Authors: Illusion
Emily French (9 page)
“Or perhaps it is your trade? The way you earn money
by your own
endeavors?”
He gazed down at her with frost blue eyes. “What will you be charging me for sampling your wares, Sophy?”
by your own
endeavors?”
He gazed down at her with frost blue eyes. “What will you be charging me for sampling your wares, Sophy?”
“What?”
He paused as if expecting her to say something, then leaned toward her, frowning, his shoulder against the mirror frame. “Your fee, Sophy. You paid me a handsome sum to wed you. How much do I pay to bed you?”
Shock washed over Sophy. He couldn’t comprehend what he was saying! She wet her lips and stared at the base of his throat.
“I don’t understand. What game are you playing?”
“Do the young men you save your favors for enjoy your games?” His voice sounded crude, even to his own ears.
“The young men I...”
Sophy stood very still. The contempt in his voice could not be feigned. Puzzled, outraged and frightened by the shock of his allegations, she felt the color drain from her face. She took a deep breath.
“Who told you these lies?”
Her question seemed to fall between them like a stone dropped into deep water. He stood there silently, just looking at her, not saying a word. Stillness surrounded them and time seemed to cease its coursing as they faced each other. The whisper of the fire in the grate was now the only sound in the room.
Sophy stood there, her two hands fisted tight and bound together, pressed against her chest. Her throat felt as if it were in a vise. This was awful. Her lips fell open as her tortured lungs labored for air. It seemed to her that it was rather like a mad jigsaw puzzle. None of the pieces seemed to fit and yet she felt that somewhere there was a clue to it all.
Seth’s lip curled. For a long moment, he looked deeply and searchingly into her eyes. He was reading mixed signals in everything she said. It isn’t possible, he told himself.
There was a message there, he knew, but because he had buried it so deep it had been slow to work its way to his conscious self. He frowned at that, closing his eyes, endeavoring to concentrate. His nostrils flared.
Well, why not? How could he view her unexpected visit to Greene Street without suspicion? And yet he had been in the vicinity himself, meeting with his agent. His lashes flickered.
Why did Sophy’s reasons need to be sinister? Could her purpose in visiting the area have been equally as innocuous? His fists clenched impotently as a curious, lost sort of tremor ran over him.
“Seth?”
The name seemed to hang in the air, vibrating with emotion. His eyes jerked open. Sophy was staring at him oddly, all enormous eyes. He could feel her indecision, could almost hear her mind working.
Though she might tell herself she did not want him in her bed, he didn’t think it would take much to persuade her to welcome him there. Why should he try to run away from her?
His eyes traveled over her open lips, the flaring tip of her nose, to the misty violet slightly out-of-focus depths of her wide, uncertain eyes. Her vulnerability was perversely endaring.
Had she no idea what she was doing to him, standing there holding herself, limned in firelight and fear? How sweet and soft she looked. Nymphlike. Ethereal. Incredibly delicate. Sophy was fulfilling his sweetest dreams.
Inside, he grew a little cold, wondering what awful power his wife wielded. His body seemed to lose every nerve, everything that held it together.
It terrified him.
The silence grew. Flame flickered, sending waves of faint light across her face. Seth wished he knew what images went through her mind. She was staring at him so strangely. Was she judging him? Wanting him? Was she caught in a trap of her own making? His heart leaped at the thought.
Unexpectedly, he found his anger ebbing away. Her appeal was now almost irresistible.
She was his wife!
She was his wife!
It was that simple... and that dangerous.
Chapter Five
S
wept off-balance by surging emotions, Seth regarded her through narrowed lids as his long fingers closed on her upper arm. It would seem offended male pride and physical frustration made an explosive combination.
wept off-balance by surging emotions, Seth regarded her through narrowed lids as his long fingers closed on her upper arm. It would seem offended male pride and physical frustration made an explosive combination.
He realized he was beginning to harbor lustful thoughts toward his new wife. It was a disturbing realization. Sophy was displaying a talent for being able to push him to the edge.
If he were wise, he’d stop this charade here and now. Yet even as the thought raged through his mind, he knew he would not.
Would
not, or
could not...?
not, or
could not...?
Sophy’s eyes widened in surprise. She stared up at him mutely, aware of his punishing grip on her arm and the utter determination in his face. He seemed to be in a fine welter of emotion. Pain sometimes did that to a person, she decided philosophically. Made them fractious. For a moment, she simply stood quite still, not knowing what to do next.
Holding her arm, Seth felt the heat from her body, the subtle shift of her flesh beneath the thin cotton sleeve. He swallowed convulsively, and the sound seemed loud in the silence. “Besides, we both made a vow. And a vow by definition demands fulfillment.”
He lifted one of the heavy ringlets and put it aside, touching his lips to the warm column of her throat, breathing in the fragrance of her skin. She smelled of flowers. It seemed that the very air was perfumed.
He had meant to tell her she was mistaken if she even thought she could make him look a fool and get away with it. But when he felt the shudder that trembled through her at his touch, and saw the way her lip quivered, his jaw snapped shut.
Suddenly he didn’t want to snarl at her. He wanted to press himself against her, lose himself inside her, let passion soothe away the ache of his body and allow sweet physical satisfaction to bring peace to his tormented mind.
Without uttering another word, knowing he should not do this, but unable to deny himself any longer, he reached forward, and pulled her swiftly into his arms. With an air of sudden determination in his eyes, he smiled. A crooked, purposeful smile that echoed the intent in his eyes.
Sophy watched as Seth’s mouth came closer and closer to her own. Her heart raced and she felt a little quiver go through her. She blinked, and swallowed with an effort. His hand slid down past her waist, and his lips seized hers in a hungry assault.
His mouth was hot and hard and tasted of chocolate. Trembling, she absorbed the shape, the texture of it. He sucked gently, sending shafts of heat darting through her body. Her heart somersaulted as her whole body tightened in reaction. She could feel herself softening, and a warm glow begin deep inside as his mouth moved over hers.
Sanity fled. Her lips responded, and her body surrendered almost joyfully to his greater strength. Her long lashes fluttered as she slumped against his chest, clutching the folds of his shirt. Her hands clenched into fists, relaxed, curled and uncurled. His lips left hers and pressed feverishly against her throat.
Sophy closed her eyes and drew in her breath. She could feel the heavy pressure of his loins against her, and she felt her breasts tighten as if he had actually touched her. Slowly she let her hands steal up his shoulders, to his thick dark hair, ruffling it, mussing it. Instantly his embrace tightened.
“Sophy.” Seth’s voice was a strained whisper, an agonized thread of sound, hoarse with passion. A powerful surge of emotion swelled in his chest, purely male, purely majestic. He could tell from the way she was responding that this ensnaring desire was claiming them both.
Her eyes flew open.
Raw desire was there, in his face, in the twin blue flames of his fierce eyes. Sophy could feel it. It seemed to pour itself into her, swamping her senses, wiping out rational thought. She trembled in his grasp, aware of the heat of his body, and the musky male smell of him, which set her tingling in her most private places.
Seth gazed down at her passion-softened face with eyes that held the heat of burning coals. He was totally unprepared for this overwhelming temptation. She looked like a tiny doll, a porcelain miniature to be put in a glass case, protected from the elements.
Disquiet stabbed his mind. Where was his control? Deep inside, he tried to command his sense of righteous self-discipline, but couldn’t. The driving sensual force within him was too potent. He hesitated a fraction before, curious, his inner self stepped back and let it happen.
A still, small voice inside him was mockingly calling him a fool, even as his hands found the ties of her wrapper. His nimble fingers flicked the buttons of her nightgown open, and deftly slid both garments off her shoulders until they fell in a pale, shimmering pool at their feet.
When Sophy felt the first feathery-light sensation of his lips on her breast, she shuddered and gave in to the heady excitement. She had never imagined her body was capable of such shameful sensations. His hands slid down to cup her buttocks, skimming them like warm wind and creating wanton goose bumps upon her skin.
Lost in the magic of his touch, she held her breath. Something strange was happening in her stomach, a slow, delicious thickening, which sent a wondrous recoil clear to her toes.
A sound escaped her, a sound of need, a faint moan. Feeling as though all of her bones had suddenly turned to water, and were seeping between her legs, she let her cheek rest on his warm, hard body.
Seth stopped moving instantly, but he did not let Sophy go. Scarcely daring to breathe, he bent and kissed her on the ear, taking the lobe gently between his lips. She thought she might faint under the intensity of the sensations he provoked. Excitement flooded her. She knew she had to get closer or go mad.
She wrapped her arms around him, pulling her body closer, nestling into him, inhaling the scent of his body, kissing him softly on his parted lips. There was a strange pounding of her blood, a thickening in her throat.
With a sense of curiosity and mild trepidation, she brought her hands up to undo a shirt button. It was an astoundingly intimate gesture, but somehow she wanted to touch his flesh, and hold him very near to her heart.
A sensation of intoxication was stealing over her, the curious thrill of passion, when it is holding the senses. Seth hung above her, breathing deeply, unevenly. Her soft mouth smiled tenderly, her eyes became dewy.
Sophy felt the trembling in him as her fingers fumbled with his shirt fastenings. Suddenly, his hands took over the task. With a deft shift and lift, his vest and shirt were swept away.
Then his pants, too, were gone. It seemed he understood everything that she was feeling and delighted in it. He held her fiercely for a long sweet moment before he stepped back.
Shivers tingled up Sophy’s spine, and down her arms. The feeling seemed to originate in her belly, expanding and filling her. Her breath became ragged, and her eyes shone.
Heavens! Seth looked nothing like the illustrations of Michelangelo’s sculpture, David, even less like Caravaggio’s impudent painting,
Amor Victorious
. He was heavy, satiny, perfectly balanced. His whole body throbbed!
Amor Victorious
. He was heavy, satiny, perfectly balanced. His whole body throbbed!
She blinked, fascinated by the play of muscles across his broad shoulders, the rippling sinews along his ribs, and the taut, flat belly, with its tracing of hair down to the erect evidence of his desire, jutting aggressively from its nest of dark curls, the long straight legs.
Her heart hit the roof of her mouth, and she fought for breath at the sight of the large scar that marked one thigh. The enemy soldier’s aim had been poor. Another handbreadth higher and her husband would not be so swollen with conceit!
Sophy placed her soft, open palms on his chest and felt a subtle warmth that grew rapidly into a fine, encompassing heat. His magnetism reached out across the closing expanse to embrace her in a kind of self-generated fire.
The burning heat of his skin beneath her hands was an experience so pleasurable she simply closed her eyes and let them roam at will. She wanted to feel as much of him as possible. The muscles rippling below his smooth skin were sleek. Sleek and powerful, like velvet over steel.
The sight of Sophy’s parted mouth and the glaze of passion filming her dazed violet-gray eyes fed Seth’s appetite until it was rapacious. Well, he would hold himself as well as he could without spoiling pleasure.
His thoughts collided and merged, and finally the dialogue ceased. The small warning bells going off in his mind were ignored. His heart was pounding, a dense clamor in his head that shut off any rational objection.
Fingers trembling, he took her chin, turned her face toward him. Though Seth allowed her little room for response, what Sophy did manage to give was received with shatteringly eloquent evidence of the effect she had on him. She heard the rasp of his voice, indistinct and unintelligible, yet with an urgency that revealed his need and his desire.
He moved one leg so his thigh was between hers. She was conscious of the strong grip of his hands, the male scent of his body close to hers, the rising, thickening pressure against her belly. It excited her.
She was suddenly the huntress full of guile. Boldly, she put her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe and kissed him full on the lips. Tentatively, shyly, she touched her tongue to his, and was stunned at his shuddering reaction, the tensing of his entire body.
Her fingers gently caressed his nape, feeling the toughness and the resiliency as they moved slowly down the rigid contours of his back. Seth drew back, gazed at Sophy’s flushed face, her closed eyes.
Something deep within him responded to her unspoken plea. The little alarm bells of doubt were almost muffled now. In a haze of mounting sensation, he could barely think, only feel. Excited beyond the point of return, he thrust her toward the bed, and surged up against her body.
Sophy lay on the bed trembling, her breath coming in ragged little gasps. She became aware that her consciousness was shifting, centering within her abdomen, until she relaxed, arching her back and closing her eyes.
Seth spread himself atop her and entered her in one swift, powerful motion. As he did, she had the sudden, utterly shattering sensation of being transported from a warm, intensely exciting heaven to a cold, alien planet. It hurt!
Sophy knew there was to be pain, but never had she imagined it would hurt like that! He moved minutely against her. She gave a guttural moan, started to struggle, pushing against his chest, then became aware of that other, dizzying sensation beyond the pain, as though there were eagles swooping down from the mountain at the world’s end.
Rushing at her from out of nowhere, they lifted her to great heights, toward some unknown destination, some high place she had not yet been. It did not matter. She only knew that she wanted to go there more than she had ever wanted anything.
For a second, Seth froze at that peculiarly female sound. Sweat was pouring off him and his heart was banging against his ribs. His breath was tight, clogged. She pushed him away, then seconds later, pulled him back against her.
The feel of her stiffened nipples grazing his chest was a sweet counterpoint to the aching, raging need between his thighs. His mouth was so dry that he could scarcely swallow and his knees seemed to be folding up beneath him, as though they were no longer part of his body.
His body was white-hot and throbbing for release. He was on fire. The shaky feeling increased, and he moaned, a long, male sound of anguish. Then he stopped thinking.
Sophy knew she would never forget this night. Never want to lose the memory of what he was giving and taking with every concentrated cell of his body and mind. The sound, the smell, the impact of him.
She clasped him tightly, clung to him, urging him to do as he willed, glorying in his strength, his power seeping into her. The firelight flickered, sending whorls of light, scarlet, yellow and an eerie green over the ceiling, before it broke into fragments, scattered in tunnels of time, a blur.
Ecstasy without end...
In the soft gray light of morning, Sophy awoke to find her cheek resting on Seth’s shoulder. She felt his breathing. It seemed to encompass her universe.
Soft, light fingertips traced the outline of his mouth, traveled upward over his cheeks and gently caressed his forehead. Finally, almost reluctantly, Seth’s eyes opened.
The blue eyes regarded her lazily, and she fancied there was the faintest trace of a smile on his mouth. He kissed her on the top of her head.
“Sleep well?”
“Well enough.” She raised herself on one elbow and smiled down at him. “I must get up. It seems to be... quite late.”
He shifted, rolled to one side. His hand reached out, brushed the smoothness of her cheek and slid to her breast. “Must you?”
Seth smiled openly now, and she was annoyed for suddenly feeling so nervous. Was there some hidden meaning in his voice? The identical chains that bound her to him existed for Seth. Or did they? The thought had the same impact as the opening of a great pit beneath her feet. Her eyes slid away from his amused ones.
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