Page 57 of Unmasked by the Marquess
He stopped just inside the closed door, bracing his hand on the door frame behind Robin’s head. “Is this...” He needed to know. “Does this mean that you’re accepting my proposal?”
She shook her head.
He hadn’t thought so, but he had foolishly let himself hope, and now he was angry and disappointed. “Then whatdoesit mean? I don’t think I’m very interested in a goodbye fuck, Charity.”
“Why does it have to mean anything?” Her smile was a tease, an illusion of happiness he couldn’t and wouldn’t share. “Can’t we just be together and pretend that things are all right? One last time?”
He leaned in, crowding her with his body. “That’s practically the definition of a goodbye fuck, my dear, and I find that I have no appetite for that sort of thing.” He could smell her hair soap and feel the heat of her breath on his jaw.
“I beg to differ,” she said, trailing her hand down his abdomen until it reached his hardening cock. “I think you’ve plenty of appetite for it.”
“Unfair, Robin,” he growled. Her touch was a mere whisper of a thing, but he had to stop himself from thrusting into her grip. He took hold of her wrist and held it tight. “What is it that you want from me tonight? Do you think that a few moments of pleasure will delude me into thinking that continuing like this is anything other than folly?”
“I know that it won’t. I want to push everything to the side and have you while I can.”
She had said something like that before. Something about sweeping her worries aside and enjoying herself while she still could. At the time he hadn’t understood why she thought she was running out of time, but now he did. “What lies on the other side, Robin? For you, I mean.”
She shook her head, then made a sweeping motion with the hand he wasn’t holding, indicating that these were all the worries she didn’t want to be thinking of tonight.
Fine. If she wanted pleasure, he could give her that. If she wanted to break his heart more comprehensively than might otherwise have been the case, then so be it. His heart was hers to break.
He leaned forward and kissed the corner of her mouth, where her lips turned up in a small, brave smile.
He had her on the bed before he could think better of it, and she pulled him down on top of her, parting her legs so he could settle against her where they both needed it. Bowing his head, he took her mouth in a hard, punishing kiss. She seemed to understand, biting his lip and digging her fingertips into his shoulders. Not only pleasure, but also a little bit of pain.
He pulled off her cravat and opened her shirt and waistcoat. She was beautiful spread out beneath him, her creamy breasts bare beside the white linen of her shirt and the dark silk of her waistcoat. It was more erotic than any sight he had ever allowed himself to imagine. He sat back on his knees to better admire the sight. She was breathing heavily, her small but perfect breasts rising towards him with every inhalation. Reverently, he skimmed his hand down from her shoulder, cupping her breast, thumbing her nipple. A small sigh of satisfaction escaped her lips, and he felt his cock throb in response.
“I want to see you,” she said. “Take off your clothes.”
And so he did, drinking in her frankly appraising stare. Then he knelt between her legs and gave his cock a few leisurely strokes. “Any other requests?”
She eyed him for another long moment. “Now take off my clothes.”
He spent a good deal more time undressing her than he had himself, kissing all the more interesting parts of her as he exposed them. If this was to be their last time together, he wanted to lavish every attention on her. He wanted to memorize every inch of her, every curve and angle, the strong length of her thigh and the delicate bones of her wrist, storing up memories against a bleak and empty tomorrow. But that wasn’t how love worked. Love wasn’t a sum safely invested in the five percents. One couldn’t prevent future sorrow by capitalizing on present bliss. All he could do was have this moment, wring all the joy out of it, and then somehow continue after it was over.
He braced himself over her on one forearm and notched his cock at her entrance. He chased from his mind any thoughts of the future, concentrating instead on the purr of contentment she made as he slid into her inch by inch. She was wet and soft and tight as her body accommodated his. She was lithe and supple beneath him. She washis, goddammit, no matter what she thought. Even if they never did this again, she would always be his. Or at least he would be hers.
He rolled them over, so she could ride him and he could watch her. She sighed contentedly as she lowered herself onto him, but then moved her hips only slightly, rocking against him. She was chasing her own pleasure, he realized.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered, his voice hoarse. “Show me how you touch yourself when you’re alone. And we’ll both know that the next time you do it, you’ll wish you had my cock inside you.” He thrust up hard into her to drive home his point, and she groaned in pleasure.
Her mouth curved up in a conspiratorial smile as one of her hands drifted up her thigh to settle over the pale hair between her legs. Transfixed, he watched as she used one finger to lightly stroke herself, never faltering in her rhythmic riding of his cock.
He propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look, then to take her breast in his mouth.
“Yes,” she cried. She was lost to pleasure now, her eyes half-closed, her mouth parted slightly. He settled his hands on her hips, his fingers sinking into the soft skin of her backside, as he felt her work her body onto his.
She was using him, he realized. She was using his body as an instrument of pleasure, and he loved it. He wrapped his fingers around the posts of the headboard and let her have her way with him.
Charity could have spent all night like this, side by side on a lumpy mattress, tracing his long lean muscles, toying with the dark hair that curled on his chest.
But she had to leave. That was the entire point.
“Just think,” he murmured, his voice thick with sleep and satisfaction. “I’ve been trying so hard these last few days not to compromise you.”
He had? “Whatever for? That ship sailed a long time ago.” She had never had a reputation and it had never bothered her one jot.
“Because I wanted you to know that when I offered to marry you, it wouldn’t be to save your reputation.”
