To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers #2)(65)

How could she deny him? The pleasu kim?Comre was building inside, and she wanted to hide her face. He was in control in ways she hadn’t let him be before. He would watch. He would know the secrets she kept hidden from him.

“Come with me.” He bent his head to lick her nipple.

She arched her head and wailed. He caught the sound in his mouth. Licked it up and swallowed it, a prize of this battle. He pressed down on her and held her as she came, jolting with each bolt of pleasure. He held her down with mouth and hips and that thumb, brushing lightly, sweetly, madly now. She’d never experienced an orgasm like this one, nearly painful in its intensity. She opened her eyes, gasping, and saw he wasn’t done. She’d been reduced to shivering pleasure, and he’d only started. He propped himself up on straight arms and watched her as he surged into her, hot and heavy and without mercy. His mouth was twisted, his eyes mad with lust and something else.

“God,” he ground out. “God. God. God!”

He threw back his head, arching convulsively, and she saw him bare his teeth as his body jerked into hers. His seed flooded her, warm and alive. She felt a joy such as she’d never felt before. She’d given and she’d received from him.

It was nearly holy.

His head was tilted back above her, his arms still straight. She couldn’t see his face because of his hair. A single drop of liquid fell to her left breast.

“Jasper,” she whispered, and cradled his wet face. “Jasper.”

He pulled out of her, the loss of his flesh almost a painful wrench, and climbed from the bed. He bent and scooped up his banyan and flung it on. “The robber boy died.”

He left the room.

Chapter Thirteen

That night, the royal court was abuzz with rumor. The serpent was dead and the bronze ring gone, but no one had come forward with the ring. Who was the brave man who had captured the ring?

Jack, as usual, stood beside the princess’s chair at supper, and she gave him a very strange look when she sat down.

“Why, Jack,” she cried, “where have you been? Your hair is quite wet.”

“I have been to visit a wee silver fishy,” Jack said, and turned a silly somersault.

The princess smiled and ate her soup, but what a surprise awaited her at the bottom of the bowl! There lay the bronze ring.

Well! That caused quite a stir, and the head cook was summoned at once. But although the poor man was questioned before the entire court, he had no knowledge of how the ring had got in Princess Surcease’s soup. At last the king was forced to dismiss the cook, no wiser than before. ne o. . .

—from LAUGHING JACK

She must think him a ravening beast after the night before. It was not a happy thought to have over breakfast, and Jasper scowled at the eggs and bread the innkeeper’s wife had provided. They were rather tasty, but the tea was weak and not of the best quality; besides, he would take the smallest reason to feel out of sorts this morning.

He peered over his teacup at his lady wife. She didn’t look like a woman who had been ravished in the night. On the contrary, she appeared fresh and rested and with every hair in place, which for some reason irked him even more.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked, possibly the most mundane of conversational openings.

“Yes, thank you.” She fed a bit of bun to Mouse, who sat beneath the table. He knew this, although she neither moved nor changed expression. Indeed she continued to gaze steadily at him. It was something in the very steadiness of her gaze that let him know what she did.

“We shall enter Scotland today,” he said. “We should be in Edinburgh by tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

He nodded and buttered a bun, his third. “I have an aunt in Edinburgh.”

“You do? You never said.” She took a sip of tea.

“Yes, well, I do.”

“Is she a Scot?”

“No. Her first husband was a Scot. I believe she is on husband number three at the moment.” He laid his butter knife down on the plate. “Her name is Mrs. Esther Whippering, and we will spend a night with her.”

“Very well.”

“She’s getting on in years but sharp as a tack. Used to twist my ear rather painfully as a boy.”

She paused over her teacup. “Why? What had you done?”

“Nothing at all. She said it was good for me.”

“No doubt it was.”

He opened his mouth, about to defend his youthful honor, when he felt something cold and wet on the hand in his lap.

He’d been reaching for the butter knife with his other hand, and he nearly dropped it again. “My God, what is that?”

“I expect it’s only Mouse,” Melisande said serenely.

He peered under the table and saw two eyes gleaming back. They looked a little devilish in the dark. “What does he want?”

“Your bun.”

Jasper looked at his wife, outraged. “He shan’t have it.”

She shrugged. “He’ll only bother you until you give him some.”

“That’s no reason to reward bad behavior.”

“Mmm. Shall we have the innkeeper’s wife pack a luncheon for us? She seems to be a good cook.”

He felt another nudge against his leg. A warm weight settled on his foot. “An excellent idea. We may not be near an inn at luncheon time.”