Mary Blayney - [Pennistan 03] (25 page)

“If you would like we could go to the library and talk awhile.”

Elena could not tell if he was joking or not. Could he
be nervous? He did not seem nervous, but there was some reason he was keeping himself at a distance. She so liked to be seduced but perhaps now it was her turn. Elena took his hand and pulled him behind her up the stairs. “Is there more than one bedroom?”

This time
he
did not answer but took the lead, pulling her into the largest of the rooms, and her spirits rose.

There appeared to be small dressing rooms on either side of the bedchamber, which was square with a huge bed along the outer wall. Quietly glowing fireplaces at each end made it warm enough to move about naked if one so chose.

“The maid will help you undress.” He gestured to the door near the fireplace at the end of the room.

Her heart fell and this time it was bruised a little.
A maid would help her undress
. That was no more passionate than a tour of the house.

“No, Your Grace, I do not need a maid’s help.” She whirled around and stepped into the passage. “If you are trying to make this as unromantic as possible then you have succeeded. There is no urgency, no passion.” She wanted to cry but kept her voice even. “If you will not share yourself completely here and now, I do not think—”

Before she finished the thought, the duke scooped her up in his arms. She gave an inelegant squeak as he swept her into the bedroom, kicked the door shut, carried her to the bed and dropped her on it as though a punishment was about to begin.

He came down with her, both of them still fully dressed, his eyes alight with passion and a little anger. He
framed her face with his hands and then ravished her mouth.

He trailed kisses down her neck to the crest of her bosom, he pressed his hand below her belly. The feel of him so close to her arousal made Elena gasp.

“Please,” she begged, and while that could have meant any number of things, he understood.

Meryon stripped her with an efficiency of desperation and then undressed himself almost as quickly.

“You are all that I want, all that I can think about.” He pressed his body to hers so that skin touched skin. She was so anxious to feel him inside her, preparing for pleasure was not a conscious thought. But he held back. She twisted beneath him, her hands on his back pulling him closer. There was no need to tease and tempt when her body was all but screaming for him.

She gave a tiny cry of frustration and he came into her with such power that within seconds an orgasm exploded through her.

He stroked, deeper and deeper, and his own release came so soon after hers that it added a coda of pleasure that was almost unbearable. Her body arched under his, her hands gripped the bed linen as she urged him closer, not wanting the feeling and the union to end. He stayed with her until the red-hot connection melted into something more comfortable.

Meryon kissed her and then lifted himself from her and rolled, pulling her on top of him with one hand, grabbing the sheet from the floor, even though they were both so warm that the covering seemed unnecessary.

Elena laid her head on his chest and slid a little to the side so all her weight was not on him, but they were still touching from head to toe. He pressed another kiss to the top of her head. As she moved to kiss him back, tears started. They came from nowhere, a confusing welter of emotions rising with them, happiness, heartache, relief. They poured from her, followed by gulps for air that were as necessary as they were unattractive.

“I never,” she started, and then buried her face in his shoulder when she could not quite finish the sentence. He smoothed her hair and comforted her, an action so unlike a man that she fell in love with him right there. The tears ended almost as quickly as they began. “I never thought I would ever feel like that again.” She looked up at him and added, “In fact, I don’t think I have ever felt like that before.” She shook her head, still bemused. “I have never had quite that mindless an experience of sex. It was all feeling, like a torrent of it.”

He smiled, that heart-winning smile that was completely unnecessary since her heart was already won. “I am relieved. I hoped that we shared mutually, but now I am worried that I was cheated, as I do not feel at all like crying.”

She laughed and then winced. She reached for the hairpin that had come loose and pressed into her neck and not her hair. Elena pulled it out and tossed it on the floor.

“Sit up and let me take the pins out,” he said. “I have only been able to imagine how long your hair is.”

“I had Tina put it up with my favorite pins so that I would look elegant at dinner.” Elena sat up as she spoke,
drawing the sheet up to cover her breasts even though he was behind her.

“I think you would look elegant with your hair in braids. Your elegance comes from somewhere inside you, and I am so happy it disappears when you make love.”

She could feel him draw out each pin as he spoke. He worked with care. He placed each pin, jeweled or not, into a glass bowl set in a bronze shell at the feet of a mermaid whose long hair did not cover her breasts. There was a comb on the table as well as a candle and flint. Meryon reached for the comb and began to pull it gently through her hair.

“I think that wearing your hair up in such an elaborate style was your last bit of feminine indecision.”

“Perhaps.” Her arousal had faded, replaced by a tinge of anxiety. She was no longer a young girl, but a woman who was feeling the first signs of age. A wrinkle here and there. She pulled the linen up around her, sure that her breasts were not as uplifted as they used to be.

Her hair seemed to lack the luster of her youth. Would he notice? Men always aged better than women, if they did not run to fat—and there was not an ounce of fat on the duke. Meryon had the body of a god and she was no goddess.

He pressed a kiss to her neck. Elena could feel his breath on her shoulders, and the soft caress made her forget fretfulness and shudder with pleasure.

“Your hair is down to your waist,” he announced as he pulled her back against him, and she could feel his arousal press into her thigh so she said what she knew he wanted to hear.

“I am a greedy, selfish witch to have visited an erotic Eden and still want more.”

This time they moved more slowly, exploring each other’s bodies. He had a scar on his back. When she kissed it, he mumbled, “Stupid fencing misstep.”

He declared that the line of her neck was exquisite, exceeded by the path from her shoulder to her hip, over the swell of her lovely breasts to the sweet roundness of her stomach.

She loved the feel of his legs wrapped around her, all muscle, with nothing tender about them.

When they had tortured each other long enough, he pressed her back on the pillows, imprisoning her hands with his. For a delightful minute she felt like a concubine awaiting her master’s pleasure. She almost wished that Meryon would take the next hour entirely out of her hands and use her with all the mastery he must have at his command.

“You look as though you are waiting to be ravished.” His expression was both wicked and willfull and she could only nod.

“I want you whether you want me or not,” he said, not smiling. “I will tie you to the bed if I must. I do not have to, do I?”

“No,” she gasped as he pressed into her and then held perfectly still. She wrestled under him, begging for more with her thrusting hips. When she arched her body he still bracketed her hands, forcing her submission.

“Do not move, Elena.”

Her body tensed with the effort to obey him.

He moved in and out, but as soon as she moved her hips he stopped.

“Hold still.” He spoke with a sharp edge to his voice.

“I can’t. I can’t,” she told him and he smiled as though those words were exactly what he wanted to hear. They moved together but he held her pleasure just beyond completion until she thought the frustration would kill her.

“Do not close your eyes.”

Elena obeyed him, almost afraid of the consequences should she disobey. If he left her like this it would be an insult beyond bearing.

Meryon plunged into her again, finding the exact spot of release by either chance or genius, she was beyond caring. Even with her eyes open she lost sight of him as an orgasm swept her into a world of pure sensation.

Meryon followed her, releasing her hands, cradling her to him. They clung to each other as if lost at sea with the other their one hope of rescue.

Finally, with a long breath, he moved away from her. Elena curled up with her back against his chest. His deep even breaths told her he had fallen asleep. Elena lay with her eyes open, wondering if there was anything she would deny this man.

M
ERYON DIDN’T SLEEP
, at least not for long. Eventually, he pulled away from her, despite her soft protest, and sat on the edge of the bed. The room was colder now, but he stayed uncovered, his body still restless if not too warm.

What had he done? How could he have behaved like that? Even his mistress had never aroused that kind of behavior in him. With her, sex had been a way for him to relax, to be selfish, to take what he needed. With Elena he had given as much as he had taken, but with a frenzy and dominance that were as foreign to him as tears were.

She had not complained, not at all. If she had asked he would have stopped. Could he have stopped?

He felt her hand trace his backbone with a lover’s touch. It made him want her again, right now. How long would he have to wait?

“I do have to go home tonight, Meryon. Tina is not expecting me until late, but if I do not come at all she will tell her husband and they will worry.”

Meryon did not comment on the way her servants ruled her life. It was the wrong way to tell her that he did not want to let her go. Not now. Not ever. “I will see you tomorrow.”

She did not answer him at first. He looked over his shoulder. “I may enjoy a little dominance in bed, Meryon, but that is the only place.”

He turned to face her. “You were not afraid?”

Now she laughed, her frisson of annoyance disappearing. “No, not really, rather deliciously frightened.”

Elena slipped from the bed, her delightful backside as full and round as her back was straight. She began to pick up her clothes. She came back to stand at the edge of the bed, her clothes pressed against her bosom. “Please believe me when I say that I am so afraid of you I can hardly wait until we can lie together again.”

He came from his side of the bed, toward her, shrugging into the banyan that lay on the chair nearby. It was not what he wanted to do at all. “I am not going to let you go.” He took her into his arms, kissed her, and hoped she could feel the combination of happiness and dread he felt. “I want to keep you here, in this bed, forever.”

“And I would stay even without being tied to the bedpost, but not tonight.” She kissed him and he could feel nothing but her satisfaction.

Elena disappeared into the dressing room. He heard the distant ring of the bell as she called for the maid to help her dress.

If they had been completely alone in the house, he might have shown her that he was not entirely joking about keeping her in this bed forever. He wanted her here whenever he needed her, which could well be every minute of the day. He pulled the banyan around his nakedness and felt like he was covering the base part of him with a gentleman’s veneer.

Meryon gathered his clothes and went to his dressing room. With each layer of clothing he felt more himself, rather than a man whose animal urges ruled him. As he tied his cravat and struggled into his very well cut coat he realized why he had used her so. He wanted to prove to her and to himself that he was in control.

Elena was every bit a lady when they met again in the salon. “We are so proper, after having been not proper at all. What are we afraid of, do you think?”

He put down his glass and picked up her cloak, holding it out for her. “I am not going to even pretend I know why we are circumspect. I am going to take you home, count the hours until we can be together again, and sleep so the time passes more quickly.” He kissed her, as though it was a seal on every sweet memory of the last few hours. “My dear, I do not think we have to have all the answers as long as we are happy.”

Acting as groom tonight, young Wilson lowered the stairs and pushed the door shut with growing confidence. The carriage was their warm cocoon once again, but they used the cold outside as an excuse to sit as close together as possible. Until Elena announced temptation too great and moved to sit across from him.

Meryon was sure from her expression that her mind was filled with thoughts as lascivious as his.

“Tomorrow,” Meryon said, as he took Elena’s hand and kissed it. “I will send my carriage for you and meet you at the St. German Street house. At four o’clock.”

“Yes, all right.”

Elena smiled at him, but her agreement was more guarded than he liked. She had said yes and he would be an ass to press her for more enthusiasm.

They rode in silence until he heard a sound, suspiciously like a yelp. From a dog. He ignored the first one, but the second and then the third had him rapping on the roof for the carriage to stop.