The School for Brides (26 page)

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Authors: Cheryl Ann Smith

BOOK: The School for Brides
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“Oh, make no mistake, love,” he said confidently. “Every time you gazed into my eyes tonight, there was a clear invitation to have my way with you.”
Eva flushed to the roots of her hair. He was correct. She
had
teased and flirted with him outrageously. Even when he was conversing with someone else, she’d managed to catch his eye, and her smiles had been meant as a call for him to return to her. She’d openly invited her lover to seek her out, and seek her out he had.
Nicholas had shucked off his coat and loosened his cravat. The latter hung in twists down both sides of his open shirtfront. His hair was mussed from his climbing the tree and a second-floor catlike leap to her window.
He looked devilishly handsome and quite at home.
Feeling mischievous, she sauntered over to where he sat and turned her back to him. She straddled his legs and sat on his lap. Almost instantly, she felt his erection against her.
She lifted her hair out of the way and waited. “I understand you are an expert with buttons.”
Nicholas lowered his feet to the floor and leaned to inhale her scent as he brushed his nose against her neck. Warm breath caressed her skin as he plucked the buttons open, one at a time. The intimacy of the moment made Eva feel decidedly like a wife.
“Did I mention how lovely you were this evening, mistress?” He paused and pressed a kiss in the opening as her gown began to fall away.
She closed her eyes and sighed. He was perfection in the sensuous aspects of lovemaking. The duke knew just how to pleasure a woman, and she thoroughly enjoyed his efforts. “I don’t recall. Perhaps you should remind me.”
He eased the gown down her arms and leaned in to place a soft kiss on one shoulder. “Every other woman paled in comparison, sweet.”
Another burst of happiness lifted her heart.
“But what of Lucy?” she asked casually, tamping down the unwelcome image of Nicholas sneaking into the girl’s room with debauchery on his mind. The virginal chit would likely expire from fright. “I saw her. She’s very pretty.”
Nicholas quietly opened a few more buttons before answering. “I was to offer for her hand this evening,” he said softly, and lowered the gown a bit more. The silver fabric fell away in the front to expose a full swell of cleavage. Only her nipples remained hidden beneath her chemise. “Your arrival changed everything.”
“Oh?” A silly grin crossed her face. She was thankful her back was turned. Her presence at the ball had been perfectly timed, and she couldn’t hide her satisfaction. His Grace was still unattached because she’d allowed her sister to bully her into attending. She silently thanked Noelle.
Poor wealthy and perfectly unengaged Lucy had gone home to a lonely bed while the duke climbed through her window, like a sneak thief in the night. For her.
Eva wanted to laugh for sheer joy. Instead, she wriggled her bottom and heard his breath deepen. In a matter of seconds, she was free of the gown and his hands were sliding around her waist as if seeking her breasts. Bracing her hands on his thighs, she stood and stepped away.
“Stay,” she commanded over her shoulder when he moved to rise. She exaggerated the sway of her hips as she walked several steps and turned. His hint of a smile led her as she slowly wriggled out of the gown and placed it across the foot of the bed. She had his full attention.
Eyes wide, she asked, “Do you like it when I strip for you, Your Grace?”
At his nod, she loosened her corset, then paused. “And this?” He nodded again, as she pulled the laces open and slid it down her hips. She kicked it away. Instead of removing the rest of her garments, she tugged the ribbon holding the neckline of her chemise closed. Her full breasts pressed the limits of the thin cloth and threatened to spill over.
He groaned. “You are a tease, Evangeline Winfield.”
His words came breathlessly. She smiled and locked onto his stare. Slowly, hips swaying, she walked back to him and dropped to her knees. His position made freeing him from his breeches somewhat difficult, but after a few false starts, she finally managed to part the cloth and free his erection.
A deeper groan rumbled from his throat as she gathered the length in her hand and caressed the soft tip. How perfectly his body was made to pleasure them both.
“You push me to distraction, mistress.”
Eva smiled and pressed a kiss on the tip. “Indeed? I thought we were enemies.” She released him, then stood and straddled his knees. He watched intently as she bunched her chemise and petticoat in her hands, drawing them up over her hips until only her drawers, garters, and stockings remained to cover the patch of curls from his eyes.
With care, Eva spread the opening of the drawers. With his help, she positioned herself over his erection and slowly impaled herself on his hard cock. Nicholas buried his face between her breasts and let out a harsh sound.
She slid up and down once, then lifted her attention to his face. His hunger was complete and blinding to see. Their previous encounters had not cooled his ardor. He wanted her as much, or more, now than he had the first time he took her to bed.
“You like this, Nicholas?”
“I do.” He grinned as she leaned to capture his mouth for a brief, deep kiss. He swirled his tongue with hers, then broke free. He looked deep into her eyes. “I like it very much.”
Eva ran her hands down the sides of his face and cupped his jaw. The smoldering desire in his intense eyes left her trembling and confused by the fluttering in her heart. In that moment, she realized all her fears had come to fruition. She’d fallen deeply and completely in love with her dark duke.
“I am a well-trained courtesan,” she said lightly, struggling to keep the tiny cracks opening up in her heart from becoming deep fissures. There was no place for love here. It was all about passion and pleasure, and the mating of two bodies. So she closed off her heart and pulled his shirt free of his breeches. She drew it over his head and tossed it toward the bed. “I am here to please.”
Splaying her hands across his chest, she teased his nipples and bent to inhale the warm scent of his skin as she pressed a kiss at the base of his throat. He tasted slightly of salt, and his body radiated heat. Nicholas plucked the pins from her hair, and the mass tumbled down her back. He cupped her hips and lifted and lowered her, burying his erection deeply inside her, again and again.
She rocked with his movements in a primal dance and found a position where she could brush delightfully against him for maximum pleasure. He sucked her nipples through her chemise, wetting the fabric and drawing small cries of delight from her. The spindly chair creaked in protest as their combined weight pushed it to the limits of remaining upright.
He plundered her flesh, two bodies moving in perfect synchronization until Eva felt the world around her explode in sparks of bright light. She threw her head back and cried out his name. Nicholas pumped into her deeply as he found his own release with a ragged groan.
Eva slumped on his chest, replete. Nicholas pressed his mouth into her hair and caressed her back in slow lover’s strokes. She listened to his rapid heartbeat, wishing they could stay this way forever.
“You do please me, love,” he said softly. “Very much.”
With her face hidden, Eva sighed sadly as she took as much comfort from him as she could. Their time was limited. She needed to make as many memories as possible of his scent, his face, his touch. One day soon he’d officially offer for Lucy, and Eva would never see him again.
Blinking back tears, she forced a smile. “You please me, too, very much, Your Grace.”
 
 
L
ater, Nicholas stared at the ceiling, where the glow of the fire flickered across plaster, and relished the warm feel of Eva as she slept beside him. Her soft breathing tickled his skin where she rested her face on his chest. The hint of flowers infused her hair, tangled around his shoulder and scattered in silken strands across his chest.
She was everything he desired in a mistress, yet all he feared, too. He was losing control when she was near. The ball was a perfect example. It wouldn’t surprise him in the least if society was abuzz tomorrow with speculation about his infatuation with the beautiful stranger.
The chance to wed Lucy was all but destroyed. There was little chance his attraction to the mysterious Miss Harrington wouldn’t get back to her and her parents. Only his wealth and position might keep her from refusing him.
Still, was Lucy his desire? Had she ever been?
Eva haunted his days and nights. Every thought, every dream was filled with her. She’d become his obsession.
At this moment, he should be engaged and ready to embark on a new chapter of his life. Lucy should be happily dreaming of a wedding. Instead, he’d broken into Lady Seymour’s home and seduced her sister right beneath her nose.
Well, Eva had seduced him; completely and passionately and without a moment of hesitation or regret. She’d turned his desire for revenge into a desire for her, one he couldn’t shake. When he looked into her eyes, he was lost.
He realized that the idea of spending the rest of his days and nights with the sweet but uninteresting Lucy Banes-Dodd had lost most of its luster. Hell, all of its luster. He wanted passion and fire, not milk and dry biscuits. Yet, Lucy would make an ideal wife. Why, then, was that no longer enough?
Eva murmured in her sleep and slid her arm around his waist. The flames in the fireplace had died to a smattering of embers, and her small hand was cool in the chill room. Her lips upturned at the corners. He wondered what sort of dreams she dreamt and if they were about him. With Eva, it was impossible to say.
His spinster-courtesan was a puzzle. Why she drove him insane was even more puzzling. They had nothing in common. He lived his life by stiff rules, by a code of conduct set forth as appropriate for his position in society. She mocked him and tormented him for everything he was and believed, yet the moment he’d seen her across the ballroom, he’d forgotten everything and everyone else. The spinster had engaged not only his body but his mind as well. He’d begun to see his world through her eyes, and had found many aspects of it lacking.
The slight smile on her face grew. Eyes still closed, she eased her hand down his chest, under the sheet, and over his cock. He twitched and began to harden.
“I was having the most delightful dream, Your Grace,” she whispered as her eyes opened. “You were cast as the hero, and all the things you were doing to me were positively wicked.”
Nicholas chuckled and pushed her back on the bed. Now he knew her dreams were filled with him, too. The thought gave him immense satisfaction. “Then you must tell me all about it, Eva love.”
 
 
T
he last shadows lingered just before dawn when Nicholas draped one leg over the sill and paused to rake his gaze down her thinly clad body. Her dusky nipples were visible beneath the thin nightdress, and if he looked closely, he thought he caught a hint of the curls at the junction of her thighs. Whether it was truth or his heated imagination, it didn’t matter. He knew every inch of her body intimately and could summon her curves in his mind whenever and wherever he chose.
“You can sneak down the back servants’ stairs, Nicholas,” Eva whispered, her voice worried. She had her hands curled into his coat. “This window seems very high up.”
He drew her close, a hand around her back and the other in her hair near her ear. “I think the danger of leaping into a tree is far more enticing for a damsel such as my lovely Eva than my sneaking down and out a servants’ entrance like a cowardly dandy.”
Eva leaned out the window and looked down. “If you fall and break a bone, your screams will awaken the household, and the whole city will quickly know where you spent the evening, Sir Knight.”
The concern on her face touched him. She no longer hoped for his violent, painful death. The idea pleased him. He pulled her tight and kissed her hard.
“Then I shall just have to be careful.” He released her reluctantly and climbed onto the sill. She slowly untangled her hands from his coat. “Say a prayer, Milady.”
Eva gasped as he leapt to the tree. He bobbled slightly but grasped the branch above his head. In an instant, he found his footing, thankful he wouldn’t have to bear the shame of falling in an untidy heap while Eva watched. She let out a relieved laugh. “Well done, sir.”
He flashed a grin. “I’m off to pillage and plunder, Milady.” He bowed, wobbled, and righted himself. “Until later.”
Without further fanfare, he climbed down the tree. After a last look up at her, framed in moonlight in the window, he made his way silently across the lawn and out the gate to the street.
 
 
E
va heard branches rustle, then the sound of Nicholas dropping to the ground with a thump. She couldn’t see him, yet felt his eyes on her, and she lifted a hand. When the gate from the garden squeaked open and closed, she turned back into the darkened room and sat on the bed, her eyes and heart troubled.
What to do?
Love. Often spoken of and sung about, it was the most complicated of emotions and seldom a part of relationships. When one did find love, it was rarely part of marriage, or between a man and his mistress. It was easier to hate His Grace than to fall head over heels for him.

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