Page 22 of The Spinster's Secret Scoundrel
It wouldn’t last—nothing good ever did, for her—but she had this man’s full attention now and her heart soared with the knowledge. Desire pulsed low in her abdomen.
“I do mean it.” Thierry scooped her into his arms. Legs wrapped scandalously around his waist, bringing her sex into direct contact with the evidence of his arousal. Layers of fabric remained a barrier between them. Ada looked forward to peeling them away. To find that heat and chase away her loneliness, at least for one night.
“In fact,” he said, carrying her three steps down the hallway, angling his body so as not to hit her feet and head against the walls. “My mother became a courtesan after she fled from France. My sisters followed her into the profession. Virgins are frighteningly inexperienced. Liable to cry their first time, so I hear.”
“I suppose you know from vast experience.”
“Lord, no.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “Had you not shared your secret with me, Miss Naughton, I would have stopped well short of what I intend to do with you tonight.”
One by one, he removed his shirt studs and dropped them into the chipped ceramic dish on her bedside table.Plink. Plink.The placket parted to reveal smooth olive skin over ridges and planes of muscles. Thierry tugged the hem from his trousers and draped it on the tattered wingback chair by her window. Before she could even feel a twinge of embarrassment at her shabby home and sullied innocence—for the first time in years, she thought the incident might actually have been a boon—Ada found herself unlacing her patched petticoat.
Seeing it loosen, Thierry yanked it down her thighs. “One day, I’m going to bring you silk petticoats and watch you undress like this every night.”
“Promises, promises.” Ada laughed. “You can’t even pay me the money you owe, after almost drowning me.”
“How do you know? When did you count it?” he demanded, without denying it.
“I don’t need to. You’re a trickster, Thierry. A handsome charlatan who tells people whatever he thinks they want to hear. I am not unintelligent. I know you kissed me to distract me from the fact you shortchanged me. The question is whether or not I care.”
He lifted one dark eyebrow. “Do you?” he asked, tacitly admitting it.
“Not at the moment. Tomorrow, I might feel differently.”
He moved forward suddenly to stand between her knees, taking up all the space in the small room.
“I trust that tomorrow you’ll feel differently about several things. Today, all I ask is that you believe me when I say the only reason I’ve ever kissed you is because I wanted to.”
Ada hesitated. When she couldn’t think of anything to say, her habitual awkward shyness taking over, she reached for the fastening of his trousers. Slowly, with trembling hands, she extracted his cock from the dark wool and layer of linen beneath. She stroked the hard length of him with a smile blooming on her lips.
Felt her power over him in his subtle gasp and the ripple of his abdominal muscles.
“The only reason I’m doing this, Thierry, is because I’ve wanted to try it,” she said, right before taking him between her lips, and Ada could speak no more.
THIERRY
ONE NIGHT OF DELIGHT
Groaning, Thierry tented his fingertips on the crown of her head. Glossy curls slipped, defying his attempt to cling to reality as she slowly drove him out of his mind.
She kept her gaze downcast as she licked the underside of his cock, then took the tip between her ripe lips. With a shy glance up at him, she moved her hand to the base and squeezed.
I haven’t even seen her tits,was his last coherent thought.
Carefully, with a low groan, he eased back until he slid out of her mouth. There was a choked sound as Ada pulled away—surely, she didn’t mean it, that this was her first time sucking a cock.
“Was it bad?” she asked, brows knitted with worry.
“Far from it,” Thierry said with all the reassurance he could muster while struggling to hold onto his control. Miss Naughton surprised him yet again. He’d experienced the pleasure of plenty of women’s mouths and ranked hers, by far, the highest.
Her chemise gaped open to reveal perfect teardrop breasts with dusky nipples standing at attention, begging for his mouth, framed by worn cotton.
He intended to do something about the state of her underthings. Assuming she would allow him to shower her with gifts the way he wanted to.
Thierry pushed his trousers and drawers down, kicked them away, and leaned forward to cover her with his torso. Skin on heated skin made him hiss through clenched teeth. Ada covered her breasts with both hands. Worry flickered over her features. She might not be a virgin, but she clearly did not have much experience. Had his mind been less hazed with lust and need, Thierry might have put it together sooner.
He pressed her back into the bedclothes with lazy kisses. Ada’s body tensed beneath his fingers. He tasted sudden shyness on her lips. She didn’t mind pleasing him, but when he tried to do the same for her, she recoiled. Fury burst within his chest, toward the nameless person who’d made her feel unworthy of being pleasured.
Thierry was not about to let that go unanswered.
