Page 83 of West End Earl
He grinned against her lips. “Told you a dress makes this easier.” The laughter in his voice felt like coming home. Finally. She’d missed him. Missed feeling connected with him, missed being on his side. Them against the world, unstoppable together.
Her hand stroked his length as he slid a finger into the slick heat of her. He grunted a curse, but it sounded like praise.
“I need you inside me,” she said.
“Not yet.” It would ruin the knees of his breeches, but Cal didn’t seem to care when he knelt before her and kissed his way from her knee to thigh, then higher.
The press of the rock behind her didn’t matter; the bite of the wind on her leg only made the skin under his fingers and mouth tingle more as the nerves came alive.
He sucked at the pulsing top of her slit, abrading her skin deliciously with his beard, then soothing the sensation with his tongue. Phee’s breathing devolved into short, sharp exhales before turning into a keening cry when he slid a finger into her again. Lordy, she was close.
“Now, Cal. I want you inside me when I go over the edge.”
The hot puff of his breath warmed her lips when he rose and kissed her. With eager hands, Cal tugged her bodice down until chilly air and anticipation puckered her nipples. A shiver rippled through Phee’s body right to her toes as Cal hauled her higher against his body and claimed one tight nipple. He settled the wide, blunt head of his cock at her entrance, and they both groaned in relief as their bodies connected.
Cal’s voice was a low, ragged rumble in her ear. “It feels like it’s been forever since I was inside you.”
“Ithasbeen forever,” she panted.
Now that he filled her to the hilt, Cal didn’t let go of her, even to thrust. So the movements were tiny, building a pressure between them as he rocked the base of his sex against that nub at the top of her slit. When his teeth tugged the hard point of her nipple, the tension built in that now familiar climb toward climax.
Control unraveled while everything within Phee tightened. She was aware of only his teeth on her skin, and where their bodies joined.
Cal groaned his encouragement, leaving her breast only long enough to mutter a guttural “Fuck, Phee” before following her over the edge to bliss in a hot rush.
She could have stayed there all day, soft-kneed, pressed against the rocky face of a cliff, if not for a cry above them.
“Miss Hardwick! Miss Hardwick, come quick!” Polly’s voice drifted down to where they stood.
Cal’s face echoed Phee’s concern at that cry.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Phee said.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I’ll be up in a moment, Polly! Wait there,” Phee called from the deepening twilight shadows, shaking her skirts into place. She tugged at her bodice while Cal put his clothes to rights.
“Hurry! Miss Emma is alone with that man, and it doesn’t feel right.” The maid sounded genuinely worried, and by the time they crested the top of the trail to the cliff edge, slightly out of breath, Polly looked to be near tears.
“Who’s with Emma?” Phee and Cal asked at the same time.
“An older gent in a carriage came to call. Seemed nice enough, so I let him wait in the parlor. Emma joined him, but something is wrong. I can feel it here.” Polly pressed a fist to her belly.
An older gentleman? Phee looked at Cal as an awful possibility occurred to her. Without another word, they took off running toward the house. The lawn seemed an endless expanse of green. Phee cut to the right because the kitchen door was closer than the front entrance.
“Could you have been followed?” Phee whispered to Cal as they slipped into the hall beyond the kitchen.
“Nelson says the crew hasn’t heard from Milton in weeks. What if I led him right to you?” Cal said.
Outside the open door to the parlor, they paused, being as quiet as possible.
Emma’s voice rang clear. “I’m not discussing my late husband with you. Adam spoke of you, and never fondly. Please leave.”
Milton’s reply disappeared amidst a ringing in Phee’s ears. That voice. For a moment she was a child again, helpless against his vile words. Trembling weakened her thighs, then moved through her torso until her stomach threatened to eject everything she’d eaten today.
Cal wrapped an arm around her waist in a warm, firm line of support. “You don’t have to go in there. I can get Emma out of the room and take care of it.”
She shook her head. “He’s my dragon to slay, not yours.”
