Wanton (Regency Scandal 1) Read online

  No, Xavier had not noticed Diana before learning of his brother’s involvement with her.

  Unfortunately, she had not been far from his thoughts since then, night as well as day.

  Lady Diana had not attended a social function since that time, being in mourning for her brother. Jeremy had died at Waterloo shortly after Raphael’s death and his sister’s involvement in that scandal. But that did not mean Xavier did not know of Diana’s carriage rides in the park, or her visits to those few close female friends who had remained loyal to her.

  Lady Tabitha Walker was one of those friends, which probably explained why Diana might have allowed herself to be persuaded to attend the ball this evening. Her presence here tonight certainly made nonsense of Xavier’s months of trying to ignore the inappropriate attraction he felt toward her.

  Holding her, dancing with her, Xavier knew if he did not soon fuck this woman senseless, then he was at risk of losing his sanity altogether.

  Chapter Two

  His arm tightened about her waist, pulling her in closer against him. That proximity pushed her breasts up so that the tops tumbled enticingly over the low neckline of her gown.

  Their closeness also allowed him to feel the heat emanating from between her thighs. Unfortunately, the difference in their heights and his much longer legs meant her heat was below rather than pressed against the length of his engorged cock.

  Was Diana aware of his arousal?

  Xavier could not see how she could remain unaware of it when his cock was thick in girth and at least eight inches long, and was now pressed firmly against her abdomen.

  The stumble in her steps and the widening of her gaze when she quickly glanced up at him, along with the blush in her previously pallid cheeks, confirmed she was indeed now aware of Xavier’s physical response to her close proximity.

  The sudden tightness in Diana’s chest was making it difficult for her to draw breath. Her limbs felt heavy, almost as if they no longer belonged to her, as the duke continued to swirl her expertly about the dance floor.

  Nor, totally aware as she was of the hard throb of Northcliffe’s cock pressing against and into her softness, could Diana pull her eyes away from his compelling silver gaze.

  “I believe you are currently without a lover.”

  Her eyes widened at the directness of the statement. “I do not believe that to be any of your business!”

  His lips quirked into a humorless smile. “And I believe I am better equipped to decide what is or is not my business.”

  Diana tried to pull out of his embrace, but the arm about her waist held her with the strength of a metal band, and the duke’s long fingers had also tightened about her slender ones. “It is none of your concern who does or does not share my bed— Oh,” Diana broke off with a guilty gasp the moment she realized exactly what she had said. As the brother of her previous lover, Northcliffe had every right to comment on whether or not she was currently involved in an affair.

  “Indeed,” Northcliffe acknowledged in a hard voice.

  “I should like you to release me now,” she instructed firmly.

  “Or?”

  “Or I will have no choice but to knee you in the balls and then stamp on your foot! My brother assured me that is the most vulnerable part of any man,” she added conversationally.

  For once, Xavier was at a loss to know what to do or say next.

  Especially as, before he did anything else, he wanted to laugh at Diana’s statement as well as reproach her for the use of such unladylike language.

  His more urgent instinct was to kiss this woman until she was senseless, or pull down her drawers and place her over his knee before spanking her bare arse until those plump cheeks were rosy red and tingling. After doing either of those things, Xavier would lift her and impale her pussy on his cock as she straddled his thighs. He would then take delight in thrusting his cock deep inside her, over and over again, until they reached an explosive and highly pleasurable release together.

  Xavier could imagine nothing more erotic afterwards, once they had disengaged, than watching as his cum dripped from between her plump and well-used pussy lips. In fact, Xavier had imagined it. It was one of the fantasies he indulged in the most as he lay in his bed stroking and pumping his cock until the heat of his cum released over his chest and abdomen.

  Except none of those things were possible here and now.

  Which was not to say they would not happen, only that the Walkers’ ballroom, with so many witnesses, was not the correct place in which to indulge in them.

  “As you wish.” Xavier gave an inclination of his head as he stopped dancing to step back and once again hold out his arm so that he might escort her to where he could see their dark-haired hostess now stood at the edge of the dance floor, desperately beckoning them in her direction.

  Correction, Lady Tabitha Walker was encouraging Lady Diana to go to her. Confirming that Diana was here at Lady Tabitha’s urging?

  Xavier was acquainted with Lord Thomas Walker rather than his wife. The two gentlemen often sat together in the House of Lords or lunched at their club. Lady Tabitha was fully ten years younger than Walker, which would make her of a similar age to Diana. No doubt the two young ladies had come out in the same Season.

  Certainly, their hostess’s smile of relief as she gratefully grasped Diana’s hands in hers testified to a close friendship between the two. “I am so sorry, Diana, I was in the adjoining room seeing to the needs of the other guests when you arrived,” she apologized emotionally. Her gaze turned defensive as she looked at Xavier. “Your Grace,” she bit out, as if she expected some sort of reproof from him for having invited whomever she wished as a guest to her own ball.

  Aware of his friendship with her husband, Xavier forced his features to relax into an expression he hoped was pleasant rather than combative. “It is time I took my leave, Lady Tabitha. But might I suggest your keep a close eye on Lady Diana for the rest of the evening?”

  “Is that in case I should decide to steal the family silver, to add to my other crimes?” Diana challenged scornfully before their hostess could reply.

  Xavier eyed her coolly. “It is so that none of the she-cats or so-called gentlemen in this room have opportunity to hurt you, either verbally or physically.”

  Diana blinked, once again taken aback by this unexpected concern on Northcliffe’s part. He could, and probably should, given the circumstances, have cut her socially, and so made her the ridicule and scorn of every person present tonight.

  Except darling Tabitha, of course. She and Diana had been friends for many years, and that friendship was the sole reason for Diana being here this evening. The other woman had assured her, after declaring it was time for Diana to reappear in Society, that she would remain constantly at her side to rebuff any slights or insults that might occur. It was no one’s fault that Diana had chanced to arrive at Walker House during a break in the dancing, when Tabitha was not present in the ballroom.

  Almost from the moment Diana stood hesitantly in the ballroom doorway, unsure of what to do next once she had noted Tabitha’s absence, Xavier Asherton, the Duke of Northcliffe, had stepped forward and taken Tabitha’s place as Diana’s buffer against any and all who might have wished to publicly shun or embarrass her.

  She had no idea why he would have done such a thing.

  “I will call upon you at Fitzwilliam House tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock.”

  Diana’s heart sank. Obviously, the reason for the duke’s amiability this evening was because his preference was to vilify and voice his disgust with her in private, rather than in public.

  Then why had he not done so before now? It had been a full year since his brother Raphael died in her home, plenty of time for the sharp-tongued Xavier Asherton to have verbally decimated her in whatever way he chose, publicly or privately.

  Indeed, Diana had lived in dread of that happening for the first few weeks after Raphael died and she knew Northcliffe had returned to England.
Of course, her brother, Jeremy, had died at Waterloo only two months later, which perhaps explained why Northcliffe had kept his distance during her time of mourning.

  But as the weeks beyond that had slowly passed with no sign of Northcliffe’s wrath descending upon her, Diana now realized she had become complacent toward the idea of ever being on the receiving end of Northcliffe’s cold and vicious tongue in regard to the manner of his brother’s death.

  A completely false sense of security, Diana now realized, when the very first time she ventured out into Society, the duke happened to be attending the same ball. Nor had he felt a moment’s hesitation in insisting she dance with him.

  Not, he now claimed, with the intention of condemning her, but in order to protect her.

  Diana did not understand why he would want to do so.

  Dark brows rose over those icy-gray eyes. “I will explain all tomorrow morning.”

  Percy had always teased that Diana had a face which mirrored her thoughts. Obviously, Northcliffe had been able to gather that same insight as she pondered the motives for his actions this evening.

  “Very well, Your Grace.” She gave him another cool and dismissive nod. Now was not the time to dispute the arrogance of his assumption he could do with her as he pleased.

  He placed one long and slender finger beneath her chin and lifted her face to his. “In future, I shall call you Diana, and you will call me Xavier.”

  I will call him—!

  No, Diana could not and would not do any such thing. The two of them had only been nodding acquaintances before Raphael’s death, Northcliffe being a part of the Prince Regent’s inner circle and so inhabiting a much loftier echelon of Society than she and Percy ever had. Diana saw no reason now why the two of them should ever be on a first-name basis with each other.

  Northcliffe lifted her gloved hand to press his lips against her knuckles, standing close enough now for the two of them to converse without anyone else, including the waiting Tabitha, being able to overhear them. “All will become clear in the morning,” he murmured huskily.

  “But—” She broke off abruptly as he narrowed his lids in warning.

  “For the moment, it is enough for you to know that the reason you will call me Xavier in future is so that you know to call out my name when my cock is buried inside you and you are screaming out your release at my command.”

  Diana gasped. “I— You— H-how dare you!”

  He smiled without humor. “You will learn I dare many things, and where you are concerned, all of them involve having you naked in bed as I take and claim your body in every manner and hole possible.”

  “You—you cannot say such things to me!” Diana spluttered.

  He arched one dark brow. “Are you denying you physically responded to me when we danced together?”

  Embarrassed color burned her cheeks. “That was a natural reaction to the attentions of an attractive gentleman.”

  He gave a mocking nod. “I accept the compliment, but not the rest of your statement. Do your breasts plump, your nipples engorge, and between your thighs become slick with the juices of your arousal every time you dance with a man?”

  It was an entrapment. If Diana said yes as a way of belittling her physical reaction to him, then she left herself open to accusations of being a wanton. If she said no, then she confirmed her response had been to Northcliffe alone.

  He gave a knowing smile at her silence. “You cannot help but have been aware that my cock was hard with that same arousal as we danced together just now.”

  Her gaze lowered at the continued bluntness of his language. “No.” The lengthy and throbbing cock pressing so intimately against her had only increased her own arousal.

  “Then that should be enough for now to warn you to take my statement seriously.” He allowed her hand to fall back to her side before straightening. “Until tomorrow.” His gaze remained fixed on the sudden pallor of her face for several more long seconds before he nodded and turned to his hostess. After giving Tabitha an abrupt bow, he then marched from the ballroom, glancing neither left nor right as he did so, and looking every inch the normal arrogant and haughty Duke of Northcliffe.

  Except there had been nothing of the duke’s normal self about Northcliffe this evening.

  Oh, Northcliffe was still arrogant. Still cold. But with her, at least, the façade of haughtiness had slipped this evening to reveal a man of such deep sensuality, it made Diana’s body hot and aching to even try to imagine the sexual intimacies he’d said he had planned for her—

  Northcliffe might plan all he liked, but it did not mean Diana had to succumb to his sexual seduction.

  “What on earth was all that about?” Tabitha breathed incredulously at her side.

  Diana wished she knew.

  Because Northcliffe could not be serious in regard to— In his stated intention to possess her in every—

  No, Northcliffe had to be playing with her.

  Coldly.

  Cruelly.

  And Diana had no choice but to accept his mockery this evening, as well as the condemnation he would no doubt verbally rain down upon her tomorrow.

  Except there was no denying his cock had been aroused earlier when they danced together…

  Chapter Three

  “His Grace, the Duke of Northcliffe, my lady.” Doyle, Diana’s butler, stood in the doorway of her drawing room and made the announcement of the duke’s arrival at precisely eleven o’clock the following morning.

  Of course it was precise. How could it be anything else when Northcliffe was known to be exact in all his dealings?

  Did that mean Northcliffe had also meant all those other things he said to her yesterday evening?

  No!

  Diana could not allow this man, in particular, to take over any more of her thoughts than he already had. Much as she wished she could claim otherwise, Diana had been awake and aroused for hours last night, merely from imagining the ways in which Northcliffe had stated he intended to claim her.

  Despite Tabitha’s disappointment, Diana had chosen not to remain long at the ball after Northcliffe’s departure. She had decided that retreat and a quiet rest of the evening at home, reading a book, was preferable to spending any more time having her every move and expression studied and then gossiped about by Tabitha’s other guests.

  But she had been unable to as easily banish Northcliffe from her thoughts once home and in her bedchamber. She had tried to keep her mind blank as her maid helped her to remove her gown, and then again when Diana brushed her own loosened hair as she sat in front of the dressing-table mirror wearing only her chemise. She had continued to try to block all thought of Northcliffe from her mind when she moved behind the screen to remove the chemise completely so that she might wash herself before putting on her night rail and going to bed.

  Unfortunately, the moment her chemise had been removed, Diana became intensely aware of how aroused her body still was. Her breasts, as Northcliffe had taken delight in commenting, were still plump and the nipples sensitive to the slightest touch of the washcloth, sending those shivers of delight straight to the plump lips and throbbing nubbin between her thighs.

  Diana had again tried to ignore that aching desire as she quickly dried herself and then pulled on her nightgown before hurrying across the room, blowing out the candle on her bedside table, and burrowing beneath the warm bedcovers.

  Except the arousal hadn’t ceased but had instead only seemed to become more intense the longer Diana lay in bed trying to ignore it. It throbbed and pulsed just beneath the surface of her skin, becoming more intense in her breasts and nipples and between her thighs, until Diana had whimpered her defeat and rolled onto her back.

  Pushing up her nightgown she had first plucked her engorged nipples before continuing to flick and pull on one of those nipples as she placed the fingers of her other hand between her thighs to stroke her moist and swollen clit. Gently at first and then harder as the need for release became too great. Within
seconds, her body convulsed with the most explosive climax Diana could ever remember having.

  Merely from thinking about Northcliffe’s warning of the ways he intended to take her!

  Even more disturbing, as he had demanded would be the case, it had been Xavier’s name that Diana cried out when that climax claimed her in wave after wave of ecstasy.

  Not just the first time, but in the two subsequent releases during the night too, before exhaustion allowed her to finally fall asleep.

  Those restless demands of her body, created by that devil of a man, meant Diana was now beyond impatient with anything and everything to do with the Duke of Northcliffe.

  It was her usual custom to receive visitors in the drawing room in the afternoons, after spending the morning writing letters and then eating luncheon in her private chambers. Of course, Diana had received very few visitors this past year, nor sent or received many letters, but she saw no reason whatsoever why she should not receive the arrogant Duke of Northcliffe with the formality such a visit required.

  Especially when he had told her of the visit rather than been invited here as her guest.

  Possibly because he had known Diana would never have made such an invitation to him.

  Diana now rose to her feet as the duke handed Doyle his hat and cane before stepping into the room. Northcliffe then turned abruptly and closed and locked the door behind him, virtually in Doyle’s face.

  Such rude and arrogant behavior would normally have caused Diana to deal politely but firmly with the offender. But she did not feel she could do so when it was Northcliffe behaving in this high-handed manner.

  She wished now that she had obeyed her instinct upon waking this morning and sent a note of regret to this man’s home, informing him she was unwell and would not be receiving visitors today. She had not done so because she believed Northcliffe would either have completely ignored her request for him not to call or he would have accused her of being too cowardly to meet with him. Neither of those outcomes was acceptable to her.