Coins and Daggers (11 page)

It was a cold acknowledgment if not any at
all but Ulric moved in closer to study her beneath the torchlight.
Her smooth skin glowed with youthful radiance, and his fingers
itched to touch it.

“This is the only place I’m fortunate enough
to find you on so many occasions. I have to conclude it’s your
favorite place in the house then.”

She continued reading...or pretended to
read. Ulric preferred the latter. “Or perhaps it is the only place
I can go that I’ll be out of the way of others.”

“
Is there anyone in particular?” Her gaze met his briefly
before lowering again. Ulric smiled and took a turn about the room,
when all he wanted to do was march over to her and sample those
lips that had been tempting him for the past few hours. “Are you
avoiding
me
then?”

“
Trying
,” she
muttered flatly, turning pages much faster than natural for any
reader. “But failing terribly.”

“You continue to wound me.” Ulric approached
her now but she did not bat even an eye. “But you must think I’m
easily set aside.”

“
I have no wish to set aside what I haven’t the power to
move,
sir
.” The blasted
woman turned another page. “Though if you want me to leave, you
have all the right to dismiss me.”

Smiling, he took a couple more steps
forward, the front of his boots brushing against the hem of her
dress. This time she did stand, leaning backwards as she did so as
if she dared not touch him. Audelia slammed the book shut and he
gently took it from her grasp.

“ ‘
The Romance of the Rose
’,” he commented, handing her back the book. “I’d have
never guessed you were a reader of such...ardor themes.”

Her brown eyes glanced slantingly up at him.
“I may be a thief but I’m very much a woman.”

Ulric stepped closer, so close she finally
had to tilt her pretty little face up at him. “I’ve noticed.” His
gazed raked over her slowly and hotly, making sure she caught his
meaning and did not mistake him. “I’d have to be a fool not to
notice.”

“Sir--”

“Have you ever been kissed, Audelia?”

She gasped. Yes, it was the reaction he’d
been hoping over. Stepping backwards, she stumbled a bit, dropping
the book on the floor. Ulric pursued, eventually backing her
against a bookshelf.

“Do not come any closer,” she gasped. Her
tone was steely but her eyes vulnerable and needy and perhaps as
desire-filled as his was.

“Have you?”

“I have.” Which was the truth but he needn’t
know how many times.

“Then you should be aware of the fact that
I’m about to kiss you now.”

“N-no,” she sputtered. “You mustn’t.”

Ulric reached a hand up to brush his
knuckles against one warm blushing cheek. She shivered at his touch
which sent a leap of encouragement straight down to his groin.
“Because?”

“B-because I do not wish you to. Are you to
take advantage of me when I cannot defend myself? Y-you must truly
be the worst of rogues.”

“I merely mean to taste that fiery mouth of
yours,” he clarified. “Not to lift your skirts and have my way.” If
her cheeks got any more redder, Ulric might think she’d be about to
explode. Chuckling wickedly, he added, “At least, not yet.”

Her hand came up fast and fierce but he
caught it just in time before she’d succeeded at what he thought,
by no doubt, would be a rather resounding slap. “Unhand me, you
beast.”

To the contrary, he held on and gently
massaged her relatively calloused palm, using his other hand to tip
her chin upwards. Her shaky breath fanned out against his hand,
sending tiny tremors surging through him. Up this close, she was
even more beautiful and his mind was already constructing images of
all the things he wanted to do to her. To run his hands down that
slender neck and free her of the restrictions of that wretched
dress. He wanted to dip his head and suck on those lovely breasts
until she was beneath him, hot and wet, and begging him for more.
Good god, if he continued like this, he’d spend himself before he
managed to accomplish anything else.

Easing much, much closer, Ulric fully backed
her against the shelf and pressed himself against her lithe body,
enjoying how she fit perfectly against him. Those small supple
breasts squeezed against his chest, swelling above the neckline of
her dress and giving him a wondrously delicious view. Ulric
wanted...and he wanted right now. Pressing her captured hand firmly
against his chest, he held it there, certain she could feel the
wild pounding of his heart there. Audelia’s eyes widened only
slightly, her pupils dancing with surprise and just a hint of
uncertainty.

His head had already dipped, angling towards
hers when she released a shock gasp.

“No. You can’t--”

Slanting his mouth gently over hers, Ulric
swallowed her protests, tightening his hold on her as she stiffened
in his arms. He kissed her slowly, nipping and tasting and sampling
her sweetness, and licking on that trembling bottom lip. He
continued teasing and taunting her, encouraging her until he felt
her limbs loosen and her body leaned into his. When her mouth
shifted slightly beneath his, hoped soared from deep within his gut
and lust kicked its way downwards, causing his balls to tighten
with need.

Good Jesu, his shaft was as hard as a rock
and he ground himself against her, deepening the kiss and feeling
utterly satisfied that she was kissing him back. When he eased back
a moment, she was breathing just as hard as he was, her stunning
eyes fluttering open slowly.

“Tell me to kiss you,” he demanded, pressing
his pelvis harder into her, making her feel what she was doing to
him.

“I--”

“Tell me. Tell me to taste you and pleasure
you. Say it.” He pressed a thumb against the imprint of her right
nipple and rubbed it gently.

Audelia’s mouth opened slightly as she
sucked in a shaky breath. “Lord St. Rosso--”

“
Ulric
.”

She shook her head. “Do that again.”

“Do what again?”

“Kiss me.”

And that was
all the encouragement
he
needed. Ulric
lifted her off her feet and sat her down on the desk across the
room, working quickly at the ties on the front of her dress. He
shoved fabric and fabric aside until he had her small ample breasts
in his hands. Moving between her legs, he bent forward, lowering
his mouth over one pebbled areola and suckled. Audelia gasped out
loud, back arching as she offered herself to him.

“Sweet,” he murmured against her chest as he
moved over to her other nipple and flicked his tongue over it.
“Tell me again, Audelia.”

She squirmed,
fingers now gripping tightly in his long thick hair as she held him
close to her. “
Damn
you
! I said kiss
me.”

Ulric chuckled and crushed his mouth against
hers, drinking from her sweetness as she met his tongue thrust for
thrust. “Now, that’s more like it.”

Twelve

U
lric watched Audelia
as she re-did the ties on her dress, not daring to move an inch
until she looked up at him. He’d never imagined her to be so verbal
in the throes of passion but then again, he hadn’t expected her to
taste so sweet either. She was like a siren, unknowing of the fact,
in the most pleasing of ways. And as much as he’d enjoyed that
she’d allowed him to kiss her senseless, he was not in the mood for
any changes in her attitude anytime soon.

“You are awfully quiet,” he managed. “Even
for you.”

“I generally am. In case you hadn’t
noticed.” She finished with the ties on her dress and looked up at
him. “If you are asking if I am having regrets, then the answer is
no.”

Ulric nodded, satisfied with the answer but
still a bit puzzled. “I’d not expected you to be like this.”

Audelia frowned. “How’d you expect me to
be?”

“Screaming off my head right now, I
suppose.”

She chuckled, which also surprised him. “I
permitted you, did I not?”

Ulric rest his hands on her waist and leaned
in, his mouth inches from hers. “Yes. Yes, you did.”

“Then I suppose that’s it then.” She glanced
down at his big hands on her hips and tried not to squirm. “I
should like to stand, though. My legs feel a bit cramped.”

“Oh.” Ulric lifted her down to her feet and
took her hand in his. “Sit with me a bit, will you?”

“But I must--”

“Relax, Audelia. I’m not expecting my sister
back for another few hours or so.”

He was fastly becoming an avid user of her
name, Audelia thought. And as much as the idea frightened her, she
feared that she liked very much how it rolled easily off his
tongue. She liked the other things that he did with his tongue too
and even though she knew she should have rejected him, Audelia
could not find the courage to do so. Lord Ulric St. Rosso was
becoming too likable far too quickly. Silently obliging, she
allowed him to lead her over to the sofa where he sat her down
before taking his own seat. Audelia watched him carefully through
the corner of her eye, swallowing as he invaded on her space, his
large gorgeous physique so close that the side of her knee was
pressed against his hard thigh.

“Do you not see your sister often?” she
blurted, eager to break the silence but truly had not intended for
that to have been her first utterance.

Ulric gazed at her and arched a brow. “You
mean business, don’t you?”

“I’m curious, is all. Are you two quite
close?”

“
Damnation, must you throw so many questions?” Chuckling, he
reached to his feet and paced a bit. “Ryia and I are not the
closest of siblings but she is my
only
sibling and
I believe that owes her quite a great degree of my
affection.”

Audelia nodded, not obtuse to the slight
annoyance in his voice even though it was obvious he tried to
conceal it. “She seems very happy.”

“So I’ve noticed,” he said, sinking back
down onto the sofa. “And I’m satisfied that she is. I must admit
that I hadn’t totally approved of her marriage to the baron but...I
saw that they were in love even from then. For that reason alone, I
had given my blessings.”

Frowning, she shifted to look him in the
eye. “Why had you not approved?”

His jaws clenched tightly and then
unclenched. “She was young. Just two years your junior when he
offered for her. I’d thought she’d needed more time, to gain
experience with other suitors before she decided what love
was.”

“And you? You know what love is?” she asked
lightheartedly. “I’d have never thought you to be a believer of
such...ardor themes.”

Ulric chuckled, intrigued by the way she’d
spun his own words back at him. “I’ve seen love. My mother and
father had loved each other. Quite ardently. When he died, she’d
been brokenhearted and lonely until her own passing not very long
after.”

Audelia glanced away, focusing her gaze on a
nearby lantern that burnt brightly before them. “A love like that
must had been very great, indeed.”

“Look at me,” he whispered and when she
didn’t, he gently turned her face towards his. Her pretty brown
eyes were flooded with so much sadness and hurt, his gut clenched
at the sight. “Tell me about them.”

“Who?”

“Your parents.”

Jerking her chin from his grip, she glanced
away again. “I may have permitted you to kiss me and...touch me but
that hardly obligates me to confide in you.”

Something spiked inside of Ulric that, for
an instant, he felt the sudden urge to shake her senseless. “Do not
toy with me, Audelia. If I did not truly want to know, I would
never have asked. Now quit acting like a child and look at me.”

It took her a moment to face him again, her
eyes hard and angry. “My parents are dead. Are you satisfied now? I
do not know them. I don’t even know what they look like save for
the evidence that I try so hard to seek from my own
reflection.”

Ulric remained silent for a minute, trying
to find the proper words to say back to her. He’d never had much
experience with consoling others, not even Ryia. When their own
parents had died, she’d locked herself away that he scarcely even
saw her. And when her grieving was over, he’d thought it had been
too late to offer any consolation. Letting out a low breath, he
took Audelia’s hand and brought it to his lips, feathering light
kisses against her palm, fingertips and wrist.

“Forgive me,” he said. “If you wish not to
speak on it again, I shall not bring it up.”

Nodding, she lowered her eyelids and sighed.
She then met his eyes again sheepishly. “I...I know a thing or two
about what happens between a man and a woman when they
are...attracted to each other.”

A pulse ticked heavily in Ulric’s neck. “Are
you admitting that you find me attractive?”

“I’m sure that many females are aware of the
fact.”

“You’ll find it pleasing that I’ve not made
the acquaintance of many females.”

“That’s because you’re a hermit.” And she
flashed him a dainty smile.

“
And
you
have spent too much time already
with my sister.”

Audelia giggled and shifted some more, her
legs brushing against his own. “I-I suppose we can try some of
that.” She swallowed visibly, her eyes on his lips. “What happens
between a man and a woman, I mean.”

“
Are you certain?”
Oh dear god, please say yes.

She nodded and reached for his hands.
“Yes.”