Seduced (23 page)

Letty could scarcely breathe as her carriage came to a stop in front of Jack’s secret townhouse. As she waited for her groom to help her out, she bit her lip. She should have felt a thrill to be here, to know that she would be in Jack’s arms once again. But his words and demeanor on the terrace a few hours before had been desperate, and that fact frightened her.

The groom helped her down, averting his eyes, as if not looking at her meant he didn’t share her scandalous secret. She blushed as she walked away, ignoring everything around her except for the door at the top of the stairs.

It opened as she reached the top step and she drew back in surprise. It was Jack who greeted her, rather than a servant. He had removed most of his formalwear from earlier in the evening. His shirtsleeves were rolled up, revealing muscular forearms, and his feet were bare.

“Letitia,” he said, relief and tension mixing in his tone.

She stepped into the foyer and looked around. “I am surprised it is you greeting me.”

“I sent the staff out for the night,” he explained, shutting the door before he caught her hand and drew her into his arms. She shivered as they closed around her, surrounding her with him. “I only want you.”

Those whispered words settled into her heart, and she smiled as he ducked his head and kissed her. At first the kiss was gentle, welcoming and warm, but as time stretched between them, it grew harder, more purposeful and more desperate.

Once again, that desperation worried her, and she tried to pull away. “Jack.”

He shook his head and cupped her cheeks, placing his mouth over hers to silence her. She clung to his arms, dueling with his tongue even as her mind screamed at her that something wasn’t right here.

And yet he was relentless, backing her through the foyer, into the parlor where he had found out her darkest secrets about her marriage and hadn’t judged her for them.

The place where she had perhaps first fallen in love with him, though she hadn’t admitted it to herself then. Now it was all she could feel and think as he moved her to the settee just as he had that night and lowered her back to rest on the cushions.

“Jack,” she tried again as he pulled away to tug her skirts up, revealing her legs as he let out a low curse.

“Please don’t,” he whispered as he ducked his head to glide his tongue along the curve of her knee. “Please.”

She shuddered as electric desire shut her mind off, taking over as she let her legs come open. He smiled against her flesh and kissed higher, brushing his lips against her thighs as he pushed them open all the wider.

Where once she would have blushed and been embarrassed by being so exposed to him, now she reveled in it, arching her back as he spread open the slit on her drawers and sighing when he traced his fingertip along her sex. He was like a master musician, playing her body without any effort, knowing exactly how to touch her.

And he did so, slowly, reverently. He smoothed his fingers against her, gentle and exploring before he spread her folds aside. He let his thumb trace her entrance and she gasped, lifting into him so that the tip breached her.

He laughed softly and removed it, swirling wetness against her clitoris before he bent his head and began to kiss and lick her sex. She mewled out pleasure as he tasted and teased her, thrusting her hips in time to his licks until the pleasure built in her. It was slow at first, a faint tingling that rapidly transformed into a trembling fire. He sucked her clitoris hard and the fire exploded out of control. She screamed out loud, clutching at the settee pillows, slamming her hips back and forth as the tremors of pleasure wracked her. He did not set her free, though. He licked her through it all, only ceasing when she went limp and liquid on the couch.

He moved up her body, pressing kisses through her gown until he reached her neck. He nuzzled the bare flesh there, setting her on fire all over again. She wrapped her arms around him, smoothing her fingers through his hair as he dragged his mouth along her jaw and up to finally claim her lips. She tasted herself on him and shivered with the erotic realization.

“Get up,” she said between kisses.

He arched a brow. “Finished with me, are you?”

“Not nearly,” she said with a laugh. “But I don’t want barriers between us. So get up and get undressed.”

He stared at her for a moment. Then he grinned. “I like when you surprise me, Letitia.”

She returned the smile even as she gave him a gentle shove. He stood and began to strip out of his clothing. She also got to her feet and reached around to undo the first few buttons on her gown. He was half-naked when he slipped behind her to help, kissing the flesh he revealed with every button.

Shutting her eyes, Letty melted against him, leaning back into his mouth as he stripped the last fastener away. He dipped long, thick fingers beneath both her gown and chemise and pushed the entire operation forward, baring her from the waist up.

Once again, she thought of how she had reacted the first time he saw her this way. Tonight there was none of the embarrassment or fear she had felt then. She was actually proud as she turned to face him, watching as his eyes dilated when he looked over her half-naked form.

She pointed at his trousers. “Off, please.”

“You too.”

She followed his order, shoving her gown and chemise the rest of the way off, then unfastening her stockings and removing them, along with her slippers and drawers. Now they were both naked and she caught her breath.

He was already hard, his cock curved up against his muscled stomach. She was wet, but she felt wetter as she looked at him, knowing what was to come.

And when she reached for him, he didn’t dodge her touch. She wrapped her hand around him, sucking in a breath as she stroked him from head to base.

“Such a quick learner,” he grunted, stepping backward and leading her to the settee where he had pleasured her. “But I don’t want hands and mouth, Letitia. I want to be inside of you. I want to feel you come around me.”

He sank into a seated position and grasped her hips, pulling her into the gap between his legs. She stared down at him, uncertain what he meant or what he wanted in this position.

He didn’t make her wait long. He lifted one of her legs over him, forcing her to half-straddle his lap. She did the same with her other leg, and he drew her down until her wet sex touched the tip of his cock.

“Oh,” she whispered as she adjusted to align them properly.

“Yes,” he grunted as she began to take him inside slowly. “Ohhhhh.”

She impaled herself on him fully, settling on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. In this spot she was slightly higher than he was, and she looked down into his face as pleasure and love soared within her body. This moment with him had been stolen out of time. She’d never dared hope for it, and yet she clung to it with both hands when she began to move.

His face contorted in a mask of pleasure as she rolled her hips over him and he let out a low groan that felt like it reverberated through her body. His pleasure urged her forward and she increased her pace, grinding against him as sensation burst in her.

It was an amazing thing. Every way they touched, every time they made love, it felt different. This time, with her in control, the intensity of her pleasure mounted quickly. She circled her hips with growing speed, her breath gone as she worked toward release. He gripped her hips with his big hands, helping her roll over him as he lifted hard into her.

Their shared movements finally brought her over the cliff and she cried out, continuing to writhe over him as her orgasm rocked her body. He let out his own shout and she felt the heat of his release fill her. She ground down a few more times and then collapsed against his sweaty bare chest, holding him tight as their heart rates slowed and their breath began to match.

It had been perfect, it had been heaven, but when Jack let out a low curse, she knew one more thing. The pleasure was over. And now came the pain. Only for the first time in her life, she knew she had the strength to face it, to fight it. And she intended to do so. With all she had in her.

Jack smoothed his hand over Letitia’s tangled brown locks and shook his head. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he murmured, self-loathing filling him and replacing all the pleasure he had just shared with this remarkable woman.

She let out a long sigh before she stood, separating their bodies. She reached down to find her chemise and shimmied it over her head before she said, “Which part? Or are you regretting ever touching me at all?”

He got to his feet, heedless of his nudity, and touched her hand. “Great God, Letitia, you must know I don’t regret,
couldn’t
regret, our affair. I only fear
you
may now do so.”

“And why would I regret it?” she asked mildly.

He shook his head. Could she be so naïve? He wasn’t certain, given her history. “I came inside of you. That means we could have created a child and…”

She seemed remarkably calm as she filled in the space he left when he trailed off. “And?”

He turned his face. “This is over—we both know it must be.”

She was silent for what seemed like an eternity, but then she shrugged. “No.”

He jerked his gaze to her face. She was not crying, she was not angry—she remained composed.

“No?” he repeated, hardly understanding her meaning. “What is no? There is no question, Letitia. I’m
telling
you we must stop this.”

“And I’m telling you I refuse to accept that,” Letitia said just as firmly “And not because there may be a child to think about. I hope there
is
a child, I would welcome a child with your eyes and my nose. A child who proved how close we became and how happy we make each other.”

He blanched as the very child she described appeared almost as a real person before him. He could almost touch her. Almost hold her. Almost embrace the life she represented.

He turned away. “You may hope for that, Letitia. But if it happens, I won’t be there.”

“I already told you, I don’t accept that,” she said. “Not because you would owe me something for getting me with child. But because you are pushing me away when you need me as much as I need you.”

Her words rang true in his mind. So true and so tempting. But he knew they couldn’t be. “I was a tool, Letitia,” he said softly. “Remember? Nothing more than a way for you to have that future you longed for, deserved. I have served my purpose. Please, you must move on. Find someone else, someone who deserves you.”

She smiled, a knowing expression, one that made
him
feel like the innocent and her the one with understanding when that was so far from the truth.

“You silly man, haven’t you yet realized I don’t want anyone else?”

He blinked. Could an orgasm drive a woman mad? He was beginning to wonder. “What are you saying?”

She reached out to him, her fingers tracing the line of his cheek so gently that his throat closed and his eyes stung with tears that felt like they came out of nowhere. He fought them with all his might as she whispered, “I love you, Jack Blackwood.”

“No,” he said, repeating her earlier response. Only his voice sounded broken to his own ears. “Don’t say that. Don’t throw away something so meaningful on a man like me. I don’t deserve that, Letitia. I never will.”

She tilted her head, and the certainty of her expression never changed. “Don’t you tell me what to do, Jack. I am a woman of my own mind. My own heart. And you will not convince me not to feel exactly as I feel. I love you. You have
earned
that in our time together.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Letitia, you don’t know—”

“No,” she interrupted. “I
know
who you are and I love you.”

Jack forced himself to look at her, and he was floored by her calm, her strength, her certainty. This was not a flighty, innocent miss being drawn in by the charms of a scoundrel. She meant what she said. She meant what she felt.

And he was stunned by it. This was a precious gift she was offering. He knew he didn’t deserve that gift, but she wouldn’t allow him to refuse it. And he didn’t want to. In that moment, he was overtaken by a wild and potent desire to take her love. To cherish it.

But then reality returned in a painful, galloping whoosh. And reality was the danger he was currently in. The danger that could cut Letitia as easily as it could slash him. Protectiveness overtook all other thoughts or responses to her declaration, and he reached out to take her hands.

“I need you to listen to me now, Letitia. Hear me. You are in danger. Anyone who cares for me or I care for is in danger.”

Her face fell and she drew her hands back. “Jack, if you don’t love me, be honest with me. Don’t draw me pictures of some great noble—”

He leaned in and kissed her. It was a gentle caress rather than a claiming one, but it silenced her.

When he stepped away he said, “There is a man who hunts me. He will mow down anyone in his way or use those I love as pawns if it suits him.”

She blinked as she stared at him, reading his face, his intentions. For the first time, he allowed that, even though his gut told him to turn away.