Sweet Release (34 page)

Alec opened his eyes and looked down at the woman who lay asleep, nestled in his arms. One leg tucked intimately between his, her head resting on his chest, the softness of her hair spilling over his arm where he held her, she felt as if she’d been tailored to fit his embrace. He reached down, brushed a stray curl from her cheek, watched her stir, a faint smile playing across her lips. Outside the storm had quieted, thunder and wind giving way to the soft patter of rain dripping from the eaves into puddles below. The clouds had begun to scatter. The moon and a few stars hung in the dark sky, casting a faint glow through the curtains and across the bed.

After what he’d done he ought to hate himself. But he didn’t. Try as he might, the only feeling he could summon was a deep sense of... contentment. He hesitated to name the emotion, unsure that he’d ever felt this way before. Strange that one woman could touch him so deeply.

What if he’d gotten her pregnant? He was no good to her as Cole Braden. If people believed she was carrying a convict’s child, her life—and the child’s—would be misery. She’d be shamed, ostracized, perhaps flogged. But it was only a matter of weeks, days perhaps, before his name would be restored again, he told himself. Even if their passion had produced a child tonight, he’d be Alec Kenleigh long before any pregnancy would show. No one would dare ridicule her once he’d given her his name.

He’d meant to love her more slowly. It was her first time. But months of celibacy and endless weeks of wanting her had taken their toll. It had been all he could do not to come before she did. Next time it would be different.

He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off, his nostrils filled with the musk and salt of their lovemaking. He’d been asleep but a moment when he felt her shift in his arms, her cool fingertips tracing a line across his chest. Through half-closed eyelids he watched as she explored his body, unaware he was awake. Her gaze moved from his face to his chest and abdomen with innocent curiosity, finally resting on that part of him that was so new to her. He felt himself begin to grow hard under the heat of her perusal, and felt her breath quicken.

“It knows you’re watching.” More than a little amused, he tried not to laugh.

She gasped and looked up at him, obviously embarrassed. “I…I—”

“You’ve no reason to be ashamed.” He turned so they lay on their sides facing each other. “Much of the joy between a man and a woman lies in the discovery of each other.”

He kissed her gently, languidly, stroking the hollow just above her hips. The softness of her breasts pressed against him, and he felt heat rush to his cock.

Evidently emboldened by his words, she began to explore his body openly, her fingers slowly tracing the lines of his shoulders and chest before moving to his abdomen. His muscles contracted in response.

“Do you like this?” she asked.

“Aye.”

His arousal complete, he watched the play of emotions on Cassie’s face as her hands slowly crept lower, curiosity and sexual desire competing with maidenly shyness. For a moment he thought shyness would prevail; then he felt her hand close over him, her fingers tentatively exploring his length, forcing a groan from his throat.

She jerked her hand away. “Did I hurt you?”

“Nay.” He couldn’t help chuckling.

Slowly she took him in her hand again, her inexperienced touch more titillating than that of the most practiced courtesan. “It is wondrous.”

“Wondrous?” Alec had always considered himself well endowed, but none of his lovers had used the word
wondrous
before.

“Aye. It is wondrous how a man’s wee willie can be so small and soft one moment, then suddenly become so large and hard.”

“
Wee
willie?” He choked on the word, torn between laughter and humiliation.

“Aye, wee willie. Have you never heard the term before?”

“Nay! Pray tell, where did you leam it?”

“It’s the word my mother used to describe a male’s . . . nether parts.”

Alec saw her cheeks flush. “And I suppose it’s the term you use when you speak to Jamie.” Distracted by her ministrations, he was only partly aware of what he was saying.

“Aye, what else?”

“Poor lad.”

“What do .you call it?”

“I call it a cock, love. Mmmm.”

“A cock.” She stroked down the length of him, until his foreskin was drawn taut, then drew her hand up again over the head. “And does it please you when I touch your cock?”

“Aye.” She was a fast learner. “Stop.” He remove her hand, afraid it would be over before it began if he let her continue.

“Did that not feel good?”

“I’m afraid, love, it felt too good.” He pulled her to rest against his chest.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. From somewhere in the distance came the song of a whippoorwill.
Whip-poor-weel. Whip-poor-weel.

“Why did you change your mind and come to my bed?” she i asked.

“The roof to my cabin was leaking frightfully.”

She sat up with an indignant huff but laughed at his jest just the same. “I want the real reason.”

“The real reason?” He pulled her back into his arms and planted a kiss on her nose. He paused, uncertain how to express what he felt. “I wanted you more than I wanted to breathe.”

“I’m glad.” Her smile made his blood run hot.

“You, my love,” he said, brushing a wayward curl from her eyes, “are a temptress, a beautiful seductress.”

Cassie shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, and Alec realized ; with some sense of amazement that she did not believe him.

“Your eyes, for example,” he said, stopping to kiss each eyelid, “put emeralds to shame.”

She shook off his compliment with a smile and a toss of her head.

“Your lips make a man think of nothing but kissing you.” His mouth closed over hers to show her just what kind of kiss he had in mind.

She wriggled against him.

“Your breasts,” he said, cupping one eager mound and circling its rosy peak with his thumb, “are meant for this.”

He turned her gently onto her back, holding her arms over her head, and captured one taut bud with his mouth. Slowly he circled her nipple with his tongue, then drew it into his mouth to suckle it before moving to its twin. He heard her whimper, felt her twist beneath him. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed, her body cast half in shadow and half in moonlight.

Abruptly he stopped.

She whimpered in frustration.

“I suspect that when the gentlemen of London catch their first glimpse of you, they shall become a bunch of randy satyrs and I shall have to spend all my time fighting them off,” he said, turning onto his side and looking down at her, his head propped on one arm.

“London?”

Chapter Twenty-two

Cassie sat up and looked at him with surprise, her hair in glorious disarray about her shoulders. The tight pink crests of her breasts glistened with moisture where he’d kissed her, and Alec found it terribly difficult to think.

“Aye, London.” He laughed, letting his hands glide over the softness of her skin. “You didn’t think I’d leave you behind, did you?” She dropped her gaze, and he saw that was precisely what she’d I believed. An image of the young woman his brother had abandoned leaped unbidden to his mind. He sat up and cupped her j face with his hands, sexual play all but forgotten. “Look at me Cassie.”

Slowly she lifted her gaze to his, her eyes full of wariness.

“I will never forsake you. That I promise.”

“Alec, I—”

He held a finger to her lips to still her. “I know we’ve spoken no vows, but I swear before God I will make you my wife as soon as I am able.”

She stared at him. “Wife?”

“Aye, my wife. For all we know you could be carrying my child now.” His hand slid down her gently rounded belly to rest over I her womb. Her gaze met his again, and for once he could not read the emotion he saw there. Doubt? Fear?

“Kiss me,” she whispered. She leaned forward, brushing her lips against his.

He complied, pressing her gently back onto the pillows, tasting her mouth. Taking the kiss deeper, he stroked the milky undersides of her breasts, kneading their fullness. This time would be different. He would teach her the secrets of her body, and then . . . He heard her sigh, felt her breath quicken as he lazily stroked first one taut peak, then the other, taking each into his mouth in turn.

“Alec!”

Her fingers twisted in his hair, drawing him closer. Her pleasure the source of his own, he caressed the soft curves of her hips and belly, then reached to cup the patch of red-gold curls between her thighs. He pressed the heel of his palm into her woman’s mound in a slow, circular motion.

“Oh, Alec!” She moaned. “That feels so…so…aaaah.”

“Good?” He brushed his lips over the sensitive skin of her throat, then teased the whorl of her ear with his tongue.

“Aye!” she answered breathlessly, and lifted her hips to meet the pressure of his hand.

Taunted by her sighs and tortured by the musky scent of her arousal, he delved gently into the inner folds of her sex, maintaining pressure on her mound, and was rewarded with a lusty moan. She was hot and slick, more than ready for him. Still he refrained. He sought and found her swollen bud and, catching it between two outstretched fingers, tugged gently on it until she trembled with pleasure.

“Do you like that, my sweet?”

Her head tossed from side to side on her pillow—the only answer he needed.

“Perhaps you’ll like this even better.” Alec penetrated her with one finger, two, stroking her gently, deeply, until his fingers were slick with her juices. Then he began to slide them over her pearl, gliding quickly back and forth over that most sensitive spot. Her breathing was almost frantic now, and her thighs spread wider to give him access.

“Aaaah! Aaah, Alec!” With one hand, she gripped his arm, her nails biting his flesh, while her other hand clutched at the sheets.

“You like that, too, I see. What about this?” Possessed by an appetite all their own, his lips traced a line from her throat to her breasts and down her belly. He felt her shiver and saw goose bumps spread across her creamy skin. He wanted to taste her, to possess her with his tongue and lips. Lowering his mouth to her cleft, he kissed her deeply.

“Alec!”

But her voice when she cried his name held not pleasure, only shock. Her entire body was stiff with surprise.

“Shhh, love.” He lifted his head to kiss her belly, careful not to alarm her. Until tonight she’d been a virgin. Ruled by his own appetites, he feared he was again moving too fast. “Someday you’ll ask me to love you with my mouth.” He slowly kissed his way back up her body. When he looked into her eyes again, he knew a thrill of victory. She wanted it even now. Let her wait. Anticipation would make it all the better.

“Alec, I need you.” Her gaze locked with his, and in their depths Alec saw a hunger to match his own.

“Aye.”

Raising himself above her, he settled himself between her milk-white thighs. Struggling to hold on to his self-control, he touched the tip of his shaft to her cleft and withdrew. He’d hurt her once. He wouldn’t hurt her again. Slowly he entered her again and again, going deeper each time before withdrawing, giving her time to open to his intrusion. She was heaven—so wet and tight. He found himself fighting not to come right away.

“Sweet Jesus!”

Slowly, so slowly he moved within her, her soft moans urging him on. He had wondered many times what it would be like to make love to Cassie, to watch her naked and writhing beneath him, but no fantasy could compare with this. She twisted and arched with abandon, whimpering his name, her artless responses more intoxicating than anything he could have imagined. When she wrapped her legs around him, opening her body to him fully, Alec thought he would lose himself.

“Alec, please!” Her hands moved over the muscles of his back, gripped his shoulders.

“Come for me, love,” he murmured against her cheek. He quickened the pace, felt her muscles tighten in response. “I want to feel you come.”

Almost immediately he felt her body tense, felt her muscles clamp down on him in ecstatic rhythm.

“Oh, God! Alec!”

When her peak had passed, he stilled himself within her and waited until he felt her body relax. “My beautiful Cassie,” he murmured, trailing kisses over her cheeks and forehead.

Her eyes fluttered open. “I didn’t know it would be like this.”

“Ah. But there’s more.” Holding himself deep within her, he pressed his pelvis against her mound in slow, tantalizing circles. She was wet with the juices of her climax. Her skin was rosy and covered with a sheen of sweat. Her breasts were swollen with passion, and Alec couldn’t resist the urge to suckle them.

Drawing on her nipples with his lips, he felt her response begin to build anew. She whimpered and called his name, but he would not release her. Not yet. He angled his pelvis the better to press against her swollen slit, grinding in relentless circles. Her nails dug into his back, and still he would not relent. He wanted to prolong her pleasure, to take her to the brink.