Dauntless (Gentlemen of the Order 1)

“Hush. The servants will hear you.”

“Love, they’re going to hear a damn sight more than a curse.” He stared at the ugly mark—a palette of purple and blue and black. “I know you said it was a nasty bruise but—”

“No doubt it will fade in a week.”

“Then I must conduct a thorough examination every night, at least for the foreseeable future.”

“Yes, you must.”

The thought of having him in her bed, again and again, left her giddy. Her heart felt light in Noah Ashwood’s company. Light, yet as full and as engorged as his manhood.

“You might change your mind when we progress beyond me gaping at your marred thigh.”

Yes, the shock of seeing her injury had stolen the urgency from their lovemaking. But there was a way to solve that problem.

Eva sat up. She gathered her shift and drew it over her head, took his hand and pulled him down on top of her as she collapsed back onto the mattress.

The feel of his warm skin pressed against hers was her undoing. She claimed his mouth in a savage kiss. A kiss that cried of unrestrained longing. A passionate, erotic kiss full of pants and groans—an act of possession. Their tongues were so deep in each other’s mouths she shuddered from the pleasure.

They writhed on the bed. Noah eased between her legs, grinding against her sex while still wearing his breeches.

Eva dragged her mouth from his. “Undress. Undress quickly.”

He straightened, took a moment to catch his breath, but did not strip off his clothes as expected. His gaze drifted over her naked body like the kiss of the sun’s rays—hot, inviting, scorching her skin. There was something carnal about the way he drew his bottom lip between his teeth as he admired her form.

“I’ll undress in a moment.” He touched his fingers lightly to her abdomen, seemed to marvel in the softness before trailing down to her intimate place. “I want to pleasure you first.”

She knew what he intended to do. Once, she had walked into the dining room to find Mr Becker’s hand beneath his mistress’ skirts while the woman bounced happily on the chair.

A bolt of pleasure anchored her to the bed when Noah began massaging her sex. Her aching nipples hardened. Her gasps seemed to excite him, every soft caress robbing him of breath, too.

“Do you like me touching you like this, Eva?”

“Like it? It’s divine.”

But then, just as the sweet coil inside wound tighter, he stopped his magical ministrations. The longing, the unsated desire, was almost too much to bear. But Noah Ashwood was a man whose thorough approach to work applied equally in the bedchamber.

He came forward, braced on muscular arms, and kissed her passionately on the mouth. The kiss fed her growing need for him. But then he moved again, pressing his lips to her neck, to her breasts, feasting on her nipples until she no longer cared who heard her desperate pleas.

“Don’t stop.” She arched her back, threaded her hands into his hair.

“I don’t intend to.”

He kissed her abdomen, the brush of his mouth like the faint tickle of a feather, kissed her bruised thigh, teased her legs open. Her sex was exposed, laid bare while those greedy green eyes grew heavy at the sight. And then he was kissing her there, making love to her with his mouth and tongue.

“Good Lord.” Eva clutched the coverlet in her fists.

Each sweeping stroke, each divine suck and lick, drove her to the brink of something wonderful. Inside, the pressure became intense. The strange force slowly engulfed her until her world shattered.

“Noah!” She came apart crying his name, shuddering against his mouth.

He cupped her sex as the tremors subsided. “You were beautiful in your release, Eva.”

His husky voice reached her in some faraway place. She opened her eyes and their gazes locked over her naked body, spread on the bed like a feast. No one had ever called her beautiful. “Even when thrashing about like a madwoman?”

“Even then.”

The warm feeling in her sex journeyed northward, settling around her heart. She could live like this forever. Days spent writing and helping the needy. Nights spent locked in his passionate embrace.