Her Gift - Bundle Pack (5 page)

A pleasant little noise sounded from
the middle of the room, and Mary giggled when Charles picked her up
in his arms and started for the door. “Good night, all,” she called
with a friendly wave.

Charlotte assumed that he would go
fuck her now. And that Trent would do the same with her. But he
didn’t. He pushed her to her feet, waiting while she righted
herself enough to stand on her wobbly legs, and then adjusted her
clothing and tucked her hair back into a neat knot. As neat as he
could get it at least. It really didn’t matter.

“Is there somewhere that’s private?”
Charlotte asked him as she stepped on tiptoe to touch her lips to
his.

He scooped her up in his arms and
headed for the door. “I fully intend to take you home with me,
where you will share my bed. Do you agree?” He looked expectantly
at her. Even after being hard for hours, he was still willing to
let her decide.

“I want to share your bed,” she said,
hugging her arms around his neck.

And with that, he carried her to his
coach and tucked her inside. Then he joined her. He pulled her into
his arms and was content to let her head rest on his shoulder.
Within moments, the gentle rocking of the coach and the pitter of
his heartbeat rocked her toward sleep. “Thank you,” she murmured as
she nestled into him.

“You’re welcome,” he said gently,
brushing the hair from her brow. “Sleep now.” And Charlotte
did.

Her Gift – The Butterfly
House

By Laurel
Bennett

Charlotte blinked her eyes open slowly
as the sun filtered in through the slit in the curtains. She looked
around at the unfamiliar chambers and felt an uncommon sense of
peace. She rolled beneath the counterpane to face the other side of
the bed, and frowned at the site of the empty space beside her. She
lifted Trent’s pillow to her nose and breathed in his scent. He
smelled of sandalwood and spice. Her gaze darted around the room.
Where was he?

The last thing she remembered was him
gently undressing her and sliding beneath the counterpane with her,
both of them naked. He’d pulled her into his chest and rested her
head on his shoulder. Then he’d begun to stroke the length of her
hair, letting it slide between his fingers as he moved from the top
of her head to where it draped across the pillow. He tested the
strands between his fingers as he spoke casually about the
future.

He’d very softly asked for her to
close her eyes, even though closing her eyes was the last thing
she’d wanted to do. She wanted to make love to him. Or at least
have him make love to her. She had no idea how to accomplish the
former, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he could teach her
all the things he liked. That was the last thing she remembered.
And now, it was morning, he was gone and she was alone.

They still hadn’t consummated their
relationship. Could one consummate a relationship? Charlotte wasn’t
certain. The Duke of Randallshire was known for his prowess in the
bedchamber. Yet all she’d gotten from him so far was a thoroughly
enjoyable experience with a woman he sent solely for Charlotte’s
pleasure and a fierce orgasm brought about by his talented fingers
in the middle of a crowded room. She threw the counterpane to the
side and sat up on the edge of the bed. The man would be inside her
before the day was over. She would bet her life on that.

Charlotte slid into his dressing gown
and belted it at the waist. She ran her fingers through her sleep
tousled hair and opened the door to his private sitting room. She
stopped cold. Trent sat on the other side of the room in the window
seat staring out into the approaching morning. His posture was
relaxed, but the hand that shuttled up and down his cock was not.
He must not have heard her open the door, because he didn’t even
look up at her. He simply stared out the window, his mouth hanging
open as his fist sped its furious flight up and down his cock. His
eyes closed and his head fell back, his hand slowing its movement,
then speeding again. His hips began to move as small noises left
his throat. He arched into his own grip, the crown of his cock
purple and shiny with wetness that seeped from the small slit at
the tip.

He had a lady, warm and willing in his
bed and he was more interested in pleasuring himself than thrusting
inside her body? Tears pricked at the backs of her lashes. She’d
hoped for more from the duke. She’d hoped for a pleasurable
interlude. She’d hoped he’d be different. She’d hoped for more than
she should.

“Your Grace,” she said softly. He
didn’t hear her. She coughed into her closed fist. There was still
time. Still time before he found release. Still time for him to
choose her over the pleasure of his own hand. However, he didn’t
look up. He didn’t acknowledge her presence.

His hand slowed and his grip eased
somewhat on his swollen member. His mouth closed and she feared she
could hear his teeth grinding from across the room. Charlotte
shoved her hair back behind her ear and took a step toward
him.

It was then that he saw her. His hand
stopped. “Good morning,” he said calmly, as though they spoke over
tea rather than his raging cock.

“Would you like some help
with that?” she asked. She bit her bottom lip between her teeth,
and hoped he’d say yes.
Need me! Want
me!

He groaned aloud as he came, covering
his eruption with a towel he’d had at hand for the purpose. He
continued to stroke the head of his cock, grunting loudly with each
pulse of his release. His eyes met hers for the fullness of the
event, and he didn’t look away. A mad thumping began between
Charlotte’s thighs. But then he took both his hands from his cock
and looked down at it with a smirk. “I don’t believe so.” He smiled
ruefully. “The thought of you naked in my bed is enough to make me
spend in my hand without any assistance at all.”

“And yet you’re out here bringing
yourself pleasure rather than in bed with me.” She tried to hide
the hurt she knew he could hear in her voice. And failed
desperately, she was afraid. She belted his robe more tightly and
prayed for courage. “If you don’t want me, you could have just sent
me home and saved me the pain of finding out this way.” Her voice
cracked on the last and she hated herself for it.

“You think I don’t want you?” He shot
up from his seat in the window and rushed to wash his hands, then
to her side. His hands captured her face and forced her to look up
into his eyes. “Tell me that’s not what you think.”

“What am I supposed to think? I have
offered myself to you and yet you choose to…” She made a wild
gesture with her hands, unable to find the right words.

“Masturbate,” he whispered against her
lips. Then he licked across them. He tasted like tooth powder and
coffee. He’d been awake long enough to clean his teeth. She pulled
back because she hadn’t.

“Yes.” She heaved a sigh.
“Why?”
Why don’t you want me? What have I
done?
She didn’t say the words. But they
hung there heavy in the air.

He smiled unrepentantly. “When I
finally do get to be deep inside you, I don’t want to go off like
an untried lad, Charlotte. I want to please you, pushing myself
inside you until you explode around me.” A chuckle broke the
tension in the room. “You had me so hot last night that I wanted to
take you with no care or precision whatsoever. I wanted to rut with
you. I wanted to come inside you with no thought to your
pleasure.”

“Then why didn’t you?” She stepped
back from him and looked down at his softening cock. He shoved it
inside his trousers and laced them up quickly.

“You came to me for pleasure. Not as
someone I would use and discard.” He sat down and pulled his boots
on as he regarded her warily. “Did I ever indicate to you that I
would not please you? Everything I have done for you so far has
been done with that in mind. Why would I deviate from that
course?”

“I can please you as well,” she
murmured, more to herself than to him.

“You please me just by being
here.”

“I want to do more than that!” she
shouted. Then she covered her mouth. She’d never shouted at a man
in her life. “I’m sorry,” she blurted, trying to fix her
mistake.

One dark brow arched.
“For?”

“Oh, never mind.” She threw up her
hands and stalked back into his bedchamber.

“Don’t walk away from me, Charlotte.”
He followed her closely all the way back to the bed, where he
turned her back to face him. “Talk to me. Tell me what you’re
thinking.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I can do a
lot of things, but reading minds isn’t one of them.”

“I don’t want to be an inactive
participant in your game of seduction. I want to learn to please
you.” She turned away and buried her face in her hands.

He pulled her back against his chest
and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “You do. You will. There’s
so much I want to show you.”

“What are you waiting for?” she
murmured against his arm.

He slapped her playfully on the
bottom. “I’m waiting for you to be ready.”

“I’m ready.”

“You only think you are.” He shook his
head as though he was frustrated. “I want to show you
something.”

She looked down toward his trousers.
“I just saw your something and it’s very impressive.”

He chuckled. “I want to show you that,
too. But I want to show you something else, first.” He bent down
and kissed her cheek. “How long will it take you to
dress?”

“If getting dressed is part of it, I
imagine you won’t be showing me anything,” she said, trying not to
appear surly. And failing. Miserably.

“Will you please trust me?” he said.
“Trust that I know you well enough to know what you
need.”

“You don’t know me at all.”

His face clouded. “But I
knew
him
. And
that’s enough.”

Him
. He referred to her late husband. “Will he forever be in your
mind?”

“He’ll be out of my mind as soon as I
banish him from yours.” He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look
into the depths of his eyes. “The fact that you are even worried
about pleasing me means that he’s still at the forefront of your
thoughts, darling.” He pinched her bottom lightly and called for a
maid to help her dress.

***

“Where are we going?” Charlotte
stomped across the grounds toward a glass enclosure in the center
of Trent’s garden. He stopped in front of the doors and turned to
grin at her. Then he thrust the door open and urged her inside with
a hand at the small of her back. Charlotte gasped. Humid indoor air
met her, chasing the chill of the early morning from her body.
“Your greenhouse?” she asked, turning back to him, unable to keep
the smile from her face. Charlotte loved plants. She loved getting
her hands dirty with potting soil. She loved making things grow.
Encouraging them. Nurturing them.

“It’s actually more than a
greenhouse,” Trent said as he took her hand and led her deep into
the building. They went by rows and rows of every sort of plant and
trees, fruit bearing and otherwise. Some were planted directly in
the earth. And others were potted and set about strategically. A
butterfly came to land on her shoulder. Charlotte reached out to
touch it, but it flew away. That was when she realized how many
there were. They hung in the trees and on the bushes. Some were
scattered in dishes full of water. “It’s a haven for
butterflies.”

She smiled and spun in a circle,
trying to take it all in. “It’s amazing.”

“It’s one of my favorite places,” he
confessed, looking a bit sheepish.

“I could live here,” she breathed. He
gave her hand a gentle tug and dragged her further into his
personal jungle.

“If you promise to come with me, I
might grant you access once in a while,” he teased.

“Grant me access, huh?” she asked
playfully. She liked this side of him. He looked almost abashed at
the thought of sharing his favorite place with her. “Do you bring
all of your women here?” she asked, without even thinking. She
groaned loudly at herself before he could respond. “Ignore
that.”

“You’re of the opinion that I have a
lot of women underfoot, just waiting for me to lead them along the
path of debauchery.” He tilted his head to the side and regarded
her for a moment.

“You don’t?”

He shook his head, looking sheepish at
her again. “I’ll admit that I did my fair share of carousing when I
was younger. But for the past few years, I have chosen my partners
with discrimination.”

“But you didn’t choose me,” she
reminded him. “I chose you.”

He nodded and then took her hand in
his, bringing it to his lips. “I hope you’re pleased with your
choice.”

She would be if he would ever fuck
her. But that didn’t seem to be part of his plan. “I can’t have
children,” she said softly. “If you’re worried that you’ll get me
with child, and that’s why you haven’t… done anything. Then you
needn’t worry. I am barren.” She laid a hand over her stomach. “I
will never get with child.”