Fascinated (17 page)

Edward’s eyes glittered beneath his heavy lids. “I’d like to see you do this.”

“See me…touch myself?”

“Yes.”

“I…” She’d heard that women did touch themselves. Verity had told her in a whisper once. It was dreadfully wicked, of course, but so was watching Edward fondling his cock. Even more wicked was the way she wanted to be there with him, touching him too, urging him on.

She wanted to touch herself and feel his excitement build.

“I don’t know what to do.” Her voice sounded terribly harsh in her own ears.

He smiled languidly. “Come here, Alicia. Let me show you.”

Her mouth was dry. Her heart pounded against her ribs. A cold shiver of pure nervousness cut the heat rising in her body. But he was so magnificent, lounging there, utterly unabashed in his nakedness, stroking his magnificent cock to fullness as he watched her. She couldn’t refuse him. She did not want to.

She drew back the covers. The room’s cool morning air enveloped her bare skin and she shivered as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Edward ran one finger up the center of his cock’s shaft and nodded at her; his eyes and smile filled luscious promise. Just looking at him, her pussy grew damp, and her mouth watered. She wanted his mouth on hers, his hands on her body. Most of all, she wanted his cock—his gorgeous, hard cock—inside her again.

“I’m waiting for you, my dear.”

It was too much. Completely naked, she stood and crossed the room. She felt clumsy, a stranger in this woman’s body so filled with fire. The curls between her thighs were damp with need. She knew his bright eyes saw this, and that only sent another flash of desire through her. His gaze traveled up to her breasts, which seemed so heavy now it was hard to breathe beneath the weight of them.

“Alicia.” Edward reached out a hand to her, still touching himself with the other. His smile filled with mischief and desire. His strong, calloused hand enfolded hers as he drew her close, urging her to bend down toward him. Alicia’s pounding heart swelled and her nervousness subsided, replaced by a fresh eagerness.

He kissed her. His tongue slid without hesitation into her ready
mouth, finding hers so he could stroke it as languidly as he stroked his cock. She groaned and he chuckled against her mouth.

Edward wrapped his hands around Alicia’s waist and pulled her down onto his naked lap. Not once breaking their kiss, he arranged her crosswise, supporting her back with one strong arm while her legs dangled over the arms of the chair. His hand splayed against the side of one thigh, and his cock pressed hot and hard against the other.

“Now.” Edward took her hand and kissed her palm, slowly, lovingly. “It is all very simple, my dear. You already know how good it feels when I touch you here.” He laid her palm against her own taut breast, covering her hand with his, moving it, squeezing and releasing so that she was massaging herself. Sweet pleasure suffused her. Alicia sighed and laid her cheek against his chest.

“Yes, it feels good, doesn’t it?” he murmured. “You are so beautiful to see, lost like this in your pleasure. It will feel even better here.” He drew their hands down her belly, all the way to her damp curls. Her thighs parted, anxious to discover what new delights waited. “Oh, good, my dear Alicia, my lovely one. That’s it.” He ran her palm along the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh. She was hot there and she found her own skin almost as fascinating to her hands as his was, especially while his hand moved with hers. Especially with his eyes on her, watching, his hard cock stroking her other side, and his sweet, sensuous voice speaking so wickedly to her.

“Touch your pussy.” His lips brushed her ear. “Stroke yourself. You know what to do. Show me how you like best to be touched.”

She did know what to do, and when he laid her hand against her curls, her fingers began at once to toy with her soft, heated folds. Pleasure rippled up through her body and she groaned. Her head dropped back, but she was perfectly secure, supported by
his rock-hard arm. She could stroke herself as hard and as fast as she desired. She would not fall. Edward would hold her safe. His thighs rubbed against her ass, his cock against her thigh. She could hear his harsh, hard breathing; she could feel the heat of him radiating through her flesh, mingling with her own fire.

“Oh, yes,” she moaned.

“Is it good, Alicia?”

“Yes. Yes. I want…”

“What do you want? Tell me.”

“I want you…inside.”

“Yes.” He drew the word out long and slow. “Yes, and you will have me. I will put my cock inside that lovely pussy and you will ride it as hard as you want. But first you must show me your pleasure.” His hand covered hers again, pressing her palm against her throbbing clit. She gasped and groaned as his fingers pressed hers deeper into her wet slit, right up to the entrance of her sheath.

“Yes, you like that, don’t you, Alicia?” She moaned in answer and he pressed hard, thrusting her deeper into herself. She arched her neck, trying to reach his mouth for a kiss, but he was not there and she whimpered.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered wickedly into her ear. “All pink and flushed and hot, getting yourself ready for my cock. Are you thinking about my cock, Alicia?”

“Yes!”

“About my cock inside you? Where your fingers are now?”

“Yes!” She sank her fingers deeper into her wet sheath, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her need. It couldn’t be enough. What she truly needed, and desperately wanted, was his cock filling her.

“I want you, Alicia. I want you so much, but first you must
come for me. Show me how gorgeous you are when you come. Show me how you want me to fuck you.”

She cried out wordlessly. Her hand moved faster. He’d removed his, and was stroking the curve of her belly and her thighs with his confident hands. The twin sensations were driving her mad. She could think of nothing but the heat and the friction, the pleasure of their hands and his flesh and gaze against her.

“So beautiful. You’re so close.”

“Yes,” she moaned. “Oh, yes.”

“Now, Alicia! Come for me now!”

His command undid her. All the pleasure flooding her burst free, sweeping her along with its current. Her body rocked and shuddered uncontrollably. Edward groaned. As the last hot waves of delight tumbled through her, he’d shifted them, lifting and turning her to face him. Now Alicia straddled Edward’s thighs and his hard hands spanned her waist. Her pussy squeezed and strained, and she felt the blunt tip of his cock stroke down her folds once, before he lifted her high and plunged her down onto him, thrusting up to bury himself in her slick, pulsing sheath.

The redoubling of pleasure made her cry out loud. She arched her back. Her strength was utterly gone. She could not stand this. She was helpless in his hands, completely lost within the fever he had roused her to.

“You can do it,” he murmured. “You can do it, my beautiful Alicia. Look at me.”

She obeyed, opening her eyes to gaze into his, and what she saw there took the last of her breath away. Light and pure desire filled his handsome face, but it was mixed with wonder and even a kind of awe.

“Breathe deep,” he told her. “Let yourself move with me.”

She tried, but could draw in only a kind of ragged hiccup of a breath. But his laughing eyes encouraged her. Gradually, she felt her body and senses steadying under the new onslaught of delight brought by his cock thrust so deeply inside her, a sensation so overwhelming but so very much desired.

“Edward.” Alicia wrapped her arms around his neck. Her thighs relaxed, her sheath relaxed, opening to the pleasure he brought. “Oh, my dear.”

He smiled as she spoke the word and the mischief returned to his moonlight gaze. He thrust up a little harder, teasing her, testing her. It felt good, and the pleasure no longer frightened her. She welcomed it. He circled his hips underneath her. She could feel the motion causing his cock to stir inside her and stroke her sheath, unfurling delightful new sensations inside her. She wanted more.

“Teach me to ride you,” she breathed. “I want to ride you hard.”

“As my lady desires.”

Edward pressed his hands firmly to her hips and buttocks, and he lifted her. Her breath hissed through her teeth as the motion drew his shaft out of her tight sheath, but he swiftly lowered her again, so he was deep inside once more. The friction was sweet. The way his hands clutched and kneaded her ass added wonderful spice. He lifted her again, and again, until she caught the delicious motion and her thighs began to move of their own accord, raising her up, bringing her down hard, seeking her own rhythm of pleasure.

“Oh, yes. Oh, God, yes,” groaned Edward.

His words went straight to Alicia’s core, burning away the last of her hesitations. Her body moved of its own volition, harder, faster, wanting only to take the full measure of her delight from
him, conscious only of their bodies—his hard thighs between hers, his hands cupping her buttocks, but most of all his cock filling her.

His mouth caught her nipple and sucked her deep. She cried out as his tongue circled her areola and his teeth nipped her. She tried to lift herself up, but this time, he forced her down, thrusting deep into her. Without warning she shattered, again, rocking wildly against his cock. Edward shouted and thrust, and now he was with her, the two of them a tempest tossed by their pleasure, voices crying out, spirits pressed as tightly together as their mouths as they slowly, slowly descended from the heights to which they had flown.

I
t was something of a miracle that Carstairs was fully dressed by the time the bell rang to signal the arrival of Captain Smith and Lady Jane Lynne. He and Alicia had decided that after their recent, very pleasant exertions, they both needed something more than a cold-water wash. With equal amounts of trouble and laughter, they’d managed the cookstove and the copper boiler well enough to fill a hip bath with steaming water. Of course, since Alicia would not know where anything was, Carstairs had to bring her towels and soap. Then, because she had no maid to assist her, he’d had to help her out of her borrowed robe. What followed was highly enjoyable, but it had almost upset the bath, and his own dressing had been delayed by the need to get the water mopped up.

Now Alicia stood beside him in the foyer wearing a morning frock of a pale peach color that seemed to him a little too tight across the bodice and hip, but he found he did not mind that in the least. Her hair was dressed much more simply than it had
been yesterday. Carstairs thought she looked radiant, but he was aware of a certain bias on the subject. She was also very quiet.

“You need have no fear, Alicia,” he said, laying his hand on the front door’s knob. “These are friends come to meet you.”

“I know.” She lifted her chin. He felt she also knew, almost as well as he did, that their private idyll was at an end. Duty waited outside.

Disturbed by his own reluctance, Carstairs made himself open the door.

“Good morning, Carstairs.” Smith stood aside to let Lady Jane Lynne proceed him through the door.

“Good morning, Captain, Lady Jane. May I present Miss Alicia Hartwell?”

“Miss Hartwell, how do you do?” Lady Jane smiled as she moved forward to exchange courtesies with Alicia, but her eyes raked hard across Carstairs as she passed. Lynne’s prediction proved correct. His wife was not in the least pleased with how Alicia had been treated. “I daresay you do not remember, but we have met before.”

“I believe so, yes,” Alicia replied, frowning. “Weren’t you in the household of the Duke of Clarence?”

“Until quite recently, yes. Now I am married to one of the rapscallions who decided, quite without consulting cooler heads, to treat you so roughly. You may be sure, he has heard what I think on this point!” Lady Jane favored both Carstairs and Captain Smith with another hard look, but Carstairs thought he detected a softer light behind the lowering glare. He found he could well imagine the sorts of things Lynne had said and done to make up with his wife for his poor conduct.

“For my part, I wish to apologize.” Captain Smith bowed to
Alicia. “It was on my orders that you were brought here. I can only plead that it was done out of concern for your safety.”

Which was true, but not wholly true. Edward felt his hands trying to curl into fists again, and forced them to relax. He had known this moment was coming. It was as well it had arrived now. He knew himself to be treading very dangerous waters with regard to Alicia. His inability to keep his hands off her this morning proved that.

“Edward—Lord Carstairs—has explained something of the matter to me,” Alicia was saying.

“Excellent,” replied Captain Smith smoothly. “Now, unless I am much mistaken, it is Lady Jane who would like a word with you, Miss Hartwell.”

“Most definitely,” said Lady Jane.

“Would you like coffee?” Carstairs asked, belatedly surfacing from his cold reverie to remember his role as host. “I’m sorry you’ll have to cope with my poor skills as a servant.”

“No, thank you,” replied Lady Jane, to Carstairs’s relief. “You and the captain have a great deal to talk about. Miss Hartwell and I will do very well as we are in the parlor. I believe it’s this way?” She tucked her arm through Alicia’s and swept them both down the corridor.