Tenacious Trents 03 - A Reluctant Rake (44 page)

She nodded again. She couldn’t imagine
telling him not to do anything. Especially when he looked at her
with such smoldering eyes.

His hands slid down her neck, a warm
caress of his fingers against her skin. Why hadn’t she remained in
that simple dress when she had gone to meet him? This blouse and
jacket were far too binding.

He pushed her riding jacket to the side
and cupped and lifted her breasts, running a thumb over the tips of
each. They grew heavy and tingled at his touch. “I’ve longed to
touch you for so long.”

If she could, Audrey would run her
hands down his chest as well, but as he pointed out, she was at his
mercy.

Jordan leaned forward and began kissing
her again with a passion hotter and more intense than before.
Goodness, she might not survive everything he had to offer if he
was only giving her a taste tonight.

The cooler air grazed across her
exposed chest as he unbuttoned her blouse and tugged it out of her
riding skirt. Only her chemise separated her skin from his caress.
He tugged again and the chemise came free. Jordan smoothed his
hands down her ribcage and to her waist, heating the silk of her
undergarments with his touch. He then smoothed them back up,
pushing the chemise up and over her breasts until she was
completely exposed to him. Audrey’s’ face burned as hot as the
flames in the stove and if her hands were free she would have
covered herself.

Jordan sat up and looked at her. His
hands cupping and weighing each breast and his thumbs once again
smoothing over each nipple which were now erect and Audrey knew it
had nothing to do with the cold.

“Perfection,” he murmured before he
leaned forward and took one into his mouth. Audrey about jumped
from the bed and pleasure shot through her body, from the tip of
her breast to her woman area. Goodness.

He moved from one breast to the other,
kissing, nipping and suckling until she thought she was going to
explode from the pleasure of it all.

Jordan’s hand slipped up her leg and
Audrey shifted, willing to give him access to anything he wished to
touch. If he gave the same pleasure everywhere else he touched she
would grant him access anywhere.

He paused and looked up at her. “This
isn’t a skirt.”

She bit her lip and shook her head.
“Riding skirt designed in case I didn’t have to ride
side-saddle.

He chuckled and slipped his hands
around her waist and to her back. A moment later the skirt was
loose. He didn’t mean to completely undress her, did he? Even
though there was little light in the room he would still be able to
see her clearly. She always assumed when the private areas were
involved it was under the cloak of darkness and beneath
covers.

Her face heated with embarrassment.
Jordan said he would stop if she asked. Shouldn’t she? This could
not be right. But, he was a rake and they did have wicked
reputations.

But he would see that part of her that
nobody was ever to see.

“Audrey.”

She blinked up at him.

“That is probably the loveliest shade
of embarrassment I’ve seen yet.”

She bit her bottom lip as her face
burned hotter.

“Do you trust me?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

He leaned forward and tongued her
nipple before suckling it. Another jolt of pleasure shot to the
core.

“Do you wish me to stop?”

He moved to the other breast and did
the same. She couldn’t speak, only squirm as desire took over her
body.

Without his mouth leaving her breasts,
Jordan slid the skirt down her legs, breaking only when he could
reach no further. He sat up, pulled it the rest of the way off and
tossed it on the floor. She was now fully exposed to him. She
clamped her legs closed as if by doing so he wouldn’t be able to
see anything. She was only fooling herself.

His fingers trailed up her thigh,
inching toward her very center that had begun to pulse and ache in
a way she had never experienced.

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured
again. His lips took hers as his fingers found her curls, dipping
and touching the very spot that ached with need. Audrey moaned into
his mouth and let her legs relax.

Jordan bit back a grin. He had never
seen a more perfectly formed woman in his life and he wanted to
taste each and every inch of her. Audrey’s passion was fresh and
new and though she may be embarrassed, she hadn’t shied back from
his touch, though he suspected he might truly shock her before he
was finished.

There was something very pagan in the
way she was laid out before him with her hands above her head,
shackled, open to his pleasure and desire and unable to stop him
from doing what he wished. He had known gentlemen who enjoyed tying
women to the bedposts and such and that had never interested him
before. He liked having a woman’s hands on him as much as he
enjoyed touching them. But there was something so very arousing
about Audrey in this position that set his heart pounding and cock
aching all the more.

He hadn’t expected her to let her
thighs open so quickly or her hips to lift off of the bed at his
touch. Though he didn’t mind bringing her to release with his
fingers, he wanted to do so with his mouth.

He caressed within her folds, not quit
with enough pressure to bring her to release but to keep her on the
brink as he trailed kisses from her neck to her stomach. He shifted
until he was between her thighs and Audrey startled when he touched
his tongue to what he had barely touched before.

She stiffened and lifted her head.
“What are you doing?”

He paused only for a moment. “Trust
me.”

Her head fell back against the bed and
Jordan continued. She hadn’t told him to stop and he wasn’t about
to.

Jordan kept the stroke of his tongue
strong and steady as she writhed beneath him, moaning. Her hips
lifted off the bed as if she were straining for release though
Jordan doubted she had ever experienced one. Passion was second
nature to Audrey and they would have many pleasure filled hours
ahead of them.

He ached and his need to be joined with
her was powerful and Jordan feared he would come when Audrey found
her release. He hadn’t lost such control since he was fourteen and
found a book in his father’s library and he would be damned if he
allowed it to happen the first time he brought Audrey to
release.

Her folds were slick with her desire
and he edged one finger into her tight passage and then a second,
stretching her. There was no maidenhead or even a partial one. Was
it deeper than where he thought it should be? He sank his fingers
into the moist heat and it was almost his undoing. There was no
barrier to stop him. Was it possible that Audrey was not a virgin?
He had never been with one before so all he knew of what to expect
when bedding an innocent was what he had read in books.

Her channel tightened around him and
Jordan bit back is own groan, wishing it was his manhood being
caressed. He could not last much longer. His cock was heavy and
ached for release and the longer he prolonged Audrey’s the more
painful it would be for him,

He increased the pressure of his tongue
and a small cry broke from her lips and Jordan fought the need to
find release with her.

His ministrations slowed as he brought
her back to earth and her hips once again rested against the
mattress. Jordan slid up the bed and came to rest beside
her.

Audrey’s breathing was still erratic
and he knew it would be a bit before she was completely recovered.
This was probably his favorite part of making love. First sending
her soaring with an explosive release and then holding her as she
returned to earth.

“What just happened?” she asked a
moment later.

“The little death?”

Her brows drew together in a
frown.

“It is what the French call an orgasm
or release. That is what you experienced.”

She shook as if a chill ran over her
body and Jordan pulled the blanket up to cover them both. “I had no
idea. I mean, I never even expected. I…”

He placed a finger to her lips. “I
know.”

Though the state of her virginity was
still in question, Audrey had never found pleasure before and for
some reason pride welled up in him for being the one who brought it
to her.

She tilted her head and looked up at
him. “What about you?”

He stiffened. Perhaps she wasn’t as
innocent as he had thought. “What do you mean?”

“I assumed gentlemen found pleasure as
well.” Her face colored again. “You do have a reputation of having
had many lovers. Is that why women adore you so, because of
this?”

He bit back a grin. He believed that
was part of the reason. Though he had liked to take his pleasure
where he could he never left a lady unsatisfied.
“Perhaps.”

“Does a gentleman not enjoy the same
experience?”

The thought of Audrey kissing him to
orgasm as he had brought her to release only made him ache all the
more.

“Gentlemen experience something
similar.”

She tried to roll over and face him but
found it impossible. He moved her wrists from above her head so she
could move more freely. She turned on her side and looked at him.
He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. How could
she be so innocent and lack proof of her virginity?

He studied her. “You do know how babes
are born.”

Her cheeks turned a rosy color. “I know
where they come from. I’ve just never been told how they got there
in the first place.”

Jordan laughed. He couldn’t help
himself.

Her eyes clouded in hurt and he quickly
sobered. “I promise to show you how they get there as soon as we
are married.”

“Is that what is pleasurable for
you?”

“And you” Jordan pulled her close and
let her head rest on his shoulder. The iron at her wrist bit into
his side but it was a small discomfort to what she was living with
at the moment.

“Nothing can be better than what just
happened,” she said right before she yawned. In moments Audrey was
sound asleep while Jordan remained wide awake, his cock hard and
aching. At this rate he would get no sleep.

What he needed was a walk in the cool
night air to relax. With those thoughts he slid from the bed and
put his coat on once again, buttoning it in the front so nobody
noticed his current need. With one last glance back at the bed, he
slipped out of the room and locked the door behind him. He wouldn’t
be gone long and Audrey would certainly sleep longer now that she
had experienced the best aid in sleeping he had ever
encountered.

He tucked his hands in his pockets and
left the building, strolling down the walk leading into town. How
could she ask and say such innocent things and not be a virgin. Did
he not understand what a maidenhead was?

Did it really matter if she had been
with a gentleman before him? Though Jordan wished he were the one
and only lover she would ever have it was a bit hypocritical to
demand his wife be a virgin when he had lost count over the number
of women he had bedded in the last fifteen years. He was rather
disgusted with himself at the thought and lucky he hadn’t picked up
the pox in any of those encounters, though he had become much more
careful of his bed partners then when he was much younger and
always used the sheath.

Would he love Audrey any less for
having been with someone else?

The answer came to him in a
clear
no
.

It didn’t matter and the only reason he
was thinking of it now was because the revelation had been a bit of
a shock.

It was still possible she was a virgin,
however, and he simply didn’t understand.

Jordan barked out laughter. He had
thought he knew everything about intimacy and making love.
Apparently, he knew nothing about virgins.

His body was relaxed by the time he
returned to the inn. The courtyard was busy and when he stepped
inside several men and some women were seated around tables. A few
he recognized from society and Jordan turned away. He wanted to
return to his room and sleep and not be pulled into conversation.
Besides, he had been gone from Audrey too long. What if she
awakened and wondered where he was. He had left her undressed, thus
vulnerable, since she could not dress herself. Or at least he
assumed so given she had limited use of her arms.