Andrea Kane (31 page)

“Abingdon Street is just ahead,” Boyd noted at last. “Are you ready?”

Sammy nodded.

“Excellent.” He drew the curtains wider, allowing all curious eyes to see him escort Lady Samantha home.

A minute or two later the carriage slowed, crawling toward the Barrett Town house.

One carriage passed.

Then another.

“That was Lord and Lady Wilmington,” Sammy murmured. “She is a voracious gossip.”

Boyd beamed. “Wonderful.”

Three more carriages passed.

“That should do it.” Again Boyd leaned forward, looking intently out the window. The street was temporarily deserted. “Number fifteen … there. All right now, Samantha, duck.”

Sammy curled forward and eased herself to the floor, crouching down and tucking her skirts around her.

The carriage came within a whisper of stopping. It paused for a long, drawn-out moment just outside Sammy’s Town house door. Then it moved on.

Boyd said nothing, just stared straight ahead. They’d gone but fifty feet beyond the Barrett’s home when the sound of horses’ hooves reached their ears. Waiting for the precise instant, Boyd poked his head out the window and called loudly to his driver, “I’ve delivered Lady Samantha as promised. Now, we’ll go to the Gresham Town house and await the earl. Then it’s off to the gaming tables.”

The carriage sprinted forward.

Joy sang in Sammy’s heart. She was on her way to Rem. He’d made provisions for them to be together—painstaking, chivalrous provisions.

He was truly the most splendid of heroes.

Sammy rested her head on her knees and waited.

Her legs were just starting to cramp when the carriage came to a flourishing halt.

Boyd climbed down at once, knocking purposefully on Rem’s front door. No answer. Just as they’d planned.

Striking a match, Boyd lit a cheroot and sauntered back to the street, smoking. Simultaneously, he assessed the vehicles on Rem’s street. A few carriages. Enough people to spy him here, alone, but not so many as to cause him trouble. Good.

Leaning against the carriage, Boyd blew gray rings into the foggy skies, calling just enough attention to himself to be remembered. “Cover your head with your wrap,” he instructed Sammy quietly without turning around. “And when I open the door, get out. Quickly and without a word. Go to the front door and knock.” He ground the cheroot beneath his heel, waiting while the final carriage passed. Abruptly, he yanked open the door. “Now.”

Her wrap cloaking her, Sammy alit, blinking as she accustomed her eyes to the foggy night. Following Boyd’s instructions, she sprinted to the door and knocked.

The door opened.

Sammy entered.

The real evening had begun.

“Welcome, imp.”

Rem’s voice was a husky caress. “I trust you arrived here relatively unscathed.”

“Relatively.” Sammy lowered her wrap in time to see him lean past her and firmly shut the door.

They were alone. Sammy sensed it at once.

The lamps were turned down low, casting the hall in shadows. Pervaded by silence, the walls vibrated with heated anticipation, emanating excitement and longing and the wonderful, masculine scent of Rem. Sammy swallowed, feeling the palpable tension spring to life again, pulsing between them, inside them.

“Where are the servants?” she asked breathlessly.

“Gone.” Rem braced his arms over either side of her, palms flattened against the heavy wooden door. “Does that frighten you?”

Sammy lifted her chin, met the smoky heat in his eyes and shook her head. “No.” Reaching up, she traced his lips with trembling fingers. “I thought perhaps you’d truly sent me home.”

“And left us aching? Never. I merely assured us long hours of privacy while protecting your reputation. If my strategy was successful, the entire
haute ton
believes you to be snug in your bed, blissfully asleep.”

“Neither of which I intend to be … in my own bed, or blissfully asleep.” She sighed. “I’ve waited forever for this.”

“So have I.” He kissed her fingertips, one by one, each kiss more intimate than the one preceding it. “And I swore to myself that when the time came to finally make you mine, I’d go slowly. Even if it killed me. But now”—he drew her fingers into his mouth, his breathing ragged—“I’m just not sure I can.”

“Don’t,” she whispered. Her hands glided up his waistcoat, her arms twined about his neck. “Don’t go slowly.”

Rem’s mouth came down on hers; hard, demanding, seeking all she had … and finding it. At the same time, he fused the distance between them, pressing her against the solid surface behind her, bringing her into absolute contact with the hardened contours of his body. “I want you,” he said hoarsely. “I want to make love to you until every drop of passion is spent, until you shatter in my arms, until I pour my soul into yours. Samantha …” His arms dropped to her shoulders, slid down her back, effortlessly lifted her into the drowning hunger of his embrace.

Sammy returned his passion full measure, a sharing rather than a surrender, the events soon to follow predestined, since that stormy night in Boydry’s. Loving Rem, making love with him, was as natural a step to her as breathing.

Rem’s lips possessed her everywhere; her cheeks, her neck, her throat. He was keenly aware of Samantha returning his kisses, giving herself to him with an innocent abandon more devastating than the erotic acts of the most practiced courtesans. His body careened wildly out of control, hurtling him into a dark oblivion dominated by instinct and feeling. Gone was the expert lover and accomplished seducer, in their place a man as unprepared for the intensity of what was occurring between them as was the beautiful woman in his arms.

Somewhere in the dim outskirts of his mind, Rem secured a shred of sanity … enough to scoop Samantha off the floor, carry her up the stairs and into his bedchamber. He lowered her to the bed, following her down, capturing her mouth in another searing, blazing kiss, tugging the combs from her hair and letting the thick sable tresses cascade over his hands and down her back.

“I want you to feel things you never dreamed of,” he breathed, capturing strands of black silk and bringing them to his lips. “I want this time—your first time—to be so perfect, so unbearably beautiful, you’ll never forget it.”

“I could never forget making love with you, Rem. Never.” With breathtaking innocence, Sammy tugged at his cravat, slipping the knot free, only to begin unfastening his shirt.

Rem endured her untried attempts to disrobe him as long as he could. Then he caught her hands in his. “Let me.”

A shadow of disappointment crossed her face.

Rem’s heart constricted, and he brought her fingers to his lips, then back to his shirtfront. “Together,” he whispered.

Moving Sammy’s trembling hands under his, Rem unbuttoned his shirt and waistcoat, pulling the edges apart and pressing her palms to his naked flesh.

Sammy caressed his chest, leaned forward to nuzzle the mat of dark hair covering it. “You’re so strong,” she breathed, rubbing her cheek against the hard muscles and steely flesh. “I knew you would be.”

A ragged groan erupted from Rem’s chest, and he dragged her mouth back to his, kissing her savagely, nearly tearing her gown in his haste to remove it. He worshiped her bare shoulders with his lips and tongue, inhaling her scent, soothing her body’s unconscious trembling, only to find he was shaking more violently than she. The thin material of her chemise gave beneath his onslaught, and, wordlessly, he lifted her against him, rubbing her naked breasts across his chest.

Samantha whimpered, drowning in heated sensation, clutching Rem’s arms for support. Her nipples tightened painfully with each tingling brush of his hair-roughened flesh; her loins went liquid with longing. Gathering handfuls of wool, she tugged at his coat, wanting to rid him of every impediment to their joining.

Responding to her unspoken plea, Rem released her only long enough to drag off the offending coat, taking his open shirt and waistcoat with it. His torso bared, he gathered Sammy to him again, melding their naked flesh until she moaned, her head dropping helplessly to his shoulder. “So damned good,” he ground out, absorbing her shudders. “Let me taste you, sweetheart.”

Gently he eased her back, wrapping one arm about her waist and arching her up to his mouth. It had been mere days since their forbidden encounter at Vauxhall, but he was starved for the taste of her, the sweet, intoxicating flavor that was Samantha’s alone.

He enveloped her nipple with a slow, teasing suction that taxed his control and made Sammy cry out, the sensation too overwhelming to endure. She begged him to stop, then begged him not to, shifting restlessly to deepen his velvety caress.

Rem moved to her other breast, tracing the nipple with his tongue, circling endlessly before giving in to her pleas and drawing the aching tip fully into his mouth. He began a tantalizing motion with his lips, alternately tugging and releasing the sensitized peak until Sammy’s hips reflexively followed suit, rising and falling in conjunction with the rhythm of Rem’s mouth.

The naturalness of her passion nearly pushed him over the edge. She was all innocence and fire, fierce in her wanting, breathtaking in her abandon. Like a new flower, she blossomed in his arms, reaching for the blinding light she knew he offered; uninhibited, untainted, unafraid.

Untouched.

Rem’s heart swelled with that realization. Samantha was giving him her innocence. And he wanted to give her the world.

“Let me finish undressing you, love.” His chest heaving, Rem lowered her to the bed. He cupped her breasts, traced the damp peaks with his thumbs, all the while watching her meadow-green eyes darken with passion, her breath come in harsh pants of need. “You are every fantasy I’ve ever dreamed,” he told her huskily, gliding his palms to her waist, catching her gown and rended chemise, sliding them down over her hips.

A radiant glow suffused Samantha’s skin, not a shred of doubt clouding her eyes, neither modesty nor shame diminishing the anticipation on her face. She lay, quiescent, while Rem peeled away her stockings, tossing them atop her discarded gown and chemise. Totally exposed to his scrutiny, she made no move to cover herself, remaining perfectly still beneath his consuming stare.

He made love to her with his eyes, drinking in her flawless beauty inch by inch, staking claim with every heated look. At last, with a rough, hungry sound, he allowed his hands free reign, stroking her hips and then her thighs, urging them to part for a more intimate caress.

The pulse in Sammy’s body beat frantically, her insides melting with the same hunger she’d felt when Rem had caressed her in his carriage. How well she remembered the feeling of his knowing hands. How desperately she wanted to feel them again.

Blissfully, she shifted, her eyes drifting shut as she awaited his touch.

Rem lowered his head and buried his mouth in her sweetness.

Sammy cried out, instinctively reaching down, whether to push him away or pull him closer, she wasn’t sure.

Capturing both her hands in one of his, Rem continued his exquisite assault, penetrating her ever so slowly with his tongue, simultaneously caressing the sensitive bud of her passion with his thumb. “God … your taste.” He released her hands to cup her bottom, lift her into his seeking tongue. “This alone is enough to drive me over the edge. Tasting you. Claiming you.” He raised his head. “Tell me you’re mine.”

How could she speak? The world was Rem’s mouth, Rem’s touch, Rem’s words. Nothing mattered but the ecstasy he lavished on her senses, her soul. Answer him? Impossible.

Rem’s ravenous gaze bored through her, seeing the declaration she couldn’t utter. Wordlessly, he lifted her legs higher over his shoulders, opening her totally to his possession, sinking his tongue deep inside her, only to withdraw and repeat the caress again and again.

“Rem …” Sammy uttered his name on a shrill, heightened cry, everything inside her converging into a pinpoint of blinding sensation that intensified and grew, intensified and grew, until it splintered into a million blazing fragments, scattering her soul to the heavens, pouring her heart into Rem’s. “Oh … Rem …”

Closing his eyes, Rem kissed Sammy’s most intimate flesh, wringing another sobbing spasm out of her, sharing it, tasting it, unwilling to relinquish her even in the wake of her shattering release. He feathered his lips up the insides of her thighs and higher, knowing just where to stroke to prolong her wondrous sensations, where to linger to make it last. Even when she fell back, limp and exhausted against the pillows, he refused to stop, nuzzling her softly, pressing whisper-light caresses on her skin, gliding his fingers sensuously through the velvety wetness between her thighs. “So beautiful,” he murmured. “So soft and warm and beautiful.” He teased the opening of her body, entered her with his finger. “So excruciatingly tight.” When she moaned his name, another current of sensation rippling from her body to his, his control splintered into nothingness. “Samantha …” He shuddered heavily, sweat sheening his body. “I …”

Inexperienced as she was, Sammy knew what to do. Guided by an age-old instinct, she came to her knees, her fingers finding the fastenings of his breeches and tugging at them. “Rem … please.”

He wrenched off his shoes, kicking them aside and dragging down his breeches in one hard, violent motion.

“How magnificent you are,” Sammy breathed, her reverent gaze fixed on his engorged manhood. “Powerful and strong … everywhere.”

Rem came down over her, wedging her thighs apart with his knee. “I can’t wait.”

“And I don’t want to.” She smiled into his eyes, joyously opening herself to him. “I’m yours,” she whispered, giving him the answer he’d sought moments ago. “I always will be.” Her breath came faster as he settled himself in the cradle of her thighs, found the heated entrance to her body with his own. “Oh, Rem, I love you.”

The reverent declaration was as right as their joining, the natural expression of what she’d known from the start. Sammy watched the spasm of pleasure contort Rem’s face, but whether it was caused by her admission or the feel of her body taking his, Sammy wasn’t certain. All she knew was that she loved him, loved him desperately, and she wanted to give him more pleasure than any woman ever had.