A Wicked Way to Win an Earl (25 page)

Delia gasped and went rigid beneath him. Her tight, wet sheath felt so incredible around his cock, it took every ounce of Alec's control not to keep thrusting into her like a savage, but he forced himself to stay still until he felt her begin to relax underneath him. “All right, love?” he whispered, brushing the hair gently from her face.

After a moment she nodded. “Yes. Don't stop, Alec.”

Alec squeezed his eyes shut, struggling to gain control, and then he began to thrust gently, building a rhythm slowly, groaning at the sensation of her surrounding him and pulling him deeper. He was panting as he moved inside her, letting her get accustomed to the feel of his shaft filling her.

After a moment Delia's hands slid down his back and her
fingers curled against his taut buttocks. She moved her hips up to meet his downward thrust. “Oh,” she gasped, rising up to meet him again and wrapping her legs around his lean hips. “Oh,” she whispered. “Alec.
Yes
.”

Alec moved inside her, stroking deep into her over and over again, at once consumed by her and filling her. He gazed down at her, at her closed eyes, her mouth open with passion and wonder, and felt a part of his heart tear away from his chest. “Look at me, Delia,” he gasped as he plunged into her writhing body. “
Look at me
.”

Delia opened her eyes and locked gazes with him.

“You are
mine
.”

She gazed up at him, her eyes gone stark with passion. “
Please
, Alec.” She arched wildly beneath him, urging her hips against his. Then her mouth opened in a silent cry and Alec felt her hot sheath clench around him as she shattered in his arms. Seconds later he cried out, throwing his head back and driving into her in his own devastating release. “Delia,” he groaned, pumping into her, shuddering with pleasure as the spasms rocked his body.

For long moments afterward Alec didn't move, but hung suspended above her, his arms shaking with the effort, stunned. Then he kissed her, his lips brushing softly over her forehead before he captured her mouth gently with his own. “Are you all right, love?” His voice was shaking. “Did I hurt you?”

Delia smiled up at him and placed her hand against his cheek. “You didn't hurt me, Alec.” She paused; then she said shyly, “I—that was . . . I never knew.”

Alec grinned. “I'll take that as a compliment.” He rolled to his side and gathered her close against him, twining his legs with hers.

“Oh, it was one.” She sighed drowsily and laid her head against his chest.

“Sleep.” He threaded his fingers through her hair again, admiring the way the light set the gold strands on fire.

She fell asleep at once, but Alec remained awake for a long time after Delia's eyes had drifted closed. He held her tight against his heart, and thought about how everything in his life had just changed.

Delia fell into a deep sleep to the sound of Alec's heartbeat against her ear, wrapped in the warm circle of his arms. At some point in the night he rose and slipped away. He returned a short while later and Delia thought she felt a warm, wet cloth moving gently between her legs, but she was too drowsy to be sure, and far too contented to be embarrassed.

When she did wake an hour or so later, it was to find Alec lying on his side with her head pillowed on his muscular bicep. He gazed at her, his dark eyes dancing wickedly. “You talk in your sleep, you know.” He gave her a sly grin as he played with a lock of her hair.

“Oh, no.” Delia hid her face in his arm. “Not again.” Lily was forever poking fun at her for it.

“There's no reason to hide.” Alec took her chin in his hand and turned her face up to his. “You didn't say anything
too
incriminating. I couldn't sleep with all that mumbling going on, though, so I'm afraid I heard every word.”

Delia was dying to know what he'd heard, but he looked
so pleased with himself, she was afraid to ask. “Just like my mother. Even in my sleep I can't hold my tongue.”

Alec lay next to her. He stroked his fingers lightly along her jaw and traced her cheekbones, his fingers drifting across her face as if he were memorizing it. “Are you very much like your mother? I don't mean the way you look.” He smiled faintly. “Obviously, exceptional beauty runs in the family.”

“Exceptionally sharp tongues, too,” Delia said, even as she blushed with pleasure at his compliment. “I inherited that from her. I do think that trait skipped a few of my sisters, though. Lily and my sister Iris are much more even-tempered, like my father was.”

Delia reached up to sweep Alec's dark hair out of his eyes. It was strange, but she didn't mind speaking of her parents with him now. Since their deaths, any mention of them had left her feeling as though she would suffocate with grief, but now she wanted to talk to him about everything.

Alec stroked a warm hand up and down her spine. “You admired her. I can hear it in your voice.”

She smiled. “Oh, I did. Very much. I'd like to believe I'm like her. She was . . .” Delia paused, trying to think of a way to put it into words. “She was different. She wasn't afraid of anything, and it was something special to be loved by her, because she loved with her whole heart.”

She rolled over on her side and propped her head in her palm. “What was your father like, Alec?”

Alec had been lying on his side facing her, but at this he rolled over onto his back and threw an arm over his eyes. Delia waited. She'd just decided he wasn't going to answer her at all when he said, “He was cold and selfish, utterly controlling. Manipulative. Nasty temper, too. You can't imagine—”

He stopped speaking and for a long time he didn't say anything else, just stared silently at the ceiling, his body
rigid. “You can't imagine what it was like living with him when we were children. Robyn and I got the brunt of it, though I doubt it was pleasant for Eleanor and Charlotte, either. He ignored them as if they didn't matter at all.”

“How awful,” Delia whispered. She said nothing more, but waited for him to continue.

“Sometimes I think I'm just like him.” The tension suddenly drained from Alec's body then, as if it had taken all of his energy to hold that secret inside, and now that he'd spoken it aloud, he was finally able to breathe. “I know Robyn thinks so.”

Delia felt her own body go rigid with the injustice of it. The old earl had left such a deep and terrible mark on Alec, one he'd carried alone for such a long time. Well, not anymore. She'd likely never see Alec again after today, but at least she could tell him how she felt and what she saw when she looked at him. She could do that much for him.

She shifted until she lay on top of him, and carefully moved his arm away from his face. He stared up at her, expressionless. “But you're not, Alec.” Her eyes held his. “To care about your family and try to protect them isn't cold or selfish. It's anything but that. Robyn might not understand it right now, but you're
nothing
like your father was. Nothing at all.”

Alec was still underneath her, his eyes searching her face. “I might have been.” A small smile lifted one corner of his mouth, and he reached up and cupped her face in his hands. “But perhaps there is hope for me yet.”

Delia's foolish heart leapt in her chest. She knew there was no hope for
her
, no hope of a life with Alec. Not with the shameful history between their families. He might believe he cared for her now, but he'd grow to resent her when the
ton
turned their backs on him and his family. No one had informed her thoughtless heart of this, though, and it continued to thud hopefully.

She didn't say any of this to Alec. Instead she said the
first thing that came into her head. “Alec? What did I really say in my sleep?”

He moved under her so she could feel the weight of his hard cock against her thigh. “You cried out for me. You begged me to touch you.” His voice became low and husky with mounting desire. “You told me you wanted me again. Do you, Delia?”

Delia stared down at him, transfixed by his smoky voice and the hard, incredibly male body that now arched beneath her, and she knew she'd always want him. “Yes. I want you, Alec.”

She placed her hands against his chest and let them rest there for a moment, as if she were touching his beating heart, and then she caressed his arms and shoulders in long, slow, sweeping strokes.

Delia ran her hands across his bare torso, curious about the layers of muscles under all that sleek bronzed skin. She'd never seen a man naked before, but she was quite sure most of them didn't look like Alec. She thought about the first time she'd seen him, with his shirt open, his throat and part of his chest bare. She'd been shocked, and she'd have died before she admitted to it, but even then she'd wanted him.

She raked her fingers through the crisp dark hair on his chest, then shyly circled one of his nipples with a fingertip. Alec drew a sharp breath and Delia hesitated. “Does it feel good?”

“Yes,” Alec said huskily, but he closed his eyes as if he were in pain. Curious, she brushed her fingertips across his other nipple. He groaned and his chest heaved as his breathing quickened.

Her palm slipped lower to trace the ridges of his abdomen, but she jerked it away when she felt his muscles tense under her hand. At once Alec took her hand in his and placed it back on his body, a hint of challenge in his eyes. “Don't stop now.”

Delia cautiously dipped her fingers back into the grooves of his stomach muscles. “Your body is so hard.”

Alec made a choked sound, something between a laugh and a moan. “Sweetheart, you have no idea.”

“You have the most alluring trail of hair that begins just here,” Delia murmured dreamily, brushing her fingers under his belly button. “It goes all the way down to here”—she followed the trail—“and then disappears”—she drew the blanket down slowly—“under here.”

Alec shuddered with pleasure under her seeking fingers. When she drew the blanket slowly over his hard cock, he arched convulsively, and his head tipped back against the pillow.

“Oh, my, Alec,” Delia breathed. She paused for a heartbeat and then stroked one tentative finger against his shaft.

“
Yes
.” Alec raised his hips toward her hand.

“I don't know what to do.” She desperately wanted to touch him, to learn this most male part of him, but she didn't want to hurt him, and he looked like he was in agony.

“Touch me.” Alec took her hand in his and pressed it firmly against him and began to move it, showing her how to stroke him. “Yes,” he groaned when Delia continued the caress after he removed his hand. “Just like that, love.”

He was soft and hard at once. The skin of his shaft was thin and silky, but underneath the fine skin he was almost impossibly hard, and so
hot
. He pulsed and throbbed in her hand. Delia tightened her grip and stroked just a little harder and Alec gasped. His hips jerked sharply upward and he began to thrust into her hand in a subtle, rhythmic motion.

Delia was stunned she could find his pleasure in her touch so arousing. She watched him, transfixed, as he writhed under her hands. On impulse she leaned down and licked one of his nipples.

“Ah
, God
, Delia,” Alec cried out.

He reached out and grasped her wrist to halt the stroking
motion of her hand. “Stop, love. Stop, or this will be over before it begins.”

He grasped her around the waist and rolled over so she was sprawled under him with his hips fit snugly between her thighs. She could feel the hard length of him press into her belly. She lifted herself against him and wrapped her legs around his hips with a breathless sigh, eager to feel him move inside her again.

But Alec had other ideas. He slid his arms under her knees to unclasp her legs, keeping her thighs open to him as he slid down her body, tasting her skin. His lips seemed to be on her everywhere at once, trailing hot kisses from her neck to the base of her throat before his mouth closed over the engorged tip of her breast and sucked hard, licking and teasing her nipple.

He nipped lightly against her lower belly, and it dawned on Delia he was still descending, his mouth drawing ever closer to the aching spot between her open legs. Shock penetrated the deep haze of desire that engulfed her. “No, Alec!” She struggled to sit up and close her legs.

Alec's hands tightened on her thighs. “
Ye
s, Delia,” he hissed softly, holding her open to him. “It's all right.” He pressed his hot mouth against the soft skin at the crease of her thigh. “Shhhh,” he crooned. “I just want to taste you, love . . . have to taste you . . .”

Then his tongue was between her legs, stroking insistently, and Delia's protest died on her lips. “
Alec
,” she moaned, all rational thought fleeing as her entire being focused on the tiny bud of flesh that throbbed under his lashing tongue.

“So sweet,” he murmured. “Just like honey.”

He brushed his tongue against her slick flesh in slow, lazy, maddening circles. Delia clutched at his hair and arched up to meet his mouth. “Please,” she gasped, not even sure what she begged for.

But Alec knew. A low, wicked chuckle escaped him. “Do
you want more, love?” He teased her lightly with the tip of his tongue.

“Yes.
Yes
.” Her fingers tightened desperately in his hair.

He pressed her thighs farther apart, devouring her, his strong, deft tongue plunging into her and stroking hard against her wet pink flesh. She rose up to meet his every caress, one hand against her mouth to muffle her cries, the other flung above her head while he worked her. His expert, relentless tongue drove her higher and higher until at last he closed his lips around the tender bud and sucked at her, and she shuddered in his arms as wave after wave of ecstasy swept through her.

For long moments afterward Delia lay still, breathless and trembling. Alec wrapped his arms around her hips and rested his head against her, holding her and pressing gentle kisses against her thighs and belly. When her breath became even and she'd gone limp against him, Alec moved back up her body and rolled them, so she lay on top of him. He closed his eyes, as if savoring the feel of her weight on him.

“Straddle me,” he murmured after a moment. He clasped her shoulders and pushed her gently back so she sat on top of him instead of lying down.

Delia's face flamed. It was silly of her to be embarrassed
now
, after he'd seen and touched and even tasted every inch of her body, but . . .

“It's all right. I want to see your face when I touch you. I want to watch you come. You're so beautiful, Delia.” He looked up at her, his lids gone heavy over glittering black eyes. His cock pressed insistently against her bottom, so she tightened her knees around his hips and eased backward, moving her body instinctively until the hard length of him rested between her legs, trapped between her warm cleft and his abdomen.

“Delia.” Alec jerked his hips helplessly, as if his body was no longer under his control. He laid his hands on her
thighs and began to caress them, his warm palms stroking her rhythmically. Then he closed his hands firmly around her waist. “Take me inside you,” he whispered. He lifted her with strong hands so she was suspended slightly above him.

Delia hesitated. “I don't know how . . .”

Alec was shuddering now, as if he were crazed with the need to be inside her. “Come up on your knees.” He kept his hands on her waist, steadying her while she rose to her knees. “That's it, love,” he said when she supported herself above him. Then he took one of her hands, placed it on his stiff cock, and guided it so the head slipped inside her dewy folds. “God, y
es
.” He closed his eyes briefly and arched his back. “Now take me all the way inside.”