One Night of Surrender: The Brothers Mortmain, Book 1 (3 page)

The time had come to feast on her bare skin, the perfect shape of her breasts with their pale pink peaks, and the darker rose-coloured buds that seemed to tighten even as he watched. He bent closer, breathing warm air upon them, and heard her catch of breath.

“Do you like that?”
 

“I don’t know,” she demurred, her eyes very blue.

“I think you do know.”

He bent closer still, so that the tip of his tongue trailed over the rounded curves of each breast, finding first one nipple and then the other. He whirled his tongue around the little buds, and then sucked hard. Her body went rigid and she made a keening sound. He sucked harder and she arched upwards, her body bowing toward him.

“Do you like that, Katherine?”

“Yes,” she gasped raggedly. “I do.”

“Should I do it again?”

“Yes…”

Her hands closed on either side of his face, a little clumsy in her sudden, desperate need to keep his mouth upon her.

Gervais’s cock was pressing uncomfortably against his tight trousers. He wanted to reach down and free it. He imagined pushing it deep inside her, taking her now, hard and fast. Panting, shouting, releasing the lust within him like an animal.

But he stopped himself.

Haste wasn’t what tonight was about. This was his last night on earth and now that he had this woman he’d been thinking about for so long…He wanted to savour her like a delicate fruit. Like the orange he had fed her earlier. He wanted to lose himself in her and forget tomorrow in the pleasures of the night, but he also wanted her to enjoy what he was doing to her. He wanted her to remember him, to dream of this night for years to come. He wanted to spoil her for Edward Prime, so that she would look upon him with the contempt he deserved. And in the morning when Gervais went to the gallows he would go with her willing scent upon him like a benediction.

Well, that was the plan. But he was only a man after all. Now he was ravishing her breasts with his lips and tongue, his hands caressing the warm skin of her back and waist, paying little heed to thoughts of restraint. He wanted to have her all naked in his arms, and from her gasps and her eager writhing he believed that was what Katherine wanted too.

With both hands he gripped hold of the torn cloth at her waist, and with another savage tug, ripped it asunder.

She was panting and this time did not try to cover herself.

He took his fill of her. Skin, clean and soft, although her bones were a little too near the surface—but he would have expected nothing else in Newgate. Once she was gone from here she’d put some flesh on, grow more rounded and…Gervais shook his head. No point in dwelling on that. He wouldn’t be there to see her.

“What is it?” she whispered. She’d seen the shake of his head. She was trying to drag the torn pieces of dress over herself as though she’d done something wrong.

“I’m going to kiss you again,” he said, watching her intently.

“A-are you?” She licked her lips. “A-all right, sir.”

“No, my beauty,” he teased. “I’m going to kiss your other lips.”

“My other lips?”

He grinned. “You’ll see.”

Gervais leaned toward her, his tongue trailing down over her belly, planting hot and wet kisses against her skin. He pulled the remainder of the dress away. Oh yes, she was a beauty, and he wanted her. But again he would wait, he would subdue his own desire for hers. He had all night after all, and Gervais knew a great deal about the carnal act and all its variations.

“Lie back,” he instructed her.

Cheeks flushed she eased herself backwards onto the thick rug, watching him warily. “I’ve never lain naked with a man before,” she whispered.

He shouldn’t have been surprised but he was. Surely even Edward would have some degree of finesse? But it seemed not. He should have known that the dolt wouldn’t have considered Katherine’s pleasure in his couplings, only his own needs.

Well, Gervais was about to show her how she could share in the delights herself, rather than simply be the object of a selfish man’s lust.

He took her bare foot in his hand, examining the curve of her instep, the neat toes. He used his lips and tongue on her, working his way up over the swell of her calf to her knee and then the fleshy part of her thigh. She was trembling by the time he reached the apex of her thighs, and he could see the gleam of moisture gathering there.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” he said, his voice hoarse.

She gasped as he slid his hands beneath her bottom, opening her to his ministrations. She lifted her head, fair hair tumbling about her face, her eyes blurred with desire.

“Sir?” she croaked.

His smile at her was sardonic. “I think in these circumstances you may call me Gervais,” he said. She smelt aroused, musky, and as he bent forward and trailed his tongue along her opening, he enjoyed the fact that she was already so wet. No shrinking violet, his Katherine.

Her voice was trembling now. “Sir…I mean, Gervais… Can this be right? I have never…he never…”

“We will not talk of Edward Prime,” he said with cold finality. “He was a poor specimen if he never thought to give you pleasure with his mouth.”

And he proceeded to let his tongue show her just what sort of pleasure he meant. Her bud was like a little swollen cock, raising its head for his attention, and he took it into his mouth as he had her nipples, running his tongue around it, and then sucking hard.

Her hips shot up and she squealed.

He did it again, and this time her body spasmed and he could feel her climax near as tremors ran through her hips and thighs. He slid his fingers inside her sheath, where she was so moist and hot, and as she gasped, he groaned.

“Beautiful,” he muttered, his voice slurred as if he’d drunk too much wine.

Should he enter her now? Or should he give her this moment of pleasure? A foretaste of what was to come? He’d ruin her for men like Edward Prime forever, he thought wildly. If Edward tried to win her back she’d spit upon him because he, Gervais, had given her a taste of what a real man could do.

But while he was deliberating Katherine was moving against his fingers, rubbing her pearl against the palm of his hand as she sought her own pleasure. Now, with a sharp cry she suddenly arched against him, her sheath spasming around his fingers, her hips jerking. He bent, his tongue gentle now, soothing her heated flesh, tasting her desire. Eventually he sat up and finished off the food on the platter, watching her as she lay, eyes closed, lips parted, floating in whatever paradise she had found.

He smiled in grim satisfaction at a job well done.

Chapter Four

Katherine was having trouble catching her breath. Her body was so weak and limp, just as it had been when she had gaol fever. But this time the simmering heat came from Gervais.
He
was her fever. He had put his mouth upon her most private places, kissed her where before she had barely dared to touch or even glance at herself in the mirror. And then he had caused something so amazing to happen she wasn’t sure what to call it. That rushing sensation. That wondrous delight.

Her eyelids were still heavy but she knew she must move, she must confront this change in herself. She forced her eyes open and sought him out. He was sprawled close beside her, sipping from his wineglass, his dark eyes half-closed as he watched her.

There was a coldness about him she wasn’t sure she liked, but before she could begin to question it he changed, smiled, and warmth flooded her once more.

“Why did I not know about such things?” she blurted out, a touch of irritation in her voice.

Gervais, who must have been expecting a show of gratitude or more likely naive embarrassment, laughed loudly.

“Do other women have such feelings?” she insisted.

“I believe so.”

“And do other men do as you did? Kiss my other lips?”

“Yes they do.”

Katherine’s lower lip stuck out sulkily. “What is it called, that…that sensation when you…when I…?”

“When you reached your peak. Your climax. Your orgasm. Your
petite mort
.” He tipped his head to one side. “You haven’t experienced this before?”

Katherine shook her head. She felt like a fool but she hadn’t known, had never experienced such carnal satisfaction. But he didn’t seem to find her silly—indeed he looked pleased with her answer.

“There is more I can show you.” And now he grinned wickedly at the sudden glitter in her blue eyes. “Much more. We have all night, Katherine.”

“Until cock crow,” she whispered.

“Until cock crow.”

Katherine didn’t know whether to feel hard done by or excited. Edward’s actions had landed her here in Newgate, yes, there was that, but now to learn that such delight could be had from a man… All she had ever experienced before was rough handling, a few moments beneath a heaving, panting man with ale sour breath, and then an unpleasant wetness against her thighs. To protest, she’d soon found, was pointless. Edward had enjoyed hurting her almost as much as he enjoyed bedding her, and any objections she’d raised had only made him more keen.

She had always thought it was her fault, because she didn’t love him. Katherine had gone to Edward because of her father. After her mother died he had fallen in with a bad crowd, gambling and getting further and further into debt with Edward and the whole Prime family. Then one day he had come home and told her that if she agreed to be Edward’s mistress they would wipe clean his debts. It seemed that her beautiful face had captured Edward Prime’s heart and he’d made the offer despite his family’s objections.

What could she do?

She should have hated her father but she pitied him and his fall from grace, and at first Edward had not seemed so bad. She’d half thought he might marry her, and before her father died he’d promised he would. She’d hoped at least then she would be an honest woman, but Edward’s family had been against marriage from the start.

As their time together went on—she was with him for two years in all—Edward had become very possessive of her. He’d set her away from all others, calling her his property, keeping her well away from the customers at his inn. His family complained she did not do as much work as she should, but as always Edward had his way.

She hadn’t known Edward was in debt, that he owed money all over London. He’d never told her anything. She hadn’t known until he’d disappeared one night and left her to the tender mercies of his family. They hadn’t taken long to dispose of her, blaming her for Edward’s fall, and sending her off to Newgate.

The debt wasn’t hers, and if she’d had a lawyer perhaps, to help her fight the injustice of it, she might have escaped her current fate. But she’d had no one. No champion to fight for her, no person in authority to stand up for her. She was a ruined woman, cast out and abandoned by her lover’s family.

And now, in barely the time it had taken for a candle to burn down an inch, Gervais Hawley had shown her what her life could have been like if she’d chosen a different man. A man who cared for her. Who loved her.

“Why did you ask for me?” The question spilled out of her.

He shrugged one shoulder. “I saw you. You are beautiful. Why not?”

Katherine wasn’t satisfied with the answer but she supposed she couldn’t expect anything more. What did she want? A vow of undying love from a man about to be hanged? She was being foolish.

Make the most of this night,
a voice whispered in her head.
Take what you can. Because who knows what tomorrow will bring for you?

Getting to his feet, Gervais stretched his arms above his head. Katherine found herself admiring his lithe, powerful form with new eyes. This man, this body, would take her soon. He would be joined with her, giving her pleasure, and she realised, amazed at her own daring, that she was impatient for it.

The warm ache in her breasts returned, and now that she knew what it meant she reached down, as if to touch.

But she was not quite that brave. A wave of self-consciousness washed over her, so that instead she reached to pull her torn gown more modestly about herself.

But he noticed.

“Stay as you are,” Gervais said, and she read it as a command despite the silkiness of his voice. “Don’t move, Katherine,” he added firmly. “I want to look.”

Again his heated gaze slid over her naked body and Katherine experienced that heat as if he were touching her once more. She felt adrift, out of control, and it was too much for her. Things were moving too fast. Was this modest Katherine? Was this the woman she’d thought she knew? Grasping the torn cloth, she pulled it about her as she stood up. Her loose hair cascaded around her, adding another shield against his ability to disconcert.

“You must learn to do as you are told,” he said in a way that warned her he meant to be obeyed.

She turned away from his gaze, refusing to answer.

“Come here, Katherine.”

“No.”

“Come here!”

Suddenly his hands spanned her waist and pulled her around to face him. She stumbled, almost falling, but before she could protest he was peeling her ripped gown from her body so that it fell to the floor and once again she stood entirely naked.