The Princess in His Bed (38 page)

“You are a vision, Silvie.”

It was easy to forget she’d been an innocent last eve—that is, until he noticed her averted gaze, and the pretty blush coloring her cheeks.

She wasn’t quite used to being naked before him. He didn’t want her being embarrassed or inhibited around him in any way. He wanted her unrestrained. Unabashed. Without hesitation of any kind.

And without the wall she erected between them.

Most of all, he wanted her to learn to open up to him. In and out of bed.

Starting in the boudoir, he was going to make certain she never held back from him again—the way she’d attempted to last eve in the throes of passion.

And there was no time like the present to start working on it.

Mathias sat up.

He took her hand and pulled, bending her forward for a kiss, his fingers threading in her hair as he savored her taste. She softly moaned against his mouth. Normally, he wouldn’t still be in a woman’s bed in the morning. He’d made it a habit to leave after sex.

Staying any longer, in his experience, gave the mistaken impression that the amorous encounter was something more than just recreational.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave her sleeping form last night.

He was so inexplicably drawn to this woman, it was mind-numbing.

“Come here,” he said giving her arm a sharp pull, purposely making her lose her balance. She fell across his lap with a surprised yelp, her hips resting on his linen-covered thighs.

Rising up onto her elbows, she tossed him a questioning look over her shoulder. “Mathias, what are you doing?”

“It isn’t fair to pay tribute to just the front part of your delectable form,
chère
. I think equal adoration should be given to your backside, especially . . .” He ran a light hand over the gorgeous curve of her bottom, making her squirm. “When you have such a beautiful derrière.”

He caressed her bottom once more, luxuriating over its sweet curve and delighting in the feel of her skin. She gave him a little wiggle.

“Mathias . . .” There was a tinge of breathlessness to her tone. Planting her palms onto the mattress, she started to rise. Gently, he gently pressed her down onto the bed with a firm hand against her back. She was deliciously draped over his lap, inspiring a number of salacious ideas, and he wasn’t anywhere close to being done.

“Not yet, Silvie. Just relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She looked unsure, almost leery about what his intentions were while he had her across his lap, but she didn’t protest further and she didn’t try to rise.

That she was putting trust in him at the moment made him happier than he’d ever admit.

He slipped his hands between her thighs and spread her legs apart, feeling her stiffen, a mixture of innocent apprehension and arousal. The way her body was angled, her bottom tilting up, he had a perfect view of her glistening pink softness.
Dieu
, she had the prettiest sex he’d ever seen. Lovely nether lips. And the sweetest little clit. A man could spend hours with his head buried between these long silky thighs in oral worship.

At the first stroke of his fingers over her sleek folds, she lost her breath.

“You’re wet for me.” He smiled at her deepening blush, and tenderly massaged her soaked sex. She was resting on her forearms, her head turned and her dark eyes watching him. Her breaths were already becoming choppy and quick. Closely watching her reactions, he stroked her, keeping the pressure consistent, gliding his slick fingers up over her clit from time to time, purposely giving her little jolts of heightened sensation to build her hunger, keep her keen.

“You like this, Silvie?” He brushed her clit again, enjoying her soft cry.

“Yes . . .” She panted and pushed up against his hand, trying to rub her engorged little bud against his evasive fingers. “I want . . .
oh!
. . . I . . . want . . .”

He loved how she was becoming less coherent, more feverish. His strong, spirited Silvie was unraveling, and watching it happen before his eyes hardened his cock to painful proportions.

“What do you want?” He was stroking the slit of her sex, milking more heated responses. He liked the sound of her moans, her occasional little wiggle and lifting of her bottom.

“I . . . I want . . . you . . . inside me.”

“As you wish.” He thrust two fingers into her tight warm core.

She let out a sound, a mixture of a cry and a sob, her hips jerking hard. Holding her firmly, he immediately went to work on that sweet hot spot inside her feminine walls, giving it short quick strokes that made her buck, her legs shake. She whimpered and tried to squirm away. Knowing the sensations over that sensitive gland were deliciously intense, Mathias tightened his hold, keeping her in place, letting her get used to the erotic sensation, without playing with her clit, all the while plying steady skillful strokes.

His name rushed past her lips on a pant. She was wiggling harder, unable to hold still. He soothed her with words, coaxed her along, encouraging her to give herself over to the pleasure, telling her how good she felt around his fingers, how hard a release he was going to give her.

Within moments, she was widening her legs, giving him easier access, and rocking her hips with mouthwatering allure. She’d dropped her chin, her hair hiding her face, her trembling now stronger than before. Her breathing was choppy and her sex had soaked his busy fingers with more juices.

Mathias drove her straight to the edge. “You’re going to come for me, without holding back in any way.” It wasn’t a question.

“Y-Yes!” She confirmed what he could feel around his fingers. If he wasn’t so hard, his cock so unbearably full, he might have smiled.

No hesitation there. Just sweet surrender.

Her orgasm hit her hard, wrenching a scream from her. Silvie stiffened.

With lightning movements, Mathias pulled his hand out of her contracting sheath, yanked off the sheet around his waist, and stuffed a pillow under her hips to keep her bottom angled.

He filled her quivering core with one fluid stroke, pushing his whole length into her, knowing she liked it deep. She mewed a welcome, followed by a shiver of delight, accepting his possession, taking his deep long thrusts, her slick walls decadently pulsing around him.

He basked in those wild uncontrollable clenches, holding back his climax, shaking with the effort. Her body sucking him in with each glorious spasm, she was hot and soft and exquisitely snug; she had the most incredible cunt he’d ever known.

Just as her contractions began to ebb, his control snapped. Ecstasy slammed into him. He pulled out, his semen shooting from his cock with stunning force, pouring himself onto her sweet bottom, until he was completely drained.

Collapsing onto his back beside her, he was as boneless as she. It took him several moments before he could calm his breathing and move his muscles. Grabbing her chemise, he cleaned them both, tossed the thing to the floor, and gently eased the pillow from under her hips.

Her breathing almost normal, she rolled onto her side facing him, her hands tucked under her cheek. Propped up on his elbow, he gazed into her eyes, noting the softness in the look she was giving him—the very same softness he’d seen last eve. They lay there in silence, but it wasn’t awkward. In fact, there was a deep serenity to it, the likes of which he’d never experienced before.

He caressed her cheek, allowing himself to enjoy the features of her lovely face. She had no exotic coloring, but she was a classic beauty. A dangerous beauty. The kind that could bring a man to his knees, if he wasn’t careful. And
Dieu
, he loved her height. He never had to stoop to kiss her. She fit perfectly with his body, as though she were made for him.

In the quiet of the moment, he didn’t sense a wall between them, that barrier she kept between her and the rest of the world. The look in her eyes was far from detached and he fully expected her to erect a barrier posthaste.

Taking advantage of her amenable state, he said, “You’ve given me your innocence, but you won’t tell me about you. You can trust me with your secrets, just as you’ve trusted me with your body. I won’t hurt you, Silvie. I won’t betray your confidence or turn your secrets against you.” He cradled her cheek in his palm. She lowered her gaze. Mathias placed a soft kiss on her lips, wishing he knew her thoughts. Wishing he knew how to silence this incessant desire to know more about her. “Tell me something, anything about yourself. Something I don’t already know.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “I’ve never met anyone like you,” she responded with as much sincerity in her eyes as in her tone.

He was taken aback by the endearing comment.

Tenderly, he stroked his thumb across her cheek. “Tell me something you’ve never told anyone else.”

She put her arms around him, snuggled up against him. “I’m glad I met you,” she whispered in his ear. “That’s something I’ve never told anyone else.”

Her words took him by surprise and melted his heart.

He pulled her tightly against him, his arms acting on their own volition, returning her embrace, unable to dispel the notion that this was so right. Unable to silence the tender emotions welling inside him.

Merde.
Two powerful orgasms with this woman had him undone.

Once the sexual haze dissipated, he fully expected to return to his old self. The last woman he should involve himself with was one with as many secrets as Silvie had.

Gabrielle closed her eyes, relishing the simple pleasure of being in the circle of his strong arms. She felt safe and, God help her, protected. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. The temptation to reveal all to him was so great.

She couldn’t.

She was going to hold on to this last level of detachment. This final bit of distance. Why open herself up totally? She’d have to leave him soon and it would only hurt more if she did. It was clear the longer she spent with him, the more she fell under his spell. She’d already opened herself up to him more than anyone else.

There were a thousand reasons why she should end this now. Why she should send him home. And only one reason why he should remain.

Contentment.

Near him, she felt content. It was novel. It was wonderful. And oh so irresistible.

Married or not, there were many more empty years ahead of her. Did she have the strength to deny herself more of this man?

Lifting her head, she met his beautiful light-colored eyes, and then the words she’d been grappling with tumbled from her lips. “Will you stay?”

7

“Ten wins. Six loses.”

Mathias couldn’t believe it. She had won another
sept-et-le-va
. How fortunate could one person be in a game that was mathematically stacked against the player, in favor of the banker?

Her winnings tonight had more than covered the losses from the last game.

Though he knew she was pleased, she did an excellent job schooling her features. Not acting exuberant in any way. No one who gambled at Basset celebrated each win.

Not when luck was a fickle mistress. At times she loved you. More often, she left you.

Especially in Basset.

He hated this game with a passion. Too many tragedies had occurred because of it.

Not an hour ago, another prominent family had come to ruin. At the table next to him, the Baron de Tremblay had lost his entire fortune. Mathias’s very entrails twisted in his gut watching the man leave Navers’s drawing room sobbing.

Silvie was just as grief-stricken for the man. Mathias had seen it flash in her eyes before she masked the emotion.

He wasn’t experiencing any of Silvie’s good fortune.

He couldn’t concentrate. Not just because of Tremblay’s loss. It was Valette. The police sergeant’s eyes had been on him the entire night. Valette was at the next table over and he could actually feel the weasel’s stare.

Casting a glance in Valette’s direction, he locked eyes with the man.

Mathias looked back at his cards, fighting the urge to gnash his teeth.

Something wasn’t right. Ever since yesterday when Valette had paid him another visit, he couldn’t shake his feeling of unease. Valette told him that Sard wanted more names.

Twenty players were in attendance. So far, he’d managed to decipher the identities of a total of seventeen of them.

But there was something else going on. He had a gnawing feeling that something was going to happen.

Something was being hatched by Sard and his sergeant that Mathias wasn’t privy to. In the pit of his belly, he feared there might be a raid on the Duc’s home.

Every time the door opened, Mathias lost his focus and tensed.

Valette had said he wanted the names of
all
in attendance. He kept insisting that everyone had to be made accountable. That it was important that the arrests would be numerous.