All About Seduction(85)

“Sir, your language.”

“Caro?” How could it still be hurting? Other than she probably had a crick in her neck from averting her face. “You have to help me.”

Alarm skittered across her features. Much as he wanted to change the parameters of their encounter, he couldn’t risk it. Not until she believed he didn’t want to hurt her.

“Only my family calls me Caro.”

“If I give you a child, we’ll be kin.” They would always be connected to each other. If only she wanted him the way he wanted her. “But I’ll only call you that in private.”

She appeared to consider his promise, then nodded. “What can I do to help you finish?”

Back to the business at hand. “Look at me.”

She scrunched her face and then turned. Her color was high as he slowly guided her hips up and back down. Bright red crept from her neck up over her face. He was done letting her pretend this wasn’t happening, and it wasn’t working to let her have all the control.

“Just because you don’t want to be touched doesn’t mean I don’t want you . . . to touch me.”

Her face twisted. But she’d set the conditions too stringently. If his leg didn’t hurt or he hadn’t taken the laudanum, or if she weren’t disgusted by the act, he might have managed with just the genital stimulation, but he needed more from her.

Tentatively she touched his shoulder.

“That’s it,” he murmured as he helped her rock a little faster and tilted his hips to meet her.

“Oh,” Caroline squeaked.

“I’ve wanted you for a long time,” he coaxed.

Sensation began to build in him as he tried to ignore that she might be uncomfortable. Making eye contact as he focused on reaching release was oddly intimate and he liked it, even as she shook her head. He silently dared her to stop pretending he was one of the gentlemen, or that this wasn’t happening. She was here, riding him, and he wanted her to remember that. And when he came back a success, she wouldn’t have to be ashamed that she’d known him intimately.

“I’ve always thought you beautiful.”

She shook her head.

He nodded. “The way you move, the way you hold yourself, the way you see every detail when you look around. Even when you first came here and you were all big eyes and elbows, I noticed you.”

She shifted her hand along his shoulder. The buzz of his excitement magnified.

“Lower,” he murmured. “I know you saw me watching you.”

Her chin dipped and her cheeks bloomed. She was damn lovely, even if she didn’t know it. And he knew he was revealing too much, but the only thing he had to seduce her with was words.

Her trembling fingertips were cool. His skin was hot. All he needed was one little sign that she was feeling a twinge or two of pleasure.

He pushed her hips down and rolled his. Her eyebrows drew together and her insides tightened around him. Then she struggled to pull away from him, planting her hand in the center of his chest.

“That’s it, Caro. That feels good,” he purred.

He could see she was torn, but he kept her moving, kept his hips sliding opposite hers. The last thing he wanted was her realizing that he was after her pleasure as much as his own. She made a strangled sound and then tried to match his movements. He murmured encouragement and praise. He bit his lip before telling her to just feel, not think.

Her eyes closed, and he insisted she open them. She lifted her lashes to half-mast over her darkened eyes. Even if she didn’t realize it, her deepened breathing, her dewy eyes, the clenching of her nether muscles, revealed she was not as adverse to the act as she wanted to believe. She was meant for pleasure, and her body was built for it, even if she didn’t understand.

His breathing grew harsh. She moved her warming fingers across his chest, over his nipple. Spikes of sensation rocketed to his groin. It wouldn’t take much more. The next time he might stop and concentrate on her—with what little he could do without kissing or caressing her—but time was hurtling by and he needed to prove he could, at least, do what was needed to provide her with a babe, or she wouldn’t allow for a next time.

He watched her face, looked deep into her eyes until her lips parted and her legs trembled. Then he was there, pushing her hips tight against him and letting the sensation roll down his spine as he groaned through his release.

Caroline almost sobbed as she moved off Jack. She felt strange; almost as if once the pain had passed it had been almost—nice—or at least not as unpleasant as she expected, which confused her.