The Hellion and The Heartbreaker (12 page)

With only a limited amount of time before Alec returned to
London, she was going to have to throw caution to the wind to get what she
wanted.   If she didn’t, Alec’s sense of morality and his unerring
loyalty to Colin would keep them apart.  Steeling her resolve, she knew
what she had to do.  She was going to take an extraordinary risk, one that
could further her efforts to win Alec’s heart, or bring utter humiliation upon
her.  She could only hope and pray that it wasn’t the latter.

It was well after midnight when Alec finally made his way
upstairs.  A few more stiff drinks with the boys had helped to numb his
mind as he’d struggled to push the delectable Scarlett from his thoughts. 
Now however, upon entering his room, the silent darkness engulfed him and she
was there once again, her image, her voice, her scent, all swirling through his
thoughts like the snow that swirled outside his window.  Absently he
kicked off his shoes and socks as he made his way to the fireplace. 
Adding another log to the smoldering embers, he tried to convince himself that
Conner’s interruption had been the best thing that could have happened. 
However, a part of him, the completely irrational part of him, wasn’t as
convinced.  Slowly, he removed his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, his
gaze fixed on the flames that licked at the wooden logs now piled high in the
hearth.  He stood there for several minutes, merely staring into the
leaping flames.

When he finally turned to the bed, he hesitated, knowing that
sleep would elude him.  Damn, he wanted another drink.
 
Instead, he pulled a chair near to the fire
and sat pensive and brooding, his thoughts in turmoil.  He felt like a man
obsessed.  It was maddening.  He’d slept with dozens of beautiful
women.  He was the Duke of Worthe for Christ’s sake.  He could have
any woman he wanted.  So why in the hell couldn’t he get one luscious
redhead out of his thoughts?  His head fell back against the chair and he
stared morose at the dancing shadows that played upon the ceiling.

The sound was barely audible, but even so it caught his
attention.  As though he had magically summoned her with his thoughts, he
watched in silent wonder as the door to his room slowly opened.  Was he
dreaming?  He stared at the vision before him.  No, he was
wide-awake, and this was definitely not a dream.  Transfixed, he watched
as Scarlett slipped through the narrow opening, silently closing and locking
the door behind her.  He stared in disbelief, not because a woman was
sneaking into his bedchamber, for that had happened a time or two before, but
instead because of who the woman was. 
Danger
, his inner voice
roared the warning.  He watched as she turned, her eyes going directly
toward the large four-poster bed set against the far wall.  With
difficulty, he forced himself out of his momentary trance.  “Are you
lost?”

Scarlett whirled at the sound of his voice.  The words
were spoken softly, but her heart nearly leapt from her chest
nonetheless.  She saw him then, seated in the depths of a large
overstuffed chair pulled close to the fire.  The faint light emitting from
the glow of the fireplace cast him in shadow, but as her eyes adjusted to the
darkness of the room she could clearly make him out.  He sat with his long
legs stretched out in front of him, his feet bare.  His shirt was
unbuttoned and left the wide expanse of his chest uncovered.  She drew in
a shaky breath.  Their eyes met and Scarlett shook her head slightly from
side to side, in response to his question.  No, she most definitely wasn’t
lost.

He didn’t speak again, nor did he move, instead, he simply
stared at her in silence. 
Leave.  Go back.
  He struggled
to say the words aloud, but his lips refused to perform the necessary
movements.  He watched, frozen in place as she slowly started to come
toward him.  His emotions rioted in chaos.  Although a part of him
wanted to hustle her out of his room as fast as he could, another kept him
firmly in his seat, his eyes riveted upon Scarlett.  As she neared, he
tried valiantly to summon his good sense.  His hands tightly gripped the
arms of the chair as he fought his rapidly escalating desire.  She stopped
directly in front of him then, so close he could reach out and touch her. 
Her expression told him all he needed to know.  He struggled to find the
willpower to send her away.  “This is a bad idea, Scarlett,” he managed,
the words little more than a rough whisper. 

Wordlessly, Scarlett reached for the sash at her waist and
slowly untied the satin tie, allowing her long white dressing gown to fall
open.  She wore nothing underneath.  Although she did her best to
appear confident, inside she was terrified.  Despite her show of false
bravado, she knew she was in over her head, but even so there was no turning
back.  Please don’t let him send me away she pleaded silently, watching
the changing expressions on his face in a state of nervous apprehension.

As Alec watched the gown slowly part, revealing Scarlett’s
nakedness underneath, he forgot to breathe.  Whatever good sense and
reason he might have possessed vanished in an instant.  Suddenly he was on
his feet, the last of his self-control dissipating like a puff of smoke. 
Without another thought, he swept Scarlett up and into his arms and reached the
bed in a few short strides.  Her arms, twined around his neck, relaxed and
fell away as he laid her on the bed.  He followed her down onto the soft
mattress, his body covering hers as he sought the sweetness of her lips.

It happened so suddenly.  One minute she was standing
before him, offering herself, and in the next she was lying on his bed. 
She no longer had time to think or to question her actions as his lips
unerringly found hers.  She returned his kiss with fervor, feeling no
shame or embarrassment, only excitement and anticipation.  This was what
she wanted, what she had been yearning for.  It was an incredible moment,
as amazing and wonderful as she had imagined it would be.  Slowly she
raised her hands, pushing aside the fabric of his shirt to run her fingers
along the muscled contours of his naked chest, reveling in the feel of his warm
flesh against her hands.  She wanted to touch every inch of him. 
Trailing her hands along his well-defined rib cage, she felt him shudder in
response.  To know that her touch had the power to affect him was a heady
feeling.

As Scarlett’s hands explored the planes of his chest, Alec
slid his lips to the soft curve of her neck, searing a path to the spot where
her pulse beat at the base of her throat in a rapid staccato.  Then,
careful not to crush her with his weight, he moved his hand to her breast,
pushing aside her dressing gown as his lips continued their sensuous
journey.  Her skin was impossibly soft and smooth, like the finest
silk.  He inhaled her scent; the fragrance was delicious and slightly
floral, lilac scented soap perhaps.  As his lips continued their sensual
exploration, he cupped the fullness of her breast in his hand, gently massaging
the plump mound and lightly circling his thumb along the edge of her nipple
until it became taut.  Scarlett moaned softly in response and the sound
flamed his already burning desire.  His lips moved to replace his hand,
and ever so slowly he drew her peaked nipple into his mouth, his tongue
swirling deftly around the tiny bud.  

When Alec drew her nipple into his mouth, Scarlett arched
upward in surprise and pleasure.  Her hands moved to his back, her fingers
clutching convulsively against his naked flesh as a delicious heat flooded her
body.  She’d never experienced anything like it.  The feeling was so
different than anything she ever could have imagined.  It was both
shocking and wonderful at the same time.  However, a moment later, when
she felt his hand moving downward toward the juncture of her thighs, she felt
the first tiny flicker of fear.  Things were moving more quickly than she
had anticipated.  Every delicious sensation was new and exciting, but
slightly unsettling too.  No one had ever touched her so intimately
before.  She forced herself to relax, afraid that if she showed the
slightest hesitation he would stop, and she most certainly didn’t want him to
stop.

When his fingers reached the tangle of her feminine curls and
the light pressure of his palm pressed against her pelvis, she fought the
instinctive urge to tense, willing her body to remain still.  The gentle
movements of his fingers as he stroked her petal-soft cleft were not
unpleasant, and within moments she once again felt a delicious heat unfurl in
the pit of her stomach, and then slowly spread throughout her body. 
Moments later, when he gently slid a finger into her delicate folds, she could
scarcely hold back her cry of pleasure.  As his finger began to move
slowly in and out of her body she did cry out, the sound muffled against his
chest, for the gentle stroking rhythm felt absolutely marvelous.  As his
warm mouth and tongue caressed her breasts, his hand toyed maddeningly with her
feminine center, sending her pulse racing.  She felt the slight pressure
as he slid another finger into her tight passage, while his thumb massaged her
tiny cleft.  She had never dreamed anything could feel so wonderful. 
“Alec,” she cried breathlessly, the first word she’d spoken since entering his
bedchamber.

Alec returned his lips to her mouth as he reached to unfasten
his pants.  She was so hot and wet; he felt his self-control slipping
away.  Normally he enjoyed the foreplay almost as much as the act itself,
and over the years he had become an expert at building a woman’s
pleasure.  Usually he savored the anticipation of sliding his rigid staff
into a woman’s body, patiently stoking the fires of arousal until they could no
longer be held in check, but now, with Scarlett, he felt like an impatient
schoolboy.  He couldn’t wait to be inside of her for another moment. 
When he withdrew his fingers, Scarlett made a small sound of discontent. 
“Soon,” he whispered, against her lips, as he freed his throbbing
manhood.  Nudging her thighs apart, he positioned himself over her.

As Scarlett felt the hard length of his erection against the
softness of her inner thigh, she felt a moment of panic.  In the next
instant she felt the tip of his manhood pressing into her.  “Alec.” 
She said his name anxiously, and clutched at his shoulders, her body
instinctively tensing in anticipation of the pain she knew was about to come.

Mistaking her cry for impatience, Alec grasped her hips and
thrust himself fully into her tight passage.  He felt the barrier of her
virginity at the same time he noticed the sudden tensing of her muscles, but by
then it was too late.  He froze, his shaft fully sheathed within her now
rigid body.  Her gasp of pain pierced his passion-clouded senses like an
arrow.  “Oh Christ,” he groaned, burying his face against the side of her
neck.  He’d made a mistake, a terrible mistake.  She was a
virgin.  What the hell had he just done?  They lay there for a
moment, both of them silent and unmoving as Alec struggled to mentally grasp the
fact that he had just taken Scarlett’s virginity.

 As Scarlett’s mind and body adjusted to the feel of the
thick, rigid staff that impaled her, she realized that the sharp pain had
lasted only a moment, and now she felt only a mild discomfort.  She gladly
bore it, reveling in the fact that she and Alec’s bodies were joined together
as one.  It was an incredible feeling, something words couldn’t fully
describe.  However, after a minute, Alec’s motionless state began to give
her pause.  Was that it, she wondered?  She could feel the tautness
of his body and sensed he was holding himself back.  She wasn’t naive; she
assumed that there had to be more, but she was suddenly uncertain.  Afraid
to move, she quietly said his name.  “Alec?”  His head remained down
and she could feel the warmth of his breath against her neck. 

Alec forced his head up, and resting his weight on his
forearms, he looked intently into Scarlett’s face.  Her expression was
hesitant and uncertain.  He was such a bloody idiot.  He should have
known she was a virgin.  He mentally cursed himself.  Not only had he
just deflowered his best friend’s sister, he had taken her with as much care as
a rutting schoolboy.  He didn’t know what to say. 
I’m sorry,
seemed a bit inadequate.

When Alec merely regarded her in silence, his expression
tormented, Scarlett decided to voice the question that was lingering in her
thoughts.  “Isn’t there…,” she hesitated, feeling her cheeks flush with
sudden embarrassment.  She watched Alec’s tortured gaze turn questioning. 
Despite her discomfiture at appearing woefully inept, she forced the words out
of her mouth.  “Isn’t there… more?”

Alec was momentarily stunned by the tentative question. 
It was the last thing he had expected to hear.  As he gazed into her
beautiful, expectant face, he felt the tension gradually leave his body and his
lips slowly curved into a sensual smile.  There would be time to think and
to castigate
himself
later.  At present, he was
sheathed to the hilt in her glorious body.  The damage was done, and there
was nothing he could do to undo it.  Gently, he brushed his thumb across
her petal soft cheek.  “Yes, my darling Scarlett, there is indeed a great
deal more.”

Her shy smile was all the encouragement he needed. 
Slowly he shifted his position, watching her face for any sign of pain. 
“Are you alright?” he asked gently.

The pain had receded, leaving only an unfamiliar fullness in
its wake.  Silently she nodded her head yes.

Carefully, and as gently as he could, he slowly began to move
his hips, watching her face for any sign of discomfort as he cautiously slid
forward and back an inch at a time.