Seduced (15 page)

But at this moment, Letitia was too overwhelmed to do such a thing. Too frozen in her place by the heated tension in the room between them.

"You look frightened,” Jack said, stepping toward her. He took her in his arms, pressing her close to him so that his cock nudged her naked belly.

She nodded, unable to pretend when everything felt so raw and real. “I
am
afraid.”

His expression softened before he kissed her gently. “I’ll be careful, Letitia,” he whispered. “I promise.”

There was little choice but to believe him now. She was past the point of no return. And she was glad of it.

He gathered her up, carrying her back to the bed where he laid her down. He covered her body with his, placing himself between her legs as he had in the parlor a short time ago. She tensed as he nudged her entrance with his cock, readying herself for the invasion and the pain that would accompany it.

He didn’t push forward immediately, as she had expected him to do. He stared down at her, his face lined with tension.

“It’s not going to hurt as much,” he said, cupping her cheek and smoothing his fingers there. “Though there may be some residual tenderness.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”

“God, I hope so, because my control is at its end and all I want to do is be inside of you, Letitia. To finish what I started.”

She stared in wonder. She’d never thought waiting could be a chore for him. But then again, this was so very different from her limited experiences of the past. Being wanted, especially by a man like this who could have any woman he desired, it was a heady experience.

One she intended to savor even if the best part was likely over.

“Breathe,” he encouraged her as he positioned himself carefully and began to breech her.

She tried to do as he asked, but as her body opened to accept him, she couldn’t help but tense against the pain surely about to come. But as he pressed forward, filling her to what felt like capacity and beyond, her eyes widened. He was correct that though there was some tenderness in this second claiming, the stinging pain of the first time he entered her was gone. He seated himself fully and then held still.

“Better?” he asked, his tone broken.

“Oh yes,” she murmured. “Just full, so very full.”

He growled low in his throat at that answer. “I want to take you so badly, to claim you hard and fast. And I will, Letitia. At some point you will be taken so that you know you are mine. But right now I am fighting to be gentle, fighting to give you even more pleasure.”

“A lady can feel pleasure even during this part?” she asked.

He nodded. “So much. Let me show you.”

He ground his hips down, circling them as he withdrew a fraction and then pushed forward. She jolted at the press of their pelvises, the way that action stimulated her just as his tongue had earlier.

“Oh,” she gasped, lifting up toward him.

“Just like that,” he encouraged, his voice strained. “Meet me halfway. Reach for what you want.”

He moved again and she did as she had been told, only to be greeted by more fiery pleasure. She smiled up at him and he returned the grin. Then he began to move in earnest. His thrusts were steady and strong and she leapt to keep pace, pressing her hips in time to his, panting as the sensations deep within her began to grow for a second time that night. This time she knew what the reward would be, though. This time she ached for that sweet, explosive release that she could feel building in her womb, spreading through her body, cresting until she cried out, her hips jolting wildly as pleasure rocked her.

He grunted as his thrusts increased, dragging her faster and harder through that release until she flopped back, panting with the exertion, shaking out of control. Only then did he withdraw, and she watched in fascination as his neck strained, his face twisted and his essence burst free.

He collapsed down next to her on the bed, his face buried in the pillows, his bare, muscular arm flopped over her belly with a casual intimacy that warmed her as much as their writhing bodies had. She placed one hand on that arm and let out a heavy sigh as her boneless body came down from the natural thrill of making love to this man.

She moved her fingers against his flesh and frowned. There was a scar, deep and wide, along the back of his upper arm. When he felt her toying with the mark, he rolled over on his side, pulling her against him as he kissed her deeply and her mind emptied.

When he withdrew from the kiss, she looked up into his face, close to hers now. The severe angle of his jaw, the darkness of his eyes, they made him beautiful, for sure. But it was the flicker of emotion in his stare that drew her in. There was pain in Jack Blackwood, that much was clear. Pain that had cut him as deeply as whatever left that scar he didn’t want her to explore.

“Now it is done,” he said, flipping a piece of her tangled hair away from her shoulder and leaning down to kiss the flesh he had revealed. “You are
truly
no longer a virgin by any definition.”

She should have smiled at that triumph. After all, she had gotten what she’d longed for and now she was free of the lingering, damning evidence of Noah’s secret. But in that moment, she didn’t feel quite victorious. In that moment, she wanted something…more.

“Thank you,” she said cautiously.

“The pleasure was all mine, I assure you,” he said.

She shook her head. “Not all. I had more than my share. But…but does that mean you are finished with me?”

He examined her face closely. “Why, Lady Seagate, I thought you only needed a man for deflowering you. Are you asking for more?”

“You
inferred
I only wanted deflowering,” she corrected him. “I never said that. Jack, I want…I want…”

She struggled. Book or not, deflowered or not, she still felt very innocent when she discussed this topic.

“What do you want, Letitia?” he asked, his tone low and dangerous. “You will have to say it out loud.”

“I want to do what we just did again,” she whispered. “And with you, Jack. I want to do this with you. I want an affair. A scandalous, passionate, ill-advised affair.”

He chuckled. “Oh, it would be ill-advised, for certain. But very scandalous and—” He reached out to trace the curve of her breast with the edge of his fingernail, flicking her hard nipple until she gasped with renewed pleasure. “—passionate.”

“Then will you meet with me again?” she asked. “Here?”

He seemed to ponder that question for a moment, like he was arguing in his head against the prudence of such a thing. She knew she should hope he would refuse her. Put her back on the right path. But when he nodded, relief flooded her.

“Meet me here again in two nights. The same time,” he said as he pushed from the bed. He gathered his trousers and slung them on, covering the body that had worshipped her and pleased her so completely. “And Letitia?”

She nodded as she sat up. “Yes?”

“Bring that book,” he said with a grin. “I want to see it.”

Jack was whistling as he strode down the steps into the lair he called home. The cooler air from the tunnels hit his hot face and made him feel alive.

But tonight it wasn’t just the air. No, he knew that wasn’t true.
Letitia
made him feel alive in a way he never had. Taking her, feeling her orgasm beneath his tongue, around his cock…it was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before. It was heaven.

“Where have you been?” Hoffman asked, barreling up the hall as Jack turned into his office.

Jack sighed. Back to reality.

“I wasn’t aware I needed to hand over my schedule to you, Hoffman.”

“Might not be a bad idea, that,” Hoffman said, his normally stoic face lined with worry. “Or take a guard with you when you go out?”

“What are you on about?” Jack asked, taking a seat at his desk and looking up at the older man.

“While you were out, Higgins and Perdie were badly injured,” Hoffman said. “And when I couldn’t find you, I honestly thought you might be dead.”

Shock hit Jack, followed swiftly by intense, stabbing guilt. This was not the first time his men had been brutally attacked in the past six months.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and tried to keep his tone calm. “Will they live?”

“Doctor’s been struggling with them for hours,” Hoffman said, his face draining of color. “Thinks Higgins might lose a leg.”

“Shit,” Jack said, jumping to his feet. “Where are they?”

“In the infirmary, but no one can go in. Doctor’s got enough help. Jack, this is getting more and more serious. The others after your crown are fools enough and will fade off in time. But this fifth one, the one I don’t know…he’s not interested in taking prisoners, just territory. And he doesn’t seem to be willing to stop.”

“All resources go to finding out just who the hell he is,” Jack said, flexing and unflexing his hands. All the relaxation, all the pleasure in his body from his night with Letitia was gone now. “I’ll join the search myself.”

“It would help,” Hoffman said, and the relief on his face was plain.

Jack frowned. “Have I been neglecting my duties so much?”

Hoffman put his hands behind his back and spread his legs apart slightly, another reminder that once his right hand had lived an entirely straight-laced life.

“Do you want the truth or to be reassured?” Hoffman asked.

Jack lifted his brows. “I think you know me well enough to know that the truth is always what I want.”

“The last couple of weeks you’ve seemed distracted,” Hoffman admitted.

Jack frowned. Letitia was the cause for that. And yet the thought of letting her go right now was painful. He would just have to focus more, make sure he was present when he was here and paying attention to—

“But it’s more than that,” Hoffman continued. “Since War showed back up on your doorstep, you haven’t seemed to have…have…”

When Hoffman trailed off, Jack’s eyes went wide. “The balls?” he suggested, his hands twitching for a fight if only to make him forget the other, awful feelings boiling in his stomach.

“I was gonna say the heart,” his right hand said with a shrug. “You’ve always had the balls, Jack, but you used to have fun doing this. Now you send out the troops more often than you go yourself.”

“Since Aston died and everyone in the underworld came looking for me, I guess it hasn’t been as fun,” Jack admitted.

Even though Hoffman nodded, Jack knew it was more than that. His friend was right that he’d lost the heart for this world. Seeing War nearly die had started it, but also watching how his brother had made a new life for himself had hardened Jack to the criminal world he’d once loved. It made him believe, in a way he’d never let himself before, that maybe there was another life for him.

“I’ll let you know when you can see Higgins and Perdie,” Hoffman said. “And I’ll put together some boys to go hard at this mystery bloke. But we have one other issue.”

Jack hardly held back a sigh of displeasure. “And that is?”

“That boy is back.”

“Boy?” Jack repeated, gazing blankly at Hoffman. “What boy?”

“The rich one who wants to slum for you,” Hoffman grunted with displeasure. “Wha’s his name? Gordon? Graydon?”

“Griffin,” Jack sank into his chair and set his head down on the desk with a groan. “Goddamn it.”

“What do you want me to do with him?” Hoffman asked.

There was something about his friend’s tone that made Jack jerk his gaze up to him. “What have you
done
with him so far?”

Hoffman grinned. “He tried to sneak in,” he said. “He got a solid pop to the eye and it’s all black now.”

“She’s going to rip me apart,” Jack muttered, thinking of Letitia’s reaction when she saw that.

“What?” Hoffman said, brow wrinkling.

“Nothing, doesn’t matter,” Jack said. “Tell me he is otherwise unharmed.”

“Yeah, just sitting around in one of the dirt rooms, probably pissing himself.”

Jack sighed. The “dirt rooms” were the various hollowed out spaces in the underground hideout where they hid goods. They weren’t exactly pleasant places.

“Get him,” he said through clenched teeth. “Bring him here.”

Hoffman nodded, then left to do just that. As Jack waited, he got up and poured himself a stiff drink. For a moment, he pondered doing the same for Griffin, but decided against it. The last time the boy had been here, Jack had tried to be kind to him. He obviously needed to take another tactic this time and put an end to this foolishness once and for all.

“Mr. Merrick,” Hoffman said, mimicking the announcing skills of a fine butler pretty well. Only most servants didn’t then shove their visitors into a room and slam the door behind them.

Jack stared at Griffin as the boy caught his balance. He didn’t look as bad as he could have. His right eye was indeed swollen and a tinge of black had formed beneath. He was dirty and his hands were tied in front of him.

“Shit,” Jack muttered as he pulled a blade from the desk and walked toward him.

He saw Griffin tense, his eyes—so much like Letitia’s, minus the gold flecks—watching the knife. He was afraid. Good.