Desire Me More (10 page)

N
ick slipped into Amelia's bedroom well after midnight. The thud of his shoes, no matter how quiet he was trying to be, always woke her. She cracked open her eyes, tiredness still holding her immobile, as Nick pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor.

The familiar crisscross of scars on his back illuminated by the moon was a constant reminder that he held himself back. She promised herself it wouldn't be long before she ferreted out his secrets.
Tomorrow
, she told herself, and she wouldn't back down until she was satisfied with his answers.

As he came into bed, she rolled over and tucked her back along his chest. His hand wrapped around her stomach and dipped lower.

“Didn't mean to wake you,” he whispered in her ear.

“That's all right.” She tilted her bottom back, allowing the hard ridge of his penis to lodge between her thighs.

Nick's hand slid lower, grazing the coarse hair covering her mons and sinking his fingers between the folds of her sex.

“You're wet.” He kissed her shoulder, lingering there.

She turned her head and pressed a kiss against his mouth. “I think I was dreaming about you.”

“Now I wish I'd come to bed earlier.” He rolled her onto her back as he came over her, wedging himself between her open legs.

Curling his arm under her thigh, he entered her in one swift motion, eliciting a moan from her. Even though she was trapped beneath his welcome weight, her back arched to position her pelvis in just the right spot that allowed him to sink deeper inside.

He worked into her with long, even strokes. One of her legs curled over his shoulder. His free hand molded to her breast as his fingers played with her nipple, tweaking it, making it longer and firmer.

With his mouth against hers, he caught her moans as they grew in volume. He practically stole the breath from her lungs as their tongues swirled together.

Amelia tangled her hands in his hair, wanting to keep him close. He made a grunting noise with each thrust of their bodies. She cried at the loss of his mouth when he went up on his knees to give himself better leverage. One of his hands wrapped around the frame of her bed; the other grasped tight to her hip as he pounded into her sheath with a vigor that revealed just how desperate he was to claim her.

She gave herself over to him willingly, openly.

“Looking at you like this, I can barely keep control,” he said. “Look at the way your breasts bounce, begging me to take hold of them.”

He lowered his head and swiftly sucked one nipple into his mouth. She felt dazed when he released her with a pop.

“Pinch your nipples for me.”

This was something he hadn't asked her to do before, but she wanted to please him, and she didn't want him to stop the breakneck pace of their pelvises moving together. She rolled her fingers around the firm peak, pulling it enough that the already distended tip grew longer. The sensation was pleasurable, but she needed more.

Nick's hand eventually pushed hers away to cup her and suck the tip of her breast into his mouth. Her whole body convulsed, and her sheath clenched with every pull of his mouth. Her hand curled around his arm, feeling the strength and his muscles flexing with every lunge into her body.

Amelia threw her head back as Nick's mouth trailed higher, biting and licking at the frantic pulse beating at her neck. Her orgasm crept up in her body, slowly at first, her sheath clasping him.

Her body convulsed and trembled. And while her orgasm had started off as a trickle, it now flooded through her at the pace of an exploding geyser. She screamed out his name as sensation upon sensation lashed deliciously against every nerve ending in her body. Her body strained against his, unable to move; the only thing she felt was the pulsating clench of her sheath, trying to milk Nick.

“Fuck, you're so tight right now,” Nick muttered against her mouth before pushing his tongue against hers and sealing their mouths in an all-consuming kiss, as he pounded into her until he finally let go. He jerked hard against her, filling her with his seed, as their hearts pounded heavily where their chests were crushed together.

While their breathing evened out, Nick remained buried inside her, still hard, still in need.

My insatiable lover.

He looked down at her, his hand tracing a line along her face. “What I'd give to keep you in bed until we're too wrung out to even walk.”

She couldn't help but smile. “While that sounds perfect, we do have appointments we cannot miss tomorrow.” She wiggled against him, feeling the flex of his member. “You're always like this, after. Is that normal?”

“Only when I'm with you. I swear, Amelia, I could fuck you all night and still have a raging cockstand at the end of it. I think about throwing you down on my desk all day long. I think about taking you in the library, pressed against the windows. There is no end to my need. It's constant. And when I slide into bed at night and find you naked . . . ” He shuddered, his cock saying what he wasn't as it grew impossibly harder inside her.

“Then don't stop,” she said, cradling her legs around his hips.

One of his hands pushed beneath her bottom and titled her pelvis in such a way that he only had to rotate his hips to move inside her.

The way her body responded to him . . .

Whenever he was inside her, it was hard to care about anything except for this. Amelia grasped his shoulders, keeping herself where she needed to be as he stroked in and out of her body again. Their renewed lovemaking rekindled her desire, igniting a blazing fire of need that struck right through her heart until she was lost in the sensation of their bodies, finding release once again.

“I might just keep you up all night like this,” he said.

“I think that plan is the best one I've heard all day.” She nibbled on his chin and kissed his throat, allowing the short hair on his beard to abrade her tongue and prick at her skin.

Their lovemaking was slow and indulgent. And as Nick promised, he kept her up all night long.

They didn't talk, other than Nick saying all manner of dirty things that made her blush even to think about them. They just felt, touched, tasted. Tomorrow, Amelia vowed, they would talk. And she wasn't letting him leave her room until they had a few of their issues sorted out—namely, what their future held if he wanted to continue in an illicit matter.

N
ick untangled himself from Amelia, hating that he had to leave her at all. But his dreams were escalating, and he couldn't do anything to stop them from stealing his body and mind once he was asleep. Not sleeping seemed like the best solution, though even that was starting to catch up with him.

Every night, he waited until Amelia was asleep before he retreated either to the study or to his room. If she was hurt by his absence, she didn't make it known. In fact, she seemed more and more understanding about his difficulty in talking about his past. She hadn't pushed him for answers, but he knew it was only a matter of time before her questions got the better of her. Before those questions started to affect their . . . relationship.

He watched Amelia sleep a while longer before pulling on his trousers and slipping his shirt over his head. With one last look at her, he left her room and headed for his. After dressing in something more decent than the rumpled suit from yesterday, he went down to the study.

Huxley was at Nick's desk, writing a note.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your late-night company?” Nick asked.

“Figured you'd be down,” Huxley said morosely. “You've been wandering the house at all hours of the night the whole week.”

“It's that obvious.” It wasn't a question; he'd just hoped to keep his sleeping difficulties to himself—though it was hard to get anything past Huxley.

“Yes. But I'm sure I'm the only one who's noticed. Keep it up, and the rest of the staff will see something amiss. You look like hell, Nick. Almost as bad as when I pulled you out of the fighting pits you favored.”

The last thing Nick wanted to do was take a trip down memory lane.

“Had I not fought for money, I wouldn't be as successful today as I am.” Nick plopped himself down in a leather chair and leaned his head back with a yawn. Tiredness and restlessness were a terrible combination. Even if he did try to sleep, his thoughts alone would keep him awake. “I will have it back under control before anyone is the wiser,” Nick said, though it felt like an empty promise, even to his own ears. His demons were his own to fight. “What has
you
up so late?”

“Penning a note to my man in Highgate.”

Nick sat up. “Didn't take you long to set up someone there.”

“Not at all,” Huxley gave him a strange look. “I know what's got your thoughts all twisted. And it won't do you no good running from it. Highgate is going to be in your possession soon. You have to decide how you want to handle the business with the vicar.”

“This isn't up for debate, Huxley. I will handle him in my own way when the land is transferred to my name.” And when he figured out just how he would deal with the vile man.

Huxley and Sera were the only people who knew about Nick's past, but no one really knew the whole of it. Except Shauley.

Huxley bent his head again and started scribbling out more words. “Does she know?”

“I can only assume you mean Amelia.”

“Who else? She's been besotted with you from the moment she came here. Didn't think she'd be the type you'd pursue, but she's a good enough lass.”

“I didn't come down here to discuss her either.”

“Oh, I know. Just thought I'd mention you aren't exactly being circumspect. Neither of you is.”

“And what makes you think I would want to be?”

“I don't much care what you do, Nick. We go back too many years to not see a difference in each other. Especially a difference like
her
. But you should tell her your real intentions with the Lord Murray deal. A lass such as she doesn't come by often.”

The Lord Murray deal. The vicar. His dealings with Shauley, who had been such a significant part of his past that
that
was the reason sleep eluded him of late. The reason he paced the house with a million thoughts traipsing through his head, unable to shut them out. Thank God the deal was going to be done in the morning.

Nick stood. He couldn't sit here for the rest of the night, discussing the darker days of his life. “I'm going to catch a few hours of sleep before we meet with the solicitors in the morning.”

“Probably wise.”

“We'll leave at ten.”

“Your secretary should attend in my stead.”

He was right. But Nick didn't want Amelia anywhere near Shauley, who was sure to be there. He was a slimy bastard. And he suspected the man to be entrenched with Highgate's darker secrets . . .

Amelia had proven that she could handle herself in any number of situations. She wasn't a delicate flower he needed to shield from the world. And as much as he wanted to do just that, he knew his overprotectiveness might cause her to wither.

“You're right. Amelia will attend with me in the morning.” He stood to leave, as he couldn't very well stay in here when he craved solitude. “Good night, Huxley.”

W
aking up alone again this morning shouldn't have been a surprise to Amelia, but after her resolve to talk to Nick last night, it stung. She'd been patient with him. But that patience was wearing thin. He couldn't continue avoiding her.

She dressed and went down to the kitchens for breakfast. Not everyone had made it down for the day, but Huxley was present, reading the paper as the twins, Jenny and Jessie, set the table.

“Good morning,” Amelia said on entering the dining hall.

Huxley looked up and gave her his usual grunt. He was a man of few words unless he wanted to make a point. While he played the role of Nick's man of affairs, anyone could tell they were friends that had a deep appreciation for each other. Amelia guessed that came from knowing someone for so long.

“Morning,” the twins said in unison.

“What's for breakfast today?” she asked of no one in particular. In the first household she'd worked in, she'd never had the camaraderie she had with these people. Misfits, every one of them, including her. Everyone one of them plucked from a bad situation and given a home with a decent job to support themselves.

Mrs. Coleman bustled into the room with a hot dish in her hands. She was like a mother hen to them all. “Kippers, ham, and hash.”

“A hearty breakfast,” Amelia mused aloud. “How's the weather, then?”

“Getting colder by the day,” Mrs. Coleman responded.

Amelia went into the cooking area and said good morning to the cook. “What can I take into the dining hall, Joshua?”

The cook looked at her, his glass eye eerily unmoving. While the sight once had made Amelia uneasy, Joshua was the most jovial and one of the kindest people she'd ever met. “Good morning to you, too, child. Mrs. Coleman's got the breakfast platters taken care of. I'm just finishing up these tomatoes. But if you want to do something, prepare the tea set.”

She gave him a smile and did as he asked. She'd never felt kinship with anyone who'd lived in her house when she was growing up, so being at the Riley residence was a relief in so many ways.

Carrying the tea service into the next room, she saw that everyone else was present. Lately, she'd been dining with Mr. Riley in the breakfast room on the second floor, but not these past few days. She missed his company, but was thankful for the friends she had made among the rest of the serving staff.

They remained informal in the dining hall, which helped lend to a welcoming atmosphere. Everyone milled about the table and piled food on their plates before taking a random seat. There was no order to station or position. Everyone was equal here.