Page 38 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

“I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured against Jeremy’s ear as he hugged the man tightly.

Jeremy laughed and squeezed him in return, then rocked back, looking this way and that. “I was right here the entire time. Almost,” Jeremy said. He had a glint of mischief in his eyes but also a hint of understanding about why Derrek had been so worried. “Did you find what you were searching for?” he asked.

Derrek shook his head, unable to form words for a moment, his emotions ran so high. “I may have imagined things.”

He had not imagined anything, but that was beside the point now that he had Jeremy with him once more.

“There’s a dance starting up in the green at the edge of the village,” Jeremy said, the sparkle still in his eyes. “Would you like to teach me everything you know now?”

“Yes,” Derrek answered, that one syllable saying everything.

The two of them left the front of the shop and headed across the village to where a large group of people had already begun dancing. Derrek and Jeremy joined them, and through the course of watching Jeremy learn the steps of the simple, circle dance far quicker than he’d intimated that he would, Derrek’s anxiety gradually began to wane.

That did not stop him from looking around for the rest of the day as he and Jeremy enjoyed the dances, food, and entertainments on offer. He had seen someone, and whether it was Lord Albert or not, seeing someone out of place reminded him that there was a whole world and a mountain of troubles awaiting them back in London.

He refused to let those concerns ruin the rest of his day, though. Especially as the day wore on, more beer and spirits were consumed, and the revels turned a touch ribald. Though he did not drink much himself and did not witness Jeremy drinking much at all, the two of them were still pulled into a kissing game with the ladies of the village.

It was ridiculous, really, to see Jeremy being handed around between the matrons of the village, all of whom wanted kisses before they would let him go from the gaols of their embraces once they’d caught him. Jeremy played the game with good humor, giving the ladies all the kisses they needed as everyone else looked on and laughed.

When the game took a turn and one of the ladies pushed Jeremy into Derrek’s arms, Derrek took the incredible risk of kissing him square on the lips in front of everyone.

Jeremy gasped, his eyes going wide. Fortunately for them, everyone watching roared with laughter, as if the whole thing were a game.

Of course, none of it was a game for Derrek. Kissing Jeremy with everyone watching was uniquely thrilling. It left him sparkling with the possibilities of what their life could be like together if they could somehow find themselves in a society that allowed them that sort of affection.

“I think I want to kiss you again,” Derrek said once the game was over, as the sun began to set and the festivities moved to where a bonfire had been built in a field beside the village. He and Jeremy were not in a position to act on impulse in any way, but that did not stop the fire in Derrek’s eyes as he gazed at his beloved. “I think I want to kiss you all over.”

Jeremy caught his breath and gazed back at Derrek with just as much heat. “I should like that very much,” he whispered. “I should like that and a great deal more.”

The world seemed to stop moving for a moment. Derrek blinked, then said, “Truly?”

Jeremy nodded, sincerity and desire in his eyes.

Derrek grasped his hand, despite whomever might have been watching. “Let’s go home,” he said.

The journey back to the cottage was one of the quickest they’d made since coming to stay there. Derrek felt as though his feet had wings as they rushed along the path that took them out of the village and through the fields. As soon as they were far enough away from the village to be out of sight of the revelers, Derrek pulled Jeremy into his arms and kissed him passionately in the twilight. It was a beautiful melding of lips and tongue and bodies, but it wasn’t even close to what Derrek really wanted, so he ended it swiftly and rushed on.

By the time they made it back to the cottage, they were both so overwrought with anticipation that they did not even bother to light the lamps or check on the fires as they burst through the front room of the cottage and straight on into the bedroom.

“I do not know sufficiently what I am doing,” Jeremy said in a shaky, breathless voice as the two of them tore at each other’s clothing, letting it fall where it may. “I know a bit, but….”

“There is no right or wrong in this,” Derrek reassured him, pulling Jeremy’s shirt off over his head, then dispensing with his own. “Only us.”

Only us. All Derrek needed was Jeremy. If he had his way, it would be the two of them, only us, forever.

Throwing off their clothing was easy. Tumbling into bed was simple as well. The way their bodies twined as they reached and grasped for each other, stroking across flesh and tasting each other, was beyond anything Derrek could have wished for. He was ordinarily a ferocious lover, taking what he wanted from men who were experienced in giving themselves over and who liked to be pounded hard.

Jeremy was so very different from all of them. Instead of pushing Jeremy to his stomach, yanking up his hips, and burying himself to the hilt inside him, Derrek took his time, kissing and licking his way across Jeremy’s neck and chest, and stroking his hands over Jeremy’s thighs and sides before reaching between them to take Jeremy’s cock in hand.

Jeremy let out a plaintive sound of enjoyment and pressed his hips into the sensation as Derrek teased him. “Derrek,” he gasped, threading his fingers through Derrek’s hair as Derrek rained kisses across his chest and belly.

Derrek was not ordinarily the sort to lavish his lover with attention, but he could not help himself with Jeremy. He shifted lower so that he could stroke his tongue up the length of Jeremy’s cock, then closed his mouth around the flared tip so that he could consume it with pleasure. Jeremy moaned and bucked with the sensations Derrek created in him, transported with the intimacy.

More than that, with a sudden, pitched cry, Jeremy’s body tensed, and before Derrek could draw him all the way into his mouth, he began to spend himself right to the back of Derrek’s throat. Derrek swallowed, proud of himself for bringing his lover off so fast, though in future, he would be more aware of how close Jeremy was to extend both of their pleasure.

Not that he needed more time for his own orgasm. He was so close already that all it took was kneeling up so that he could stroke himself vigorously while gazing down at Jeremy, sweating and panting in the wake of his climax, before he was shooting his seed over Jeremy’s belly and chest. The sight of marking his dove that way was so powerfully arousing that it would have made him come again if he hadn’t already exhausted himself.

“You are beautiful,” he gasped, balancing over Jeremy so that he could capture his mouth in a powerful kiss.

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