His roughened voice made her ache for things that often left her blushing when she thought about them. Her heart picked up its rhythm as temptation and impossible desires beat at her. How many nights had she lain awake dreaming of passion and wicked deeds?
You harlot.
No, the woman inside her roared at the ghost of her husband’s voice. No more.
“Do not try to find out who I am.”
“I swear it on my honor,” came the stranger’s immediate reply.
“And I do not want to know who you are.”
“As you wish.”
A sigh of longing pulsed from her. “I want…I want…” Words failed her.
“Tell me.”
She couldn’t speak through the tight knot in her throat. He waited, and she distantly admired his patience. Lily closed the portal, shutting away the image of the earl twisting his lover to sit atop him. She wanted to ask about every scandalous thing she had wondered but had been told was too shocking for a lady to know…even a wife. “What is the most improper and unladylike word you know for what happens between a man and woman…when they are in bed being intimate?”
“Tupping, swiving, prigging…but my personal favorite is fucking.”
Oh. Thick anticipatory silence blanketed them. She could not bring herself to say her shameful needs.
“There is freedom in the darkness. Say what you want. Take what you want.” His voice was a whisper of velvet across her skin.
Freedom in the darkness. He was the devil. This stranger was the only man to ever ask what she wanted. He was in a position of power, he could simply take her if he wanted, and no one would be the wiser.
The darkness whispered around her, safe and sheltering, yet also electrifying and dangerous. “I want…I want your mouth on me there,” she whispered, stepping off the edge of recklessness into the freedom her heart had been hungering for.
Chapter Three
The words lingered in the darkness…an offer for this stranger to sweep her away. The awareness of the depth of trust she placed in him was frightening. She was giving him her body, unreservedly. But better yet, she would be able to be gloriously wanton without being reprimanded.
“You want me to lick your slit.”
She couldn’t fight the need that thrummed through her body. Years of pent up arousal, of hard-won control shattered in that instance. “Yes.”
A soft hiss slipped from him, but she heard it. She felt bold, adventurous.
Serious, reserved Lily was gone, and in her place was the woman she had always longed to be. She was a temptress…a wanton, or perhaps simply a woman indulging in mutual pleasure for the very first time. Well, she hoped pleasure would be mutual…he seemed knowledgeable of the sensual arts.
She felt when he dipped, and then a soft kiss was pressed on her shoulders, felt the warm caress of his breath against her throat. Trepidation and excitement melded into an indistinguishable whole. He pushed her nightgown up to her waist, baring her bottom to the cool draft in the hidden passage. Lily’s breath rasped from her, and she trembled. She was allowing a stranger to touch her with such shocking familiarity. He bunched her dress in front of her and pressed her closer to the wooden panel. A large hand, smooth, without calluses, settled with firm possession on her hip.
A gentleman. Not the hand of a worker, or a servant. One of his fingers tapped her mound, sending little vibrations to her clitoris, which rested below that taunting finger.
“How long since your husband passed?”
“Long enough.” Two years and three months.
“Have you had lovers since?”
He addled her thoughts. “How is this of import?”
He ran his fingers down to her already damp slit. His action was so unexpected, she jolted at the contact.
“I simply wondered how hard I could take your pussy without worrying about your sensibilities.”
Her mind blanked, then a startling rush of pleasure burned through her, and liquid soaked his fingers. Her cheeks flamed.