down to her breasts and stared. Snapping his gaze back to her face, he said, “Your décolletage is barely above your nipples. It’s making it difficult for me to think.”

She nervously folded her hands. “It was one of the few evening gowns I have that display more. I wore it because I knew it would please you.”

A tremor touched his lips. “What I said to you earlier was stupid. You’re beautiful no matter what you wear.”

A shiver of awareness traced its way down her spine. There was no turning away from this or him now. She was here. This was a moment she was taking for herself knowing Persia still waited. Nasser had already sent her a missive to call on him. “No babe.”

“I told you I would see to that. Upon my word.”

She nodded and tried to focus, knowing that they only had a few hours. She dug her fingers into the silk of her gown in an attempt to calm her over-stimulated senses. “I think I’m ready.”

He scooted closer, his large shoulder grazing hers. “Are you asking me to start?”

Heat flowed to the side of the shoulder he was touching and the tantalizing mixture of his hair tonic and soap floated toward her. She turned her head and glanced up at him, trying not to panic. “Mrs. Langley told me there would be blood. Copious and copious amounts of blood. No matter what we did.”

He rumbled out a laugh, his eyes brightening. “Mrs. Langley exaggerates. Or every woman would be dead.”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I don’t know why I listen to that woman,” she muttered. “Her husband has been dead for twenty years. She probably forgot everything.”

“Probably.” His grin faded into a faint smile before altogether stilling into a level of intense seriousness. He tucked the length of his freed hair behind his ears. “How about we keep the first few minutes between us simple. While I still have control over myself and this situation. How about we just…” He heatedly glanced down at her, his shaven face lingering above hers. “Kiss.”

The heat of those smoldering brown eyes could have convinced her to do anything.

She half-nodded, silently affirming she was more than ready.

Nothing mattered in that moment. All that mattered was that she was ready and willing to give herself a breath of what they might have shared had she been born under a different star. A star that had always warned her of dangerous things to come.

Her rose water perfume tinged the air of every breath he took. It was too much.

He edged in closer. Slow. Very slow. So as not to startle her.

She searched his face, let out a shaky breath, and closed her eyes, her features stilling with a trust he’d only dreamed of. Tilting her chin upward, she puckered her full lips out like a fish in desperate need of water.

It was adorable. He skimmed his fingers around her shoulder, wanting so desperately to remember this moment. He lowered his head to hers, trying to steady his breathing and grazed his lips against hers.

Everything tipped. Everything pulsed. And then everything went perfectly still.

Her lips stayed stiffly puckered but her body tilted toward him, ready and willing.

He possessively dragged his arms around her, yanking her softness closer and felt her loosened gown fall over his hands. Closing his eyes, he parted her lips with his own, holding her so tightly against his rigid body, he felt like he’d break. His tongue slipped into her mouth and erotically grazed her tongue and teeth. Wanting all of it, he heatedly deepened the kiss, unable to go slow and tipped her back in his arms.

She grabbed him by the face with both hands, yanking herself away.

His eyes snapped open, as his chest heaved in disbelief that it was already over.

She stared up at him, her breaths uneven. “That wasn’t a kiss.”

He coughed out a startled laugh. “What do you mean, it wasn’t a—”

“It wasn’t a kiss,” she repeated, clearly abashed. “Are you saying people kiss like this?”

And she thought his candy was strong? Ha. “I can’t speak for all people, but any man who doesn’t use his tongue to kiss a woman ought to be hanged.” His fingers dug into the stiffness of her corset as he attempted to drag her back toward himself. “I went fast. I can go slower if you want.”

Her hand popped up between them as she pressed it against his forehead to keep him from leaning in. “Your tongue is
not
going in my mouth again. That was downright animalistic.”

He released her in exasperation. “Clementine, we haven’t even gotten to the animalistic part.” Jesus. Something told him this night was going to be a complete disaster. And why wouldn’t it be? He was asking a ‘non-affectionate’ virgin who didn’t want to be a mother to have sex with him. Not really the most brilliant of plans. He swiped his mouth, trying to control the erratic beat of his heart. “Would you rather we not do this? Because your hand pushing my forehead away isn’t really much of a compliment.”

She winced and flopped her hand down to her side. “I’m sorry. I am willing. I just…it felt like my heart was about to get pushed out of my chest.”

He quirked a brow. “My tongue wasn’t
that
far down your throat.”

She puckered her lips. “What were you trying to do with your tongue? Clean my teeth?”

He choked on a laugh. “No, I wasn’t— That’s how we’re
supposed
to kiss. Are you telling me you didn’t enjoy it?”

Her flush spread down toward the rounds of her breasts. “No. It wasn’t that, I…I guess I imagined kisses to be quick, is all. Like a butterfly landing and taking off again.”

This woman was too much. “I’m not a street vendor waiting to move on to the next person, dearest.” He leaned in. “We don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to. I’m fine with that. Would you rather I get to undressing you instead?”

She hesitated and then nodded. “Did you need me to stand?”

Damn. He honestly didn’t know what to make of her or this. She was like a doll asking to be positioned because it wasn’t capable of positioning itself. He searched her face. “Why did you really come to me?” he asked, trying to understand. “Why are you doing this? Why are you giving yourself to me only to leave me?”

She lowered her gaze and after a long moment whispered back, “Because I always wanted to know what it would be like to be yours.”

His breath hitched. “But you are mine.”

She closed her eyes. “Please don’t do this. I don’t expect you to understand.”

Which meant she didn’t want him to understand.

But maybe…

He slowly splayed his fingers across the cool, smooth fabric of her evening gown, his heart pounding. He swallowed against the tightness working his throat, sensing that the possibility of them came down to this in her eyes. If he could breathe enough fire across that cool façade of ice, maybe she’d melt and stay. Maybe. “I want you to look at me.”

Her eyes opened, revealing blue eyes that were the only thing to ever express what brewed within her thoughts and heart.

“Tonight we belong to each other. And don’t you ever forget that.” His fingers moved into her black, pinned, silken tresses. He removed the pins randomly tucked in her hair, and tossed them one by one, letting them tinker to the floor. Her long, thick bundled hair eventually fell down past her corseted waist and full gown.

Her soulful, blue eyes continued to quietly watch him.

Removing the last of the pins, he asked, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m surprised that you started with my hair.”

He smirked. “Leave off. I’m trying to surprise us both.”

“I’m not complaining,” she softly chided.

God, was she ever darling. He honestly didn’t know how he was going to let her go after their night. After waiting years. How was he going to keep his promise of letting her go given how long he’d wanted her and this? His chest tightened.

When there were no more pins to remove, he skimmed his hands down the length of those soft, smooth tresses, letting it frame her flushed oval face. A breath escaped him.
This
is what he would always remember about her.
This
. Not her nudity he had yet to see and had always imagined at stupid seventeen, but this. Her hair down around her face making her look like a young woman about to run into the fields free. Free. Very much like she wanted to be. All that was missing was her ability to laugh and smile.

It was the only thing about her he would ever change.

He drew in a ragged breath and edged it out as he dragged his hands up the sleeves of her arms in an effort to his keep himself from altogether ripping the fabric. It was agonizing and painful to keep his desire at a standstill. Because he wanted to rip into her and consume all of her in one tongue-burning swallow. Then do it again and again until it was time for her to go.

But one didn’t rip into spun sugar. Not unless one wanted a mess on their hands.

Her bare hand hesitantly touched his knee. “You don’t have to go slow anymore,” she informed him.

That single touch and those words sent a searing heat right to the core. His cock hardened beneath his robe. “Clementine,” he rasped, fighting his need, his want. “I’m going to try not to scare you. All right?”

She half-nodded, her eyes never once leaving his.

The level of trust she was holding out made his very soul stagger.

His hands rounded toward the back of her slim shoulders, his fingers hooking into her open gown. He dragged the fabric away from her shoulders and slipped her pale arms from out of the bell sleeves, exposing an ivory chemise and a rose-colored corset that showcased the fullness of pushed up, tightly constrained breasts that made him let out a breath. “Damn.”

She stilled, her chest visibly rising and falling. “Is something wrong?”

He didn’t know how the hell he was going to take this slow. “The fact that you’re bloody leaving me is wrong.” He lowered his head and his lips to the rounds of those breasts and dragged his mouth against their warmth and softness, the faint scent of soap making him close his eyes and groan in disbelief. She was so damn soft and perfect. Everything he imagined and more. His hands curved around the still hidden fullness of her breasts as he opened his eyes. He slid his rigid tongue down her throat and shoulder and made his way down the length of her body, yanking her gown down past her waist hard. “I need you to get up.”

She slid off the bed and stood, letting the weight of the gown fall to the floor until she stood only in her chemise, corset, stockings, and slippers.

“Kick off your slippers,” he commanded still sitting on the edge of the bed.

She did. They fell into the fabric of the bundled gown.

He patted the space beside him. “Now lay down so I can untie your corset strings.”

She averted her gaze and came back onto the bed with each knee, raising her chemise past shapely legs and thighs. She slowly lowered herself onto the bed with a silent trust that made his own throat burn. Her black hair cascaded around her shoulders as she laid herself belly flat against the bed, her cheek resting on the linens. Her hands trailed up slowly across the expanse of the mattress around her leaving ripples in the linen, as if she were openly reveling in the smooth feel of the fabric draping the bed.

He swallowed, realizing something.

This wasn’t a virginal woman who feared him and his dastardly advances in the typical sense. This was a woman who had laid herself half-nude, waiting to be touched and pleasured. So why was she refusing to stay? What was keeping her from him?

She glanced back at him from over slim shoulder, still laying on her stomach and captured his gaze. “Aren’t you supposed to undress?”