THE VIRGIN COURTESAN (3 page)

She gasped, but did not pull away. Rather she tipped her mouth
to his, and what he had meant to be a soft kiss became instead a fierce crushing
of mouths. Her arms went up and around his neck and he pulled her to her feet,
the smell and feel of her making his pulse throb, as well as other things, lower
down his body. As he kissed her harder and pulled her against him, she moaned
involuntarily into his mouth and moulded her body into his, fitting into him as
if she was meant to be there. Guy cupped her buttocks, his breath ragged, then
staggered back in surprise as she pushed him with considerable force. Her eyes
were blazing with anger now, not desire.

‘How dare you!’ she hissed, ‘no doubt this was your intention
all along!’ and with a choked, angry sob she pushed past him and ran out of the
door. Guy stumbled and fell nearly into the fire.

‘Juliana!’ he shouted, hearing her footsteps running down the
stairwell. Righting himself, he went after her, only to find an open door and a
white blur running into the dark. He shouted after her again, inwardly cursing
the silly girl at the inn for leaving the door unlocked. He debated getting his
horse from the stable but decided against it, tearing after her instead. She was
heading into the forest, in the rain and clad in only her chemise. With the men
he had encountered earlier possibly still abroad.

‘Juliana!’ he ran after her, his heart hammering.

Chapter Four

Juliana ran until she thought her breath would give out
and then stopped, panting with exertion and a tumult of emotions. How dare he!
Promising not to harm her and then handling her so. She tried to ignore the
voice in her head that pointed out her passionate response to his kiss would
have hardly been a deterrent,

Getting her breath back, she looked around her and felt a stab
of fear as reality sank in. In the dark and the rain and surrounded by thick
trees, she wasn’t even sure which way she had come. She was cold, and in
complete disarray. If any man should come on her like this, well, she doubted he
would be as gentlemanly as the mysterious Guy. But would he be so gentlemanly
now, if she did find her way back? Perhaps she should make for the road. If
there was an inn, there had to be houses not too far away. She looked around her
for any sign of light but could see only the thick shadows of trees. Twigs
snapped behind her and she whirled round, terrified.

‘Juliana!’ she heard his voice and sagged against the nearest
tree with relief.

‘I’m here,’ she called, her voice thin and high. She realised
she was shaking. As Guy emerged from the gloom in front of her she had to
restrain herself from hurtling into his arms. As it was he came swiftly over to
her, pulling off his shirt and wrapping it around her without a care for his own
comfort. Not that the thin shirt did little to warm her but it helped preserve
her modesty a little, for her breasts were nearly visible through the thin and
now damp material of her chemise. She flushed at her own foolishness.

‘Are you crazy?’ In spite of his words there was no anger in
his tone, and when Juliana saw the concern in his eyes, she could have wept. But
then as his eyes flickered over her, wet and half-dressed, the desire in his
eyes was evident. Juliana swallowed, meeting his gaze. The sight of his strong
body without his shirt and his dark hair slicked to his head from the rain,
making his eyes even more piecing in the half light, caused a surge of a rather
different emotion to rise within her. She realised she had been running away
from her own response to him as much as from the man himself. She wanted him,
and damn the consequences.

‘I’m sorry,’ he began, ‘I meant no disrespect. You looked so
beautiful...’ his voice trailed off as Juliana pressed herself into him and
kissed him again, no longer caring what he thought of her, or what was proper.
Guy was too shocked at her sudden about-face to respond at first, then his mouth
closed over hers, the rush of desire staggering him. For a wild moment he wanted
to take her here and now, up against the tree, with her flimsy chemise around
her thighs and her breasts pressed against his chest. This time however it was
he who broke away, feeling her shivering against him.

‘We must get back. It’s just through here.’ Indeed, they only
walked a short way before Juliana saw the inn through the trees. She must have
doubled back on herself.

‘Why, and I thought I was lost!’ she laughed, but Guy heard the
note of hysteria. She had been through enough tonight for any woman. The urge to
protect her from any further harm was unbearable.

‘Anything could have happened to you,’ he reprimanded when they
were back in the room, averting his eyes from the outline of her body through
her damp chemise as she wrapped herself in the blankets. ‘Were you really so
terrified of me you would risk your life?’ He clenched his fists in
self-disgust, then jumped as he felt her cool touch on his back. He turned to
her, eyes questioning. She was looking up at him with an expression he couldn’t
read, but she looked at once incredibly vulnerable and entirely tempting.

‘Perhaps I was more terrified of myself,’ she murmured, ‘of my
reaction to you.’ Even as she said it, she knew it was true. Once again his arms
went around her and this time neither of them pulled away. Guy clutched her with
such force her feet were nearly lifted off the ground. His tongue explored her
mouth in a way that made things low down in her body tighten and throb, and she
felt her nipples stiffen with more than the cold she had been exposed to.
Indeed, she no longer felt cold at all; a delicious warmth started in her belly
and moved through her body like liquid, coming to rest in her most secret place.
She wanted his hands on her, there and everywhere else, and made no protest as
Guy stripped her of the blanket and then her chemise.

His eyes were narrowed with his own desire as he stepped back
to drink in her body, his eyes leaving a burning trail across her skin as he
took in every inch of her. Juliana stood proud. Although all of her breeding
screamed at her to cover herself, there was no denying her body’s reaction to
his admiration, his gaze like a caress across her flesh. Better this, she
decided in the heat of the moment, better to give herself to a man she truly
desired and who looked at her with such passion, than one who saw her as a piece
of flesh to be bargained for.

‘You are truly beautiful.’ Guy said, his voice low, and he
swept her up, making her gasp at the sudden movement, and carried her to the
fire, bringing the blanket with him. He carried her with such confidence she
felt as light as duck down in his arms. He laid her down upon the blanket with a
tenderness that made her smile as he lay next to her, running his hand up and
down the length of her body, running fingers around her breasts and grazing them
over her hips. Light feathery kisses followed, until Juliana felt she would
explode with wanting. As he circled his fingertips around her breasts, her
nipples puckered as if straining for his touch, his mouth, and she heard a soft
mewing sound that she realised came from her own lips. It was a sound of more
than lust; it was need. The whole world had shrunk down to this room, this
moment, with the fire warm against her back and his hands playing over her
body.

She knew what to do; Rose had spent weeks coaching her on the
ways to please a man, but Juliana had never expected to feel such wanton need,
accompanied by an almost exciting fear. When he finally crushed her breasts
together and took her nipples in his mouth she moaned aloud with a pleasure so
intense it was almost painful, arching her back under his touch. All of Rose’s
step-by-step instructions flew from her mind as her own body took over. As he
flicked his tongue over each of her nipples in turn, coaxing them to pucker and
peak even further, she moaned his name. He raised his head from her breasts,
looking at her with such intensity she bit her lip, catching her breath.

‘Does that please you?’ he murmured, running a hand over the
curve of her hip towards her thigh. She nodded mutely, then threw her head back
with delicious abandon as he returned his mouth to her breasts. When her breath
was coming in pants, he finally released her, but not with the intention of
pausing in his explorations of her body; he moved down, his mouth leaving a
burning trail across her stomach, over her hips to her inner thighs, and she
parted her legs for him, blushing under his gaze as he pulled back. He looked at
her with a seriousness that seemed out of place.

‘I mean you no dishonour,’ he said through gritted teeth, and
she felt a thrill as she realised how much self-control it had cost him to
hesitate, ‘I would ask your consent.’

She nodded feverishly and reached for him, pulling him to her
in a kiss, to silence him before she did indeed reason herself out of this and
allowed her mind to overrule what her body—and perhaps also her heart—craved. As
he released himself from his falls, allowing his erection to spring free, she
reached down for him and closed her hand around his shaft, making him groan and
gasping herself. Nothing Rose had told her could have prepared her for the thick
heat of him, for the way he twitched in her hand or the way she could sense the
pulsing need in him, the way that the throb of her own body matched that need.
Her excitement was matched only by her fear. Would this hurt her? He felt so
large in her hands. Rose had taught her that men were pliable, easily handled,
that ultimately she would be the one in control, but she had never felt so out
of control in her life, and it was her body that felt pliable in his hands. The
hands that reached down to stroke her now, finding that sensitive nub that ached
for his touch—she dared not voice her fears in case he stopped, and she didn’t
want him to stop. A need grew inside her that she had no name for, that was as
much emotional as physical, an inner ache that she was desperate for him to
assuage. He touched her expertly with his fingers, his stroking tender but
insistent, stroking away her fears. Her body opened up to him like a flower
unfolding.

Although when he bent his head to taste her damp heat, she
tensed, flushing with embarrassment. She fought the urge to close her legs; Rose
had told her about this, too, told her how to writhe and moan and encourage, but
had never mentioned that she might actually enjoy it, might want his mouth on
her. It felt deliciously wicked. She reached to stop him, then hesitated at the
wanton sensations that began to ripple through her. She had never known such
pleasure existed; even on the nights when she had dared reach down and touch
herself, she had never felt this. At such times she had been thinking of her
wedding night, sometime in the future, and given recent circumstances any such
desire had flown...only to be awakened with such force by this man. Never in her
fantasies had her bridegroom been so wickedly handsome or so intent on her
pleasure.

A tension built deep inside her, growing in intensity until she
had to fight not to writhe against his mouth and beg for more, instead a
whimpering sound came from her and her body flooded with heat. Just as she
thought she would cry out in complete abandon, he raised himself over her, still
thick and hard. Ready for her. The sight of him took her breath away. He leaned
down and kissed her, plunging his tongue into her mouth as he pushed himself
inside her, and then she did cry out. A sudden stab of pain startled her but it
was quickly gone, to be replaced by the unfamiliar but not unpleasant sensation
of being completely filled. Her body stretched and was claimed by his. She
reached her arms around him, hungry for the strength and warmth of his body on
hers, but suddenly he was still, raising himself on his elbows and staring down
at her in horror. She cringed under his gaze.

‘Why didn’t you say? I thought...you said...’ he began to ease
himself out of her and she grasped his hips.

‘I did not lie,’ she said quickly, ‘I was indeed on my way to
see a new patron. My first.’

Guy shook his head, speechless, a tumble of confused emotions
in his eyes as his desire fought with his sense of honour. She could feel him
begin to soften inside her and she arched her back, urging him on.

‘It is done now,’ she gasped out, ‘and it was my choice.’ The
words struck her even as she spoke them. She had thought becoming a courtesan
and agreeing to sell her virginity to Lord Salter had been her choice, but it
was one made of desperation and the will to survive, not of desire. This man,
this night, was the choice her body and heart would make. She looked up at him,
her eyes wide and glowing in the firelight.

‘Please, Guy,’ she whispered, willing him to understand. If he
pulled away from her now she would have given herself to him for nothing. She
wanted him inside her, wanted to feel the pleasure he was bringing her towards,
even as she knew there was no going back. It was already too late.

He bit his lip as he gazed at her, then nodded as if he
understood, his eyes soft, but when he began to move inside her again it was
with a slower and more careful movement, kissing her neck and face almost
reverently. Juliana raised her legs and clasped them around his strong back,
nipping at his ear, breathing in the musky scent of him She moved her hips
against his, matching his rhythm as Rose had told her to do, but it felt
natural, not calculated. Her body responded to Guy with a will all of its
own.

‘I would have all of you,’ she whispered, and he groaned and
began to thrust inside her a little deeper, a little harder, until the delicious
tension began again to build. He raised himself to kneel between her legs, still
with his hardness filling her and began to stroke her swollen nub again, finding
the sweet spot and teasing her until she was bucking her hips and crying out
with no shame but pure need.

The climax, when it came, crashed through her like a wave
breaking, feeling as if she was fracturing into a thousand pieces then coming
back together only to dissolve into a melting core of heat. She clutched at him
as he came down upon her again, thrusting with abandon until he groaned with his
own release, kissing her as if he would devour her mouth, his body trembling
against hers.

They lay together for a few moments, Juliana fighting to regain
her breath, before he eased himself gently out of her. Even so, she winced, the
subsiding pleasure giving way to a dull ache.

As he placed an almost chaste kiss on her forehead and then
stood, she sat and hugged her knees to her chest, feeling suddenly abandoned,
but he only poured a drink and then sat down next to her, running his free hand
down her back to rest in the hollow above her buttocks..

‘More gin?’ she laughed weakly. ‘Shouldn’t you have plied me
with that first?’

Guy looked pained at the joke. ‘I had no idea. If I had known,
I would never have been so bold.’

Juliana shook her head, overwhelmed with emotion. How could she
explain how much it had meant to her to lose her virginity through her own
choice, her own desire, rather than a need to survive? But even as she thought
it she realised she had just given away the one thing she had to barter
with.

Guy seemed to read her thoughts. ‘I presume whoever was
intending you to receive you tonight was aware? Won’t this alter your
arrangements?’