Valentine's Vow (Avenging Lords 3)

“Damnation,” he muttered, dragging her across his lap to straddle him. “I said I wouldn’t make love to you in a carriage.”

Heat smouldered in those dark brown irises. “I would not have you break a vow on my account,” she said in the voice of a skilled coquette.

“It wasn’t exactly a solemn promise.” He held her firmly on his lap while he shuffled forward and drew the blinds. Nothing would stop him having her now, not even his own damn conscience. “I don’t imagine it will be comfortable.”

“Stop talking. It is your turn to undress.”

“Undress? Madam, this will be a wild and reckless mating in a conveyance. There’s no time for anything else.”

Ava smiled as she shuffled off his lap. “It sounds thrilling, highly exciting.”

He had to agree.

While he unbuttoned his breeches and took hold of his throbbing erection, Ava hoisted her skirts up to her waist.

“How is it done?”

“You may sit astride me, or I can bend you over the carriage seat.” Lord, he could not believe he was having this conversation. “If we are to behave with wanton abandon, we may as well embrace the role.”

“May we try the latter?”

“Without meaning to sound like a libertine, I have no preference as long as I am inside you.” Love and lust, it seemed, went hand in hand.

The lady cast him a sinful grin. She turned around and offered him a glorious sight of her soft, round buttocks as she gripped the back of the seat.

Valentine came behind her. He slipped his fingers between her thighs, teased her until she was more than wet and willing. After an awkward fumble, he pushed inside her, so achingly slow the power of it made his knees tremble. There was nothing crude about their joining. The essence of this woman surrounded him, drew him deep to cement the bond that could not be broken.

Slick with the evidence of her arousal, he thrust inside her, deep inside, so deep the loud slapping was like an erotic melody to his ears.

“Do you want to move to a more comfortable position?” he asked, leaning over her to massage the sensitive spot between her legs.

“Not yet,” she panted, throwing her head back as her movements became fevered, more erratic.

He played her like a master pianist tinkled the ivory keys—with skill, precision, in the expert way that said the union was destined long before tonight. She came apart calling his name. She muttered something else, and in his desperation to know her innermost thoughts, he imagined he heard the word love.

With one more thrust, Valentine withdrew and spilt the evidence of his need for her into his hand. Reaching for his handkerchief, he cleaned away all traces of his recklessness before assisting Ava with her skirts and helping her back into the seat.

It took a few breaths for her to regain her composure. Her cheeks coloured crimson, yet it did not stop her watching him as he tucked his manhood back into his breeches.

“May I ask you something, Lucius?”

It was the first time she had used his given name. He liked the way the word sounded on her lips.

“As long as you’ve not changed your mind about the position and wish to try the other way.” It was too much to expect a man to make love in a carriage twice in one day, though he would have no problem rising to the occasion.

She chuckled. “Perhaps you should see if Mr Cassiel has an opening for an apprentice. You seem to have the ability to read my mind.”

As his mind played a mental picture of their amorous interlude, it suddenly occurred to him that the carriage had stopped.

“Any vigorous activity inside will be noticeable now we’re not rumbling through the streets.” He noted the mischievous glint in her eyes. “You’re mocking me. That was clearly not the question you wished to ask.”

“No,” she said, offering him a smile. “I want to know if it is always like this.”

“It?”

“This wonderful thing that exists between us.” Ava waved her hand back and forth between them. “Is passion always so overwhelming? So all-consuming?”

“No.” Was this her way of asking if she meant something to him? “I have certainly never experienced a feeling like this. What happened at the beginning stemmed from an outpouring of emotion, the consequence of two people sharing a deep and abiding affection. What happened then was that physical lust got the better of us.”