Velvet Embrace (28 page)

Brie gasped as he guided her hand to the dark, curling hair below his abdomen, realizing that his shaft was once again stiff and throbbing. Dominic chuckled at her response, although he himself wondered at the speed of his arousal. When she tried to pull away, he shook his head. "Oh, no, my sweet vixen," he said, his gray eyes warm with laughter. "I intend to make very sure you understand completely what goes on between a man and woman. Just so you never again mistake a boor's drunken pawing for the act of making love. Your lover must have been remarkably inept."

Brie glared at him. "I did not
mistake
anything. And it wasn't 'making love', it was rape.
Or at least attempted rape.
The only reason he didn't succeed was because I managed to hit him over the head with a fire iron."

"Good God. How fortunate for me there wasn't one available the first time I tried to seduce you."

"There was! I only wish now I had had the nerve to use it on you." When Dominic threw back his head and laughed, Brie clenched her teeth. "I never told you I wasn't a virgin."

His eyes sparkled wickedly.
"Oh, no.
You merely spun me a tale about an aging protector who couldn't afford the price of a new gown, and a lover who disgusted you with his fumbling attempts to steal your virtue. And that was after I found you alone in a bachelor's hunting box, wearing less than a statue of Venus. Forgive me for casting aspersions on your innocence."

There was some justice in what he said, Brie thought ruefully. And even though Dominic had spoken in his usual dry tone, she could tell he wasn't laughing at
her.
His teasing smile was warm and intimate, inviting her to share his humor. Brie felt her anger melting away. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, and in spite of herself, she laughed. "All right, you have a point. But the story about the lover really was true." What was strange, she added to herself, was that she could laugh about that episode in her life as if it were no more than a bad joke.

"Well," Dominic said lazily, "I obviously misconstrued what you said. If I had known the truth, I would never have touched you, believe me. But the damage is done now. I suppose," he said, giving her a speculative glance, "it wouldn't hurt to show you just what you've been missing."

He was no longer laughing, Brie noticed. And his eyes had started to smolder in a way that made her feel highly desirable and more than a little wanton. She was suddenly aware of his nearness, of the heat of his body and the fluttering of her stomach. The air between them seemed suddenly charged with electric current.

Wanting to break the tension, Brie opened her mouth to say something, anything, but Dominic pressed a finger to her lips. "Hush,
chérie
," he said huskily. "Lie back and don't fight me. I assure you this will be pleasant. It won't hurt this time, I promise."

Pressing her back against the pillows, he captured her face between his open palms. "So lovely," he murmured before lowering his lips to hers.

Any possibility of rational thought fled when Brie felt the touch of his lips. His kiss was like nothing she had known before—gentle and wild, fragile and intense, soothing and provocative. And his hands . . . his hands stroked her gently, arousing a response in her that seemed to come from her very depths.

He caressed her until her slender body was pliant and yielding. And when at last he parted her legs and carefully entered her, she was nearly breathless. She clung to him, her breasts rising and falling rapidly, her head thrashing from side to side. He seemed to fill her, to become part of her.

He began to move slowly then, building the tempo into a tantalizing rhythm. Brie instinctively began to answer him, her hips rising to meet his deep thrusts, her nails feverishly raking his back. And when a glowing spark ignited at the very center

of
her being, she whimpered. It felt as if every nerve of her body had gathered there.

Dominic could sense when she reached the edge of panic. "Yes, my passionate beauty," he whispered hoarsely against her mouth. "Let me fill you. Let it come." Raising his head, he watched the startled expression on her face change to blind passion.

Brie wondered if she were dying. Her senses seemed to slowly erupt with a wet, white heat . . . And then she was falling, falling. She surged against Dominic, crying out something unintelligible as she reached a shattering climax. She was hardly aware when Dominic's body suddenly went rigid, but she clung to him helplessly as he spent his final passion.

Some moments later, he eased himself away, but it was a great while before Brie could even think to open her eyes. She found Dominic gazing down at her with an expression that was difficult to read. The firelight cast shadows over the harsh planes of his face, but his eyes seemed to hold a tenderness that warmed her all over.

"Is it . . . always like that?" Brie whispered, returning his gaze.

Dominic smiled. "So intense, you mean? Not often."

Brie let her eyes fall shut again. "I didn't think so," she murmured. "Otherwise how would anyone survive?"

Dominic chuckled, gently brushing a curl from her cheek. He studied Brie for a moment longer, before raising his gaze to the window. "The storm seems to have blown over," he said idly.

The warm glow surrounding Brie dissipated at once as reality came rushing back with a vengeance. Feeling acutely self-conscious, she turned her head away, trying not to contemplate the fact that she had just allowed herself to be seduced by a handsome rake. When Dominic bent to kiss her bare shoulder, she flinched.

Watching her, Dominic frowned. He couldn't blame her if she felt awkward and uncertain—he was feeling something similar himself. But he didn't like to see her so meek and passive. He would rather see her spitting fire, even if it were at him. He knew just how to bring her spirit back, though.

With one finger, he traced a path between Brie's pale, gleaming breasts, letting his hand rest over her heart where he could feel the beat against his palm. "This cabin leaves much to be desired," he observed casually. "Next time I suggest we choose somewhere more congenial to meet."

Brie's eyes flew to his face. "There won't be a next time."

"Are you so sure of that, Brie? Somehow I got the impression you enjoyed my lovemaking."

"Perhaps I did, but I have no intention of allowing it to happen again."

A smile teased the corners of Dominic's mouth. "Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. But for now," he added as he pointedly lowered his gaze to her bare breasts, "we really should be going.
Unless, of course, you would rather spend the rest of the day in bed."

He could feel Brie stiffen with anger. "No?" he asked innocently when she brushed his hand away. "Then you had better get dressed. I won't be held responsible for my actions if you insist on displaying your charms in such a provocative manner."

Giving Brie a playful slap on her thigh, Dominic stood up and stretched. He watched as she fumbled with the bodice of her chemise, knowing it might be some time before he had another chance to feast his eyes on her beauty.

Furious at him now, Brie snatched the blanket up and gave Dominic a glare that would have pierced him had it been a sword. Dominic merely grinned at her, admiring the flashing green sparks in her eyes. "What a pity no one thought to enlist your services during the war," he remarked provokingly. "One look like that from your beautiful eyes would have routed the enemy without resort to cannon. I imagine you could have intimidated Napoleon himself."

Brie clenched her teeth. "You are beyond all doubt the most uncivil, boorish, arrogant, conceited, odious man I have ever had the misfortune to meet! Why don't you just go away and leave me here? I can find my way home without your help."

Dominic went to the fireplace and began sorting
through their various apparel
. "I told you before," he replied, tossing Brie's clothes to her. "It isn't safe. I don't want you wandering these woods alone."

"You
don't want—well, really!" Brie exclaimed, her voice heavy with satire. "What more could possibly happen to me?"

Dominic slanted an amused glance at her. "You're asking
me
that?" Fortunately for him, he was able to avoid the boot she threw at his head.

The arrival of an earl in their quiet neighborhood, especially one of Dominic's
stamp
, was cause for awe and excitement. Brie tried to ignore the furor—indeed, she would have preferred to forget that Dominic existed altogether—but no one would allow her to do so.

John Simms in particular had taken an immediate liking to Dominic. John had been waiting for Brie in the
stableyard
when Dominic had escorted her home after the storm. Fortunately, he had been too interested in Dominic's stallion to ask many questions about where she had spent the past few hours. When the two men fell to discussing horses and bloodlines, Brie made her escape. She found out afterward that Dominic had promised to return at a later date to
inspeet
several of Greenwood's Arabian mares. John was in such alt over the prospect of breeding the mares to the stallion that for days he could talk of little else.

Caroline, too, spoke of Dominic frequently, for she had seen him accompany Brie back to the house. She had nagged until Brie was forced to give a much abbreviated account of what had happened at the cottage, and then she had asked so many questions that Brie didn't know whether to scream or throttle her cousin first.

As far as Brie could tell, though, not even Caroline guessed that she had been far more intimate with Dominic than was proper. Oddly enough, she trusted Dominic's assurances that he would say nothing of what had occurred between them. And she was no longer concerned that he would ruin her reputation with a careless word. But whatever she remembered letting him make love to her, she felt hot with shame.

She couldn't understand how it had happened. He had aroused a traitorous desire in her when properly she should have felt fear and revulsion. The feel of his hard body had been exciting, and what he had done to
her own
body had set heron fire. When he had kissed her with such passion, she had surrendered to him like a common hussy. Brie was disgusted with herself, particularly since she still harbored a strong attraction for Dominic.

About a week later, however.
Brie was given something else to worry about. Her steward, Mr. Tyler, reported that there had been several thefts in the neighborhood, two of them on Greenwood land. Brie decided to pay a visit to Squire
Umstead
to see what was being done to apprehend the thieves, since the squire frequently handled such matters.

Brie took her cousin along and shortly regretted the impulse. When they arrived, they found Squire
Umstead
out with a shooting party, but his wife was at home and she insisted on meeting Caroline. Brie could hardly refuse an invitation to stay for tea, but she cringed inwardly when Mrs.
Umstead
sent a footman after her son Rupert.

Enduring half an hour of Rupert's company set Brie's nerves on edge. She was relieved when the squire at last returned home, even though her plan of speaking to him in private was forestalled because Viscount Denville and Lord Stanton were with him.

Brie felt intensely self-conscious, meeting Dominic again, for it was the first time since their intimate interlude in the cottage. Seeing him enter the room, she was again struck by his extreme masculinity. He looked impossibly attractive in a claret-colored shooting jacket and buff breeches. The collar of his shirt was opened comfortably at the throat, while a silk scarf was tied loosely about his neck. Brie found the casual touch strangely appealing, but it was his sheer maleness that made her stomach flutter. She knew first hand that his muscular body was every bit as lean and hard as it appeared.

Trying not to remember how it had felt pressed against
her,
Brie lifted her gaze to his and caught the amused gleam in his gray eyes. Realizing then how intently she had been studying him, she blushed.