JORDAN Nicole (32 page)

At his assurance, she sat up straighter, casting him a glance as he sat beside her on the velvet squabs. “I’m certain you are right, Drew. I should have more faith in your abilities. Your ideas have been exceedingly clever thus far.” She offered him a smile. “I am very grateful to you for your efforts on Winifred’s behalf,” she added, her voice soft and low. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me prematurely,” he replied. “I haven’t accomplished anything yet.”

“But you will. I know that once you set your mind to something, you will succeed. Just like when you seduced me in the cottage.” Roslyn laughed lightly. “I told Fanny I couldn’t resist you, which was true. You were quite irresistible.”

“I am flattered you think so,” Drew said dryly, wondering at her sincerity.

“It is not flattery, merely honesty. What amazes me, though, is how easily you made me forget all sense of propriety. I was raised to be a perfect lady, but you made me abandon my principles. But then, what chance did I have against the mastery of such a magnificent lover?”

Drew gave her a sharp glance. “What the devil are you up to, sweetheart?”

Roslyn responded with another musical trill of laughter. “I am only trying to be a good pupil, applying the lessons you taught me. Don’t you care for my methods, darling? I was certain you would appreciate them.”

When she trailed a forefinger along his arm, teasing him provocatively, Drew grasped her hand and held it away. “Are you purposely trying to seduce me?”

Roslyn eyes widened with innocence. “Well, I admit I am trying to arouse you.”

“Why?”

“You said the way to a man’s heart is through his lust.”

He had indeed said something of the sort when he was advising her how to capture Haviland. But it was her particular choice of words that struck him. Drew studied her warily. “Areyou after my heart, Roslyn?”

Her smile turned wistful. “Well, to be truthful, I don’t think it’s even possible to win your heart. But as long as we are betrothed, I thought I should exert the effort to make you enamored of me.”

Drew surveyed her silently. Her soft smile tantalized him, as it doubtless was meant to do. Yet he was surprised to acknowledge his disappointment. He had groomed Roslyn to be the ideal mistress, the very kind of enticing female who had once attracted him.

He should be pleased she had become such a good pupil, yet he’d discovered he didn’t like her pretense. And that was all it was, pretense. Her artifice grated on his nerves. Instead, he wanted Roslyn to be herself—charming and warm and frank and honest, rather than cuttingly witty and artificially alluring. He saw qualities in her that were much like Eleanor’s. He liked her forthrightness, her independence, her generous nature….

He’d watched her comfort Lady Freemantle last evening, andthis Roslyn was a very different woman from the warm, compassionate one last evening.

While he pondered, she leaned closer, letting her lips almost touch his. “Am I unnerving you, darling?”

Hell yes, she was unnerving him, Drew reflected. She was playing the role of bewitching temptress to perfection. God help him if she actually tried to seduce him.

When he didn’t reply, Roslyn reached up to touch his mouth with her forefinger. “I think I understand what the real problem is, Drew. You like to be the pursuer, and it discomfits you when the roles are reversed. But if you dislike my teasing, I will stop.”

Drew frowned. Perhaps that was indeed the trouble. Roslyn seemed to be chasing him. He enjoyed the chase, not feeling like the quarry. But he could always turn the tables on her.

Relaxing back in his seat, he shook his head. “I don’t want you to stop. But if you intend to seduce me, then do it properly.” Reaching for her hand, he drew it into his lap, letting her feel the swollen hardness at his groin.

As expected, Roslyn quickly snatched her hand back. “I did not mean to arouse youthat much.”

He gave her a wicked smile. “If you mean to play the temptress, love, you must be prepared to see it through.”

Putting an arm around her shoulders, he slid his hand downward to her breasts. Due to the warmth inside the coach, she had unbuttoned her spencer, so he had easy access to the bodice of her muslin gown. His hand slipped inside, beneath her chemise and corset, and began to play tantalizingly with her nipples. They jutted out instantly.

“Drew,” Roslyn said breathlessly, clutching at his arm to stay his caresses. Yet he saw with satisfaction that her eyes had flared and turned hot.

Using his other hand, he went on fondling her, stroking the taut buds, pinching lightly. “Are you aroused yet?”

“You know I am—and this has gone far enough.”

Drew smiled lazily down at her. “But we have only just begun, darling. I intend to make love to you right here. We have ample time before we reach home.”

“You cannot—”

“Certainly I can.We can…and we will.”

Her nipples tightening to a hard ache, Roslyn squirmed in her seat, feeling the now familiar quickening between her thighs.

“Be still, love.”

How could she possibly be still? Roslyn wondered. In addition to the swaying motion of the coach, Drew was deliberately performing his sensual sorcery on her.

“Drew, you have to stop….” Yet her raspy plea held little conviction, while a reckless excitement uncoiled in her belly at the scandalous notion of making forbidden love to him in a carriage. She didn’t want him to stop—and the devil very well knew it. When she lifted her gaze to glance up at him, she saw that he was watching her, his green eyes heavy-lidded and gleaming. He knew exactly the effect he was having on her, deuce take him.

“Drew….” she implored one more time as he tugged at her neckline.

“Hush. I am furthering your education…teaching you more about pleasure.” Slowly he lowered her bodice so that her breasts spilled out. “And this lesson will benefit me as well. I want to learn your body, so that I never forget the feel of you….” He leaned closer and nipped her earlobe. “I want you to learn mine, so that you never forget the feel of me.”

His hot breath burned her ear. Roslyn felt herself melting as the heat inside her burned higher with each seductive word. Drew’s eyes sparked with the same heat as he scrutinized her breasts, the pale ripe globes pushed up by the confinement of her corset below, the dark-rose nipples straining and pouting.

His eyes smoldering, intense, he dipped his head to suckle her. Jolting at the touch of his scalding mouth, Roslyn shuddered at the riveting pleasure and fell weakly back against his arm, her fingers sliding into his silken hair.

She could no more resist him than she could fly. Drew knew how to liquify a woman’s body, to devastate her willpower, to set all her senses on fire and fill her with longing.

Yet it seemed he was only teasing her. Abandoning the wet, aching crests, he raised his mouth to hers and kissed her with the same potent seductiveness. His lips were hot and restless, moving over hers in sensuous coercion, inflaming her already throbbing senses with the merciless eroticism of a master. Her body and mind were awash with hot-blooded desire by the time he reached down to gather the hem of her gown.

Still kissing her, he slid his hand beneath her skirts and upward, his searching fingers unerringly finding the folds of her sex, feeling how damp she was in the aching hollow of her womanhood.

Roslyn inhaled a sharp breath…but he went no further. Instead, Drew broke off his enthralling kisses and, to her bewilderment, left his seat and knelt before her. Then pushing up her skirts to her waist, he parted her legs.

Roslyn tensed, while a flush rose to her cheeks. She looked like a wanton, lounging there with her breasts bare, her pale thighs spread for his blatant sexual perusal—and Drew clearly appreciated what he saw.

At his heated expression, her heart suddenly started pounding. “Drew, what are you doing?”

“Pleasuring you.”

Slowly he ran his hands up her inner thighs, stroking upward to the damp verge of her sex. When he began to lower his head, Roslyn gave a small gasp. Yet she wasn’t shocked. From the night in the garden, she knew exactly what he intended.

A thrill ran through her, even as her long-ingrained sense of propriety fought against such a brazen act.

When she tried to draw back, though, Drew wouldn’t let her move. He slid his hands under her hips, holding her still. Roslyn closed her eyes. He understood her shameful desires. He knew what she wanted better than she did herself.

Giving in to her covetous longings, she remained mute as he eased her buttocks to the edge of the seat. But then he bent to taste her with his tongue, lightly caressing the bare lips of her sex.

“Oh…!” The word strangled in her throat.

Her thigh muscles quivering, she gave a soft moan. The delicate massage of his tongue was deliciously arousing. And then he found the secret point that was the center of her pleasure.

Roslyn clutched at his hair as he ran his tongue along the swollen nub, stroking, laving. “Oh, my…sweet…heaven….”

Drew only opened his mouth more, his tongue pressing harder against her.

Her hands fisting in his hair, she raised her hips, seeking surcease. She was breathless with need, helplessly drowning in a deep, intoxicating whirlpool of desire.

And Drew just went on arousing her. Draping her knees over his shoulders, he buried his face deeper between her thighs, his lips closing tighter over the throbbing bud as he suckled her with his artful mouth.

Roslyn whimpered at the exquisite torture. The lash of pleasure was almost cruel, yet she couldn’t bear for him to stop. Holding his head in place with two tight fists, she arched upward against his mouth as he continued inciting her senses to a fever pitch.

Her head was thrashing now. It was all too much, too overwhelming. A moment later she gave a strangled cry as devastating pleasure flooded her. Her body quaked and quivered with pulsating release, until the blissful spasms finally faded.

Her eyes still shut, Roslyn was dimly aware of the gentle rocking of the carriage, of the exhausted pleasure in her throbbing body.

Her lashes slowly lifting, she opened her eyes to find Drew looking at her with that maddening half smile. He was still on his knees before her, but he had unbuttoned his pantaloons.

His member jutted out from between his well-hewn thighs, and Roslyn found her gaze inexorably drawn to it.

“Touch me,” he ordered. The husky command resonated through her.

Fascinated, she reached out and touched his hot skin, her hand trembling as she stroked the beautiful, hard length of him.

“Do you feel how much I want you?”

Yes, she could feel it. He was almost impossibly aroused, while his eyes had darkened with passion.

Roslyn shivered with insatiable longing. She wanted him thick and hot and pulsing inside her. And yet she was unsure whathe wanted. “Would you like me to…pleasure you the way you did me?” she asked softly.

Drew felt his body clench at the erotic question. The thought of Roslyn’s luscious mouth on him was nearly enough to make his cock explode. But she was still too virginal for such carnal delights. “Someday soon,” he answered, “but not just now. Right now I want to be inside you.”

“I want that too.”

Her voice was a breathy whisper that fired his blood, and Drew gritted his teeth in response. His own body was betraying him with the intensity of his need, his swollen cock surging up to his belly. He was ravenous for her, his lust primal and urgent. His blood was pumping so hard, he wanted to take her without further wooing or preliminaries.

Yet he knew he had to go carefully so as not to hurt her. Getting up off his knees, Drew returned to his seat and sank back against the cushions. “You can mount me. We haven’t yet tried that position.”

Her smile was shy and sensual at the same time. “Are you attempting to prove what a creative lover you can be?”

“In part. You can think of it as furthering your education.”

His hands going to her waist, he raised her up to straddle him so that her knees were braced on either side of his thighs, his aching shaft nestled in the silken haven between her legs.

When he hesitated, she frowned a little. “Why are you stopping?”

He smiled, gratified by her impatience. “I want to take my time…draw out the enjoyment.” Which was partly true.

She was incredibly beautiful, Drew thought as he surveyed Roslyn…her luminous skin, her hot, pleading eyes. Yet he was more than willing to give her what she wanted.

He lifted her a bit. His erection probing the thatch of golden curls at the apex, he guided the engorged crest into her sleek cleft and eased her down the slightest measure. When she would have sunk faster, he stopped her.

“Slowly,” he cautioned. “You can’t take all of me just yet.”

He could feel the yielding of her flesh, though. Spreading her thighs wider, he slowly thrust into her warm, honeyed interior, his penetration increasing carefully.

Her sex opened and swelled for him until she rode him fully, her body impaled, stretched taut. Now it was Roslyn who hesitated, her breath coming in soft little pants.

Drew clenched his jaw harder. The slick heat of her sheath bathed his throbbing staff, and he thought there was no better feeling on earth. Yet he could feel his control slipping, especially when she started to move her hips.

“Just wait, sweetheart….” His hands curled around the globes of her bottom, holding her still. He felt a wild desperation to bury himself even deeper inside her, to pound into her until there was no breath left in her body or his. The urgency of it burned through him, but he fought the fierce urge.

Instead, he lifted her up a little, then lowered her again…and then again…until she caught his rhythm. And eventually when Roslyn arched against him and let her head fall back, his mouth dipped to caress her swollen breasts, sucking and pulling at the pebbled crests to heighten her pleasure. He wanted her hot and wet and wanton for him….

Very soon he got his wish. He could feel the urgent need building inside her each time he filled her. And in a few more moments, Roslyn was rocking wildly against him in time with the pitch of the carriage, the inner muscles of her drenched passage clasping him instinctively.