Carnal Pleasures (16 page)

He spoke reassuringly, but even he wondered if he told the truth. Already his forceful desire was growing. He was anxious, even nervous, in a hurry to fulfill his debt to the countess. He looked down at Dulcie’s hand lying in his with its short fingernails and round, snowy edges—a hand so smooth and small in comparison. He rubbed lightly across the fragile knuckles, enjoying the feel of her skin. Whispering low, he remarked, “Your skin is as soft as silk.” His eyes met hers again. “And I didn’t realize how lovely you really are without those damn spectacles.”

She colored quickly after his words and burning glance.

“Do you always blush when a man touches you?” he asked, continuing to caress her hand while changing the subject.

“W-What?” she asked, showing signs of maidenly distress.

“I asked, Dulcie, if a man has ever touched you, intimately.”

“Oh! No, of course not. Never.”

It’s true, then. She doesn’t remember what occurred between us last night. She is acting very strange, however. Her speech is…slurred, and she’s hesitating. It’s not like her.

An idea crossed his mind.
Could the witch have dosed her with something, slipped it into her wine when neither she nor I noticed? I have no reason to think so, but after the way she behaved with me last night, maybe…

Griff leaned closer. “I’m touching you now, Dulcie. Do you mind? Do you like what I’m doing?”

“No, er, yes,” she answered, sounding confused.

He saw Dulcie’s forehead was perspiring. He also felt the cushions of the settee under their backsides quivering as if she were reaching out to him in desperation.

“Dulcie? Are you all right?”

“No,” she choked, swallowing. “No, I’m not feeling well at all. Perhaps I should…”

He drew her toward him, to help her stand. “Come, I’ll help you above stairs…”

Before he could act, Dulcie threw herself into Griff’s arms, clinging to his neck so tightly, so resolutely, that her grip bordered on panic.

Automatically, he wrapped his arms around her. If she had been given a potion to aid in her wantonness, he suddenly realized he was having identical reactions, though not nearly as intense. Heat and desire had infused him with desire, a growing, fervent hunger to plunge into a woman, and take his release inside her.

At this moment, Dulcie was available and, it seemed, quite willing.

Griff fought the unruly want burgeoning like a bonfire in his loins, watching confusion and fear growing on Dulcie’s face, saw her struggling against what an aphrodisiac was doing to her, quite unable to understand it. She had no way of knowing what only he could do—to give her release from agonizing, sexual need, metamorphosed into waves of delicious, carnal ecstasy.

His jaws clenched, aware Dulcie’s pleasure would also assuage his own. Would that be so wrong?

Dulcie begged silently for help, purring in supplication as she rubbed herself against him like a feline in heat, asking him to soothe her crimping nerve endings. Her first awkward kiss pressed tightly against his mouth. It was so passionate and needy that Griff sucked in air before kissing her back

Her arms clung to him, her lips crushed insistently against his.

A deep craving reared its powerful head. Griff found himself growing more amorous, searching for release. His cock swelled, bringing his half-fogged wits back to rest against Dulcie’s nubile body. He kissed the lips that were temptingly soft and ripe. He saw she was doing her naïve best to seduce him—innocence personified. She must be on fire, too, passion igniting fiery tongues of desire raging through her nervous system. Trying to control what was happening to himself, sweat dampened Griff’s callused palms. The sex potion hadn’t turned him into a ravening beast, but it would force him to finish what the countess wanted. Could he tame his oversized cock so he wouldn’t plunge into Dulcie so deep and hard the first time that he might really hurt her?

Griff slanted his wet mouth over Dulcie’s, holding her closer. “I know what you need, Dulcie. Let me give it to you,” he whispered, his breath hot and heavy against her lips. “Relax, dear heart. I promise I’ll make you feel better if you let me.”

Dulcie had crawled onto his lap, nuzzling his neck, sucking his skin like a young infant searching for a milky teat.

Quite suddenly, she slumped, resting against his chest. Only her bosom pumped as she panted heavily against the collar of his jacket.

“’Twill be all right, and…”

From out of the blue, she ranted at him. “Blast! Hurry, it up, Griff!” Dulcie grabbed his lapels. “Can you see I’m burning up? Can’t you do something!” She choked the words out as if it were difficult for her to breathe. She bit him hard on the neck, pinching his skin with her front teeth until he bled. Next, she pulled back and plunged her tongue wildly into his open mouth, sucking hard on his.

He almost came in his breeches.

He’d been ordered to ravish Lady Dulcie, and he would, not simply because he wanted her, but because his rabid lust took precedence over anything else. Dulcie was voracious under the influence of this love potion. She had him so hot he couldn’t think straight. The compound must have increased his sexual neediness as well. Should he feel a twinge of conscience about what he was doing, it would be because he fucked Dulcie for both their sakes, penetrated her wet cavity, seeking release and pleasurable gratification. His hands slid stealthily upward, reaching the soft undersides of Dulcie’s breasts.

She didn’t stop him.

He palmed her softness, squeezing the mounds of flesh lightly with more caresses. She moaned when he rubbed a thumb across a nipple and cried out, “Oh God, it feels good. Do more!” She grabbed his fingers and guided them lower. “Here! Down here…”

His cock was hard and hot where her buttocks nestled between his thighs. There’d be no problem with his performance tonight.

“I’ll give you what you need, Dulcie.”

“I-I want…”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t know, but I need…” she whimpered, calling out frantically. “Griff, what’s wrong with me? I n-never felt this way before!”

“Shhh. Don’t worry. I’ll take you above stairs.”

Chapter Sixteen

Griff carried Dulcie up one of the staircases to the mansion’s private wing and nudged open the door to his bedchamber. There was a glowing coal fire in the grate. Several candles burned in a large brass candelabrum sitting on his bedside table. When he maneuvered Dulcie toward the elaborate four-poster and slid her to her feet, her knees buckled, her legs bumping against the thick mattress.

“Oh! Hold on to me!” she exclaimed, clutching him fearfully. She pitched herself at him again and buried her flushed face against the wool fabric of his jacket. A muffled sob escaped from her tight throat. When she looked up, Dulcie’s lashes quivered like anxious wings, fluctuating against her flushed cheeks. Dulcie clamped frantically onto Griff’s bulging biceps, digging her short nails into him. “Help me!” she wailed. “I feel so helpless! Do something to make it go away! Please stop what is happening to me!”

Her breathing was rapid and shallow, as though she had run a distance uphill. Her panting exhalations seared the skin of his neck above his disheveled cravat. She had pulled the knot open when she grabbed him. Her breasts and hips now pressed tight against his chest and groin.

“Tell me what you want!” Griff growled, the words erupting from deep in his chest. Scraping her slender neck with the sharp edges of his top teeth, he made faint, nipping indentations along her unsullied skin. He needed to taste her, devour her sweetness. His lust burned hotter and higher as he held her tight against his rampant cock. He wanted her naked…now! “Dammit, tell me! I’m more than happy to oblige.”

Roughly Griff pushed Dulcie down onto the soft mattress, shoved her flat, and straddled her thighs. The beast in him was growing stronger, more urgent, demanding release. He was eager to plow into her, strong and thick, plant himself deep in the fallow meadow of her pussy.

Damnation! He had to hang on.

Suddenly, Dulcie leaned up, flailing her arms and hands in the air, and yanking at the new gown she wore, tearing at the fabric with frenetic jerks. “Quick! Help me take it off!” she demanded, unable to undo the gown by herself. She was so distressed he wondered if she would ever calm down

“All right, all right! Let me do it.” Panicky himself by this time, he rolled her over and undid the fastenings. The fabric slid off her shoulders and hips, and he was able to pull the gown from under her. He rolled her back to the front and rapidly removed her petticoats. Working like a madman, he yanked off her slippers, undid her garters, and rolled down her stockings. After her initial struggle, she was breathing hard but lay quiet, ceasing to fight him.

He vowed to be gentle, but his blood was on fire, too. His inflamed cock got harder as he gazed down on her half-naked body. More beside wealth and title drew him to her. The girl’s untouched innocence, perhaps? Maybe, but he was about to change that.

“Dulcie, look at me.”

Her eyes opened slowly, as if her lids were too heavy to lift. He bent over and kissed her, taking her mouth in a searing joining of passion and desire. She accepted his kiss willingly. He nibbled at the corners of her mouth, nipped her lower lip. “Do you like kissing? Do you want more?”

“Yes. Oh yes, please, I need more…” she murmured, eyes closing. “Kiss me again.”

Griff knew he had to do this quickly, or he might hurt her in his need for release. He pressed her legs open with his knees, fitted his hips in the space.

“Open wider, Dulcie,” he ordered, anxiety pressuring his rapid breathing.

She wore nothing now except her corset and chemise. Griff shook with tremors so powerful he was panting. His fingers didn’t want to work, but he untied the corset strings and lifted the garment off her. Her chemise was sheer cotton. Her breasts, with their prominent nipples, were a deep pink through the cloth. The chemise, reaching to her knees, revealed a small triangle of pubic hair, a shadowy triangle nestling between her thighs. Griff sucked in a breath and feasted his avid gaze on her pliant form.

She had a body that could easily satisfy his every desire.

This is when we both get what we want,
he thought
.

His mind took hold, firmly leashing his rutting eagerness to fuck her. His hands swooped down to capture Dulcie’s breasts, fondling the soft mounds, weighing them in his waiting palms. Moving lower, he licked around a pink aureola until the nipple peaked. He teased with the sharp edge of his teeth, gently; her breath hitched and she moaned. Wanting more, he sucked the pink bud into his mouth and pulled hard, tweaking the other nipple with his fingertips. While he suckled and teased, she whimpered. He surmised that her tits were extraordinarily sensitive, heightened by the potion. Her short nails bit into him through his jacket, and he knew he’d have raw half moons on his biceps. Reactions from the drug were bearing down on him, too. Again, Dulcie moaned, leaving him to guess if it was a moan of pleasure or pain.

“Oh, God! Help me…” she whimpered.

Griff jumped back on his heels at the low cry escaping from her. “Bloody hell! Am I hurting you? Tell me, Dulcie,” he demanded. “I’m not doing it to hurt you, only to help both of us!”

She didn’t look at him, instead, she exclaimed, “Just help me! I-I don’t know what’s happening! And I can’t…”

Pain and pleasure had blended in Griff’s onslaught on Dulcie’s breasts; stimuli shot like fiery arrows along raw, tingling nerve endings, following a path toward her inner core. With a sudden jerk, she shot her hands outward, clawing at the skin of her shoulders and chest, calling out frantically, “Get them off me! Oh please, get rid of them!” Her eyelids clamped shut, and she begged, plaintively, “Oh God, oh God, can’t you see the awful bugs crawling on me!”

Dulcie’s strangled pleas bombarding his ears had Griff beside himself.

Griff knew he had to do something soon. Dammit! His hands still shook as if he had palsy. “Dulcie, stop!” he commanded, his voice sharp. “Lie quiet.” Feeling the same duress that she did, he snapped, “Devil take it, Dulcie, trust me to know what I’m doing!” He jumped up from where he knelt, leaving Dulcie gloriously naked. He never thought her stunningly beautiful, but now…that luscious, untouched body was enough to…

His blood was roaring in his ears. His cock had expanded, rising up, long and thick, against his groin. Dulcie wasn’t moving. Her eyes were closed. But time was of the essence. Griff whipped off his jacket and waistcoat, threw them to the floor. He hung over her, leaving the rest of his clothes on and forgetting to remove his boots.

Although locked into his promise to the countess, what he was about to do whipped his conscious and rankled through him. It was almost as damaging to his ego as fucking the demanding Agina Trayhern. He had called himself a slimy cad then, the lowest cadre of men, a paid lover, a male whore—a bloody, unscrupulous
cicisbeo
hired to fuck both women for money. What should he call himself now?

Griff knelt again between Dulcie’s white thighs. Sweat flowed from his pores as he placed a hot, damp palm on the crisp hair of her mons.

Hell’s bells, I hope she’s unconscious. It will be quicker if I penetrate her while she doesn’t know what’s happening.

Whatever potion they had swallowed seemed to have intensified all sensations into exploding, carnal hunger. He was close to losing control of his passion, but thankfully, Dulcie seemed to have calmed. He had watched her suffering during the past hour, unaware of what was wrong with her, wracked with tremors, cursed by prickling heat and wild imaginings—all of which had devastated her—and him.

He vowed to find out whomever did this to them. He was almost certain it had to be the countess. However, right now it didn’t matter. Dulcie needed relief—a surcease only he could dispense—a fast and hard fucking.

Dulcie’s eyes blinked open. She fumbled for Griff’s hand, grabbing it, and pressing it between her thighs. “Please, do this,” she begged, “before I go berserk…”

Damnation! I want to be gentle, but…the bloody witch has tricked me with the same poison. My balls are aching. My cock is twice as big and hard. I need my release, too. I need to pound into Dulcie…now. I need to hear her call out when she comes.