Far Beyond Scandalous (31 page)

"No, you didn't," she
agreed quietly, "but in denying me, you gave me a greater gift than if we
would have made love that day.
 
Only I
didn't recognize it at the time for the gift that it was.
 
You see, you gave me a choice.
 
No one had ever done that for me before."
 
She smiled at him, softer now but still
every bit the seductress.
 
"You
could have simply taken what I offered.
 
I did ask you to, after all."

He placed his hands over hers,
clutching her fingers tightly.
 
"It
would have been wrong."
 
He was
certain of that much at least.
 
Even if
at the moment, he was certain of nothing else, not even his name.

"You told me to wait, begged
me really, but said that if I wanted, I could have a taste of
pleasure."
 
Amy shrugged and
allowed her gaze to roam his handsome face, lingering for a moment on his
gorgeous eyes.
 
"I could have
pushed you.
 
I am not that unskilled in
the art of seduction, you know."

When he raised that damnable
eyebrow again, she shrugged, conceding the point.
 
So perhaps she wasn't quite that good.
 
Still, she meant every word that she said.
 
"Gibson, you have to know that, had I
truly wanted more from you, I would have had you inside of me bringing me the
pleasure I longed for."
 

Amy slid her other hand seductively
around his waist.
 
"However, a part
of you knew that I was not ready, even if you were not conscious of it.
 
That same part inside of me recognized the
gift you were offering, and I agreed to your proposal even though it was not
what I yearned for.
 
It was not what my
heart wanted, but a part of my head recognized that having a taste was for the
best.
 
You helped me choose."

"That was not my
intent."
 
Truly it hadn't
been.
 
He wasn't that noble.
 
Gibson
had
been ready to mate her
that day, but she was a lady and he would not force himself on her, despite her
words to the contrary.
 
Some part of
him, he realized now, must have known that she wasn't ready and had given her a
way out, even though his head had made the offer under the guise of respectability.

She shifted so that she could trace
his supple lips with her soft fingertips.
 
"Perhaps not, but the result was the same."
 
In the lamplight, her blue of her eyes
deepened, and he could sense the desire flowing freely through her veins.
 
Were she to offer herself again, he knew he
could not resist her, not after what had happened in the park.
 
"So now, Gibson, I will give you the
same choice you gave me.
 
I will not
hide my desires or lie to you.
 
I want
you.
 
More than just for tonight, but I
will leave that for another time.
 
For
the moment, there is only this.
 
Just
us."

He slid his hand up Amy's arm to
stroke her cheek.
 
"Even after all
that you know of me?
 
Even after the
spectacle I created tonight at the musicale?"
 
He was on the verge of being a pariah and yet she still wanted him?
 
It made no sense, but he was beyond
caring.
 
Especially when she stood
there, her breathing labored, the rise and fall of her breasts tempting him
more than any man should be made to tolerate.

"Even after all of
that."
 
She smiled once more, but
this time there was a sadness to her expression that he didn't care for.
 
"But I will not push.
 
If you want me, I am yours.
 
All of me.
 
If not, I will leave and not ask anything more of you.
 
Tonight will be the last time.
 
I do not like it and I might not care for
your answer, but I will respect your wishes.
 
The choice, Gibson, is yours."

Were he a stronger man or perhaps
even a better man, Gibson would have resisted her.
 
He would have bundled her into his carriage or a hired hack and
taken her home.
 
But he was not
strong.
 
Not tonight anyway.
 
Here in the darkness of his home, he was
simply a man who had been denied everything he'd ever desired for his entire
adult life.
 
He would be a fool if he
did not accept Amy's offer, for he believed her when she said that tonight
would be the end of things if that was what he wanted.

"I am a fool," he
whispered as he began to walk her backwards to his bedroom, his hands lightly
caressing her shoulders, "but for tonight, I am your fool, my love.
 
I cannot resist you any longer."

With skillful fingers he began to
undo the laces on her gown as they moved, her dress starting to gape open at
the front.
 
The usually maddening ties
were loose to begin with, indicating that she'd not had a maid's help getting
into the frock.
 
It didn't matter.
 
It would be off her soon enough.
 
Then he would have her naked in his bed,
which was precisely where he wanted her.
 
Where he had always wanted her.

A little voice in the back of his
mind whispered for Gibson to stop, that this wasn't right, but he blocked it
out.
 
He was tired of being denied
everything that he had ever desired.
 
The pieces of his old life that were gone he could never get back.
 
But Amy?
 
He could have her, just this once, and he would be satisfied.

By the time they reached his
bedroom, her gown was nothing more than a pool of crumpled silk on the
floor.
 
She stood before him in her
corset and chemise, all lush curves and creamy skin, just as she had been that
day in the summerhouse.

To his mind, she was even more
beautiful than she had been that day.
 
Perhaps because this time, he knew her heart.
 
And she knew his.

Pulling her to him, he stroked her
neck, following the delicate lines with the tips of his fingers.
 
What he was about to say next, however, was
not nearly so delicate.
 
"Once we
start this, love, I do not know if I will be able to stop.
 
I have wanted to fuck you for so long that I
cannot remember a time when I did not."
 
His voice was full of warning, but he showered her face with light
kisses to blunt the sting of his words.
 
They were crude, but she needed to hear them.
 
She needed to understand just how much he desired her and always
had.
 
She needed to know that he was a
man who desired the woman he loved.

"Then don't."
 
She turned, offering him her back so that he
could undo her corset.
 
Perhaps she had
help dressing after all.
 
Or, more
likely, she had never undressed after the musicale.
 
"More than anything, I want to be yours, Gibson.
 
Do not deny me that again.
 
Please."

He made quick work of both the
corset and the thin chemise, which did little to hide her modesty.
 
When he turned her back around to face him,
he could not help but send a prayer of thanks heavenward.
 
If he died tomorrow, he would be happy.

"You are exquisite," he
breathed, his gaze roaming her body as he traced the line of her
collarbone.
 
"Better than I
remembered."
 
Then he palmed one of
her breasts, testing its weight in his hand, and she hissed out a breath.

"And you have too many clothes
on, my dear doctor," Amy countered saucily, finally shedding the last of
her paragon image so that Gibson could once again see the real woman beneath
the mask.
 
The woman who loved him
unconditionally.

As if finally accepting that they
were truly going to do this, Gibson smiled, the first real one she had seen
from him all season.
 
His eyes were lit
with passion, and he licked his lips as he gazed at her, almost as if she were
a sweetmeat that he could not stop craving.
 
That thought made her shiver.
 

"Then I think we need to
remedy that."
 
There was so much
need in his words that it nearly broke her.

"Allow me."
 
Before he could stop her, Amy fell to her
knees in front of him and began undoing the buttons on the placket of his
breeches.
 
He still wore his evening clothes
and they clung to him like a second skin, much to her delight.

He was far more muscular than she
remembered, but she didn't mind.
 
She
would take him old, fat, and bald if she had to.
 
As long as he was hers, even for a night, that was all that
mattered.
 
When she moved to strip the
fabric from his body, however, he backed up a bit so that he could first remove
his stockings.

"Proceed as you like," he
said with a grin when he came back to her, and she wasted no time in tugging
the fabric down over his muscular thighs to reveal his throbbing erection.
 
He had not worn smalls that evening, much to
her delight and she was able to take him in hand easily.

Feeling daring, Amy took Gibson's
thick cock into her mouth and suckled him, teasing and stroking his base with
her fingers.
 
She was still unskilled -
though she was improving - but that didn't seem to matter to him.
 
As she licked and sucked his length, he made
growling noises of desire that sent shivers skittering down her spine.
 
It didn't take long before he stiffened, his
hips thrusting once, but before he could release his seed, he pulled back, much
to her disappointment.

"I want you,
Gibson."
 
Amy knew she was behaving
like a complete wanton but she didn't care.
 
They had only this one night together, and she wanted it all, every last
experience.
 
All that he could teach
her.
 
Even though they had played at
lovemaking in the park, tonight, it felt different somehow.
 
Darker.
 
More sensual.
 
More loving.
 
More real.

"And you will have me,"
he assured her as he pulled her to her feet.
 
"But you are not some doxy that I am going to tumble for a night of
quick bed sport.
 
You are Lady Amy, the
most exquisite creature I have ever known.
 
And to me, you mean everything.
 
So much more than I can even express."
 
Then he kissed her deeply, his lips hungry and hard on hers, and
she surrendered immediately.
 
Her hands
snaked around his neck as she parted her lips for him, inviting him inside,
teasing his tongue with her own.
 
He
took full advantage, sweeping his own tongue into her mouth to tangle with
hers, thrusting and withdrawing, mimicking what he wanted to do to her body,
visions of his cock plunging into her welcoming warmth teasing his mind.

Gibson had never felt so alive in
his entire life, nor had he ever felt this kind of all-consuming passion.
 
Amy was in his arms and it was as if all of
his dreams were coming true in one instant.
 
It would not last.
 
It never did.
 
However, he would not think of that
now.
 
He would concentrate only on her
and the fire she ignited and fed deep inside of him.

With each kiss, his hands continued
to explore the soft flesh of her lush, curvy body.
 
When she made to push his shirt off of his shoulders, he helped
her, sending the garment to the floor with all of the others.
 
He wanted to feel her soft hands on his warm
skin almost as much as he longed to caress her to new heights of pleasure.
 
She was sweetness and light, and he sampled
every inch of her that he could reach.

He lavished attention on her
breasts, cupping and caressing each of them in turn, until she cried out as the
first stirrings of release began to wash over her.
 
As he took one nipple between his teeth and tugged lightly, his
hands teased her other, caressing the plump flesh and stroking her to heated
madness.
 
With his mouth, he kissed a path
across her collarbone and over the hollow of her throat to the tops of her
breasts.

He licked and laved at her lush
mounds, sucking hard on her nipples until she was quaking in his arms, her
fingers digging into the hard muscles of his back.
 
With each caress, he ground his hips into hers so that she could
feel the hard length of him, his cock pushing insistently against her stomach,
begging for entrance into her slick heat.

When she was whimpering with need,
he stroked his hands lower, over her still-flat stomach and then lower still
until they reached her feminine mound.
 
Testing her readiness, he dipped one finger inside of her heat, and he
felt her body contract around him, indicating that she was close.
 
A small part of him yearned to see her round
with his child, but he quickly pushed the thought away.
 
Tonight was about pleasure.
 
It was not about forever.