The Libertine (Taskill Witches 2)

“What is it?” Grasping her by the chin he forced her to meet his gaze.

Chloris felt something turn in her chest and her will to keep her private matters private weakened. “I must fall pregnant with my husband’s heir.”

He cocked his head as if waiting for her to say more. Expecting it.

The truth knotted in her chest, but the dark secret she carried—that which filled her with shame—was being drawn out as surely as if he had it harnessed by a thread of magic and tugged gently, drawing from her.

Her lips parted, but she said it unwillingly. “I fear my life depends on it.”

CHAPTER SIX

My life depends on it? Lennox studied the woman, attempting to read the turmoil he saw there at the back of her eyes.

Prior to that moment of confession she was all but ready to surrender herself to him completely—and he was more than ready to lose himself between her soft thighs. His intentions, at first, had been almost wholly selfish. There was a twisted pleasure in entering Tamhas Keavey’s house while he slumbered unaware. There was also great pleasure in dallying with his cousin. Her tender beauty called to him. She would be soft and supple beneath him, and he craved the clasp of her body on his hardened cock as he entered her. During the ritual she had responded so readily, and that only increased his desire.

How sweet it was to enjoy her, with the certain knowledge that Keavey would be horrified when the tale came out. The nature of the situation had changed, however. She’d drawn back a curtain and showed him her secret fears. An instinctive need to know more came over him. He regretted the interruption, but there were times when discovering the truth overwhelmed his cause. It was because he hated to see fear in a woman’s eyes. Desire was good. Fear was not. It was always the way because of what he’d seen happen to his own womenfolk, as a youth.

“Your life?” he queried.

Her eyelids remained lowered, the patches of color on her cheeks high. “I should not have said that.”

The tug of resistance was more than he would expect in a well-to-do woman who had lowered herself to seek help of the local witches. There were the basic fears—that they would be discovered together, that she would be mocked by her hosts for indulging her whims with the demonic Witch Master. Beyond that there was a deep fear, something that had forced her footsteps to his door. She wanted a child, and yet that wasn’t the only thing pushing her footsteps on. The need in her was something far deeper, rooted in obligation and mired in a situation from which she felt she had no escape.

“Come now.” He stroked her face, urging her to tell him more. There were so many intriguing things about this woman. She was a wellborn lady, and yet she was suggesting that she had suffered. “You have said it, and you have lowered a barrier between us.”

“Please.” She looked at him from under her lashes. “My comment was overly dramatic in the heat of the moment.” She swallowed. “I meant only that my husband would be so much happier if I were to have a child.”

Lennox took a lingering glance at her breasts, so voluptuous spilling from her loosed bodice, her peaked nipples a telltale sign of her state of readiness for lovemaking. How he would enjoy disrobing her completely, pleasuring her until she cried out for him. It would happen. He had commenced her seduction in order to make Keavey suffer. Now that he saw the humility in her, and he felt the vital spark of her burgeoning arousal in response to him, his opinion on where to take matters was divided. He shrugged it off, disposing of the moment of doubt. He could have her, embolden her in carnal ways, bring her to an understanding of her perceived lack of womanhood, and still it would annoy Keavey.

In the candlelight he could see the pulse beating at the base of her throat and the swell of her breast rose and fell rapidly. Stimulating her had been easy enough, stepping away was going to be harder for him. She was ready, and the startled expression in her eyes convinced him that she was not familiar with being in the state of readiness for passion. How interesting it would be to lead her further along that path.

The pressing need to find release himself played its own part. The way she’d looked at him when he began to weave his spell turned him hard. Those eyes of hers, so open, so honest. The way her lips parted when she found her senses stimulated. It made him want to enter her, to satisfy the desire that had been brought about in them both. He had not expected to be so readily stimulated, but the moment he entered her chamber he began thinking about how pleasant it might be to lie between her legs.

Advances had been made to his satisfaction.

Now, to be sure she would meet him again.

He traced his fingers across her collarbone and down into the shadowy dip between her breasts. Hooking his finger over the bodice of her gown, he tugged at it, freeing her breasts entirely. Her head pressed back into the pillows, her eyelids fluttering down as the soft globes of her breasts were fully revealed. Her body undulated against the bedcovers. She reached for him and her hands fisted on his shirt.

There was no doubt in his mind that she was ready to capitulate, to allow him to take what he wanted. However, that wasn’t enough. He wanted her to need him so desperately that she pursued him and begged for her

release at his hands. Only then would he accept that he had done his job well enough. Knowing that she had flaunted herself, offered—nay—given herself to him, she would hang her head in shame when Keavey asked her if it was the truth, if she had sullied herself at the hands of the local Witch Master.

He had made it easier for her tonight, traveling to meet her here. She had needed that, however. The night before there had been regret in her eyes. Now the new fear that she exhibited was that he would not take this further.

It was time to test her a little. How far was she prepared to go?

He rose to his feet. “We have done well tonight, and now I must take my leave.”

Her head lifted from the pillows, seeking him out. “But you...you have put me in such a state. I do not know how I will rest.” Round-eyed and delightfully innocent-looking, she continued, “Is there no way you can alleviate the condition you have put me in?”

Lennox attempted to keep his manner serious. In truth it amused him immensely to think how outraged Tamhas Keavey would be if he knew the despised coven master was in his home, making his pretty cousin swoon after mere moments of preliminary lovemaking. Lusty thoughts filled his mind and it took some effort to ignore the state of his cock when he stood upright. Her whispered pleas and protestations did not help to quell his state of readiness. “I cannot risk staying longer. I have not forgotten your honor is at stake, nor do I want to.”

She sat back against the pillows and rested her hand against her forehead, her expression apparently startled to the point of dismay by his imminent departure.

Lennox observed the depth of her need. Unleashing her passions—when the time came—would be most pleasurable indeed.

“But I... Is it done? I mean, have we achieved our goal?” There was a demanding expression in those wide eyes of hers. “I have seen your magic but I do not know if it has changed me. At least—” she put her hand to her throat “—not in the way I meant it to.”