Sweet Enemy (30 page)

Geoffrey released her nipple from his mouth, then lapped at her one last time, which shot sensation straight through her. He raised his head and speared her with his gaze…His cobalt eyes burned hot, deep blue pools that simmered.

“Do you understand what else your breasts were made for, Liliana?” he asked, sensual challenge in his voice.

She shook her head, waiting for him to show her.

He’d cupped both of her breasts now and was gently squeezing, pumping, shaping them. “Caressing your breasts will help make you ready for…other things.” He took each nipple between the thumbs and index fingers
of his hands and gave a sharp pinch at the same time.

Liliana gasped.

“Do you feel that?” Geoffrey asked.

“Yes.” She struggled with words. “It’s like…like there are invisible strings drawn between my breasts and my…my mons. What is it?” Liliana could feel the heat on her face, but her curiosity won out over her embarrassment, as it always did.

Rather than answer, Geoffrey said, “Observe how tight the strings become the more stimulation your breasts are given.” He dropped his mouth again, suckling deeply while rolling her opposite nipple between his fingers simultaneously.

Liliana clenched her fists as the sensation spiraled, the string drew tighter and tighter and the throbbing pressure below built and built until she thought the strings must surely snap. She didn’t know what would happen if they did, and she alternately yearned for and feared finding out.

Finally Geoffrey ceased his torture, bringing his head up to rest against the side of her neck. His hot breath brushed against her and satisfaction swelled within her. He was just as affected as she, and she’d yet to touch him. How fascinating.

“Do you feel it now, Liliana?” Geoffrey rasped.

“Feel what?” She felt many things, mostly an urge for more.

“The heat,” he said, “between your thighs. Do you feel moisture there?”

Mortified that he would mention such a thing, Liliana nodded against him nonetheless. Just thinking about it gave her an urge to press her thighs together. She gave in to the idea and moaned at the sensation.

“Good,” he said roughly. “That means you are becoming more and more ready for me.” Geoffrey sounded as if he could scarcely breathe. “Not only will caressing your breasts prepare you, but indeed, so would caressing
many other places on your body. Your very skin is a conduit of sexual energy,” he said. “If we had more time, I could show you several spots that will excite you thus.”

“Really?” Liliana blinked, even more fascinated. She supposed she shouldn’t be, but truly, the very idea of it stimulated her senses.

Geoffrey laughed. “Yes, really.” He placed an open palm against her stomach, just above the waist of her pants, and all laughter died. “But you don’t need that today, Liliana. You’re more than ready for what comes next.”

Almost as if in answer, more moisture gathered between her legs and Liliana instinctively pressed her thighs together again.

Geoffrey chuckled and placed his hands at the fastening of her trousers. “May I?” he asked, and as Liliana looked into his face, she knew he was making her choose. Choose whether she wished to learn more or whether she wished to let things remain unknown.

“Yes,” she said emphatically, knowing she wished to experience anything this man would show her.

“Good.” Geoffrey’s smile was quick and his voice low, sending warmth spreading through her. “Because I’m about to show you what your wonderful body is truly capable of.”

Liliana’s chest expanded, almost with a relief. He was going to make love to her. She knew she should feel ashamed, at the very least modest, but she did not. No, rather, she felt nothing but burning excitement, and that need that caused her mons to throb grew more insistent.

Geoffrey slipped her pants over her hips and she kicked her legs, impatient to be rid of the hindrance.

“Patience, love,” Geoffrey said, and then he cupped his hand over her most private of places, pressing the heel of his palm against the spot from which those invisible strings seemed to originate.

Goodness, it was as if every nerve ending in her body
were centered in that one spot. How was this possible? Surely her—

Geoffrey’s fingers moved, dipping lower to her moist heat. He kept delicious pressure on his palm, on her, yet his long finger moved inside her gently. She couldn’t help herself. She planted her heels and lifted her hips, pressing herself more into him.

“Relax, love,” Geoffrey soothed. “I know what you need. Trust me to give it to you.”

Liliana groaned but subsided. She did trust him. Now if only he would—

One finger drove deep, and Liliana felt herself clench around it. Geoffrey groaned and she wondered how he could be feeling pleasure when it was he touching her. Yet she remembered the satisfaction she’d gotten yesterday when she’d run her hands over his body, eliciting shivers and groans. This phenomenon would certainly need to be explored further. For posterity’s sake, of course, but not right now. She was fast losing her ability to think objectively.

Geoffrey withdrew, drawing moisture from within her and bringing his finger up to circle that wondrous little spot. Liliana gasped, nearly coming off the daybed.

“What? What?” She couldn’t get the question out.

Geoffrey circled her again, this time with all of his fingers. She delighted in the pressure, the movement, the swirling, the building…

“Geoffrey?” What was happening? She was losing control of her own body.

“It’s all right,” he murmured. “Perfectly natural…Just let it happen, Liliana.”

“But—”

He cut her off with a kiss. Liliana latched onto his tongue, grateful for the anchor. Yet it did not hold her to the ground. Geoffrey’s hand continued to work its magic, and it was as if her entire being lifted and contracted into that swirling mass.

She moaned, her body tight and strung for an endless moment.

And then she exploded. It was the only word her overwhelmed mind could come up with…She flew apart, into a million tingling pieces. She cried out against Geoffrey’s mouth. She could hear little moans through her buzzing ears and knew they came from her.

“That’s right, love. Just relax and let it take you.”

Waves of pleasure rolled from her mound, cresting through to her fingers and toes. Just when she thought they’d subsided, another would set off and ripple, until at last she floated in a calm, pleasurable sea.

She opened her eyes, as heavy as they were, and blinked up at Geoffrey, who sat beside her on the edge of the daybed. A grin that could only be classified as male arrogance rode his face, bringing an answering smile from her.

“What was that?” she asked around a thick tongue.

“That’s the pleasure that can come from a man and woman coupling,” he answered.

Liliana blinked. She was innocent, but she’d read enough to know that they hadn’t coupled at all. Why, she’d never even touched his— “Did you experience the same…release?”

A pained look crossed his face. “No. What did it feel like for you?” he countered.

She shook her head. How could he expect her to put magnificence like that into words? Surely he knew, unless…“Can only women feel this?”

Geoffrey barked a tight laugh. “Having never been a woman, I can’t vouch for whether the experience is the same, but men do have a similar release,” he said.

Liliana sat up, intrigued. “Even without actually coupling?”

“Yes.”

She moved to her knees and evaluated him. Lines of tension showed around his lips and eyes. She dropped her eyes to his lap, where evidence of his arousal strained
against his trousers. If he could bring her such wonderful feelings by merely touching her, maybe she could do the same for him. A purely feminine desire to please Geoffrey hardened her still bare nipples and she reached a hand out. “You mean I can touch you and—”

“Whoa!” Geoffrey leapt from the edge of the bed. “You’re the experimentee, today, remember?”

Liliana frowned. “That’s hardly fair.”

“Be that as it may,” he said, still backing away, “it’s all we have time for.”

Liliana looked to the windows of the folly. He was correct. The sun was fully in the sky. They’d be pressed to return undiscovered as it was. Still, Liliana didn’t think she could wait until tomorrow to see the same bliss overcome Geoffrey as he’d given her.

She rose, unashamedly naked, and strode across the room to him. A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth as his chin dropped. She was only now beginning to appreciate the kind of power a woman could have over a man, and she had to admit, she liked it. She’d like to explore that further, too.

She wrapped her arms around Geoffrey’s neck, pressing herself against him, pressing her mound against his hardness and relishing the moan that echoed from him. “Fine,” she said. “We don’t have time now, but I don’t want to wait until morning to have my turn experimenting on you. So what do you propose we do?”

Geoffrey swallowed, the sound audible to her. “The library,” he rasped. “Meet me in the library tonight after everyone goes to bed.”

An ironic smile lifted her lips. “You like kissing women in the library, don’t you?” she murmured, pressing her lips to his.

“Mmm,” he said. “Only you.”

Chapter Nineteen

G

eoffrey rearranged a pillow on the chaise for the seventy-second time. He was smoothing the fringe when the clock struck one in the morning. The supper ball had come to an end and the guests had finally dispersed nearly an hour ago. He thanked the stars for early country hours, for he didn’t know how much longer he could wait for Liliana to arrive.

He’d uttered the word
library
when she’d made her enticing demand because it had been the first thing to enter his mind. Yet it couldn’t be a more perfect place for their rendezvous. He spent the majority of his nights amongst the stacks or in his study anyway, as sleep often eluded him due to the nagging ache of his injuries. The staff had long ago learned never to disturb him here.

“Setting the scene for your own seduction?”

Her voice reached across the darkness, the husky timbre caressing him like a lover.

“I suppose I
could
make use of a chaise,” she said, locking the double doors behind her.

As she came into the light, Geoffrey noticed she’d donned the same dark day dress she’d worn that first night, probably to be less conspicuous sneaking through the halls. How thoughtless of him. He’d have to show
her the secret passageway so she didn’t risk being caught next time she came to him.

And there would be a next time, if he had anything to do with it. These past days had been sweet torture for him, but his plan was working. Liliana was becoming as addicted to him as he was her—he was certain of it. It should be only a matter of days before he convinced her to extend their rendezvous for a lifetime.

“The scenery hardly matters,” he murmured. “You began your seduction of me long ago.”

Liliana cocked her head in that way he found entirely enchanting. “I did?”

“Yes.”
The moment I first saw you.
“I’ve been able to think of little else since this morning, imagining your hands upon my body as mine were upon yours. I’ve been strung tight all day.”

“You have?” she whispered. “How horrible for you,” she said, yet her smile was all female satisfaction.

Geoffrey tried for a stern frown, yet he felt the corners of his lips straining to lift. “Yes. And it was deuced disconcerting, I must say, politely greeting stodgy old guests whilst your sweet cries rang in my memory.” Hell, he’d been stiff as stone all bloody day. He didn’t know how he’d last a moment when she actually got around to touching him.

Liliana blushed, but she stepped closer. “Well, we shall have to remedy that, won’t we?” She leaned up on her toes and fitted her lips to his.

Geoffrey moaned. He couldn’t help himself, as her tongue boldly forayed into his mouth with no preamble. It seemed he wasn’t the only one strung tight all day. Her hands went immediately to his shirt. He’d removed his cravat and untucked for easier access, and she unerringly found her way to the heated skin of his stomach. Her hands danced along his skin under the cotton, rising until she found his nipples. She brushed her fingers lightly over them, then pinched simultaneously.

Geoffrey gasped, breaking his lips from hers.

“Did you like that as I do?” she asked, avid curiosity gleaming in her purple gaze.

“Mmm…,” he said, trying to nod. “Back to being my little experimenter, are we?”

“Mmm…,” she repeated, before once again reclaiming his lips.

Geoffrey lost himself in her kiss, allowing her to explore at her leisure. She ran her tongue along both sides of his own, testing the texture, swirling and dueling, then dipping along the inside of his cheeks, his teeth. She suckled him into her mouth in a rhythm that brought to his mind other ways she could please him, ways she would have no way of knowing unless he showed her. Just the very thought of her lips wrapped around other parts of him brought him dangerously close to losing himself. He pulled away from her kiss, setting her back from him a bit.