Love Lessons at Midnight (24 page)

He studied the cherry-haired woman swathed in glittering gold silk, devouring her with his eyes. “I am certain we shall continue teaching each other many delights, night and day…for the rest of our lives,” he murmured, drawing her into his arms. “Gaby was an extraordinary teacher…and according to her…I have been an apt pupil,” he said between nuzzling kisses to her throat.

“Keeping Gabrielle and Fantasia’s identities separate was very difficult,” she said breathlessly.

He chuckled. “′Tis ironic how often I thought if Gaby’s shy sensuality were combined with Fantasia’s keen wit, she would make the one perfect wife for me. Now my fantasy has become real,” he said, sweeping her up into his arms.

Amber held tightly to him as he carried her through the door leading to a large bed in the center of the room. He walked over to it and stood her on her feet while pressing her close. “Allow me to take Bonnie’s place and undress you,” he murmured.

“Only if I may perform Settles’s work and be your valet,” she whispered, holding on to the lapels of his suit.

His fingers were deft and clever. She hummed as he slipped the loops on the back of her gown free from their buttons. Her own hands were busy untying his cravat and tossing it to the floor. When her bridal gown slid from her shoulders, she watched him throw his jacket across a chair, allowing her access to his waistcoat. By the time she had removed it and opened his shirt to bare his chest, he smoothed the whispery silk gown over her hips and let it puddle at her feet. As they
undressed each other, they exchanged soft sounds of pleasure and love words.

After he pulled the lacy chemise covering her breasts open, he gasped, reaching up to cup a perfect breast in each hand. “I have waited for so long to see what I have tasted. Such pale pink perfection at the tips.”

He brushed his fingers across them and took joy in her gasp of excitement, then bent his head and suckled until both nipples hardened into tight nubs. When she arched and moaned, he let out a growl of satisfaction as his hands slid the chemise down her arms. He quickly unfastened the tapes to her sheer linen petticoat, then stepped back as the last of her clothing dropped to her ankles. Her slender body glowed like ivory in the soft light filtering in from the bedroom window.

“Just allow me to look at you for a moment.” His eyes swept from her face to her breasts, then down past the dark reddish curls enticing him at the juncture of her thighs, lower yet to take in her legs, the curves of her calves and the delicate turn of her ankles. He walked around her, studying her body from every angle, savoring what was to come. “You are even more perfect, more beautiful than I ever could have imagined,” he said in awe.

Amber basked in the heat of his hungry green gaze, as she reached out one hand and placed it against his bare chest. Her palm felt the rapid pounding of his heart, yet he made no attempt to rush. How well they had learned together! “Now, ′tis I who would see you unclothed,” she whispered, shoving his shirt off his muscled shoulders.

He shucked it away, then said, “My shoes must be removed before I can proceed any further.” His eyes danced with a dare.

“Sit on the edge of the bed and raise your leg. I said I would be Settles.”

“I am ever so grateful you do not resemble him,” he said
with a chuckle, doing as she asked. Amber straddled his leg and began to tug off a shiny black shoe while he admired her small derriere from an exceedingly good position. By the time she had removed the second one, his breeches had become unbearably tight. Sitting up, he held her hips and planted a swift nip on each cheek, eliciting a startled laugh from her.

“Not sporting unless I may do the same,” she cried, watching as he stood and began to unbuckle his belt. Her mouth watered when he started to peel down his tight pants. “You are like a Greek statue, only with a larger…” Placing her fingers over her mouth, she let out a rich chuckle. “Have I shocked you, m’lord?”

“M’lady, how could any man ever be displeased to have his body described thus?” he replied, smiling ruefully. “Once I believed that my naked body was repellant to women.”

“Ah, but you were so very mistaken. If you stood thus next to the Elgin marbles, the female audience would be enormous and they would not be there to admire the marbles.” She placed her hands on his chest and ran her fingers through the crisp hair. Her mouth followed, tongue flicking one hard male nipple, then the other.

“Darling, I am no marble statue,” he said hoarsely.

She pressed her hips to his lower body and felt the hard probe against her belly. “But this part of you is hard as marble, only warm and alive,” she murmured, taking his staff in one hand. “No cold lifeless stone but heated, steely velvet. How often I have felt this buried so deeply inside me. Now I may see and stroke its beauty.”

“Do not stroke too much, love, lest you suffer the fate of Pliny, inundated by an eruption of Vesuvius.” He stilled her busy fingers. “Here, allow me to take down your hair, so I may see it flowing freely as I have felt it in the darkness.” He reached up and began to unfasten the pins holding her elaborate coiffure, tossing them carelessly away until he could run
his fingers through the thick satiny curls as they tumbled to her waist.

Amber combed her fingers through his inky locks. “From the first time I watched you pacing across my office, I wanted to do this.”

He picked her up and knelt on the mattress with one knee, laying her on the soft linen like the most precious treasure on earth. And she was to her earl. She stared up at him. He looked down at her. Both drank their fill.

Her hair spilled like cherry satin over the snowy pillows. “At last, at last,” he whispered, lying down beside her. She turned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He twined her hair in his fists and drew her mouth to his.

They kissed slowly, languorously, caressing and examining every part of each other’s bodies with eyes wide open. How often had they done this in darkness? How familiar was every inch of skin? Yet much greater pleasure came now that they could love without darkness or subterfuge between them. Rob sat up, bracing his hands on each side of her body as he bent his arms, lowering his head to suckle her breasts again, then moving to her belly…and the fiery curls below.

When she opened her thighs, he bestowed a soft kiss on the creamy petals, eliciting a moan from her. “You are beautiful here, too,” he whispered, returning to the caress. When he saw her body bow up on the mattress and felt the tiny spasms signaling the start of her first culmination, he raised himself up and covered her, plunging deeply inside her welcoming heat. He held his body rigidly still, waiting for the blissful storm to pass.

Amber felt his powerful thrust add to the blinding pleasure surging through her. But he did not move. She watched his face above her, set tightly as he held his own release in abeyance to give her more pleasure.
What woman could ask for a husband to love her more than this?

In response, she slid her hands up his sleekly muscled
arms and drew him down to her, kissing him fiercely, arching her body hungrily even as the contractions slowly died away. “Now we will continue our lesson, yes?” she whispered once again in French.

“Oh, yes, a thousand times, yes,” he murmured, stroking slowly until her fire once again matched his own. She clenched his body between her thighs, gasping and writhing with every slow, delicious stroke he made. He knew the moment she began to ascend the heights again. When she cried out his name, urging him to go faster, he let go of his hard-won control and spilled himself deeply inside her.

Amber felt his whole body shudder in release. And watched him through her own heavy-lidded eyes, even as he watched her. This was the ultimate communion of body and soul, mated together. And they would share this for the rest of their lives.

He collapsed on top of her, being careful to take his weight on his elbows as he rolled to his side. She curled against him and they lay, silently, each listening to the other breathe. When she regained composure sufficient to speak, she placed her hand on his chest and whispered, “I could never imagine our coming together could grow better than what we experienced in London. Now I know I was wrong.”

He twined a curl and let it slide between his finger and thumb. “Seeing you this way…free in the light…I have waited so long. Yes, this is even better than before.”

“And will it grow better each time we love?” she asked.

His chuckled. “We have only to keep loving and find out.” With that he started kissing his countess once again…

One dim candle burned by the side of the bed and the remains of a cold collation of cheeses, fruits, roast pheasant, and crusty bred lay on a nearby tray. An empty bottle of what had been fine claret sat beside it. They had fed each other
between bouts of making love until both were utterly exhausted.

Amber nodded off in a light sleep, her hand placed over his heart. When she felt the rumble of a laugh building up, she opened her eyes. “What is so amusing, m’lord?”

“I was just thinking…once I was the most ardent of reformers. Now I am a veritable polygamist, wed to an aristo spy, a penniless French innocent, the notorious Lady Fantasia—and to triumph all, a dead marchioness. I have a luscious harem made up of all these amazing women in you, my Amber love.”

“Aren’t you the fortunate husband, then, m’lord Pasha? Every member of your harem is madly in love with you!”