Badcock (2 page)

He reached up to her. Sophia hesitated. She debated snatching the reins and making a mad dash for it but she realized she couldn’t tell which way they’d come. She sighed. She had little other choice to accept this man’s offer to help her down from his mount. He lifted her easily and set her on the ground with a gentleness he didn’t look capable of.

She stared as he brushed a loose strand of hair from her cheek. A lurid smile twisted his lips. “That was exhilarating. But I’ll wager not half as exhilarating as what is yet to come.”

“Are…are you going to hurt me?” she asked, suddenly terrified now that she was completely alone with this masked man.

“I’m going to follow your instructions to the letter, love,” he said and lifted her chin so that he could press a kiss to her lips.

The word
instructions
played in her head, but only for a moment, chased away by the feel of his mouth on hers again. She wanted him to crush her against him and pillage her mouth again but he did not.

Instead, he kissed her lightly, released her and looped the reins around a hitching post. He patted the black beast on the neck. “I’ll be back to see after you later, Armageddon.” After that, he gripped her arm and manhandled her into the lodge.

The interior was cozily dark and consisted of one large room with a bed, a sitting area and a table and chairs.

Already, a fire smoldered in the hearth. A bottle of wine and fine crystal glasses awaited them. Luxuriant sheets had been turned back on the bed. Sophia’s forehead furrowed. It looked as if he’d been
expecting
her.

But how could that be? He couldn’t have possibly known
she
would have been traveling down the Hounslow Road today.

In addition to being made off with by a highwayman, there was something else amiss but Sophia couldn’t quite figure out what.

He raked off his cocked hat and hung it on a peg along with his frockcoat. Dread washed over her anew when he began unfastening the buttons on his waistcoat. His clothing was far too fine for that of a man reduced to highway robbery. His speech was impeccable. In fact, Sophia wondered if he was really a highwayman at all.

After he draped his waistcoat on a peg, he strode confidently across the floor to the table and poured two glasses full of wine. He took a hearty drink of his and handed her a glass.

“Sir, exactly what do you intend to do with me?” she asked.

He laughed. “Oh, you do play your part well, love.” His gaze dropped to the glass in her hand. “Drink! Or would you rather get straight to fucking?”

Shocked, Sophia gasped. “I…I am a maiden!”

At that he laughed so hard that he sputtered wine. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Once he regained a semblance of composure, he looked at her as if he were trying to be serious and was failing miserably. “And I am the lecher who will deflower you.”

Trying not to show her fear, Sophia stared. “Are you mocking me?”

His smile faded into a leer and he took her glass from her. He downed the contents of his own and set both glasses on the table.

Sophia sensed something was about to change between them and although she’d been stunned by his passionate kiss earlier, cold terror seized her. His hand threaded around her waist and he dragged her into his arms. With bruising force, his mouth claimed hers. She tried to resist. In vain, she pushed at his iron shoulders and struggled in the vise grip of his arms. It was futile.

His hand caught her head, cradling it, holding her to him until he took his fill of her mouth. “That’s right,” he murmured, his lips still against hers. “Fight me all you want but I wager you’ll be begging me for this within the hour.” He took her hand in his and thrust it between their bodies, pressing her palm over his arousal.

His very hard—very big—arousal.

Sophia tried to wrest her hand free but he only laughed and held her closer.

“Before this day is over you’re going to feel my prick in each and every one of your delectably
fuckable
holes,” he said in such a tone his threat sounded very much like a promise.

She gulped at the thought of him doing just that. The dark part of her wanted to try those things she’d only heard whispered about. The more practical side of her wanted to bolt out that door and run.

The dark chocolate overcoat of her riding habit fell down her shoulders, exposing her robin’s egg blue waistcoat. When had he unbuttoned it?

He cocked his head to the side as he admired her. “Not quite as I remembered but beautiful nonetheless.”

Sophia’s kiss-swollen lips parted. “Do…do you know me?”

He traced a finger down the row of buttons on her chest, working his finger beneath and just between her breasts before tugging her so that she stumbled closer. “Intimately,” he whispered, deftly unfastening the buttons of her waistcoat with one hand.

It, too, slithered down her arms and he tossed it in the floor. Another jerk freed her skirt and it fell around her ankles.

His eyes widened with interest as they skimmed down her corset and petticoat clad body and back up again. With expert ease, he loosened the laces on her corset and pushed it down over her hips. It occurred to Sophia that he’d done this before. Often.

“Wouldn’t your
beau
love to see you now?”

Rage renewed itself when she thought of Ralph. He would be just as ruined as she when word of this got out. Trading a ring for her virtue! The very idea.

Sophia was aghast. No man had ever seen her in dishabille before. Ever! But instead of being humiliated, she was angry and…exhilarated—so exhilarated that she yanked her petticoat up over her head and then threw it in the floor.

She stood, heaving for breath as the highwayman’s eyes drank in her almost naked form. “Very beautiful,” he mused aloud.

In spite of herself, her nipples hardened under his gaze. Her channel pulsed and clenched.

He closed what little distance was left between them, removed his mask and before she could get a good look at him, he covered her mouth again. Sophia’s eyes fluttered shut as she surrendered to his expert lips and tantalizing tongue. Curiosity mounted when his fingers glided down her arms until he held both her hands behind her back. But sheer panic surged when he dragged his mouth from hers and began binding her wrists with his satin mask.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Divesting you of your control as surely as I’ve just divested you of your clothes,” he said flippantly.

“Untie me this instant, you miserable wretch!” Her command fell on deaf ears.

“Ah, spirited,” he said and whirled her around so that her back was to him. A smart slap to her backside caused her to yelp. The sting transformed into a warm throb, sending wild impulses through her body that were in direction opposition to the protests from her brain.

She gulped as his warm hands moved around her waist, as his lips nibbled the nape of her neck.

“Sir, I beg you—”

He chuckled low. “See there. I told you that you’d be begging me.”

Big hands moved up her body with deliberate slowness until he cupped both breasts. Sophia heard herself moan. The pressure of his hands and his mouth on her neck was almost too sensuous to bear. And when he rolled her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, Sophia thought she would melt in his arms.

“I’ve been dying to feel you in my arms again,” he murmured in her ear.

Again?
Just who did he think she was? Was he mad?

He squeezed her nipples to the verge of pain. Right now she didn’t care. She just didn’t want him to stop. She’d never dreamed another’s touch could be so insidiously good. He rocked his hips against her bound hands, grinding his hard phallus into them. Instinctively, she groped his member, shocked at how her body betrayed her.

He groaned in her ear. “Yes, love. I can’t wait to be inside you. But first, there’s so much more you’ve required of me. You’re driving me mad. You know that, don’t you?”

Driving
him
mad? Need unfurled through her limbs. She ached between her legs. Cream gathered in her center.

So this was desire…

She’d been curious to kiss Ralph but she’d never felt
this
for him. With the highwayman, it seemed as if her entire being would burst into flames and instinctively, she knew only he could quench the fire.

Both his hands moved down, down, until he caressed the slight swell of her stomach. Sophia watched, helpless as his fingers splayed wide across her sensitive skin. She wanted to squeeze her thighs together and at the same time, she was horribly impatient to get her boots off so she could be completely naked in this stranger’s arms.

His breathing grew rough. So did hers. She kept trying to swallow but couldn’t force her throat to work. Every muscle in her body tightened when his hands smoothed around her hips.

One hand splayed over the slight swell of her tummy and the other dipped lower. His fingers burrowed into the hair between her legs, probing, finding.
Oh, there!

Now she wished she’d drunk that wine. She wanted to open her legs for him. She wanted to tilt her hips toward those inquisitive fingers. Instead, she grew rigid as shocks of pleasure pulsed from where he touched her.

Of course, she’d touched herself but this—a man’s hand—was something she’d never imagined could be so wickedly wonderful.

Intruding thoughts that Ralph could have possibly followed them to this place leapt up in her mind. Minutes earlier, she would have hoped that was the case. Right now, she did not. She only wanted these feelings to continue.

The highwayman’s fingers wriggled into her moist folds only to draw back up and circle her eager pearl again. Sophia’s knees felt like pudding. If he hadn’t been holding her upright, she would have wilted.

“W-what are you going to do to me?” she stammered.

“Everything.”

Her pulse ran wild.

And just when she laid her head back against his shoulder to enjoy the pleasure he was wresting from her, he released her. Furious, she whirled, staggering off balance due to her bound hands.

Her mouth fell open at the sight of him without the mask. Unruly waves of black hair escaped his queue. Dark eyebrows brooded over his glittering blue eyes. His nose was slightly crooked. Masculine. In fact, everything about him defined the fact that he was all man.

Where Ralph looked graceful, almost feminine in his clothing, this man looked like a handsome swashbuckler. He was how she’d pictured the famed pirates she’d read about.

His snowy shirt gaped at the neck, revealing a dusting of black down on his tanned chest.

Ralph had been right about one thing. This man was definitely no gentleman.

He grinned and sucked her cream from his fingers with an irritating smack. And then he began unfastening the double row of buttons on his breeches.

Sophia’s gaze riveted to where his long, well-shaped fingers deftly worked the buttons. He pushed his fall open with calculated slowness—as if what he had there would be a welcome surprise for her.

Welcome. Yes.

Surprise? Indubitably.

Intuitively, she licked her lips. She’d never seen a man’s penis before. He ran his hand up and down the length of his thick shaft, rubbing his thumb over the swollen head. When he squeezed it, veins bulged.

“See how hard you’ve made me?” he teased softly. “If I’m to do everything on your list, love, then you must first take the edge off for me.”

Sophia didn’t understand but she couldn’t wring her gaze from his arousal.

“Get on your knees,” he said.

Her knees? Was he going to take her from behind like an animal? She knew she should be repulsed at the idea of such a thing but her traitorous sheath clenched over and over. Fire licked her inner thighs. She didn’t protest but rather sank slowly to her knees on the thick fur rug.

Smiling wickedly, he caressed her cheek and thumbed her bottom lip. “I want you to suck my cock,” he said.

Sophia got the distinct impression it was not a request at all but a command. Still, suck his cock? Take that…that
thing
in her mouth?

“I couldn’t
poss
—” she began but he pushed the head between her lips and pulled her head close with his hand.

Sophia did not resist. Instinct consumed her and she closed her lips around him.

He let out an animalistic groan. “Oh,
sweeting
. Yes.”

His words encouraged her and she began to work her tongue around him, alternately licking and sucking him.

“Heavens, that’s good,” he said, threading his fingers into her hair to hold her head captive.

She didn’t stop to wonder if she was doing it correctly. His moans and the tension in his hands told her she was. He began to gently thrust into her mouth. She grasped that he wanted her to move that way for him. Is that how he would thrust his cock into her channel?

Desire to feel him inside her there flowed through her like molten lava. She wanted to stop sucking him. She wanted to beg him to fuck her. She was beyond caring if she was ruined. She was beyond caring about Ralph especially after his callous disregard of her.

Both his hands gripped her head. His cock pulsed and salty-sweet liquid spurted into her mouth. Sophia swallowed, sucking the rest until he withdrew from her mouth. His hands trembled.

He blew out a breath. “I’ve wanted to feel your mouth on me since the first time I set eyes on you.”

Dazed she stared from her kneeling position as he did up his breeches. No! Was he finished with her? The hateful bastard!

He picked up her glass of wine and drank half its contents.

She struggled against the sash around her wrists.

“And now,” he said with an actor’s flair. “We can get down to the business of
punishing
you.”