Page 50 of To Tempt a Troubled Earl
Kit thought back to his own ungainly clambering out of his bathtub earlier that day, accompanied by much cursing and sloshing of water, despite Jasper’s assistance. Lando’s graceful transition from lying to standing, shamelessly bare, was seamless. Generous streams of water cascaded down his chest, sheening his flat belly, slicking the treasure lying long and pale between his thighs. The man was as flawless and polished as the white marble of the chimney breast behind him.
“You are wearing pearls,” Kit stated needlessly. “While bathing.”
“For your rendezvous with Gartside.” Lando flashed his small, neat teeth. “For luck.”
Lando made no effort to cover himself. Or, in fact, dry himself. Kit drank in the perfect arrangement of shoulders, limbs, chest, and belly.
“The…ah…towels?” Lando murmured after a minute or so. Raising a slim hand to his neck, he fingered the pearls. His lip curled in that suggestive, crooked way he had.
“Yes.” Kit swallowed, his gums and tongue thick and sluggish as if unsure of their purpose. “You are wet,” he added uselessly.
Lando brought the pearls to his mouth. He ran the tip of his tongue around one. “One normally is after bathing. You could dry me off.”
The towels were thick and soft. Warm, too, from the fire. Kit began with Lando’s face, tenderly dabbing at the dampness. Lando stayed perfectly still.
“Gartside. His visit,” he prompted as Kit rubbed the towel in slow circles across Lando’s chest. Lando’s member was half hard now; Kit’s own arousal throbbed painfully against the placket of his breeches. As he swept the towel lower to catch a few drips making their way down Lando’s belly, he ghosted over Lando’s arousal and a possessive, needy sound escaped his throat.
“You are so…ugh…” Kit breathed.
A pearl clacked against Lando’s teeth.
“You are…” Kit tried again, a coherent response failing him. “That man’s name has no place in this bedchamber,” he managed instead. “Not now. Not here with…” His eyes were drawn to where Lando mouthed the pearls. “You need drying very carefully.”
Lando chuffed, and with a circling of his hips, brushed his shaft against Kit’s thigh. “Look. I’m still very wet down here.”
If Kit looked, he might explode. “So is your back,” he answered. “Turn around.”
As Kit swept the towel down the valley of Lando’s shoulder blades, he traced its path with his tongue, his open-mouthed kisses claiming every inch of hot damp skin. He rested his hand at Lando’s hip, holding him lightly in place as he trailed the cloth along the curve of his spine, lingering on the swell of his pale, smooth buttocks. When he dragged an edge down Lando’s divide, Lando arched back into him with a moan.
“I need drying thereverycarefully.”
“You are soaking,” Kit agreed hoarsely.
His desire was too loud for words. Too intrusive. Unstoppable. Palming himself through his breeches, he dragged the towel up again, a little deeper this time. Lando widened his stance, gripping the side of the tub for balance. As Kit dried that hidden part of him most thoroughly, with his other hand, he squeezed Lando’s bare buttock, rubbing himself against it.
It was not enough.
Abandoning the towel, he sank to his knees. Like succulent ripe fruit, Lando’s two pert mounds hovered inches away from his mouth, arching back into him. Tempting him. Kit had never performed such an intimate act—had never desired to—but then, he’d never been presented with such a delicious spectacle. Spreading Lando with his thumbs, he licked an obscene line down Lando’s crease and was rewarded by a sharp gasp.
He pulled back. “Too much?”
Lando pushed into him with a sigh. “Not enough.”
Kit licked again, this time keeping his mouth there. Lando writhed in pleasure, spurring him on. Kit lapped at the delicate pink star quivering under his tongue, tasting it, mouthing it. The taut flesh softened, he watched it unfurl and open, aware of his own shaft leaking like a lead pipe and just as hard. Lando’s sounds of pleasure echoed around the room in counterpoint to Kit’s obscene slurps.
“I am spoiled…” Lando gasped, writhing away from him. “No bath shall be complete until you undo me like this afterwards. I shall demand it after every single one.”
“You shall have it, my lord.” Ye gods, how wonderfully indecent Kit felt, himself fully clothed and his lover splayed open for him. “Whenever, whatever you wish, it is yours.”
“I wish to kiss you.”
Kit stood, spun Lando around, and pulled him into his arms. Frantically, he claimed his mouth, bruising Lando’s ripe lips with the intensity of it. Dragging him closer still, Kit closed his fingers around a clutch of pearls. As his own need threatened to drown him, he pushed Lando backwards. “And I wish you to be on the bed. Now.”
Kit loosened his cravat, urgently extricating himself from his finery. Spread out waiting for him, Lando toyed with his damned pearls. With his other hand, he fondled himself, teasing the hood of his prick up and down.
“Damn your tailor,” Kit cursed, wriggling like a worm on a hook. There was a slight tearing sound. “This coat is too blasted tight across my shoulders.”
The buttons were cursed, too, all ten pretty enamel ones adorning his waistcoat. A series of soft chuckles erupted from his lover as he wrestled with them, gaining in delight as Kit shook off his undershirt like it housed an angry wasp. He sat for his boots, in the nick of time remembering he hadn’t been put on this fine earth purely for Lando’s entertainment. Considering his lover was the one stark ballock naked and dripping soap suds, he shouldn’t be the one now chortling like a burst drain.
