His Silken Seduction (6 page)

He needed more than shadows. In a single swift movement, he seized the hem of her chemise and lifted it. He did not need to ask her to raise her arms. She was before him.

“You are beautiful.”

She smiled up into his face, accepting the words that were no more than her due. Then she allowed her gaze to travel slowly over his bare shoulders, over the red silk, still tight around his chest, and down, and down. She lingered over the evidence of his desire. “You are beautiful, too.” She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and glanced up at him through her lashes. Her eyes were dancing now. She reached for the edge of the silk.

He caught her hand and held it still. “Ah, no, my dear. Not yet. First, it is my turn.” He scanned the shelves, pulling down and discarding silks and velvets. “Yes. This one, I think.” A length of delicate pale gold silk shimmered as he lifted it down. “You shall be wrapped in gold tissue, as befits a princess.”

When she opened her mouth to protest, he silenced her with a short, hard kiss. “Indulge me, I beg of you.” He glanced down at the red silk he wore like a badge of honour. “As I have indulged you.”

The blush began between her breasts and rose to cover her throat and then her cheeks. For the first time since they had entered the silk store, she seemed shy. But then she raised her chin and nodded.

Ben felt her response, deep in his gut. She would be his! But not yet.

He shook out the fine silk and flung it over Suzanne’s shoulders, just as she had done earlier with the blue velvet. It must not be a cloak, however, for that would hide her beauty. He had something much more revealing in mind. “Raise your arms, if you please, lady.” A frown flitted across her forehead at his use of her own words, but she did not hesitate. With fingers that seemed to have forgotten their earlier clumsiness, Ben stroked the silk over her shoulders and arms and crossed it behind her back. Her arms were pinioned. Her eyes were sparkling.

He brought the free ends round to the front of her body and crossed them again, over her thighs. There was just enough material left to tuck round behind her calves and under her heels. He stood up to admire what he had done. From the front, her arms and legs were all swathed in gold. A diamond of flesh remained open to his gaze…the narrow base of her throat, her breasts, her swelling hips, the V of her belly narrowing down to the shadow that had tempted him through her chemise. He let his gaze rest there for a moment longer, but desire was overwhelming him. He bent to take one pouting nipple into his mouth, sucking lustily. Suzanne moaned and leaned into him. Ben transferred his mouth to the other, neglected breast. This time she did not moan. She shivered instead.

Ben raised his head and took a step back. “A diamond,” he said throatily, drawing the shape in the air. He reached out to brush each glistening nipple with the tip of a finger. “A diamond set with two gleaming rubies.” He touched his lips, very lightly, to one nipple and then the other. “A glorious picture in a gilded frame.” He bent and bestowed a final kiss on her navel. He would come to the essence of her, and soon, but not until she was ready. He straightened once more and gazed into her eyes. “Would you have me remove these golden trappings? Or should I see whether there are better foils for your beauty here?”

“No,” she said softly. “No more.” She lifted her heels to free her bonds and shrugged her shoulders. The golden silk whispered across her bare skin and sank reluctantly to the floor. Her arms were free. Her body was naked, proud and ready.

Ben reached for the end of his own red silk.

“No. Let me.” Slowly she unwound it from his body, feathering tiny caresses on to his skin as she turned him beneath her hands. When the folded sheet was all that remained, she allowed herself to smile. “I do not think this belongs here.” With a jerk, she pulled it away from his body and flung it out of the silk store. She sank to her knees and blew a long hot breath over him. “Only the most precious materials have a place here,” she said softly. “Only the most beautiful. Which we now have.”

Ben did not dare to move. His blood was pounding in his ears. It had to be soon. Without the glorious release of making love, they would both shatter.

It was Suzanne who made the first move. She reached up to pull the pins out of her hair, so that it tumbled down over her shoulders and on to her breast. Very deliberately, she rose from her knees, tossing her head just enough to ensure that her golden curls tickled and teased at his flesh. His reaction was somewhere between a laugh and a groan.

Very satisfying, she decided. There would be no going back now. She put her right hand on his chest, directly over his heart. She could feel its rapid beat. She smiled her message into his eyes. She was willing.

He understood. A deep breath hissed between his teeth as he knelt to spread the silks on the floor and to make a pillow of her petticoats.

“No!” she cried.

He sprang to his feet. In an instant, his eyes had changed from black to piercing blue. He raised his chin and stared down at her through narrowed eyes. “No? Of course it is no. I promised to protect you, yet I am on the point of robbing you of your honour.” His cheeks were slashed with scarlet. His mouth was a hard, uncompromising line. But he had made no attempt to cover his proud nakedness.

Suzanne had desired him before. Now her longing was overpowering. This man, the man she loved beyond reason, had allowed her to take him to the brink of fulfilment, yet he was ready to stop at a word. He was doing her honour, not robbing her of it. She gestured towards the silks strewn on the floor. They were her family’s future. They must not be damaged.

“Not here.” She held out her hand to him, watching as realization dawned and his gaze mellowed. When he put his fingers into hers, she threw open the door and led him towards the welcoming light of her own bedchamber.

Ben tried to lift her into his arms, to carry her across to her bed and lay her down between cool sheets. He needed to show her how much he valued her gift.

She shook her head and pushed away his arm. “You are not strong enough yet. You will reopen your wound.” She closed the connecting door and turned the key. Then, with graceful strides, she crossed to the main door and locked it also. She was smiling serenely when she turned back to him. For a moment, she leaned her shoulders against the wood, stretching her spine so that her breasts rose invitingly. “NO one will disturb us.” She crossed to the bed and threw back the covers. The gauzy nightgown slid to the floor, unheeded.

Ben’s mouth was dry. He could hardly believe that his wonderful girl, his amazing Suzanne, was offering herself to him. But she was. She was stretched across the bed and beckoning him to join her.

He lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms for a long, passionate kiss. Desire was driving him. He felt no pain at all. His injured shoulder flexed as well as it had ever done. He swept his right hand down her back and cupped her bottom. Then he trailed his fingers delicately up the back of her thigh. She shivered deliciously. He deepened the kiss yet more, glorying in her uninhibited response. She was ready for him. She must be.

He had to be sure. He touched a finger to her inner thigh and let it drift upwards to the core of her. She moaned in response and opened sweetly to his touch. She was more than ready. But, driven though he was, he knew he must go slowly. She was his more than willing partner in this seduction, but it was still her first time. It had to be perfect.

He pushed her gently on to her back and nuzzled his way down from her mouth to her breasts, and then to her belly and the tender skin of her inner thighs. The first touch of his tongue at the core of her made her gasp and buck with shock. “Hush, my sweet Suzanne,” he crooned, without lifting his head. “Lie still and let me give you pleasure. Feel the waves.”

The waves soon became so strong that Suzanne thought she would drown in the wonder of it. Her whole being was focused on that single point, where Benn’ s tongue was creating such unimagined, piercing pleasure. All at once, it became too much. Her whole body spasmed. She heard herself crying out his name.

A moment later he entered her body, in one long, sustained thrust. She thought she felt a hesitation, but then it was over and he was inside her, fully sheathed. She had wanted this. And it was everything she had desired.

Then he kissed her lips, slowly and sweetly, and began to move. She moaned into his mouth. It felt…she could not describe how it felt. The waves were coming again, washing over her and carrying her even higher than before, as she matched her rhythm to his and strained towards fulfilment. When the climax came, it robbed her of her senses. She saw the bright colours of the rainbow. And then darkness.

When she opened her eyes, the light was almost gone. She must have fainted. No wonder, she thought, remembering the unbelievable pleasure Benn had given her.

But where was he?

She raised her head from the pillow. He was no longer in her bed. Nor was he anywhere in the room. She sat up with a jerk. It was only then that she saw what he had done. He had dressed her in her own nightgown. And then he had left her alone.

What kind of man would do such a thing?

She flung herself out of bed and crossed to the landing door. It was still locked, with the key on the inside. He must have left by the door to the silk store. She would go after him and…

The connecting door was locked and the key was gone. On the floor, in a small neat pile, lay her gown and underthings, folded carefully over the mutilated halves of her corset.

Ben could not stop his frenzied pacing. If he stopped moving, his anger would consume him. What had possessed him to do such a terrible thing?

He had taken Suzanne’s innocence. It did not matter that she had encouraged him to seduce her. The responsibility was his alone. It was hardly surprising if, over the weeks when she had been nursing him, she had come to feel more for him than she ought, for she was a passionate woman. He should have seen the dangers and dealt with them. But he had failed to do so. In the end, the fault was his. He was experienced; she was not. She could not have known what would happen.

He would have to leave soon. What would happen to her then? If anyone discovered what they had done, she would be disgraced, perhaps even cast out of her home. And what if there were to be a child?

He raked his fingers through his hair. It pulled on the barely healed scar of his head wound, but he ignored it. It would be a judgment on him if it began to bleed again. Suzanne’s virgin blood was staining her sheets. What was a little of his own tainted blood by comparison?

He would leave her all the money he had. Yes, that was the answer. It would at least ensure her comfort.

She…

No, it was impossible. She would probably throw his money back in his face. With reason. She had given herself to him in all sweetness. If he offered money, he would be treating her like a whore. She did not deserve that. She deserved to be cherished, by a man who loved and honoured her, a man who would take her to wife. Could Ben find an honest tradesman who would marry her and give her back her standing in bourgeois society?

He began to plan. He would need money to buy such a man…ready money now, and the promise of more to follow, once Ben was back in England. But how was Ben to seek out a bridegroom, here in a country that was probably on the brink of war? Ben could not pass for a Frenchman. He could not move around the taverns and coffee houses, bribing the local soaks with drink in hopes of gleaning the information he needed.

Suzanne’s husband could not be just anyone. He must be honest and trustworthy. He must be willing to honour Suzanne as his wife, even if she proved to be with child by another man.

A chilling thought shivered through him. What if this Frenchman were cruel? What if he were to beat her?

Ben saw a vision of Suzanne cowering in the dark in a corner of the silk store, her beautiful face bruised and her limbs trembling in anticipation of beatings still to come. He would not let it happen. He would kill the man first!

Fool! There could be no such man. Suzanne should not be allowed to suffer for Ben’s misdeed. If he loved her, he should be prepared to make sacrifices in order to protect her.

He stopped in his tracks. The truth, when it dawned, was so very simple. Suzanne had to have a husband who loved her. And Ben would be that husband. In spite of all his toplofty lectures to himself, in spite of Jack’s warning about falling into parson’s mousetrap with a woman who would never be received by Ben’s grandfather, Ben had done precisely what he had told himself to avoid. He had fallen in love with his brave and beautiful bourgeoisie.

He loved her. And he gloried in it.

If she would have him, he would marry her tomorrow. His starchy old grandfather would learn to accept her, or lose his grandson altogether. As for the rest of the ton, Ben would put a bullet in any man who dared to insult Lord Dexter’s wife!

It was well after supper time when Ben made his way through the silk store to Suzanne’s bedchamber. He had taken great care to put everything to rights. The bolts of silk and velvet had been rewound and restored to the shelves. He could not be absolutely sure that they were all in their assigned places, but he had done his best. This was Suzanne’s domain. If anything was amiss, she would put it to rights before anyone else was allowed to set foot inside.