Suddenly You(56)

His shoulders moved in a careless shrug. “It was nothing. I have a tough Irish hide—I never felt the thrashings as much as the younger boys would have.”

Amanda snuggled closer to him, careful to keep her voice sympathetic rather than pitying. “Don’t make light of what you did.”

“Hush.” Jack placed gentle fingers over her lips. Dark color touched the crests of his cheeks. “Next you’ll make me out to be a damned saint,” he said gruffly, “and believe me, that is not the case. I was a hellion, and I grew up to be a reprobate.”

Amanda applied her tongue to one of his fingers, tickling the inside crease.

Surprised by the playful swipe of her tongue, Jack jerked back his hand and grinned down at her, the shades of bitter regret vanishing from his eyes. “Little witch.” He pulled back the covers and shifted Amanda’s body onto the expanse of smooth linen sheets. “I think we can put your tongue to better use than that,” he murmured, and covered her mouth with his own.

Chapter 11

Amanda’s relatives were not pleased by the news that she would not be coming to Windsor for the remainder of the holidays. They made their disgruntlement known through a cache of rapidly posted letters that Amanda declined to answer. Usually she would have taken the time to soothe their ruffled feathers, but as the days slipped by, she couldn’t bring herself to care. Her entire existence had become centered on Jack Devlin. The hours when they were apart passed with unbearable slowness, whereas the evenings sped by in a sweetly frantic rush. He always came to her after dark fell, and left just before dawn, and with each hour she spent in his arms, she only craved him more.

Jack treated her as no man ever had, regarding her not as a sedate spinster but as a woman of warmth and passion. On the occasions when Amanda’s inhibitions got the better of her, he teased her ruthlessly, provoking a temper she had never suspected herself of having. There were times, however, when Jack’s mood changed and he was no longer a mocking rogue but a tender lover. He would spend hours cuddling and stroking her, making love with exquisite gentleness. During those times, he seemed to understand her with a thoroughness that frightened her, as if he could see into her very soul.

Just as they had agreed, Jack made her read certain chapters of The Sins of Madam B, and he openly enjoyed her squirming discomfort at having to enact particular scenes in bed with him.

“I can’t,” she said in a muffled voice one evening, pulling the bed linens over her scarlet face. “I just can’t. Choose something else—I’ll do anything but that with you.”

“You promised you would try,” Jack said, his eyes gleaming with amusement as he jerked the sheets away from her.

“I don’t recall anything of the kind.”

“Coward.” He kissed the top of her spine and worked his way down her back, and she felt him smile against her skin. “Be brave, Amanda,” he whispered. “What do you have to lose?”

“My self-respect!” She tried to wriggle free, but he pinned her down and gently nipped the sensitive spot between her shoulder blades.

“Just give it a try,” he coaxed. “I’ll do it to you first—wouldn’t you like that?” He flipped her over and kissed her quivering stomach. “I want to taste you,” he murmured. “I want to put my tongue in you.”

If it were possible to die of mortification, she would have expired right then and there. “Perhaps later,” she said. “I need some time to accustom myself to the idea.”

A flare of laughter mingled with the heat in his eyes. “You decided to limit our affair to three months. That doesn’t leave much time.” His mouth played around the small circle of her navel, his warm breath wafting inside the hollow. “One kiss,” he urged, and his fingertip parted the curls between her thighs to alight on a place of startling sensation. “Right here. Will that be too much for you to bear?”

She made a helpless noise at the touch of his fingertip. “Just one,” she said unsteadily.

His mouth descended, and she felt his fingers sifting through the springy hair, spreading her gently. His lips parted, his tongue investigating her with a circling stroke. She felt the pull of ecstasy in every limb, her nerves screaming for more, all coherent thought shattering at the sight of his head between her thighs.

“One more?” he asked huskily, and he bent his head again before she could deny him. His mouth touched her again, wetting the aching rise of flesh, his tongue stroking and prodding with delicate skill. He did not ask for further consent but simply did as he wanted, settling between her legs with a sigh of pleasure while she cried out and strained and trembled. Sensation unfurled inside her and raced through every vein. She lay spread-eagled beneath him while her body acceded eagerly to the sweet torment of his mouth. Momentum gathered, hurtling her ever higher, until she had lost all hope of controlling the wild groans that emanated from her chest.

She felt his tongue slip inside her, a sleek, repeated plunging that caused her h*ps to rise in helpless surges. He returned to the tender nub of her sex, drawing it inside the suction of his mouth, while his finger penetrated the wet channel between her thighs. He teased the slick inner surface in a way that made her beg for release, until they both knew that she would allow anything, everything, that he might want.

He slipped a second finger inside her body, thrusting deeply to find an unbearably sensitive place. Gently he teased and rubbed while his mouth drew harder, his caresses steady, rhythmic, until she sobbed and cried out as the world exploded in bliss.