Slowly, reluctantly, he raised his head from the warm bounty of?her breasts. His lime-green eyes were glazed and heavy with passion.?”Tell me, Skye,” he said quietly, “tell me.”
She gazed at him helplessly, all the logical reasons for stopping?now whirling out of her reach. Their eyes locked, and he said quietly,?”You’re shy of this for you’ve always been a virtuous woman. I?know that. I cannot wish away my wife. If I could I would do so.?I love you, and I sense beneath the respectable widow a naughty?little sensualist who hungers for me as much as I hunger for her.”
She flushed. “What is so wrong in our pleasuring each other?” She?sighed, still trying to find words. He was so damnably persuasive.?Then Geoffrey Southwood reached out and, taking her hand, drew?it to his codpiece. Beneath her fingers she felt the hard throb of him.
“Oh, Geoffrey!”
“I won’t beg, Skye.” He had the weapon to force her, but some-?how he couldn’t bring himself to use it. He wanted to win her fairly?for the victory would be so much sweeter. I do love her! he thought?exultantly. Oh, my love, let me have the precious gift of you! And?as if she had heard his silent plea, she sobbed, “Oh, Geoffrey, yes!?Yes! Yes! Yes!”
He pulled her from the bed and gently drew her gown away. To?his surprised delight, she reached out and, with trembling fingers,?undid his ruffled shirt. Together they drew his breeches and hose?off, and then fell back upon the bed. He wanted to take her then and?there, but getting a mighty hold on himself, he held back. She was? not to be used quickly. Her surrender would be so much better for?the waiting.
She lay shyly, half afraid and confused, almost as though she?were a maid once more. The Earl moved downward upon the bed?and grasping her right foot began kissing it-the top, each toe, the?arch, and the heel. His lips moved oh so slowly to her ankle, and?up her leg to the shapely calf, her dimpled knee, her long silken?thigh. Moving downward again, he performed his tender ministra-?tions on her left foot and leg.
Returning to her lips, he nibbled at them briefly, leaving her?gasping before finding again the sensual warmth of her breasts. Once?more he sucked eagerly on the ripe fruit, tempting them to tiny?aching peaks, making them tingle with anticipation. Her beautiful?body was an unexplored land and he didn’t want to miss a single?inch of it.
How firm her waist was. He nuzzled the curves of it, feeling the?warm smoothness against his cheek. His hands held her firmly about?the hips as his lips slipped across the silken flesh of her belly. His?tongue probed teasingly into her little navel, then slid lower, seeking?the very core of her. Gently he parted the lips of her vulva. It was?already half open, the coral-red flower of womanhood wet and pout-?ing with desire. Bending his head he kissed it, tasting the sweet-salt?taste of her. She gasped her shock, her fingers twined tightly in his?dark-blond hair, and her body arced to meet his mouth.
Smiling his pleasure, he lifted his head up and said quietly, “Not?yet, sweetheart. It’s much too soon yet.”
“Please,” she pleaded. Her excitement was so great that she?thought she would die if it weren’t satisfied.
“Not yet, Skye,” he repeated. “I will teach you to enjoy the?anticipation, to prolong the pleasures.” He turned her over gently?and she felt him licking her back, her shoulders, her buttocks, her?legs. Slowly, rhythmically, his knowing tongue stroked her smooth?skin, increasing her fever. Her arms lay above her head and she?clawed at the sheets, digging fiercely into the mattress. Then, sud-?denly, he laid his naked body on top of her and rubbed his great?organ between the cheeks of her bottom.
Now she fought him, catching him unawares, and throwing him?off her, rolling onto her back, hissing angrily, “Bastard! You’re no?angel but a devil! No more!”
Laughing, he pinned her down and kissed her until she couldn’t?breathe. Then he raised her legs and, drawing them over his shoul-?ders, buried his face between them. His tongue found her honey,?and he used her furiously until she came, his mouth forcing her?climax.
“Damn you! Damn you!” she cried, weeping in frustration for?she still was not satisfied.
“Look at me, my hot little bitch!”
She squeezed her eyes tightly closed. “No!”
“Look at me, Skye!”
At the cruel sharp note in his voice she opened her sapphire eyes?and looked into his green ones. “I’ve fallen in love with you, bitch,?and I’ll not take you like a whore.” He rubbed his big blue-veined?organ against her belly. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”
“Yes!”
“You’ll have it in good time, Skye. In fact… I’ll give it to you?now.” He spread her wide. “All of it, sweetheart!” He drove deeply,?enjoying her gasp, the incredulous look on her face.
He was huge and he filled her to overflowing, pushing upward?to touch at her very womb as he moved his great shaft skillfully,?drawing it nearly all the way out, then thrusting home again. For?a moment Skye thought she would be torn asunder, but her body?stretched to receive him, almost devouring him in her desperate?hunger. She clawed at his back and he caught her arms and pinioned?them above her head. She bit into his shoulder, drawing blood, then?licked furiously at the wound. He slapped her very lightly, cursing?softly at her sharp little teeth.
The pleasure and the pain mingled about and within her. She had?known great love, but never had she known such passion. It con-?sumed her, leaving room for nothing else. Onward he drove her,?and she reached peak after peak, believing each time that it was not?possible to go any further, yet cresting higher and higher. Behind?her closed eyelids the world exploded into a rainbow of shattered glass. She felt the contractions of an orgasm so great that she be-?lieved death was about to overtake her. Over and over and over?again her body shuddered with the force of her passion.
He had joined her in ecstasy, climax for climax, then slowly he?regained his senses and managed to roll off her body. For a moment?he could but stare at her. She was white and barely breathing. Sitting?up, he tenderly gathered her into his arms. She was cold and he?strove to warm her. No woman had ever driven him as far as she?had done. No woman had ever satisfied him as much as she, and?no woman had ever given of herself as fully as she.
Yes, he loved her. And de Grenville could keep his damned?barge. He had no intention of jeopardizing his love over an insane?bet. Why had he made the damned bet? If Dickon dared breathe a?word of their foolishness, he’d call him out.
She stirred in his arms, and slowly her beautiful blue eyes flut-?tered open again. She searched his face fearfully for a sign of?reassurance. He gently smoothed her tangled dark hair from her?forehead and said simply, “Don’t ever leave me, Skye.”
“I won’t, Geoffrey.”
For Geoffrey Southwood this was the first love he had felt since?his pretty, young mother had died in another futile attempt at child-?bearing, when Geoffrey was still quite young. His father’s only son,?Geoffrey had been born just ten months after his parents’ wedding?day. His mother next produced a daughter, Geoffrey’s only full?sister, Catherine, who was married now and living in Cornwall. His?stepmother had birthed his two half-sisters, one of whom was now?wed to a Worcestershire baron, the other to a wealthy Devon squire.?She had died, along with a stillborn son. His father had not married?again.
His father had been proud of Geoffrey, but had forbidden what?he considered soft treatment for his son. At seven, Geoffrey had left?his own home to grow up in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury,?as his own son was now doing. He lived with half a dozen other?young nobles, learning manners, morals, politics, and the business?of being a great lord, but there was no room for love in that life.?It was three years before he saw his home again and then he was?allowed but a single month’s visit. Only his youngest half-sister,?Elizabeth, was still at home, the two older girls already having been?settled in other noble households to learn the business of becoming?successful wives and mothers. Though Beth had admired the elegant?and polished ten-year-old boy, young Geoffrey was far too puffed?up by his own importance to pay the little girl much attention.
The following year when he returned for his month, Beth was?gone. The next year he was twelve, and married the little heiress whose life had meant so little to Geoffrey and whose untimely death?left him wealthy in his own right. Both his mother and stepmother?had died. He scarcely knew his sisters, his father had flatly dis-?couraged affection, and his mousy, unimaginative wife was not to?his taste and never had been. This mysterious and beautiful woman?who lay by his side had given him more than any other person. It?was perhaps not so surprising, then, that he was falling in love with?her with an innocence extraordinary in a worldly man.
He wrapped an arm about her and she nestled close, her thoughts?beginning to reassemble. Her beloved Khalid had given her much?joy, but she admitted to herself that she had never known such?passion as this. It was
