Once Upon a Romance 01 - Before the Midnight Bells (23 page)

“
Max, I can’t… I want to touch you.”

“
You are entirely too encouraging. If you touch me, then I am going to find it very difficult to go slowly.” He leaned down and gave her a tender kiss.

Ella ran her foot up the back of his leg “But I do so enjoy making things difficult for you.”

“
Behave yourself. I am trying to be a gentleman.”

She might have continued to tease him, but in the next moment she felt Max’s fingers, brushing along her arms to her collar bone, her ribs, her hips, her thighs, and then under the hem of her thin cotton shift. He rested his hand there, just under the bunched up edge of fabric, while his thumbs traced designs on her inner thigh. The tiny movement made Ella gasp and try to wiggle closer to those fingers, but Max held her still on the table and captured her mouth once more, letting her protests come in the form of more frantic kisses, a faster darting tongue, and more fervent whimpers. Still his fingers traced light patterns, making her body throb with longing for more, and keeping that “more” just out of reach.

Max was exercising a great deal of self control. Ella’s little pleas were driving him mad, but he didn’t want her to regret what they were doing. He planned to take each step slow, giving her the opportunity to change her mind, if she wanted. Of course, if she
did
change her mind he was probably going to throw himself out that open window, but he still intended to give her the chance. While his hands kept up their light tracery just under her hem he broke off their kiss and lowered his head. The shift did little to hide Ella’s body, even in lamplight the peaks of her nipples were clear beneath the thin cotton. Given the extra height of the work table he barely had to bend his neck to gently lick first one, then the other. As he did Ella went still, and then arched her back, angling toward him with a low moan.

Her whole body was on fire. Max’s head moved leisurely from one side to the other, giving one long lick each time. His tongue left her shift damp and clinging,
like two spots of ice on her burning skin. The layer of cotton gave extra texture to his attentions, rasping on her sensitive skin. Ella finally manage to free her hands from her robe, and she buried them in Max’s hair, trying to
convey
her need for him.

When he abandoned his licking to pull a nipple into his mouth and suck Max heard Ella give a gasp and then a muffled cry of pleasure. He let one of his hands join his mouth, teasing the taut peak of her other breast. His other hand he slid around to her back, pulling her body to the very edge of the table, and pressing himself deep in the V of her legs. Ella writhed against him, wrapping her legs around to pull him even tighter, but he knew with the angle of the table she wouldn’t be getting pressure where she wanted it most. He tried to distract her with a deep pull on her breast, but Ella left one hand clinging behind his neck and, using the other, guided his hand down from her breast to the cleft in her legs.

“
Please Max.” She was quiet, so as not to wake the house, but this was not a timid whisper. “Please.”

Max smiled at her, and then, leaning in for another kiss, whispered against her mouth “Whatever you need, sweetheart.”

He let his fingers move—oh so gently—to find the little bud of pleasure hidden within her folds. Each gentle stroke he gave brought forth another moan from Ella. Max drank them down, and moved his other hand to glide around her opening. Around and around he circled, always maintaining that same, slow stroke on her nub, until Ella whispered “Yes, Max, yes.” Then he slowly slid his fingers inside her.

Ella was going to go mad from pleasure, and it still wasn’t enough. This man touching her was everything she could ever want him to be, and, in that moment, she didn’t care about the future or propriety. She only knew that if this ended now she would die. Ella heard herself whimpering and pleading for Max to touch her more, more,
more
, and she knew what she wanted.

“
Please, Max, I need you.”

He didn’t ask if she was sure. One thing he knew about this woman—she knew her own mind. Both of them began ripping at his clothing, pausing for a kiss or caress, until he stood naked before her. He had thought she might hesitate, but instead she reached out and grasped his cock lightly, giving a gentle pull to bring him towards her.

Ella ran her fingers lightly over his silken hardness, delighting in the new sensation. When he responded with a gasp she grew bolder in her explorations. Using her thumb she traced along the underside of his shaft, while her fingers cupped over the top. Max shuddered and she repeated the motion, this time stroking upwards again. Over and over she caressed him, until Max moaned and pulled her roughly to him, locking his mouth on hers with fervent need. When he broke away they were both trembling, and she spoke again.

“
Now. Please, now.”

Max kissed her long and deep, and as he did so he slowly let his shaft enter her. Ella shuddered with every inch, whispering “More” against his mouth each time he paused. When her barrier broke he pulled back slightly to search her face, but she drew him to her again.

“
Don’t stop. It hurts but… don’t stop.”

When he was fully sheathed he paused a moment, and then reached between their bodies and began his slow, stroking caress once more. Ella gave little shaking cries as her pleasure surged higher and higher. This was what she had been waiting for.

Max had held still, but with the first cry from Ella he couldn’t help himself, and began to move. Her gasps of pleasure drove him on and, timing it with the movement of his hand, he plunged in and out of her, faster and faster. He watched her face, seeing her eyes widen and the flush creep up as her climax approached. He locked his mouth over hers, and when she screamed her release into him he pounded even harder, holding her hips with both hands and thrusting. Ella gave a sharp cry of surprise and then came again, digging her nails into his shoulders and clenching hard around his cock. With one more thrust Max buried himself fully within her and then exploded, feeling as though his body was awash in a sea of supreme pleasure.

When Max came to himself again he was leaning on the table over Ella, shuddering with the aftermath. Ella was sprawled across the table among scraps of fabric, letting her fingers play along the broad expanse of his chest. She looked like an erotic artwork, limbs askew, with her shift bunched at her waist and her skin flushed with the aftermath of their lovemaking. Max leaned over and placed a gentle kiss in the valley between her breasts, and Ella took the chance to catch his face in her hands.

“
Max… that was…”

“
Mmmmm… I agree.”

She ran her hands over his eyebrows, his jawline, his lips. Max closed his eyes and let her fingers memorize his face. He was still buried inside her, and the gentle ripples of aftershock from her orgasm seemed to mimic the gentle, loving strokes she was giving with her hands. To his surprise he felt himself begin to grow hard again, though he wouldn’t have thought it possible. When his eyes popped open he caught the smug look on Ella’s face.

“
Pleased with yourself?”

“
More like pleased with us both. But I’m not done with you yet. Don’t think that I am.”

Ella lifted herself up off the table and wrapped her legs around Max’s hips. Bracing herself on her arms she slowly began rocking against him, swiveling her own hips as she did. Max didn’t know if she was working on instinct, or if she had been reading some truly lurid Gothic novels, but either way he approved of the results.

“
I wouldn’t dare think that,” he finally gasped out in response, “in fact, I promise not to think anything at all as long as you keep that up.”

Ella not only kept it up, she increased her pressure. Gripping the edge of the table she lifted her hips into the air and worked herself up and down his shaft, lifting up and then letting gravity pull her back down. Max groaned and held on. He felt the hot wet folds enveloping him, milking him, and releasing again. Ella’s mouth was nipping at his chest as each plunge brought her close enough to bite his nipples, and then suddenly her weight shifted. She ground her hips down and let go of the table, sliding her arms around his neck and finding his mouth with her own. Their tongues danced and slid along each other while Ella clung to him, working him deep within her.

Max spun to the right and pressed her up against the wall. Her hands scrabbled for some kind of hand hold, and found an ancient picture rail that circled the room. With her hands clasped to the moulding above her head her body stretched against the wall. She arched into him as she tried to keep up her rhythm, but Max had a better idea.

“
Allow me,” he whispered into her ear and held her hips firmly to the plaster. Ella buried her face in his neck as he began pounding into her, using the solid surface of the wall to let him go faster, deeper, and harder. She was whimpering, pleading, urging him on, and Max forgot everything except his need to bring them both to a thunderous climax. Ella clawed at his shoulders as Max thrust harder and harder, and then her hands stilled and her whole body convulsed around him. The rapid clench and release on his cock brought his orgasm crashing down on him, and as he sank to the floor her could have sworn he heard glass breaking.

“
EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!!”

The scream came from downstairs. Max and Ella both looked around, startled to remember where they were, and a few glances told them everything. The plaster was cracked from their eager lovemaking, and they had knocked over one of the (thankfully unlit
)
lamps in the room. The house was old, it was easy to imagine that they had shaken it from attic to basement. Max couldn’t help laughing, and since he didn’t think his legs were working yet he just lay there and chuckled. Quietly.

Ella recovered sooner. She dashed for her dressing gown and threw it on, hastily knotting the tie at her waist, effectively concealing the evidence of her recent activities. She began chucking Max’s clothes at him from across the room, and as each article hit him he only laughed harder. When she glared at him he made a valiant effort to control himself, but while he managed to shimmy into his pants and boots relatively quickly he was still laughing as he faced her.

“
Prudence! Beatrice! Eleanor! Girls, where are you?”

Muffled sleepy sounds from her stepsisters warned Ella that she would need to be downstairs in just a few moments. What to say? Looking into Max’s laughing eyes she knew that, whatever he had come to tell her, it was going to have to wait. She grinned at him briefly, then ran to his side and kissed him passionately, clinging to his bare chest. Breaking away she ran down the stairs, calling to Millicent as she went, making sure it was loud enough for Max to hear…

“
I assure you, Stepmother, the earth did
not
move.”

***

Max laughed again, quietly in the empty attic. That minx. Next time he got her alone he was going to make her eat those words. Next time… At the thought of their next encounter he sobered. Next time they were alone he was going to have to explain himself, and then she might wish they hadn’t done this tonight. He couldn’t bring himself to regret it, though. He looked around the attic as he pulled on his shirt and jacket. His cravat was a hopelessly crumpled mess of snowy silk, and as he stared at it an idea came to him. He found some paper and a pencil next to a pile of costume sketches, wrote a quick note, and left it on her work table, tucked under his cravat. Then he headed back for the open casement, sighing. He had a feeling down was going to be a great deal harder than up had been.

CHAPTER
SEVEN
TEEN