“I will never love him, I swear,” she murmured huskily. She bent even closer, her tantalizing mouth hovering over his. “I am yours. Only yours…”
“Bloody hell,” Kell muttered under his breath. He’d refused to take advantage of Raven Kendrick’s slumberous state, but she had done just that to him in her hunger for a man.
And he wasn’t a damned saint-far from it. The temptation to take her was so great, he could feel himself yielding.
She kissed him then, her tongue sliding enticingly into his mouth, seeking. In self-defense, he shifted his hands to push her away, but her nipples stabbed his palms.
Kell groaned. When she straddled his hips, he no longer could summon the will to resist. She was feverish with wanting, every flame-hot inch of her ripe for the taking, and he intended to allow her to have what she craved.
He grasped her hips, lifting her slightly and easing her onto his huge erection, drawing a harsh breath at the exquisite feel of her sleek heat…
Suddenly she stiffened. She gave a sharp, twisting movement, trying to impale herself on his rigid shaft, but then she stopped, a look of quivering surprise on her face.
A startled surprise that Kell shared. Shock reverberated through him at her virginal tightness. She was untouched by a man…
Frantically he jerked his hips, withdrawing from her chaste body and holding her away.
She looked down at him in bewilderment, her hair a tangle around her beautiful face, her glazed eyes pleading.
“Please…” she whispered.
Without waiting for him, she ground herself against his muscular thigh, her pelvis thrusting wildly against him in an agony of need.
Compassionately he gripped the firm, sweet flesh of her buttocks and aided her, setting a hard rhythm until she exploded yet again, crying out in rapture and collapsing bonelessly upon him.
Lying there in the painful aftermath, Kell held her exquisite body as if it were fragile glass, as if he were afraid to touch it.
How in hell could she possibly still be a virgin? With her courtesan’s lashes and sultry mouth and her reputation as a seductress, he’d naturally presumed her carnally experienced. Her desperate lust could be accounted for by the aphrodisiac, of course, but there had been nothing innocent or virginal in her practiced kisses or her bold caresses.
A gamester by profession, he would have wagered half his fortune that she was no virgin. A wager he obviously would have lost.
Devil take it, her eager assault on his manhood suggested clearly that she was no stranger to a man’s body…
Yet perhaps she was indeed carnally experienced but had been saving her virginity for her husband. Her noble husband. Kell frowned suddenly, recalling that Miss Kendrick was supposed to have wed her duke yesterday. In fact, that celebrated event was what had driven his brother to finally act, to mete out his avowed vengeance.
Kell took a deep, steadying breath, unintentionally inhaling the delicate fragrance of her hair. What had his volatile younger brother gotten him into? And what the devil was he supposed to do with her now?
Just then she gave a sigh and buried her nose in his shoulder, making a mewling sound like a kitten. An odd tenderness flooded Kell-a totally involuntary response that grated on his nerves.
He was still enraged at her for wounding his brother so savagely, yet for the first time, he began to question Sean’s veracity. Sean’s claim that he’d enjoyed her sexual favors, that she had in fact offered her body, was clearly untrue. Was it also possible that Raven Kendrick wasn’t entirely the vicious Jezebel she had been labeled?
Admittedly Sean’s feelings toward her had been warped by his recent brutal impressment. Yet his darker side had fomented long before, Kell knew to his sorrow. Worse, his brother still harbored a simmering resentment against him, blaming Kell for abandoning him to their uncle’s perversions more than a dozen years ago.
Kell squeezed his eyes shut at the familiar anguish. Since their mother’s senseless death when he was fifteen, he’d felt responsible for Sean, who was five years his junior-even though their paternal uncle had assumed legal guardianship for them both. But he had failed miserably in his duty to protect his young brother, unwittingly leaving Sean to their uncle’s debauchery.
He’d tried desperately to make amends since then. Remembering, Kell raised his fingers to his cheek. His scar had resulted from a violent fight with their uncle, when he’d discovered William Lasseter’s sordid crime. He’d wanted to kill the bastard, but instead he’d escaped with Sean to Dublin, vowing to keep him safe.
For a time they’d known no other home but the streets, scrounging for their very existence, struggling to survive. Kell had quickly learned to rely on his exceptional gaming skills to put food in their empty bellies. They’d had only each other, and then their uncle had pursued them to Ireland…
Deliberately Kell crushed the dark memory. Yet he couldn’t quell his growing misgivings about his brother, or summarily dismiss Sean’s vengeance as focused merely on Raven Kendrick and not on himself as well.
He would have given his life for his brother, if need be. It pained him to think Sean might have deliberately sought to destroy the tenuous reputation he’d fought so hard to build for his gaming house.
But why else would Sean have brought Miss Kendrick here, if not out of vindictiveness?
Reminded of the blue-eyed siren in his arms, Kell winced. Her hair drifted like cool silk against the backs of his hands, her soft breasts and slim thighs scorched him like hot coals, eliciting powerful emotions inside him that he didn’t want to feel…
“Bloody hell,” he cursed again, damning her and his brother both.