Miller, Raine - The Undoing of a Libertine (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

Georgina shook her head once. “I think not, Jane.” She couldn’t, and wouldn’t say any more to a servant. It wasn’t proper, but it didn’t stop her from thinking about why she wouldn’t have it braided. Georgina would leave her hair down because she knew Jeremy liked it best that way. He enjoyed touching and fingering through it as he had done last night.

“Well, I’ll say good night then, ma’am. Please call for me if there is anything I may do for you.” Jane bobbed a curtsy and let herself out of the room.

Georgina listened to the sound of retreating footsteps and then silence. She got up from the dressing table and moved to stand before the fireplace, slowly counting to one hundred in her head. It was the only thing she could think to do in order to keep her feet planted firmly on the floor and from running out the door.

I can do this.

* * * *

Jeremy’s heart thudded hard in his chest to the point of causing physical movement. Nervous was what he was. He could never remember feeling like this before sex, but here he was, nervous as a hare at a dog race. What was Georgina thinking right now? She must be nervous. How could she not?

It was hard to tell when he stepped into the well-lit room because she had her back to him. She was glorious all the same. Standing before the fire, Georgina appeared more beautiful than he had ever seen her. She wore her blonde hair down, the soft curls flowing over her shoulders and down her back. Her nightdress, pale yellow and thinly translucent, pooled at her feet. He could just make out the shape of her mile-long legs and other gorgeous parts in the backlight of the fire, like the perfectly rounded curves of her beauteous bum.

He stopped. Waiting, looking, admiring. It was all he could do.

She turned around.

His arms shot out, and he heard himself whisper, “Come to me.”

Savoring every step, he watched as she walked toward him, her breasts swaying beneath the thin gown with each stride forward and then softly bouncing every time her foot touched the floor.
Mother of God!

Once he could draw her into an embrace, he finally felt able to inhale a breath. He closed his eyes in thankfulness, so great was the relief to at last have her against him—safe and warm and smelling of sweet-scented soap.

“I love your scent. It’s soothing and stirring at the same time.”

She didn’t say anything, just nestled closer.

He felt the softness of her breasts pressing onto his chest.
Bed. Need to get to the bed…

Before he could think too much, he just scooped her up and carried her to the massive bed, where he laid her out and then put himself in next to her. Better to just start, he thought. Get them to the place where things would play out, and stop worrying. She was soft in his arms and submitted to him leading the way.

“You are beautiful all the time, but right now, in this moment, there are not words for how you are.” He spoke softly, stroking the back of his hand along her cheek and then her neck and across the low neckline of her gown. His fingers curled up until just the middle one was left trailing down between the valley of her breasts and then back and forth over the exposed part of the swells.

She surged into the finger touches and closed her eyes. He felt her chest moving, her breathing increasing its pace. “Gina, are you nervous?”
Like I am.

She nodded solemnly, her eyes still closed. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“You couldn’t possibly, and you don’t look nervous. You look like a goddess to me.” He nuzzled soft kisses at her throat, very close to her ear. “But are you remembering things that hurt you?”

“I don’t want to remember,” she said.

“It won’t be like that.” He kissed her lips. “I hate the idea of you afraid.”

“But you don’t frighten me, only the memories do.” She lifted her eyes, glittering with emotion, and he could see there was bravery in them, too. “Make me forget, Jeremy.”

That’s my girl.
“I am. I’m going to replace that evil. With something good, something you’ll want to remember.”

He dipped down to her lips again. Very gently he put a hand to the back of her head and pulled her to him, thinking that her body felt like a paradise he wanted to explore forever.

Her soft curves and hollows, her scent, the golden color of her, the sounds of her body moving against his, the steady beat of her heart and her breathing—all of it was soothing. The emotions with Gina were new for Jeremy, feelings he’d never experienced before with any woman. Gina was solace to him, and the knowledge of the power she held over him was a surprise.

He sensed her softening into him, melting into surrender. Things were going well, he thought. She was pliant under his lips and hands.

His body knew what it wanted. Oh, did it ever. He felt his cock respond, stretching out, growing long and hard—anticipating the moment her body would take him in. As much as he wanted to be inside her, he was remarkably in check. She controlled him. Jeremy needed her, but Georgina controlled his path to her. Right now, he drew strength from her.

Pressing his pelvis forward, he arched into her hip, finding the pressure of that hard bone meeting his hard cock to be so exquisite, he was afraid for a second he might embarrass them both by spilling all over the sheets.

“You feel so good,” he murmured.

She nodded back. He was sure he felt her nod, but she didn’t offer any words of her own.

I want in you.
He wanted his mouth on her quim and her hand around his cock, or maybe her lips. That would have to wait though. She wasn’t even close to being ready for that sort of thing yet, but the naughty idea of teaching her such delights was certainly worth contemplating and propelled him higher with desire.

Kissing her throat and collarbone, he nudged lower below the wide neckline of her gown.

“I want this off.” He tugged with his teeth. “So I can see you now—see how beautiful you are. All of you. I want our skin touching.” He moved his face to hover directly over hers, asking for her agreement and hoping like hell she said yes.

She answered stiffly, her voice flat, as if she were far, far away from him. “Whatever you want. I am not afraid of you. I—I want to please you.”

You should be afraid of me.
If Georgina knew what he really wanted to do to her, she’d probably leap up and run far and long, away from him.

Very slowly his hands went to the ties of her gown and loosened them. When he pushed it open, he could feel her trembling. She was stiff as a board. And so was he, but in a very different way from her.

By her words, she showed him she was willing, but he could tell the intimacy unnerved her. She was submitting to duty, he knew, and while it should relieve him, it did not. He didn’t like it. He wanted more from her than just capitulation in the marriage bed.

“You please me, sweetheart, but I want you to let me please
you
.”

He kissed over the tops of her breasts ever so slowly and softly, moving inch by inch across delicious skin as soft as down. He felt the pounding of her heart beneath his lips. Felt his own heart match the throb. Torn between desire and nurture, he struggled to temper his need.

Georgina seemed fretful. Skittish as a colt, wary of him getting close.
She knows what you’re going to do. She knows, and she’s afraid.

“Relax,” he told her, pulling away from her breasts to brush gentle kisses along her neck. “Just let me touch you—it’ll feel nice.”

He heard her expel a breath and felt her body ease a bit. God, he wanted to make this good for her—to bury the memories haunting her, to show her instead how he intended to cherish her.

“I promise you,” he murmured through another kiss to her lips.

More kisses. Eons of kissing. Long, slow tangles of lips and tongues filled the minutes as he learned her. Soft featherings of breath along her sculpted collarbones, behind her dainty ears and up her slender throat before firmer presses paused him at the swell of a breast.

He pushed up from underneath and found one finally with his hand. He palmed the weight, learning the feel through the thin fabric of her gown. Passing over the hard bud of her nipple, he heard her breath come faster.

Suddenly she arched, thrusting her chest out. He didn’t know if from fear or pleasure, and didn’t really want to know. Not anymore. He was too far gone to think rationally.

He used her movement to pull the fabric down further, finally baring those magnificent mounds of sweet beauty to his hungry eyes. Suddenly the feast of gorgeous flesh was before him. And he was so starved. Creamy skin tipped with dusky rose centers called to him. He reached for one and thrilled in the sensation of incredible softness under his palm.

“Beautiful.” He studied them in the lamplight.

She stayed very still.

“I have to—” he whispered before covering her nipple with his mouth. He swirled over it, feeling the bud harden into an even tighter peak under his laving tongue. It was pure glory.

Cupping both breasts, one for each hand, he held them secure, worshipping their soft fullness with his mouth. He moved between them, giving equal attention to both. He made love bites on the undersides, fully intending to look at his markings later and remember how it felt putting his sign on her. Oh yes,
his.

She submitted to everything he did, and he was glad. This was a claim in every primal sense of the word. She was his woman. He had found her, wanted her, and won her. And now he was finally having her, claiming her.
My wife. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.

And then Jeremy forgot about everything he’d told himself he wouldn’t do.

The brush of her body was too tempting, the scent of her too delectable. He simply forgot himself, lost in the elixir of the senses swirling together, inciting him to reach out and take.

“Ginaaaa… You feel so good,” he moaned. He was drunk. Drunk on her. Swimming in the river of sensations that washed over him, he drowned himself in the taste of her skin melting under his mouth. Jeremy was good and downright intoxicated to the point of no return, and quite pleased to be so.

The focus he’d held on her ability to tolerate his attentions fell away, quickly replaced by carnal appetites long subdued and the glory of indulging them.

“I—I need you!” His hands were everywhere all at once. Up under her gown, pressing on her belly, between her legs, squeezing that gorgeous bum of hers. Like he couldn’t take his time to learn her, but needed to know everything all in an instant.

Ravenous. Propelled. Desperate. Jeremy was out of his blessed mind with desire and the urge to fuck.

Her rigid arms and legs weren’t perceived at first. Neither the fisted hands, nor the stiff neck either. He didn’t hear her whimpers or feel her shaking. He had one goal. And that was to get inside her and come.

When Jeremy rolled on top of her, the thrashing started in earnest, along with what his supremely aroused and very limited coherence finally understood as panic. Georgina bucked to get him off. She struggled to move out from underneath him.

Jeremy felt and heard her now.

Georgina’s cries pierced though his fervor, the sound of her as loud as a cock crowing at dawn when it annoyingly interrupted right at the point of deepest slumber.

Everything illuminated all in an instant. His clouded awareness became as clear as fine crystal.

Shit!

Chapter Sixteen

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the

worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.