The Desires of a Countess (13 page)

Her shiver had him lifting his eyes to
meet hers. She was staring down at him from the desktop, her gaze
glazed with passion.

“
Did you want me to stop?”
He was teasing, but he loved the way her eyes widened with
distress.

“
Never,” she murmured as she
lifted her hips a little in encouragement.

The soft plea ended any further need
to play games, and he brought his hand to the soft mound between
her legs. Already she was soaked and the image of driving into her
wet heat nearly had him humiliating himself right there. He took a
few deep breaths to calm his mind then ran a finger slowly across
the cleft of her womanhood. She immediately bucked up to meet
him.

He put a hand on her hip to steady her
then repeated the action, loving the way she let out a gasp of
pleasure before he’d even touched her in all the ways he
planned.

Slowly, he pressed the pad of his
finger against the hidden bud of pleasure beneath her curls. With
another gasp, she sat up partially to blink down at him.

He met her gaze as he ground down on
her again. At the same time he slid a finger into her slick sheath.
She pulsed around him wildly as she shut her eyes and clawed at the
desk. He could see she was trying to control her cries. That
wouldn’t do. He wanted to hear her release as well as feel it when
she finally went over the edge.

He built a slow rhythm with his hands,
loving when she gave in and began to meet his thrusts. Her breath
came shorter and shorter as she pressed hard against
him.

“
Simon?” she panted as she
continued to move in a jerky rhythm that only stoked his fire all
the more.

“
Yes?”

“
Please. I want-I need-” She
blushed as she arched up again.

He nodded as he withdrew his fingers.
Her moan of dissatisfaction had him shucking off his boots and
trousers at breakneck speed. Cupping her bottom, he pulled her
against him. She sucked in a breath and he felt her tense as he
finally eased her onto his throbbing erection. It was a slick, hot
joining and she let out a wild groan of pleasure.

He pressed her against the desk edge
with the first hard thrust and immediately Ginny pulsed around him
in an intense release. Her body clenched at him, milking him as she
drove him to the edge of madness. Somehow he held on. He wanted to
enjoy each thrust. He wanted to make her come again and again
before he finally spent.

Her cries grew louder as she stopped
caring who heard. Cupping her neck, Simon brought his lips down on
hers to muffle the sounds. The last thing he wanted was a posse of
servants coming to save their lady. The only one to save her
tonight would be him.

He’d never known a woman’s release to
go on so long or be so intense. He continued his merciless, hard
thrusts and she met him with jerky, hot movements at every turn.
She clutched at his hard muscles and wrapped her bare legs around
his thighs. She was so hot and tight around him in every way. He’d
never felt anything like her arms around him. And he knew he’d
never feel anything like it from another woman, no matter how long
he lived.

She kissed along his throat, darting
her tongue out in torture so sweet that it drove him to the brink
of madness. He could no longer control his pace or the inevitable
explosion.

“
Ginny, I’m going to…” he
panted as he drew her nipple into his mouth again.

She moaned as she thrust her hips
against him. “Let go,” she whispered against his ear.

Her body pulsed around his in a second
orgasm and Simon allowed his own release. With a hoarse cry, he
poured himself into her as he lifted her up off the desk and
against him with all his might. She wrapped her arms and legs
around him and held on as if her life depended on it while she bit
back her own keening cry.

For a long time, he continued to hold
her against him, unwilling to allow the moment to pass. When he put
her back down on the floor, he would be forced to remember his
duties, and she would recall all her anger and protective impulses.
He wanted to stay like this for a while. Just two people who wanted
each other and had given in to those wants.

She smiled against his neck. “Do you
think you might put me down?”

With a chuckle, Simon reluctantly set
her on the floor, trying hard to ignore the sound of disappointment
she made when their bodies separated. He was disappointed, too. In
fact, his body was already making it clear that it wanted to be
inside her again and quickly.

Simon looked down at her and was
surprised that the smile he’d been praying she would gift him with
was right there. And she was more beautiful than ever with the
relaxed, sated expression on her face.

“
Thank you.” She took his
hand and pressed it. “I needed you not to turn me away.”

“
I couldn’t have turned you
away for anything in the world.” He brushed back a lock of hair
from her eyes. “We both needed this.”

She nodded, but he could see she was
drifting away from him. He had an urge to bring her back, to keep
her close. But that was ridiculous. In a few weeks he’d return to
his ship. Wanting her to be near had no purpose and would only lead
to heartache for them both.

With a blush of awareness, she reached
down and grabbed her robe to cover herself. As her lush curves
disappeared under a thin layer of muslin, another burst of
disappointment rocked through him. All he wanted to do was carry
her up to a bed… it didn’t matter what bed… and strip her naked
again. He wanted to make love to her all night, and perhaps for a
week or so more after that.

Where the hell was that coming from?
Had he been alone for so long that finally making love had robbed
him of all his common sense? This woman hardly
liked
him, let alone wanted to crawl into his
bed for a long-term entanglement. If anything, this brief encounter
was about comfort and need.

The thought stung him. Irritated with
himself, he pulled his trousers back over his waist and buttoned
the fly with clumsy fingers. He looked up to see her watching him
with unreadable eyes.

“
I think I should leave,” he
said as he turned away. The longer he looked at her, the longer he
stayed, the more he forgot why he hid out on the ocean. The more he
forgot about family responsibility.

“
Oh.”

Even her voice was unreadable. Was she
hurt? Relieved? He couldn’t tell. And that irritated him all the
more. Why was it she could hide her feelings so easily?

“
Do you want me to stay?”
His voice was a challenge and so was the way he looked at her as he
shrugged his wrinkled shirt back over his shoulders.

Her face hardened, just enough that he
knew she wouldn’t say yes. She wouldn’t let herself.

“
No, of course not.” She
folded her arms. “That wouldn’t be appropriate, would
it?”

He was surprised that she framed the
statement as a question. As if she wanted him to be the one to
decide if he stayed or went. He stared at her long and hard. If he
said he didn’t care about how appropriate it was, if he took her up
to her room, he wasn’t certain he could ever leave again. But he
wasn’t ready to make that kind of decision, especially not with a
woman who made herself a riddle to him on a regular
basis.

“
No, I suppose it wouldn’t
be appropriate.” He sighed as he turned to the door. It was against
every impulse in his body and his soul to leave her standing there,
but he did. “Good night, Ginny.”

As he shut the door behind him, he
heard her soft answer.

“
Good night,
Simon.”

With a curse, he walked away from her,
and from the choices he couldn’t bring himself to make.

***

Ginny sat at her dressing room table, but when she
stared in her mirror, she didn’t see her own face. She saw Simon.
She had been thinking of him since he walked out of Henry’s office
the night before without so much as a backward glance. Not just of
him, either, but of what the two of them had done in that office.
And how good each and every moment had felt.

She and Henry had never “made love”, as she heard
other married women describe their marital relations. He had always
simply taken her. The pain of the first few joinings had faded over
time, but there had never been pleasure to take its place. She
begun to think pleasure was a myth. Until Simon. She had felt
something so amazing, so indescribable last night that it brought
tears to her eyes when she merely remembered it.

She snatched up her brush and began to
run it through her hair. It reminded her of Simon’s fingers, raking
down her scalp as he pulled her in for a kiss. She shivered as she
set the brush away.

She stood up to pace to her armoire.
Get dressed and get on with her life. That was all she could do.
She opened the double doors wide and looked inside. As she reached
up to take down a gown, her muscles ached in protest. Why did she
hurt so much?

Again, she flashed to Simon wrapping
her legs around his waist, driving into her as she leaned against
the desk. Well, that explained the muscle aches. And why her body
had begun to throb for his touch again.

With an exasperated curse, she slammed
the armoire and returned to her dressing table. Was there nothing
that would help her forget those stolen hours? She sat down and
looked at herself in the mirror. Beneath the edge of her robe,
there was a small mark, a love bite.

She pulled her robe closer to cover
the bruise. Apparently there would be no escaping the reminders
that she’d made love to Simon. That it had been the most glorious
experience of her life. That she wished she hadn’t said no when
he’d asked if she wanted him to stay.

She put her head down on her table
with a strangled groan. What was wrong with her? It was almost like
she wanted him for more than one night. She glanced up at her
reflection and saw the truth there. She did still want him. But she
could never have him… could she?

Before she could answer that question,
the door to her chamber flew open, and Jack ran in on chubby legs.
“Mama!”

Behind him, Miss Frost was close
behind. “Jack, don’t bother your mother! You shouldn’t enter
chambers without knocking.”

“
It’s fine.” Ginny smiled at
the woman as she gathered Jack into her lap. “Give us a moment,
will you?”

Miss Frost nodded and backed out of
the room. When the door was shut, Ginny placed a kiss on her little
boy’s brow.

“
Good morning, my little
man.”

He cuddled closer, his weight once
again reminding her of her sore muscles. “Morning Mama.”

“
Are you being a good boy?”
she asked as she smoothed her hand over his hair.

“
I am
always
good,” he declared as he slid
from her lap and began to examine the bottles and jars on her
dressing table. She took a container of lilac water from him as she
smiled.

“
Have you had your breakfast
yet?”

“
Yes.”

Dutifully, he began to name off all
the various foods he’d eaten. Ginny blocked out the words and just
watched him. He was growing up so quickly. Soon he’d be old enough
to understand his role in the world, and what kind of mother and
woman she was.

Which was exactly why she couldn’t
have Simon remain, no matter how much her baser needs protested
that reality. If she had only herself to consider, perhaps she
would have been able to give in and let him stay. But she wasn’t
alone. She had the responsibility of a child.

Even if Simon were to ask her to marry
him, she couldn’t give him that additional layer of control over
Jack’s future. Any power she wielded to protect her son would be
gone the instant she said ‘I do’.

Why was she even contemplating such a
thing? The truth of the matter was Simon didn’t act as if marriage
was on his mind. He wanted her, but he’d made it clear that he
wanted to get back to his ship. So her other alternative was to be
his mistress.

What an image that created. One of
elicit nights like the one before. Making love until they were both
spent. Doing things lovers did for and to each other. She glanced
down to see that her hands trembled. As tempting a prospect as that
was, she couldn’t choose it. It was too scandalous, and would
surely hurt Jack’s chances at success in the future.

The door opened behind her and her
ladies maid came in to dress her. As Jack scurried away and Nora
began selecting her outfit for the day, Ginny’s mind continued to
spin.

Just being around Simon could bring
nothing but harm to them both. She thought he’d have left by now,
but he stayed and continued to dig into a past she needed to
forget. If he remained too long he might find out the truth about
her secrets, then she was sure his sweet words and caresses would
come to a sharp halt. How could he care for her if he found out the
truth?

So she was back to her original
plan.

Get rid of Simon.