The Temptation of a Gentleman (29 page)

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her mouth before he pulled away to run a hand through his hair. She smiled as little pieces stood up on end, giving him a disheveled , utterly rakish look.

“Why?”

Before he could respond, she rose to her tiptoes and placed another heated kiss on his lips. Noah surrendered to his desire and pulled her against him a second time, loving her taste and her smell and the way her chestnut hair curled around his shoulders.

“Because,” he panted, grasping her arms to push her back a fraction. “I know this marriage isn’t what you want.”

Her eyes flickered with brief sadness, but it was quickly replaced by the desire he’d kindled there. With a shrug of one shoulder and a soft smile, she whispered, “I’d like to make the best of it.”

To Noah’s surprise, she shrugged out of his hold to glide her palms across his chest. Looping her fingers under the lapels of his jacket, she pushed it from his shoulders and down to the floor in a heap. Her eyes never left his as she began to work the buttons of his linen shirt.

“Wait.” He caught her roving hands with both his own. “Are you sure you want this? Because once it’s done, there will be no turning back.”

“I’ve wanted this since Woodbury. I’ve hardly thought of anything else.”

She blushed, but there was no hesitation in her eyes when she pushed his hands aside to continue her exploration of his body. Her fingers nudged his buttons open, pulling his shirt aside until finally it, too had fallen to the floor.

“You’re so perfect,” she breathed, running soft fingertips along the contours of muscle and tangling them in the wiry chest hair that peppered his chest.

Noah sucked in his breath through his teeth, all the while reminding himself of the control he’d been taught as a spy. He needed all of it to keep from throwing Marion on her bed right then and there and taking her. No, for this first time he would give. There would be plenty of time for taking in the future.

With a dip of his head, he placed a hot kiss on her throat, easing his lips down the curve of her shoulder until his mouth met the thin strap of her chemise. He caught it with his lips to lift it away from her skin. She whispered her pleasure as his teeth grazed her shoulder.

“Noah…” Her hand gripped his bicep as he slid the strap from her shoulder to droop around her elbow.

“Yes?” he asked with a smile.

Marion shook her head. She wanted something but didn’t know how to ask. She wanted him to ease the ache he’d begun by touching her. “I don’t know.”

His mouth returned to her sensitive shoulder, his tongue probing her soft skin as he slowly eased her back toward the bed. The gentle touch sent moist heat from his mouth directly through her body. Every nerve crackled with even the slightest touch, and between her legs she throbbed with need for him to give her the same powerful release she’d experienced before.

His fingers caught the second strap of her gown and with aching slowness he pulled it down. The soft fabric slid over her breasts, down her hips to pool at her feet. Though she should have been embarrassed to be so revealed to him, she wasn’t. In fact, she was proud of how his eyes widened as they moved over her skin.

“And you say I’m perfect,” he murmured as he stepped nearer to her to cup the base of her neck for another soft kiss. “You’re more beautiful than any woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Tears welled up in her eyes at his compliment. “Then make me yours. Tonight. Now.”

He nodded as he brought her up against the full, hard length of him. The warmth of his body took away her chill from earlier in the evening, leaving her almost too hot. His hands did nothing to ease the fire in her. When he made a slow slide up her stomach to cup the smooth flesh of her breast, that fire was only stoked. His thumb strummed over her nipple in a rhythmic way that had her wriggling closer while sensation rushed through her.

They knelt on the bed and for the first time Marion felt bold enough to touch Noah the same way he had her. She slid her hands over his muscles, smiling when they bunched under her palms, and he closed his eyes at the pleasure of even the slightest stroke of her fingers.

With hesitation, she pressed her lips against the hollow at the base of his throat and felt his pulse throb beneath her with a wild cadence. Feeling even more adventurous with this newfound power, she darted her tongue along his collarbone as her hands kneaded the cut muscles of his stomach.

When she wrapped her lips around the tight ridge of Noah’s nipple, he let out a low groan and his fingers dragged around her shoulders.

“Did I hurt you?” she whispered as she continued to place wet kisses on his chest and neck.

“Far from it,” he choked out before he grasped her in animal desire and brought his mouth down on hers to devour and claim. “But I think you’ve played long enough for now.”

She squirmed as he laid her back on the bed. “But I want to know your body as well as you know mine.”

Again, his eyes closed and he muttered something unintelligible under his breath before he brought his hand up to cup her chin. “And you will. You’ll have years to find every spot that makes me moan, every way I like to be touched.” He grinned. “And there are many of those. But tonight I’m going to pleasure
you
.”

She shivered as his voice dropped to the husky tone she instinctively knew meant that the time for talking was over. Silently she took his hand to place it on her breast and with a smile he followed her lead. He dropped his dark head to her chest and began to suckle one nipple as his fingers teased the other. The sensations he created there seemed to go straight to the core of her womanhood, the place where she grew wetter from every brush of his hand, every sweep of his lips.

With a slow slide, Noah brought his hand down her body to rest it on her thigh. Immediately her legs fell open, inviting him to touch her in the most intimate ways possible. He took the invitation willingly. He took a teasing sweep of his fingers across the cleft between her thighs and found the tell-tale dampness amongst the dark curls that told him she was more than ready to join with him. With a second sweep, he parted the soft lips there and grazed his thumb across the tight bead of pleasure that had her rising from the bed with a little cry.

Her eyes were dilated with anticipation, fear and desire. They met his with a wild intensity that both flamed his need and inspired a deeper protectiveness in him.

“Don’t be afraid.”

He continued his slow massage of her womanhood as he kissed her deep and slow. She eased her head back against the pillow with a sigh as she arched against his finger. In response, he slid the long, thick digit inside her, mimicking the way he would move when they finally made love.

Her face filled with heat, her eyes shut as he brought her closer and closer to the brink. He’d brought many women to the edge of where she now balanced, so close to release, but he’d never paid much attention to their reactions. Marion’s breath was short and shallow, and a soft flush tinged her neck and chest. She arched up with a little cry and her inner muscles throbbed around him in release.

As the blinding colors faded around her, Marion opened her eyes to give Noah a shy smile. The delicious feeling of him touching her was incredible, but not enough for her to forget that he hadn’t taken his own pleasure, not either time they’d lain together in a bed. Tonight she wanted to remedy that. She wanted to experience the full joining of a man and a woman. She wanted to hear Noah cry out her name the way she cried out his.

When he began to rise from the bed, her hand shot out to grip his arm. “Don’t go!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he reassured her. “God, I couldn’t leave now.”

He peeled her fingers from his wrist and stood up to shrug out of the remainder of his clothes. Marion’s eyes widened as he turned back to her. He seemed carved in granite, larger than life, from his broad shoulders, to the hard thrust of his erection that jutted out proudly from between his legs.

He returned to lie beside her. “Slow and easy, I promise.”

“Slow and easy,” she murmured, drawn to touch him as intimately as he’d touched her moments before. With trembling fingers, she slid her hand down his body, over his stomach until her fingertip glided over the curve of his penis. Noah groaned out his breath.

“The skin is so velvety.” She wondered how he could be so hard and strong and yet tender at the same time.

With a grunt, he rolled over to lie on top of her. He pushed her legs apart with a gentle nudge until the tip of his shaft pressed against the moist opening there.

“Slowly,” he said softly before he pushed forward, claiming her inch-by-inch.

The feeling wasn’t unpleasant, just strange to be filled in such a way. Marion felt as if she were being stretched, but her body seemed made for the task and her nerve endings crackled with the heavy, hard weight of Noah atop and within her.

“Here is where it will hurt for just a moment,” he whispered as he darted his tongue along the shell of her ear.

Marion shut her eyes at the dizzying sensations created by his mouth and body. At that moment, Noah drove into her, pushing past the barrier of her untried body and sent a shot of pain through her.

As she caught her breath, Marion realized the pain had subsided and now she could feel Noah sheathed entirely within her quivering body. She wiggled a bit to test how it felt and was surprised when the pleasure that had built in her before returned, only this time with more intensity.

Noah groaned and brought his mouth down against hers for a hard, consuming kiss as he began to move his hips in a slow, circular motion. Every part of Marion felt alive as his steady, even thrusts brought her nearer and nearer to release, to the end of the throbbing pressure that was once again building inside her.

Noah felt himself approaching the edge of a precipice from where he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from taking all the pleasure Marion’s responsive body inspired in him. But he wanted to make her cry out one more time. With shaking hands, he reached between their two bodies and found that little hidden spot within the curls that made her arch even harder against him with a little cry.

“Now,” he whispered. “Let go now.”

She did, clasping her arms around his neck with all her might as she let out a primal scream against his damp neck. He caught her cry with his mouth and merged it with his own as he clutched her hips against him hard and poured himself into her.

For a long time he stayed where he was, only relieving her of his weight by balancing on his elbows. He should roll away and leave her to return home, but somehow he couldn’t tear himself away from her arms. She felt too right laying beneath him, running her fingertips up and down the line of his spine while she looked up into his face with a smile of contentment.

“I should move.” He placed a gentle peck on the tip of her nose. “I’m crushing you.”

“I like your weight,” she said, massaging across the expanse of the muscles of his back. “It lets me know you’re really here and I didn’t dream this night. I didn’t dream
you
.”

“I would wager you’ve never dreamt something so wicked in your life.” He smiled to relieve some of the emotion she inspired in him with her statement.

A grin quirked one side of her mouth and the sly look made Noah aware he was becoming aroused by her yet again. It wasn’t as if he were some green young man. God, he wasn’t even in his prime anymore. But this woman with her sparkling brown eyes and giving nature made him react in ways he hadn’t for a long time.

“No,” she whispered as she lifted her hips a little and placed a hot kiss on his jaw. “But I know what I’ll be dreaming about the rest of tonight.”

“Only tonight?” Gathering her closer in his arms, Noah surged forward into her again. With a low, possessive laugh he said, “If my goal is to make sure you dream of my touch every night of your life, I’d best work some more on that.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Noah strummed his fingertips across the tabletop and stared at the breakfast room door. A night of lovemaking with Marion should have left him tired, especially since it was before noon and he hadn’t crept from her bed until the very wee hours of the morning. Instead, he felt rejuvenated in ways he hadn’t since he worked on cases in the War Department.

In those days, everything had seemed possible and interesting. Around every corner danger and intrigue lay in wait. But in the time since his discharge, that feeling had faded, leaving him bored and restless.

Until Marion.

Although she wasn’t dangerous, and aside from a few key omissions on her part, she didn’t bring him intrigue, she made him feel
alive
.

“Noah!”

His eyes came up to the door in a flash, but dropped again in disappointment when only his sister entered the room with a wide smile on her pretty face. Griffin followed close behind. He arched an eyebrow at the dark shadows that lingered beneath Noah’s eyes.

“Good morning Audrey, Griffin.” With a sigh, he rose from his seat.

“Good morning.” His sister sank into a chair as she smiled at the maid who poured her tea. Once the young woman had done the same for the two men and left the room, her smile turned wicked. “Marion isn’t home this morning.”

Noah’s heart sank into his stomach and the world that had looked so glorious a few moments before suddenly turned bleak. He shook his head at his swift, maudlin reaction. When had he turned into such a romantic fool?

“Oh?” He did his best to keep his voice smooth and free of emotion. “Where is she?”

“Mother took her for another fitting with Miss Fox. Then they’re off for a bit of socializing. She thinks it would be best to introduce her quickly to people in our circle who’ll be her allies. That way when we begin to make the rounds at parties in a week or so, she’ll already have friends on her side.”

Audrey took a sip of her tea, but Noah could feel her eyes boring into him even over the edge of her cup.