The Libertine (24 page)

A deep sense of guilt tugged at her innards. “I’m so sorry to
have brought this dreadful situation upon you and yours.”

Lennox shook his head. “You did not bring this upon us. The
feud between Tamhas Keavey and my coven has gone on for a long while. He has
done terrible things, and long before you and I met. One of my men...Keavey
stole the use of his arm when he found him picking forage. Broke him by beating
him and then trampled him with his horse.”

Chloris shut her eyes, ashamed and horrified by Tamhas’s
actions.

“He was set on having us turned away from Saint Andrews, or
better still put to death, if he could organize that.”

Chloris whimpered and shuddered. She knew of the witch trials,
of the gruesome manner in which they put to death those who were convicted, but
she could not bear to hear it on his lips, not about him and his people.

“Hush. What happened between us is not to blame. This was
always our destiny. It was only my stubbornness and the need to find my sisters
that kept me there. I thought I could change people’s opinions of the old ways,
but there are long held grievances and suspicions, and human nature does so like
to have someone to persecute.”

Everything he said made her fret all the more. He was trying to
comfort her, to reassure her, but guilt weighed heavily. She wrung her hands
together, remembering those final words she had exchanged with Tamhas, how
angered he had been when she tried to bargain with him. Lennox was too precious
to her. She could not put him at risk any more than she already had. “Tamhas
might have left you alone, though, if it were not for me.”

“That is not the case.” He cupped her face in his hand.
“Chloris, until you came into my life it was as if I were trapped, unable to
find anything I needed to find, unable to make a true sanctuary for the people I
care about. But you have been a lucky charm, for you unleashed a level of
madness in my life that has resulted in good things.” There was affection and
humor in his eyes and although she could not fully believe in his convictions,
she felt compelled to listen to him.

“We needed to leave Lowlands, that has been the truth of it for
a long while. The persecution of witchcraft is embedded in the people’s minds
here, as it has been for over a hundred years. I had tried to bring about
change, but with enemies such as Keavey, I cannot take any more risks. You have
given me the strength and purpose I needed to move on. There is also the matter
of Jessie.” He smiled. “If it had not been for the fact that I was coming to
Edinburgh to find you I would not have found my sister, who I have hunted for
all these years.”

There was luck in that, Chloris reflected. Could she truly
believe this was meant to be?

“Most of all, you have given me what I needed, a woman to love,
a woman to cherish. Every man needs those things, but I did not know how much
loving you would alter the way I live, the way I see and feel. I am stronger, I
am a better man.”

She saw what he was trying to say, not only as a man, but in
his magic.

Nevertheless, she still wondered if they were too different.
She shook her head and turned her face away, breaking contact. “I fear it cannot
be, or will not last.”

“It can and it will.”

She met his gaze. It was there in his eyes and she all but
melted.

“I know that you could not wait for me,” he said, “but this is
our true beginning. I love you and I know that you love me.”

“When we were together...when we were there that last day in
the forest and you painted a picture for me of how it could be, it was too much
like a dream, Lennox. I am older than you, a married woman, and a burden because
I am so different to you. I do not share your nature.” The shortcoming she felt
on that score grew deeper still. She lowered her eyelids, afraid that he would
see the grief and pain she carried.

Lennox shook his head. “All of that means nothing. You cannot
turn away from a life with me. You were not happy when you came to me, you as
much as admitted it, and I have seen you blossom while we’ve been together. You
cannot deny that.”

“No, I cannot deny that.”

He drew her to him and looked into her eyes beseechingly. “I
will not let you say no to what we could have together.”

“You told me it would be hard, but that is the truth for you,
too.”

“Do I need to remind you how we are when we are as one?” He
closed in on her, his mouth covering hers.

Chloris whimpered, then melted and relinquished herself to
him.

His kiss was soft and persuasive at first, reminiscent of those
first few kisses he’d given her, and then it came as she knew it would—the
full-blown passion that flared between them. How she adored it, the sheer and
absolute immensity of the reciprocated desire they shared.

Cradling the back of her head with one hand, he moved the other
around the outline of her breasts and waist, where he gripped her tightly and
drew her closer against him. The firm, hard line of his body against
hers—together with the feeling of being held in his arms while he plundered her
mouth—shooed everything else in the world away. She let it, savoring him.

He eased her down onto her back. Chloris sank gratefully onto
the couch, not breaking from the embrace. To feel the closeness, the presence of
his body over hers, made her heart soar. “Lennox, you make me...you make me
feel, everything.”

“It is the same for me, and you and only you make me feel
this.”

He meshed his fingers with hers, and she stared at their joined
hands. She wanted this, wanted him—for always, just as he suggested.

He looked down at her with passion in his eyes. “Let me love
you.”

Chloris groaned. When he said that, she could not resist.
Turning her face to one side, she was ashamed of her blatant reaction, here in
this borrowed parlor where everything should be proper and moral.

Lennox swooped down upon her, kissing the soft, sensitive skin
that she had exposed in turning her face, raining kisses down her throat and
into her cleavage, his hands around her waist.

Desire sprang at her center, heating her groin, making her
entire body throb with need. Between her thighs her core clenched, reaching for
him, reaching for the certain pleasure of his hardness inside her.

With one hand on the couch above her head, he rested his knee
by the side of her hip and caressed the curved underside of her bosom through
her bodice and corset. It made her breath come ever quicker, the damp heat
between her thighs growing. Moaning softly, she shook her head, but her hands
moved and she ran her fingers into his hair, craving every part of him.

Sensation overwhelmed her, her need for him blinding her to
their surroundings, to the danger inherent in their situation. She looked at
him, her lips parting, and put her hands against his chest, her head pressing
back as her body arched to his.

His hands roamed, squeezing her through her clothing. Even
through her skirts she could feel his erection solid and real, promising her
untold pleasures such as those she had experienced with him over the past few
weeks.

“We should not,” she whispered. Yet she did not resist when his
mouth lifted at one corner and he lowered his hand and pulled up her skirts, his
fingers quickly working between her thighs to delve into the heat he found
there.

“Lennox,” she breathed. The stroke of his fingers opening her
up sent her spinning. She felt panic, and bliss. Pressing back against the
cushions, she shook her head. “Please, don’t.”

Even as she said that she knew she was helpless. She could
barely resist him, she was powerless under his hands, and now it seemed even
worse than before because he had professed his affection for her, affection she
reciprocated deeply.

Lennox laughed softly. “You pretend you can resist me, yet
this—” he stroked his thumb over the seat of her pleasure, making her moan
“—says something different.”

She cried out, her hands fisting.

Again he chuckled. “Even when your words deny me, your body
tells me what it is you want. It has been that way since the beginning.”

He was so sure, just as he had always been.

“Of course I want you. I always have, for you have seduced me
thoroughly. That is a task that you are very good at. It is the wisdom of our
actions that I query, that and matters of the heart.”

“You will be able to consider our matters of the heart more
honestly, while I reacquaint myself with you.” Again he stroked her sensitive
folds.

Chloris writhed against the couch. “You are terrible! I need
you there, inside me.”

His smile was triumphant. “A moment longer. Let me study you
while I touch you, and then I will have to be inside you.”

“You are shameless.” She gave him a rueful glance.

He ducked to press a kiss in the cleft between her breasts,
then thrust one finger inside her. “I am merely demonstrating how well we are
matched.”

Chloris covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from
crying out. The hard intrusion felt too good, and her body clasped it, instinct
taking over. Her hips bore down, and when they did his thumb rode over her
swollen bud and released a tide of heat that bloomed within her.

He lifted his head and looked down at her, holding her gaze.
His finger stroked in and out of her damp niche. Slowly, so slowly, he moved,
coaxing her to enjoy. He circled his finger around her sensitive opening. “I
want every ounce of you, Chloris.”

Her body was trembling, so intense was the connection. She saw
what he meant now, about considering matters of the heart. When he had her this
way, she could think of nothing else but how much she loved him, and that she
wanted to be with him for all time. She clutched at him. “Please,” she
whispered.

He pulled free the laces at his groin, freeing his manhood. It
was hard against her and when she felt its size she shivered.

“I am needy for your most precious embrace,” he murmured.

She wrapped her fingers around his girth, testing him. He was
solid, long and thick, and the skin was hot to the touch. She stroked her
fingers down around the shaft, then cupped his sac, squeezing it gently in her
hand.

He shot her a warning glance. “Tread carefully, my love.”

He spread her legs, arranging one over the side of the couch.
The other he lifted along his flank, encouraging her to bend her knee. Slowly,
he eased his length inside her, his hands cupping her bottom as he lifted her to
arrange her and gain entry. Chloris moaned as he stretched her open, moving his
cock deeper.

Then she was gloriously full and he held his position.

His breath was warm on her mouth and she breathed him in. His
hair fell forward, enclosing them as he kissed her softly, the stubble on his
jaw grazing her face. It was too good. Chloris wanted to stay locked that way
forever.

But then he stroked the leg that pressed alongside his flank
and shifted it, folding it high against his side as he ground his hips into
hers, slow and deep, his teeth gritted, and she was soon close to spilling. They
both were. She could see the muscles in his neck working, his eyelids lowered as
he watched her reactions.

A trickle of her moisture slid free and ran down between
them.

He smiled at her. “You are awash, my love.”

Chloris didn’t respond, but her cheeks flamed.

“And how you blush.”

“I cannot help it, my emotions are tender.”

“Good.”

She felt the swollen head of his cock throbbing against her
deepest point, and it made her whisper his name, over and over, her release
imminent.

He pulled back when he felt the depth of her response. “Oh,
Chloris.”

Then he drove her on, riding her slow, hard and deep, until she
began to pant aloud. He arched up his shoulders with effort. She bore down,
meeting him, and the release came sudden and sweet and hot and wild, flooding
her groin with pleasure. When she clenched on him, her core rippling, he
groaned, jerked inside her and spurted hot and copious, equaling her release.
Chloris held on to his shoulders with weak hands, shuddering.

When he drew away, it was only after he had kissed her for as
long as he could stay inside, and then he stood up and laced himself up, before
he lifted her in his arms and set her upon his lap. “There, now that we are
reacquainted, did you think on our matters of the heart?”

“Long and hard.” She laughed and rubbed her face against
his.

“And you see it, don’t you, this will always be the way between
us. This is nature’s way, the most powerful vitality there is, and when it grows
this way between two lovers who are meant to be together, it is immense and
undeniable.”

She nodded her head, clinging to him. That first time in the
bluebell glen, when she had wanted to turn him away but had begged him to
fulfill her, was close in her mind. There was regret, but it was nothing in the
face of her growing desire for him. She’d woken the next day longing for more,
longing to be in his arms again.

For the first time she let herself believe this was right.

“When you first came to me we met as if strangers, both driven
by different needs in our union. The draw between us was powerful even then, and
because of that I fast grew to care about you and nothing else mattered, not
your cousin nor what he thought, or how well I could fox him by seducing
you.”

Chloris drew back. Her breath caught.

Lennox, whose passion had clearly undone him, cursed when he
realized what he had said.

“You...you are saying that you seduced me in order to upset
Tamhas?”

Even as she said the words, her heart ached. More fiercely than
all the pain and loss she had experienced over these past few days, a knife ran
deep in her heart. She shifted, climbing off his lap.