The Temptation of a Gentleman (20 page)

She lifted trembling hands to Noah’s shirt and began to work at the buttons there. One by one she opened them until she could free the fabric from his shoulders to pool in a heap by his feet. In the firelight he was truly magnificent. His blue eyes held hers with an intensity that made her quake with anticipation. His broad shoulders and toned chest and stomach put off enough heat to warm her even without the fire. In fact, she was almost too hot and squirmed nearer to him.

Noah smiled at her eagerness. Her emotions were probably all too clear to the insightful man before her, but she didn’t care. She needed him and she wanted him to know that. And if he also guessed how deeply she had fallen in love with him, then so be it.

Her trembling hands glided down his chest. His muscles contracted under her fingertips, and he sucked his breath in as she learned the curves and hollows of his upper body. She only hesitated for a moment before she pressed a soft kiss against his chest, her fingers tangling in the wiry hair there as she tasted his skin.

“Marion-”

When she lifted her eyes, she could see how much he struggled for control and felt an immense power. She had made his eyes glaze over like that.
She
had made him tremble.

But if she felt power, it was soon pushed away when Noah gripped her hips and lifted her up to sit on the bed. He nudged her legs far apart and stepped between them, wrapping her thighs around his hips until their bodies met. She gasped at the new contact, but when he shifted his hips closer and his hard manhood brushed against the apex of her thighs, she shivered in response. The pleasure at that spot was instant and powerful, sending a rush of new sensation through her.

Now Noah’s hands fumbled at her robe tie, catching the ends and yanking them until the knot released itself and the wrapper fell open. He gasped to find that Marion didn’t wear a nightshift beneath the cotton wrapper. She was entirely naked, from her small, warm breasts, to her flat stomach, to the wispy brown curls that rested where her thighs met.

She blushed at his parted-lipped appraisal of her body. Clutching at her robe, she pushed it partly closed again.

“No, you’re perfect.” He shoved the fabric down to bunch at her hips, then lifting her up the slightest bit to take it off completely. “I was surprised, that’s all.”

She nodded as the tension in her eyes faded a fraction. He had the strongest urge to feel her pressed against him. Grabbing her hands, he wrapped them around his neck and pulled her up off the bed and against his chest. Her breasts flattened as her skin glided across his like silk.

With a quick pivot, he laid her back down on the bed, this time with her hair spread across the pillows like a fan. Her breath came in short bursts as she stared up at him. He met her eyes as he crawled up beside her and stroked his hand along her belly.

She stiffened under his hands now that they caressed her bare skin, but when he slid his fingers up to brush her pink nipples, she relaxed again with a soft, “Oh my.”

Marion had never realized how good being touched could feel. Her own life had been devoid of affection since her mother had died, but she’d convinced herself she didn’t crave physical touch. She’d never dared to imagine a feeling like this, though her body rose up when Noah’s hands caressed her. Even though the sensations rushing through her at blinding speed were foreign, they were intensely pleasurable and filled her with a burning ache in every nerve of her body.

“Kiss me.” Noah’s order was thick and husky as his mouth came back down to cover hers. Her body relaxed as he slowly made love to her mouth, his tongue gently tracing her lips, then dipping inside her for slow, languid thrusts.

In the sensual haze he created, she almost didn’t realize his hands were moving down her body. When his thumb grazed her nipple a second time, she gave a moan at the flash of pleasure that started where he’d touched her and then shot down to the throbbing ache between her thighs.

Then his mouth moved away from hers, following the path his hand had made with slow, humid heat. Marion blinked up at the canopy over her bed as her nerves crackled with new awareness. She’d never known someone could or would want to kiss her all over, or that she would rise up to meet those kisses with the breathy moans she heard herself utter.

When Noah placed his lips on her breast and darted his tongue out to tease the hard bud, her whole body convulsed with pleasure.

He smiled up at her, loving how a thin line of sweat made her brow shine in the firelight. Her eyes were cloudy with desire and surprise. “Relax, Marion. I promise you, what I’m about to do won’t hurt you.”

She nodded, and her eyes closed with another moan when he returned his lips to her breast. When he felt her surrender completely, he slid his hand down to the heated, slick place where her legs met. She was already wet with desire, ready for him to make love to her, but he practiced the self-control he’d been taught as a spy and waited. As much as he wanted to bury himself deep within her core and feel her body contract around him, he also wanted her to beg him to do just that. It would make her experience better and he wanted this to be perfect.

He glided one teasing finger across the outside of her nether lips, feeling her body shudder with anticipation of the invasion about to come. He continued to suckle from one breast to the other while he slid the same finger inside of her, uttering his own groan when her body flexed around him. She would be a most responsive lover once her nervousness subsided. He could tell already she would enjoy every moment, not simply endure his touch while she waited for the experience to be over.

Marion arched up, her surprise at the invasion of his mouth fading in an instant when he spread her legs a little further and began kissing her with tenderness. Every time his tongue grazed the little hidden bud of pleasure she bucked up, seemingly unable to control the way her body ground against him.

If she had her wits, she would have been embarrassed by her wanton display, but her wits had left her the moment Noah had touched her in that secret place where she only dared to wash and not think about. All that was left was the throbbing need for him to release her from the prison he’d locked her in with hot kisses and shocking touches.

The strange, pleasurable pressure inside her began to grow, becoming more persistent, more urgent as the speed of his mouth increased. Finally, just when she thought she’d explode if she endured one more moment of sweet torture, Noah slipped his hand between her legs again and ground his thumb against the spot where she ached the most. Pleasure exploded in every part of her body, blinding her while she let out a long cry of release. Her body thrashed wildly as her hips rose off the bed, eagerly searching out the source of the gratification.

With a gasp, she collapsed back down, flopping one arm over her eyes as she panted to regain her breath. She heard Noah’s husky chuckle and moved her arm to peek at him. Slowly he got to his knees and slid off the bed. With one smooth motion, he kicked off his boots and shrugged out of his trousers.

Her eyes grew wide at the long, thick thrust of his erection, but her body twitched again as if it knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but bring her even more pleasure.

“I take it you enjoyed that?” he asked with a wicked grin as he stalked back toward the bed.

“I’ve never felt anything so exquisite in my life,” she said with a nod. She sounded like a woman of easy virtue and didn’t care. She wanted to know what was coming next.

“After a little pain at the beginning,” he promised as he rolled over on top of her, though he supported his weight on his elbows. The feel of his entire body pressed against her was wonderful. She felt warm and safe, as if she belonged to him even though she didn’t.

She parted her legs a little further as she nodded her head. “Show me.”

Noah closed his eyes at the innocent invitation. The refrain in his head repeated over and over,
slowly
,
slowly
, but he was losing his famous control.

He positioned himself between her legs, the tip of his erection just nudging her sheath. Then he leaned down and kissed her deeply. Just as he began to advance into the welcoming heat of her body, there came a loud pounding at the door.

Chapter Sixteen

Noah didn’t fully comprehend the banging on the chamber door until Marion clutched both his arms and her eyes went wide with terror. “Papa!”

Noah shook his head to clear his addled mind.

“Marion!” Walter Hawthorne’s loud, angry voice pierced through from the hallway. “Marion, what that maid told me better not be true. I’m going to kick this door in if you don’t answer me!”

“What the hell?” In one smooth motion, Noah kicked off the bedclothes and scrambled around for his trousers.

“No,” Marion whispered. “Please!”

Noah paused midway to reaching his pants and turned to look at her. Her brown hair was tangled from his fingers, her skin flushed from pleasure and anticipation. She looked beautiful. She looked guilty as hell.

“Wait…” His mind slowly came clear. How had she known the person at her door was her father? She had proclaimed it was him before Hawthorne spoke. She couldn’t have known unless…

“You planned this, didn’t you?”

The pounding picked up again in earnest, as well as Hawthorne’s angry hollers, but Noah ignored both as he took a step toward the bed where Marion stared up at him.

“Didn’t you?”

“Yes.” She nodded with teary eyes. “Most of it. I didn’t think things would go this far, but I
did
plan for my father to find you here.”

“Damn.” Noah raised a hand to his spinning head. “You told me you wouldn’t lie to me again and then you did exactly that!”

“No.” She reached out to him, but he backed away from her. “Please, we don’t have much time. Allow him to find you. Let him believe…”

He shook his head. “That you’re ruined. My God, you presented yourself to me not because you wanted me, but because you wanted an illusion.”

That wasn’t true, at least not completely. But he said it to hurt her because he felt strangely hurt that she would use the passionate experience between them to achieve her own end.

“Fine.” He climbed back into the bed to pull the sheet over his lower body as he lay back down on top of her. “Kiss me.”

He ground his mouth against hers, meaning for it to be a punishment, but his body leapt to life when she responded. Even though Noah knew he was bruising her soft lips, she clutched him closer and returned his angry kiss.

Behind him, the door crashed open. It bounced off the wall and Hawthorne uttered a loud, lewd curse. Noah rolled over and put on his best rakish face.

Noah reeled back in shock. The man had just found him in his daughter’s bed and his first reaction was to call
her
a whore? Not even bother to confront Noah or threaten to call him out?

“See here,” he began, but Marion had already wrapped the sheet around her and leapt out of the bed.

“Papa-”

“Just like your mother, I always said it.” Hawthorne continued his tirade with flashing eyes as he looked his daughter up and down with a disgusted sneer. “And now you’ve ruined everything!”

Noah pulled his trousers up over his hips and buttoned the lower two buttons before he spoke again. “Don’t blame your daughter, Hawthorne. I came here with the full intention of seducing her. I make it a habit to collect virgins.”

Marion’s eyes darted over to him. For a brief moment he saw the hurt flash in their brown depths before she returned her gaze to her father. “Papa, I don’t know what to say.”

As Noah pulled his mangled shirt back over his shoulders, he stifled a grimace. He had an idea Marion knew exactly what she planned to say to her father. She’d certainly known what to say to
him
to convince him to participate in her deception.

“You…” Hawthorne turned on Noah with a glare. “Get out. And Marion… get dressed and meet me in the Green Salon in three minutes.”

Hawthorne spun on his heel and stalked out of the room, shutting the door behind him with a loud bang.

Noah’s eyebrow went up. Hawthorne had reacted fairly calmly considering he’d just found his only daughter in bed with a man who claimed he’d been using her, but Noah felt the fury coming off the man.

“I’m not leaving you alone with him.” Noah had his back to her as he buttoned his shirt.

When he turned, he was surprised to find Marion had dropped her protective sheet and was standing at her armoire throwing a shift over her head. Unlike many women who feigned embarrassment after they’d made love, she didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Noah was staring at her. He felt his loins contract with unfulfilled need when his eyes moved over the soft curve of her hips, the round fullness of her breasts. He knew almost every inch of that incredible body, and yet it wasn’t enough. Despite her deception, he wanted to finish what they’d started.