Antonia's Bargain (12 page)

His quiet question brought her senses to the alert. “Do you think I prefer women?

Do you imagine that is why I’m doing all this?”

He smiled and slowly licked her cream from his lips. “It did occur to me.”

“I have never lusted after my own sex.”

Louise kissed her neck. “I’m sure I could change your mind, cherie, if we had time,

and you weren’t already involved with this particular man.” She slid her hand around

Antonia’s neck and kissed her openmouthed. Antonia found herself responding as

cream flooded her channel. Gideon licked it up with an approving murmur.

When Louise drew back, Antonia was panting and straining at the leather ties.

Gideon smiled at Louise.

“Would you like to taste her, cherie? She is very responsive.”

Gideon allowed Louise to kneel between his legs. With one hand he toyed with her

breast. The other he placed between Antonia’s thighs. He spread her labia with his long

fingers, displaying her to Louise.

Antonia stiffened as Louise delicately licked her clit. Another climax threatened as

Gideon added his fingers to the torment of Louise’s mouth. Antonia came hard in long,

pulsing waves, unable to stifle her screams. She vaguely heard Gideon’s next

instruction.

“Get back on the bed behind Antonia, and I will satisfy you both.”

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He slid his palm between Antonia’s legs and kept going. The underside of his wrist

pressed hard against her sex as he slid his fingers deep inside Louise. Antonia closed

her eyes as he began to move his hand, listened to Louise’s soft moans and enjoyed the

friction he provided. Louise rocked her body into Antonia’s, her mound rubbing

against Antonia’s buttocks. Gideon thrust his fingers deeper. He fondled Antonia’s

breasts and drew her into a deep kiss as he worked them both. From under her lowered

lashes she could see his covered cock rubbing against the silk counterpane. Caught up

in a sensual web too exquisite to ignore, she and Louise came together with identical

screams.

After her heart slowed down to a less frantic rate, Louise untied her. She pressed a

kiss onto Antonia’s lips. “Thank you for sharing Gideon with me. He is an exceptional

lover.” She winked at them both. “And if you should decide you do prefer your own

sex, after all, come and see me again.”

Antonia collapsed facedown onto the bed and lay there. The mattress creaked as

Gideon joined her. She almost purred when he placed his hand in the small of her back.

Lying like this, her slender figure displayed in all its glory made Gideon want to plunge

his cock inside her until he ran out of come. He glanced at the clock. It was almost three.

He had less than an hour before he needed to see Antonia safely home.

She didn’t move as he carefully removed his coat and waistcoat. He took two

pillows from the top of the bed and wedged them under her stomach, raising her

buttocks. Without speaking, he retrieved the bottle of oil Louise had left on the

nightstand. With practiced ease, he began to massage oil onto her skin, concentrating on

the delicate swell of her buttocks and the soft skin between them.

“Oh, Gideon, that feels so nice.”

“Yes, cherie, and if you relax, it will soon feel even nicer.”

She stirred as he increased his strokes, opening her legs at his gentle pressure until

the whole of her sex lay exposed to him. He leaned over her, slid one hand beneath her

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breast to play with her nipple and set his teeth gently at the nape of her neck. With his

other hand, he carefully penetrated the bud of her anus, using the slick oil to ease his

way, adding fingers until she easily took them all.

He bit harder as she began to move against his thrusting fingers. With a muffled

cry, she dragged his other hand down to her sex and pressed it to her. With all the care

he could manage he slid two fingers in her sheath until they met the barrier of her

maidenhood. He increased the long, slow glide of his fingers until he felt her grip him

and convulse in a tight-fisted orgasm. He came too and felt the hot pump of his seed

soak into the satin of his breeches. Damnation, he hadn’t been this aroused since he was

at school.

His nostrils flared as he inhaled the potent mixture of their scents. Antonia

represented everything he ever wanted in a lover and had never expected to find in a

woman. Her courage, the sensual wildness within her that responded to the devil in

him made sexual boundaries disappear.

Peter was right. Antonia wasn’t the only one who needed to learn about love. He’d

never felt this urgent need to surround and protect a man. In the last few years of his

marriage, he’d simply used one part of his sexuality to suppress his desire for this. The

scent of a woman, the sense of completion, the true urge to mate with a female that he’d

denied himself for so long. He removed one hand from her pussy and stroked

Antonia’s hair with fingers that shook. Was he capable of breaking through the selfdefeating barriers which held his emotions in place? Would she even want him too?

For a long while, he continued to hold her, his fingers still firmly embedded inside

her. The urge to replace them with his cock was too strong to allow him to move away.

He kissed her throat as an unwilling laugh shook through him. In a few short meetings

she had changed his life. Bloody Hell. He was about to make his father a very happy

man.

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Chapter Seven

“I’m warning you, Antonia. If you haven’t decided which man you prefer, I will.”

Charles stood behind his desk, his face flushed red as she continued to glare at him.

At ten in the morning his study smelled of stale brandy and burnt toast. The thick

brown curtains let in little of the gray morning light.

“You can’t force me to choose a husband. I have my own money now and I’m not a

child.”

He sat back down. “Actually, I can. Did you even bother to read the exact words of

our grandmother’s will?”

“How could I when you refused to show it to me?” Antonia took a step closer to the

desk, her gaze fixed on the pile of parchment beneath Charles’ hand.

“Grandmother knew you were wild. In her will she stipulates that you only inherit

if you marry well and at your family’s direction.”

Antonia rested her fingertips on the desk as panic threatened to overwhelm her. “I

don’t believe you. The money is mine. Why didn’t anyone mention this before?”

Charles turned the page toward her and pointed at a paragraph halfway down.

Antonia leaned forward to read the cramped script, her heart raced as if she were

running for her life.

“No one mentioned it because it probably never occurred to anyone that you would

think yourself capable of handling the money yourself. You are far too impetuous, my

dear, to deal with such a responsibility. Obviously, you need a man to take care of such

things for you.”

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He smiled indulgently and folded his hands flat on the document. “Let me make it

even clearer for you. In order to gain control of your inheritance, you have to marry,

and I have to approve your choice.”

Antonia stared at him as her stomach threatened to revolt. How very like her

grandmother to offer her freedom and then snatch it back.

“If I marry, the money becomes my husband’s, doesn’t it? I will find another

lawyer. I will contest this.”

“And shame your family? Haven’t you had enough scandal in your life?”

Antonia swallowed hard, caught between a sudden desire to slap his face or run

back to Wales. She couldn’t face the humiliation and disgrace again, she just couldn’t.

Charles came around the desk and took her by the shoulders.

“If you can’t decide on a husband by the end of the month, I will offer your hand to

Douglas Markham. He is a good decent man who will treat you with the respect you

deserve.”

* * * * *

Antonia gathered the skirts of her pale blue gown and headed back to the ballroom.

She failed to hide a yawn as Lord Kinsale bowed to her and moved swiftly past him

even as he spluttered in indignation. After her late night with Gideon, she found it hard

to stay awake and maintain her interest in yet another boring party. She remembered

the press of Gideon’s fingers deep inside her, the slight bruise on her throat where his

teeth had grazed her skin.

How had she come to care for him so quickly? It wasn’t just that he allowed her to

experience physical pleasure, although that was incredible. It was that he made her feel

safe enough in his arms to try anything, to fight her demons and win. The gossip about

him, despite his family name, placed him firmly on the fringes of the
ton
. Not that he

seemed to care. But, as an outsider herself, she thought she understood him better than

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most. It was obvious to her that his charm and handsome features concealed a

loneliness that matched her own.

Earlier that day, when Charles called her into his study and asked if she’d decided

on a husband yet, she found herself wishing for Gideon. If he wasn’t already married,

she suspected Charles would be considering marrying her himself. He’d droned on

about respecting her family and doing the right thing until she’d wanted to scream. Her

family hadn’t cared to intervene when she’d been left in the care of a distant father and

an old harridan of a grandmother. Only her inheritance had changed that and now even

that was in jeopardy.

She paused at the entrance to the ballroom. Would it be possible for her to refuse to

marry and give up the inheritance? She shuddered at the thought of being trapped at

the mercy of her family for a home and an allowance. If she had no money she would

end up as an unpaid servant or married off to one of Charles’ lesser friends in return for

some political favor.

Her desire to see Gideon increased. Surely he would help her forget the impending

snare of marriage? Or would he find it amusing? Part of her wanted to spill out the

whole embarrassing story and ask for his help. She stared at the glittering ballroom

without seeing it. Her life seemed to be measured in each shallow breath she managed

to drag into her lungs.

“Miss Maxwell?”

She glanced up as someone blocked her path. It took her a moment to realize that

the gentleman addressing her was none other than Gideon’s father.

“We sat next to each other at that dreary musicale this afternoon at the Oakham’s.

I’m Harcourt DeVere.”

Antonia sank into a curtsey. “I remember you, my lord; you made a dull event very

memorable.” The viscount had made loud and disparaging remarks about all the

amateur performers. He’d reduced one poor young lady to tears, before being

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persuaded to retire to the card room. She now knew where Gideon had acquired his

cutting wit.

“I hope you will forgive an old man, but I would like to introduce you to my son.

He’s in need of a wife and I hear you are looking for a husband.”

Antonia stifled a hysterical urge to laugh. Did everyone in the
ton
know that she

was expected to marry? The viscount obviously favored a blunt turn of speech, which

would have been refreshing had it not been about Gideon.

“It’s very sweet of you to think of me, but I’m sure your son is quite capable of

choosing his own wife.”

She thought the viscount snorted under his breath but he tucked her hand into the

curve of his arm and marched her back into the ballroom. Before she quite realized

what he meant to do, she found herself confronting the broad back of her would-be

seducer.

“Gideon, I’ve brought a young lady to meet you.”

He turned at the sound of his father’s voice. The irritation in his eyes faded as he

studied Antonia.

“Sir?”

“This is Miss Antonia Maxwell. She tells me she is on the lookout for a husband.”

“Surely she’s a bit young for you?”

Antonia pretended to titter and tapped her fan on the viscount’s arm. “Actually, I

told your father that you were probably quite capable of finding your own bride.”

Gideon swept a bow and gave her a devastating smile. He was dressed in flawless

black and white and a single diamond glinted in the folds of his cravat. “There’s

nothing wrong in receiving a little help now and then, is there?” He took her gloved

hand. As if on cue, the orchestra struck up a waltz. “Would you like to dance with me,

Miss Maxwell?”

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She bit her lip as she noticed Douglas Markham striding toward her. His

proprietary expression was enough to send her into Gideon’s arms. “I would be

delighted, sir.”

His hand slid around her waist, he grasped her fingers lightly and drew her into the

dance. It was easy to relax into his arms as they slowly circled the ballroom.

“I apologize for my father.”

She glanced up at him. “At least he is direct.”

He grimaced. “That is true. Although I find it quite humiliating to be put on show

like this.”

“Then you should understand how I feel. Courted for what I have and not for

whom I am.”

He held her gaze, his blue eyes serious. “I know who you are.”