Temptation Has Green Eyes (18 page)

“You don’t have to do that. We should learn each other, find out what we want from each other. No holding back.”

Instead, he sent her a wicked smile. Her pretty eyes widened when he slowly moved over her and lifted her thighs to drape over his shoulders.

Moving closer, he took a deep breath, surrounding his senses with her, and then he feasted.

She tasted wonderful as he licked her front to opening, gathering her essence, claiming it for his own.

She gasped. “You can’t—”

He broke away long enough to say, “I think you’ll find that I can,” before returning to his self-appointed task. Nobody could stop him now he’d had one taste of her. Not enough. It might never be enough.

When he sucked the little pearl of flesh at the front of her cleft she cried out, pushing his head as if to urge him away. But he held on, licked and caressed her with his tongue, persuading her to let him continue. This was far too good to give up. In any case, if he took her now he’d embarrass himself, probably not last long. He’d gone too long, spent a month ogling his wife, and now he was going to enjoy himself. And bring her with him.

She clutched handfuls of his hair, but not to drag him away, not any more. She cried out, long wordless sighs of sound, as he worked her into a controlled frenzy. He rolled his tongue around the bud, teasing her, and then sucked harder, giving her sharp, concentrated points of sensation to accompany his lavish savoring.

Then he brought his fingers into play and had to fight to keep her on the bed when she jolted up. When he slid a finger inside her wet warmth, her cries increased in volume.

Satisfied she’d forgotten everything except this, he worked her body, lapping her abundant juices. The sound permeated the room as she became wetter and he grew more intense in his efforts to bring her to a peak of delight.

She locked her thighs around his head. He hummed against her flesh, and then introduced a second finger to join the first. Satiny and lush. He blocked the image that came to mind, of his cock buried deeply inside her. It would happen, but not if he tortured himself in that way. Then they’d have to wait.

He couldn’t wait. Just another suck, another finger.

The third finger did it. He bent them, scraped her inner walls gently and she screamed. It was like pulling the trigger on a finely tuned pistol, and the result was as explosive.

Her channel convulsed around him and her heels bore into his back, but he didn’t stop sucking and caressing until every quiver had stopped. Or paused, because they were about to embark on the next stage of this… He didn’t know what to call it. Not seduction, because he was no longer sure who was seducing whom.

When he withdrew, her sigh gave him deep satisfaction. But not enough.

He withdrew his fingers and unwound her legs from his head. She was lax now, like a rag doll. After kissing each inner thigh, bestowing gentle tributes, he drew away and watched her.

Staring at him, her heavy-lidded eyes slumberous with the after-effects of her orgasm, she smiled, making him wonder how he could have held off for so long. And why, for that matter.

“Do you want to learn what happens next?” He needed her permission, to know she wanted this as much as he did.

Her eyes widened and her attention went to his cock. “Yes.”

“This is not like last time. You’re in control, madam.” Scooting to the top of the bed he sat against the pillows, resting against the padded headboard. It was a heavily embroidered and quilted version of his coat of arms. A very suitable decoration for what they were about to do. After all, without this he had no reason to have a coat of arms.

The pointed part at his back told him the bull’s horns were making their presence known, but he was more concerned with his fleshly spike. He held out his arms. “Come here.”

She blinked. “Over you?”

“Exactly. Come and kiss me. I want you to enjoy your own delectable flavor while you take my cock into your body.” He deliberately used the words, explicitly detailing what he wanted her to do to see her reaction.

A smile curled her ruby lips. “Yes, my lord.”

Oh lord, that was perfect. As she sat up, her breasts quivered and changed shape, but the nipples still stood proud, jutting at him, daring him to take hold. He would, but he wanted to watch them bounce.

She kneeled up, and then with a sudden decisive move, opened her legs and came over him, straddling him with admirable thoroughness.

“An adventurous woman. My favorite kind.”

He held his cock steady for her. Even that practical touch made him twitch. If he didn’t get inside her soon, he’d have to think of something else to do to keep her on the boil for the next twenty minutes while he rebuilt his erection. Eager he might be, virile come to that, but he wasn’t a god. Or a stone statue, although one part of him damn well felt that way.

She gazed down, bit her bottom lip in concentration, before glancing up at his face. “Will it hurt?”

“I promise you, no.” He’d licked her with the idea of opening her up, easing her way, but once he’d tasted her, he’d taken more. Now she was well and truly ready for him.

Her moisture dripped on to the head of his straining cock and he groaned. If she didn’t make up her mind soon, he’d have to do it for her.

Far too slowly, she lowered her body on to his. He felt every inch, every fraction of an inch, as she took him deep and then deeper still. Grasping her hips, he helped her, forcing absolute control on himself while she accepted him and accustomed herself to having him inside her. After all, the last time hadn’t been pleasant for her.

When her chin went up and she gazed into his eyes, all he saw there was wonder and triumph. A sense of triumph filled him, such as he’d never known before.

He smiled. “You did it. You’re in control, sweetheart.” That was why he’d chosen this way of making love. He didn’t want to take her. He wanted them to take each other. “Now kiss me. Let’s see what else we can do.”

Her breasts nuzzled his chest as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, touching his mouth with her tongue. With a groan he opened, surrendering everything to her. Firming his grip on her waist, he lifted her and then let her ease back down on him, showing her what to do. The next time she moved on her own, only needing him to remain where he was and thrust back into her when she came down again.

Voraciously he sucked on her tongue as they learned each other, finding the rhythm that would bring them both to satisfaction. He shifted her slightly and paid attention to her response as she gasped into his mouth. Better. She liked that. She liked it more when they did it again, and again.

Max drove harder with each stroke, delving deeper. All he had to do was hold her steady as she moved on him. He could use the support behind his back to help push forward and into her. Their kiss continued, never ending as she became bolder, greedier, and he ate at her mouth, thrusting his tongue in harmony with his hard drives below.

She grabbed a handful of his hair, clutched it with a desperation he shared. They’d get there, and this time they’d do it together.

The sound of their bodies slapping against each other echoed around the room. Max opened his eyes and watched her come apart. He held her safe, while for the second time that morning, he made his wife come.

When her channel tightened on his cock, Max was finally done for. He let go, releasing into her. Wild now, he dragged her body down on to his, grinding her against him as he flooded her with his seed.

He heard his own voice as if distanced from it, crying out her name and a succession of breathless gasps. He dragged her into his body, the need to feel her overwhelming every rational thought.

As time passed, he became aware of her breathing heavily. Some sense returned to him. He laid her down tenderly before lying beside her and dragging the covers back over them. He was warm enough, but he didn’t want her to take a chill.

Raising her head, he gave her a series of sweet, drugging kisses as they slowly emerged from their post-coital dream-state.

“Now I understand,” she said, her voice little louder than a breath.

But Max was so close, he heard her well enough. “Understand what, sweetheart?”

“Why people risk everything for this.”

He kissed her. “Yes, they do. I’m in danger of doing it now, because I fear that won’t be the last time we do this today.”

Her eyes flicked open and then half-closed again as she chuckled and rested against him. “We have to get up sometime.”

“Do we? What for? Do you have an appointment you simply can’t miss?”

“No, but I thought you would.”

He murmured against her temple, enjoying the way he gave her butterfly kisses with every word. “I would cancel an appearance at court in exchange for this. Or a meeting with the head of the biggest shipping company in the world. Anything.” Her laugh warmed him. “It’s time we had a honeymoon. I should have taken you away somewhere. But then,” he added, “I might not have realized what I’d done to you until it was too late.”

“Enough,” she said. “I’ve heard enough of that.”

He hadn’t. He wanted to confess his doubts and his fears about the marriage. Now it mattered more than ever, but for an entirely different reason. But with her happy, he didn’t want to spoil the mood.

He smiled wryly. What a coxcomb he was!

Now he had a weapon, a way of fighting back, a way of keeping her. And he would use it.

The next day they set out for the country. Max’s idea, to show her the ancestral home, but also, he explained, a chance to spend time together with nobody to interrupt them.

“In town, your father, Julius, Poppy, my mother and any number of other people distract us. I want some time with you, for us to talk and get to know each other properly.”

His country seat was in Buckinghamshire, a day’s swift journey or two days of easier travel. They took two. After a stay at an indifferent country inn, they reached Devereaux House mid-afternoon on the second day.

Although she’d expected it, Sophia was still taken aback by the sheer size of the place. They caught a glimpse of it from a distance, swept around a corner of the tree-lined drive, and there it was.

“My goodness,” she murmured.

“Yes. And it’s just as grand inside. At least it had better be.” He gave a wry grin. “I’ve had workers restoring it for the last two years. They’ve nearly finished the central block, they said. I need to tell them what to start on next. Perhaps you can help me decide.”

He took her hands, and she gladly removed her attention from the house to his face. Today he was smiling, at ease. He seemed much more relaxed here.

“I want you involved,” he said. “This will be your home. In future, people will say you are responsible for the creation of this magnificent house, the best in the country.”

Leaning forward, he kissed her. He’d done a lot of that over the last two days. Making up for lost time, he said. She wasn’t complaining.

“I don’t know if I can.”

He squeezed her hands. “You have been responsible for investment decisions costing thousands of pounds. You can handle this easily.”

His belief in her warmed her heart as much as his kisses. But she had many things to tell him, and some of them might change his mind. In a way, the size of this house was good, since she’d be able to avoid him, and he her if he wished it. She didn’t know where to begin, but it had to be with current events rather than past ones.

Except they were bound together.

She turned her attention back to the house. It was huge, of gleaming golden stone, the central block a Palladian masterpiece with ranks of windows on the three main stories. Too many to count. But that wasn’t all. Either side of the main block stretched two huge wings, a story lower but in the same style, so the house appeared as nothing so much as a palace. The sun glinted off the myriad windows, delineated fine-hewn stone. One person owned this?

The household of servants has amassed outside to greet her. That seemed worst of all. “We only had four servants living in,” she said.

“We have more than that in London,” he remarked. “It’s needed.”

“I can see that.”

She didn’t hide her wonder from him, and he watched her, his expression inscrutable.

“You like it?”

“Wouldn’t that be an insult? Merely to like it, I mean. Isn’t it more appropriate to marvel at it, or admire it, or stand in awe of it?”

He gave an easy laugh. “Perhaps. But from you, liking will be enough. It’s a lifetime’s task.”

Easily. But she wouldn’t say that now. The house was modern, so probably had the best services, such as kitchen equipment and building standards. So maybe finishing and keeping it beautiful wouldn’t take all her time. Although making it truly beautiful would make it worthwhile. A proper legacy.

Max alighted first and helped her out himself. He smiled at her as she descended. “Welcome home, my lady.”

Home. Anything less like a home she couldn’t imagine, but people did live in comfort in these places. More than comfort if rumor had it right. But luxury wasn’t her preference. It intimidated her.

Trying to behave as a lady born to the life, she allowed Max to introduce her to the servants, which he did with aplomb. Luckily, not to every single member of staff, since the grassed area they stood on appeared to be a catch-all for any passing wind. The long range of buildings probably channeled them this way. She had to hold her broad-brimmed hat to keep it in place. But she did have time to gather that many of the servants here were related, and most had served the family for generations.

Also that they didn’t approve of her. Although the servants took care to keep their wordless exchanges out of Max’s sight, Sophia was quicker and more perceptive. She saw the raised brow one of the upstairs maids exchanged with a footman. They were probably secure in their positions in the household. Perhaps they should take more care.

Not that she was given to drawing a white-gloved hand over the top of pieces of furniture, as some mistresses did. But she’d ensure the house was properly taken care of. As her duty. Anyone who didn’t come up to her standards would have to leave, and that included wordless criticisms of her or any other person in the house.