The Lady Gambles (13 page)

‘Perhaps we should experiment? See which it is you like the best?’ Dominic looked down at her nakedness with eyes that had become both dark and hungry as he once again swirled his fingers into the silky curls between her thighs to unerringly find and gently stroke against that secret part of her.

Caro felt the instant return of that earlier pleasure, stronger now, more demanding, as she instinctively began to move into those caresses, knowing she was
poised on the brink of—Caro had no idea what she was poised on the brink of, she only knew that she wanted, needed it, with a desperation she had never known before.

She moaned again in her throat as one long finger probed her before slipping inside her heat. Deeper. Then deeper still. At last giving her some relief for that aching need as she moved her hips in rhythm with that finger as it thrust slowly in and out of her.

‘Lie back upon the bed, Caro,’ Dominic instructed throatily even as he eased her back against the pillows, continuing that slow and penetrating thrust inside her as he discarded her gown and chemise completely before moving to kneel between her legs to lower his head between her parted thighs.

Caro’s hips jerked up from the bed at the first hot sweep of his tongue against her sensitised flesh, her fingers contracting, clutching at the bedclothes beside her, at the second sweep. She cried out, her neck arching her head back into the pillows, as unimagined pleasure ripped through her, Dominic thrusting a second finger deep inside her at the same time as he administered a third sweep of his tongue against that pulsing nubbin.

Caro became pure liquid heat. She felt as if she were on fire as wave after wave of pleasure radiated from deep between her thighs, only to surge through the whole of her body, each caress of his tongue and fingers creating yet another, deeper, swell of that mind-shattering pleasure.

Dominic watched Caro’s face even as he continued to lave her with his tongue and slowly thrust with his fingers, knowing the exact moment she became lost in the
throes of her climax; her eyes were a wide and stormy blue-green, her cheeks flushed, lips slightly parted, her breasts thrusting, the nipples hard as pebbles, her thighs a parted invitation as the nubbin pulsed beneath his tongue and she convulsed greedily about his thrusting fingers.

As he looked at her Dominic knew he had never experienced anything more beautiful, more physically satisfying, than watching Caro lost in the pleasure she felt from the touch of his mouth and hands. He found it more satisfying even than attaining that climax for himself.

He had been so angry with her earlier, so absolutely furious, not least because by behaving in that reckless way she had exposed her whereabouts to Nicholas Brown. But he did not want to dwell on that here and now, when Caro still quivered and trembled from the ministration of his lips and hands. Not with her all but naked beneath him, her only clothing now a pair of white silk stockings.

Besides, he had no answer as yet to his earlier question: fingers, tongue, or shaft?

Caro lay back weak and satiated against the pillows as she watched Dominic quickly strip off his boots, jacket, waistcoat, neckcloth and shirt, to reveal a hard and muscled chest covered in a light dusting of dark hair that disappeared beneath the top of his pantaloons. Pantaloons he now unfastened and pushed down and off equally hard and muscled legs to reveal the surging power of his engorged arousal.

Caro had never seen a naked man in her life before, but even so she was sure that Dominic was a physically
well-endowed man. Her gaze rose to look at his face, and she swallowed convulsively as she saw the flush to his cheeks and the slightly fevered glow in those silver eyes as he wrapped a hand around that impressive length before moving forwards to rub it slowly against the opening between her thighs.

Caro felt herself quiver with each stroke of that hardness against her sensitivity, breathing heavily as she felt the return of that heat between her thighs. Surely she could not feel that pleasure again so quickly?

She could, Caro discovered only seconds later as Dominic continued to stroke that silky hardness against her own reawakened nubbin, her breasts becoming firm, nipples thrusting achingly even as she felt herself moisten in anticipation.

‘Fingers? Tongue? Or shaft?’ Dominic prompted gruffly even as he moved his hips forwards into her opening, one inch, two, before pulling back and starting again. One inch. Two. Three this time, before he pulled out and started again.

Caro had never experienced pleasure like this in her life before. Never imagined anything so exquisite as looking down at Dominic as he knelt between her parted thighs and slowly breached her, inch by glorious inch.

Each time Dominic thrust inside Caro she felt full and satisfied. Each time he pulled out again she felt bereft and empty. And each time he thrust inside her a little deeper she was sure she had reached her limit, that she had inwardly stretched and accommodated him as far as she was able. Until Dominic pulled out before thrusting even deeper inside her the next time.

Caro had been convinced when she first saw the size of Dominic’s arousal that she would never be able to accommodate anything so large—

‘Oh, my God!’ Caro tensed suddenly, eyes wide with shock as she felt herself start to rip apart inside the moment Dominic took his weight on his arms to thrust forwards urgently with his hips so that he surged into her completely. It felt as if she were being torn in two as she finally took his whole length inside her.

‘What the—!’ Dominic froze above her, his face suddenly pale, his eyes glittering like opaque silver as he stared down at her incredulously.

‘It is all right, Dominic,’ Caro assured breathlessly. And, incredibly, it was, that first searing pain having now faded, and so allowing her to once again become aware of the pleasure of having his fullness completely inside her.

His face was grim. ‘It most certainly is
not
all right!’

‘I assure you that it is,’ she encouraged softly. Dominic’s arousal had looked hard and fierce earlier, but now that he was completely inside her Caro realised that fierce hardness was encased in skin of seductive and silky velvet. She moved her hips up, and then down again, the better to feel that sleek and velvety smoothness as it moved against her sensitive flesh.

‘Do not move like that again, Caro, or I cannot be responsible for the consequences.’ Dominic’s jaw was clenched, his expression pained, a fine sheen of moisture upon his brow.

But of course Caro must move! How could she not move, when every part of her, every sensitised inch
of her, cried out for the relief of having that pleasure-giving hardness stroking inside her?

Dominic had been stunned into immobility the moment he discovered Caro’s innocence. ‘Why did you not tell me?’ His gaze was fierce as he looked down at the flushed beauty of her face, angry with himself at the moment rather than Caro, knowing he should have put a stop to this long before it had come to the point of his breaching her virginity.

And he had every intention of putting a stop to it now!

Dominic moved up and carefully away from her as he slowly disengaged himself, frowning as he saw Caro’s wince of discomfort as he slipped from her obviously sore entrance. That frown turned to a dark scowl as he looked down and saw the blood smeared between her thighs as well as on him.

‘Do not move,’ he instructed harshly as he stood up to cross the room to the jug and bowl on the washstand, pouring some of the water from the jug into the bowl before moistening a cloth and cleaning Caro’s blood from his own body before returning it to the bowl to rinse it in preparation for her. The water was cold, of course, but would hopefully be all the more soothing because of it.

Caro had watched Dominic beneath her lashes as he stood up to cross the bedchamber, completely unconcerned by his own nakedness, his movements gracefully predatory, like the sleek movements of a large jungle cat. He stood with his back towards her now, his shoulders wide, his back long and muscled, his buttocks a
smooth curve above heavily muscled thighs and legs. If a man could be described as beautiful, then Caro knew that he could be called such.

The colour warmed her cheeks, however, when he returned to sit on the side of the bed and began to bathe between her thighs with a cool and soothing washcloth, his face a study of unreadable hauteur. Caro attempted to push those attentive hands away. ‘There really is no need—’

‘There is every need.’ Dominic barely glanced up at her before continuing that studied bathing between her sensitive thighs.

Caro felt embarrassed, both by the intimacy of his ministrations, and the fact that their lovemaking had come to so abrupt an end once he’d been made aware of her innocence.

Surely there should have been more to it than that? A completion? A reciprocal pleasure? Dominic had certainly not shown signs of experiencing anything like the pleasure that Caro had.

All whilst in the bedchamber of house she had never visited before!

Caro moistened her lips, instantly aware of how swollen and sensitive they still were from the force of his kisses.

‘Exactly where are we, Dominic?’

He looked at her briefly before turning away to place the cloth back in the bowl. ‘I hope you are a little more comfortable now.’ He stood up abruptly, his arousal already noticeably depleted. ‘Perhaps I should send for a physician and he might give you some sort of soothing balm to apply—’

‘I have no intention of being attended by a physician!’ Caro’s cheeks were hot with embarrassment as she imagined having to explain this situation to a third party. ‘Dominic, is it possible I might become with child from—from what just occurred between us?’

Dominic closed his eyes even as he gave a groan of self-disgust. An innocent. Damn it, he had just deflowered a complete innocent!

‘I
t is very doubtful,’ Dominic answered stiffly.

‘But possible?’

‘Perhaps,’ he allowed abruptly.

Caro turned away. ‘Whose house is this?’

Dominic looked down at her between narrowed lids, her cheeks flushed, her mouth slightly trembling as she pulled the sheet over her nakedness. It was a little late in the day for maidenly modesty, of course, but now was possibly not the right time for Dominic to allude to that fact.

‘I do not believe that to be important at this moment—’

‘I do.’ There was a stillness about Caro now. A wariness that bordered on anger, perhaps?

He gave a humourless smile. ‘You had made it obvious from the first that you did not wish to remain at Blackstone House, and last night it became just as obvious to me that the two of us could not continue to reside under the same roof any longer—’

‘At which point in last night’s proceedings did this become so obvious to you, Dominic?’ Caro interrupted sharply. ‘Perhaps at the point where you announced the inappropriateness of seducing a female guest in your own home?’ Angry colour now heightened the delicacy of her cheeks.

Looking down at her, the warmth of their lovemaking still visible upon her body, Dominic knew that she had never looked lovelier: her eyes sparkled, her cheeks were flushed, her lips slightly swollen from the passion of their kisses, and the skin across her shoulders and the exposed tops of her creamy breasts was slightly pink from the abrasion of the light stubble upon Dominic’s jaw.

That jaw hardened at the accusation he heard in her tone. ‘If you are somehow meaning to imply that I brought you to this house in order to seduce you—’

‘Did you not?’ She stood up, her movements agitated as she held the sheet tightly to her breasts to pace the bedchamber.

‘Do not be ridiculous, Caro.’ Dominic’s quickly rising anger was more than equal to her own. Damn it, he was the one who had been in complete ignorance of her innocence until a few minutes ago!

The signs had been there if he had cared to see them, Dominic instantly rebuked himself. Caro’s naïvety concerning the interest of the men who had come to Nick’s night after night just to see her. The frequent indications of her being a young lady of refinement. The often imperious manner that hinted at her being used to issuing orders rather than receiving them.

That Dominic was now assured he had not been
guilty these past three days of attempting to make love to a married woman or a member of the servant class was poor consolation when he had instead robbed a young woman of the innocence she should one day have presented to her husband.

‘Ridiculous?’ Caro now repeated softly, eyes gleaming as dark as emeralds. ‘You strode into this house earlier as if you owned it—and perhaps that is because you do?’ She didn’t wait for Dominic to answer before striding across the bedchamber to throw open the wardrobe doors, her expression darkening as she saw the three pretty silk gowns hanging there. She turned to shoot Dominic a scathing glance. ‘The previous occupant of this house appears to have been so hastily removed that she has left several of her gowns behind!’

‘There was no previous occupant of this house—’

‘All evidence to the contrary, my dear Dominic!’ Caro was breathing hard in her agitation—she could only hope this anger served to hide the deep hurt she really felt.

It was humiliating enough that he had not even desired her enough to complete their lovemaking once he’d become aware of her innocence, but for him to have chosen to bring her to the house he had already owned, and where another woman had obviously been hastily removed, was a much more painful insult.

Dominic was well aware that at the moment Caro did not consider him her ‘dear’ anything; in fact, she looked more than capable of plunging a knife between his shoulder blades if one had been readily available.
Which, thank God, it was not… ‘Look at the gowns more closely, if you please, Caro,’ he ordered.

Her nose wrinkled delicately at the suggestion. ‘I have no wish to—’

‘Look at them, damn you!’ Dominic demanded impatiently. ‘Look at the gowns, Caro,’ he repeated more evenly as he realised that it was himself he was angry with and not her. ‘Once you have done so, you will see that they are the ones ordered for you yesterday.’

Caro eyed him uncertainly for several seconds before turning her attention back to the gowns hanging in the wardrobe, frowning as she realised they were indeed the ones ordered from the seamstress yesterday. Two days dresses, one of pale peach, the other of deep yellow. The third an evening gown of pure white silk and lace.

A purity Caro was all too aware she could no longer lay claim to…

‘If you care to look in the drawers in the dressing table you will find your own undergarments and new nightgowns, too.’

Caro firmly closed the wardrobe door on the mockery of that white gown. ‘All that proves is that you were sensible enough, after all, to remove the belongings of your mistress and replace them with my own.’

Dominic drew in a sharp breath, knowing that engaging in their usual verbal battle of wills was not going to help this already disastrous situation. And no matter what she might choose to think to the contrary, he had not brought her here with any intention of seducing her. The opposite, in fact. He had thought—hoped—that by removing her from Blackstone House, he would be removing her from his temptation. Instead of which he
had merely exacerbated the situation by bringing Caro here and making love to her before he had even had chance to explain.

‘Caro, I acquired ownership of this house only this morning.’

‘Now who is being ridiculous?’

Dominic knew, for all that Caro was putting such a brave face on things, that she had to be keenly feeling the loss of her innocence. ‘I can take you to the office of my lawyer, if you wish,’ he spoke gently. ‘I am sure he would be only too happy to show you today’s date upon the transfer of the deeds, if that will help to convince you I am telling you the truth?’

Her chin rose. ‘You not only bought this house this morning but somehow managed to engage all those servants downstairs, too?’ A flush entered her cheeks as she obviously recalled the curious gazes of those servants earlier as he’d carried her through the entrance hall and up the stairs.

An impulse he now deeply regretted when it had resulted in him taking Caro’s innocence… ‘They are, one and all, men and women already known to me. Men who served under me in the army, and their wives, whom I knew could be trusted to protect you,’ he admitted ruefully.

Her eyes glittered, whether with anger or tears, Dominic was unsure. ‘Obviously they did not feel that protection was necessary when it applied to
yourself
!’

‘Caro—’

‘Do not touch me, Dominic!’ Her warning was accompanied by a step away from him, the knuckles on her fingers showing white as she tightly gripped the
bedcover about her nakedness. ‘I believe, if this truly is to be my home for the immediate future, that I should like you to leave now.’

No more so than Dominic wished to remove himself, he felt sure. At this moment, all he wanted to do was walk away from Brockle House and forget he had ever met Caro Morton. Forget especially that he had taken her innocence.

‘Perhaps on your way out you might ask for a bath and hot water to be brought up to me?’ Caro requested stiltedly as Dominic pulled on his pantaloons and shirt before sitting on the side of the bed to pull on his boots.

Dominic inwardly winced at the thought of the soreness she must now be experiencing following their lovemaking. ‘Please believe me when I tell you I did not plan for what happened here this morning—’

‘Planned or otherwise, it is done now.’

There was so much sadness in her tone, that if that knife had been available, then Dominic believed himself to be capable of plunging it into his own heart at that moment. ‘I cannot express how much I…regret what has happened.’

Caro looked up at him searchingly, not sure whether she felt reassured by Dominic’s claim, or insulted by it. Their lovemaking had been a mistake, of course, a shocking error on both their parts. But even so… ‘I had not believed you could possibly insult to me more than you already have; I was obviously wrong.’ She turned her back on him to stare sightlessly out of the window into the square below. ‘I require the bath and hot water to be brought up to me now, if you please, Dominic.’

Dominic stared at the proud set of Caro’s bare shoul
ders for several long seconds before bending to pick up the rest of his clothes from the floor. ‘I will call on you later this afternoon.’

She turned sharply. ‘For what purpose?’

Dominic’s heart sank at the suspicion he so easily read in her expression. ‘For the purpose of checking that you have not suffered any feelings of ill health from this morning’s…activity.’

Caro gave a humourless snort. ‘As far as I am aware, we did not indulge in anything of an unnatural nature this morning.’

A flush warmed the hardness of Dominic’s cheeks. ‘No, of course we did not.’

‘Then I fail to see why you might think I will suffer any ill health because of it?’

‘Damn it, Caro—’

‘I suppose if you think it more fitting, then I could perhaps swoon or have a fit of the vapours?’ she continued scathingly. ‘But only if you believe it absolutely necessary.’ Her nose wrinkled. ‘Personally, I have always believed that women who behave in that way, seemingly at the slightest provocation, to be complete ninnies.’

Even in the midst of what Dominic considered, at best, to be an exceedingly awkward situation, he could not help but admire her courageous spirit. She truly was a woman like no other he had ever met. What had just happened between the two of them could certainly not be termed a mere ‘slight provocation’. In fact, Dominic felt sure that most women in her position would be either screaming obscenities at him or alternately demanding jewels and gowns, the latter as compen
sation for the loss of her innocence; Caro asked only for a bath and hot water in which she might bathe the soreness from her body.

Dominic gave a rueful smile. ‘I, too, would prefer that you do not swoon or have a fit of the vapours.’ That smile faded as he looked at her searchingly. ‘You truly are unharmed from our encounter?’

He knew himself to have been severely provoked when he’d returned to Blackstone House earlier and found Caro gone. Even more so when he’d arrived at Nick’s and found her happily engaged in conversation with Nicholas Brown—even now Dominic dreaded to think what might have befallen Caro if he had not been present when she had been foolish enough to suggest walking with him in the park! For her to then taunt him as she’d done regarding his own behaviour towards Brown had been more than Dominic’s already frayed nerves had been able tolerate.

An intolerance that Caro had paid for with her innocence…

‘I am as comfortable as might be expected in the circumstances.’ Caro kept her chin proudly high even as she saw the way Dominic winced at her lack of assurances. In truth, it was her pride that now hurt more than her body.

Caro eyed him uncertainly now from beneath her lashes, still so very aware of how handsome he looked with the darkness of his hair rakishly tousled, and his shirt hanging loosely over his pantaloons, the buttons still undone halfway down his chest and revealing the hard and muscled flesh beneath. Hard and muscled flesh
that Caro now knew more intimately than she did her own…

She gave a decisive shake of her head. ‘We were both in error earlier. Let that be an end to it.’

Dominic continued to look at her searchingly for several long seconds. A scrutiny that Caro was determined to withstand without alerting him to how distressed she felt inside. And not by their lovemaking, as Dominic presumed, but because of the emotions which Caro feared had instigated her own part in that wild and wonderful lovemaking.

He frowned. ‘I have your promise that you will stay well away from Nicholas Brown?’

‘Such a promise is completely unnecessary, I assure you.’ Caro’s brow creased with irritation that Dominic, after revealing to her that Brown was the person behind the attack on Lord Thorne and consequently was the excuse for her own incarceration in this house, could for one moment think she had any interest in ever meeting the villain again!

Dominic wanted nothing more than to take Caro in his arms and smooth the frown from her brow and the shadows from her eyes. Even knowing of the physical discomfort she must now be suffering following their lovemaking, Dominic was not enough in control of his own emotions at that moment to be sure that he would be able to stop himself from making love to her fully if he were to touch her again.

He was a man who had enjoyed his first physical encounter at the age of sixteen. And there had been many women since that first time with whom he had enjoyed the same physical release. It was disturbing to
realise that almost making love with Caro had been completely unlike any of those previous encounters. More sensuous. More out of control. With the promise of being more wildly satisfying…

‘Caro—’

‘Dominic!’ Her eyes flashed in warning as she turned to face him, the control she had been exerting over her own emotions obviously at an end. ‘In the past two days I have been caught up in the midst of a brawl, seen an innocent man beaten within an inch of his life, been deposited in your own household against my wishes, drunk tea with the man you assure me is responsible for that innocent man being beaten, been literally carried away and deposited in this house like a piece of unwanted baggage, before then being made love to. I should warn you, I am seriously in danger of resorting to behaving like that complete ninny I mentioned earlier, if you do not soon take your leave!’ Her voice quivered with emotion, an emotion she masked by crossing the room to ring for the maid.

Still he hesitated. ‘I should also like your promise that you will not attempt to go out alone again, now that you are aware of the danger.’

Could Caro make Dominic such a promise? What choice did she have? The only place she wished to go was back to Shoreley Hall in Hampshire, where she might be with her sisters and lick her wounds in private. Something she most certainly could not do, now that she and Nicholas Brown had met, when it might also result in her taking the danger that man represented back home with her…