Page 52 of Taming Ivy
The words, “after everything I let you do,” went unspoken but Sebastian heard them as loudly as a scream.
His hand ran up the outside of her leg to her hip, skimming along the silk of her skirts to come to rest in the small of her back. The partial confession infuriated him even as the night of the opera haunted him.My intentions are not entirely honorable... she told him then. He ignored that warning.
She tricked him, but he allowed it, blinded by his craving for her. She thought she won the game. Fury drummed in his veins. With a sudden dizziness, Sebastian realized he was capable of physically hurting her.
“Were you expecting a proposal? Don’t lie to me, damn you.” The kisses he pressed along the edge of her voluptuous mouth were deceptive in their gentleness.
“N...no,” she choked out.
She was a liar. She lied straight to his face. She expected the Earl of Ravenswood on his knees. Her victory stung with the pain of a thousand nails driven into his flesh all at once.
“Liar. You don’t wish for me to propose?”
“No…yes. I don’t-Sebastian,please.”
His lips stretched into a thin line of cruelty. “Idohave an offer for you, sweetheart.”
Her breath escaping in a shaky puff of relief, Ivy immediately relaxed in his grip. He bit back a laugh at her astounding vanity. She still believed he meant to ask for her hand. Instead, she delivered the instrument of her downfall.
He liked the way her breath came in soft gasps. He loved her hands sliding through his hair, how she pressed against his chest in thankful submission. It would be so easy to toss her skirts, to take her right there. He had carried this lust for an eternity. It was part of his soul; this incessant want and desire part of the fabric twining the two of them together. To rip everything to shreds, he needed only to claim her.
This, this would behisvictory, the moment he snatched triumph from her, made her pay his price. His path lay clear and open, waiting for him to seize it without mercy.
With one hand, Sebastian swept the neat and orderly desk clear of items. This was what he’d dreamed of, what he desired and craved from the moment he clapped eyes on this deceitful, cunning, bewitching little countess. Every delectable inch of her would finally belong to him.
He lifted her, depositing her on the edge of the desk while hiking her skirts at the same time. Pushing apart her knees with rough hands, he positioned himself between her legs. She did not fight, did not cry out in horror or even seem frightened by his sense of urgency. The mere mention of a proposal untwisted doubts and melted any resistance. She unbent and opened as Sebastian pressed his arousal against her. Cupping the back of her neck, she was a willing prisoner while his mouth crashed upon hers in a seething flurry of dark desire.
Devouring the sweetness of her lips was not enough. He needed more.
Her skirts were twisted higher. Brushing past the flimsy barrier of her drawers, he eased a finger inside her intoxicating heat. Swallowing her startled sigh, he caressed the point of her womanhood with the pad of his thumb until she grew damp and restless. Forcing her to the edge of the cliff, he made sure she was trembling and ravenous before letting her plunge over. Erratic but steady, her climax pulsed against the palm of his hand and Sebastian greedily wanted every tiny shuddering beat to belong to him.
He wanted to move over her, replace his finger with his body. He wanted to thrust his way into her softness until she cried out his name in pleasure. Unbuttoning his breeches, pushing at her, rubbing against her sex, not quite entering her, he allowed his shaft to become slick with her moisture. Her climax left her hungry. She was desperate for his caress, mindless for it, almost incoherent from pleasure, and although his touch was rough, his grip harsher than any time in the past, Ivy was beyond caring. Caught in the whirlwind, she could not distinguish his wrath from passion. Sebastian knew it. He took full advantage of it.
“Yes, Sebastian, please,please.” She tried pressing her lips to his and he evaded her.
Because he could not bring himself to kiss her when she was like this. He would willingly drown in her, losing sight of his ultimate goal if he gave in. To keep his wits about him, he must drag her to the brink of insanity before giving into her.
Yanking at the bodice of her gown, he pushed at the light corset until she was fully exposed. Crudely cupping one breast with his palm, he raised it to meet his voracious mouth, groaning at the taste of her sweetness. He clasped the rounded swell of her bottom, jerking her closer to the edge of the desk. His fingers dug painfully into the flesh of her buttocks as his erection quivered at her body’s entrance.
Her low moan was a siren’s call, her hips lifting in an ancient invitation. Rolling her nipple around in the wet heat of his mouth, his teeth raked it until it hardened into a tight little rosebud. Then he bit her, a sharpness that made her jerk and press closer to him. Between her legs, she grew even wetter, the damp flesh against the tip of his shaft nearly unmanning him.
“Are you mine, Ivy?” His whisper demanded truthfulness. “Are you? Answer me, damn you, answer me.”
“Yes, Sebastian, I love you, I love you. You- only you. Please, oh God, Sebastian, I don’t know what to do. I need you…. inside me…inside...please.Don’t stop.”
Hearing the words, tumbling from her beautiful lips in needy gasps, drove Sebastian to the depths of a gruesome brutality. The very last piece of her fell into his hands.
Her body was his. Her heart, her wicked soul. All his.
With no warning, he thrust, impaling her with one quick stroke. His head reeled with such unbearable sensations he barely comprehended that her cry sounded different from before.
Pain or pleasure?
Did it matter? Pinpricks of heaven, glittering and terrible, bombarded him. Sliced without mercy into his brandy-fueled, revenge induced haze. He melted into her.
Ivy was hot.
Slick.
