Indecent (Regency Lovers 1) Read online

  The pleasure she gave him was not practiced or paid for, as it was with ladies of the demimonde or a mistress, and it had been all the more erotic because of that.

  Adam wished her to know he intended returning that pleasure. “Tomorrow afternoon you shall be the one to choose the way in which you would like me to pleasure you to release.”

  Adam could feel Emma’s heat as her bottom squirmed against his thighs. See how swollen her breasts were as they threatened to burst over the top of her gown. All telling him that Emma was in need of that release now.

  A release he knew, from having been forced to wait for over a week for the feel of her lips upon his own flesh, she would feel all the stronger for delaying it another day.

  Adam felt no compunction about making Emma wait. Not when he intended to spend the rest of this week pleasuring her until he was sure that she saw and responded to no other man but him.

  Maybe he really was a barbarian?

  Or this unexpected desire for Emma had turned him into behaving like one?

  Emma’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as she kept her face pressed against Hawkwood’s chest. “I know nothing of a lady’s pleasure.”

  Her mother had died in childbirth when Emma was only two years old, her newborn brother along with her. Her father had never remarried and Emma knew he had done his best to take on the role of both parents to her, but the conversation of what took place in the marriage bed was something he had not felt comfortable discussing with his only child.

  Perhaps if she had been a son her father would not have felt so reticent, or perhaps he thought the governess he had employed until Emma reached an age where she was ready to enter Society, would broach the subject with her.

  Whatever the reason, apart from observing Lord Alexander Stirling and his mistress together the previous evening, Emma had little knowledge of physical intimacy other than to know the release from a man’s cock provided the seed that germinated inside the woman’s womb and resulted in the birth of a baby nine months later.

  And to now know that Hawkwood’s release tasted deliciously sweet and addictive.

  Emma had several married friends, so perhaps she might consider talking to one of those ladies on the subject of a woman’s sexual pleasure before she returned to Hawkwood House tomorrow?

  “Nothing?” Hawkwood glanced down at her. “Does that mean you have no knowledge, either, of how to assuage the arousal you are currently feeling?”

  Emma was aware of the heat and throbbing of her breasts and between her thighs, but no, she had no idea how to go about relieving that discomfort.

  If she seriously wished to marry a man as confident and experienced as Hawkwood then she would be wise to rectify that ignorance at the earliest opportunity.

  After the intimacy they had just enjoyed Emma was in no doubt Hawkwood meant it when he said these afternoons were to be a test of their physical compatibility. Admitting her ignorance of all things carnal, apart from what they had done together today, would have done nothing to reassure him.

  She rose to her feet, distancing herself as she straightened her gown. “I believe it is time I left—” She broke off as a knock sounded briefly on the door before the handle was turned, her panicked gaze returning to Hawkwood as that knock was followed by a heavy pounding on that wooden door when it refused to open.

  “What the hell…?” a male voice was heard muttering outside in the hallway. “Adam, why is this door locked?” came the impatient demand. “Are you pleasuring yourself or do you have a woman locked in there with you?”

  Adam drew in a deep and calming breath, briefly closing his eyes as he prepared himself to confirm at least part of his brother’s mocking comment once he had unlocked the door. He knew his brother well enough to accept Alexander would not go away until his curiosity had been satisfied. Although Adam doubted Alexander seriously expected him to have a woman here with him.

  As Alexander had not returned to the house until five o’clock this morning he had not been awake at eight o’clock to join Adam for breakfast. Consequently, the two brothers had not yet had a chance to talk of Alexander’s ill-advised behavior the previous evening. Adam intended to rectify that as soon as Emma had left.

  “You cannot let anyone find me in here alone with you!” Emma hissed as Hawkwood crossed the room with the obvious intention of unlocking the door.

  He paused to arch a mocking brow. “It seems inevitable that must be the case, as I do not intend to embark on a conversation with my brother through a locked door.”

  “Please, you cannot,” Emma protested again.

  “I assure you I can,” he drawled as he turned the key in the lock before opening the door.

  Emma stared across the room at Alexander Stirling as he looked first at his brother and then across at her as she stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, her hands clenched awkwardly together.

  “So not pleasuring yourself, then,” Alexander Stirling drawled speculatively.

  “Obviously not,” Hawkwood bit out.

  No doubt the duke was enjoying humiliating her further by allowing his brother to see her here with him, but Emma had no intention of letting it to continue. “If you will both excuse me.” She gathered up her gloves before sweeping across the room and then on past Hawkwood and his brother.

  “Make sure to return here at two o’clock tomorrow,” the duke reminded.

  Emma did not acknowledge the comment as she continued on her way until she reached the cavernous entrance hall. When she finally felt able to breathe again.

  Although she doubted the embarrassed color would leave her cheeks for some time.

  Chapter 4

  “Should I ask?” Alexander quirked a mocking brow.

  “No.” Adam scowled, stepping back from the door to allow his brother entrance before crossing to stand beside the unlit fireplace. He would ensure that fire was lit and warming the room before Emma arrived tomorrow, when he had every intention of divesting her of most of her clothing.

  An image that caused his cock to swell a second time, and with no promise of relief until he saw Emma again.

  “What was the beautiful Miss Harris doing here?” Alexander strolled into the room uninvited.

  “You were seen yesterday evening being intimate with Juanita Millbrook.” Attack, Adam had often found, was the best form of deflection. Besides, he took exception to Alexander noting Emma’s beauty.

  His brother threw himself down into a chair, one long leg draped over the arm, his expression completely lacking in concern for the accusation. “Are you telling me Miss Harris came here to tattle-tale about my behavior?”

  Adam shook her head. “I learned of the incident last night,” he did not add from whom. Emma might have been the one to inadvertently reveal his brother’s behavior with her accusations toward Adam yesterday evening, but he would not have his brother believe she had deliberately told tales about him. “Unfortunately, you had already left the Wainwright’s ball by the time I sought you out, and you did not return here until the early hours of this morning,” he added censoriously.

  “I’m thirty-two, Adam, not two,” his brother reminded with a roll of his eyes.

  “Millbrook would be perfectly within his rights to call you out over your affair with his wife.”

  “Except there no longer is an affair,” Alexander drawled. “Last night was our swan song, if you will,” he derided.

  Adam breathed heavily through his nose. “A very intimate one from what I hear.”

  “You heard correctly,” his brother taunted as he rose to his feet.

  “Was your…parting, mutual?”

  “Not in the least,” Alexander drawled. “The lady can be something of a vixen which, while enjoyable in bed, can be a little tiresome when she is thwarted. But I had heard at my club that Millbrook has been making rumblings about his wife’s behavior, and decided to end the affair forthwith. Juanita’s actions at the Wainwright’s was an attempt on her part to persuade me into t
he idea of the two of us running away together instead.” He grimaced. “She is a beautiful and sensual woman but not someone I would consider taking as my own wife. How could she be trusted if she can embark on an affair with me when married to another man,” he dismissed.

  “That is very astute of you,” Adam allowed grudgingly.

  “Speaking of beautiful and sensual women.” His brother eyed him mockingly. “I am still waiting for you to tell me what Miss Harris was doing alone in here with you with the door locked?”

  Adam should have known his brother was far too intelligent to allow himself to be diverted from the original subject.

  Not that Adam had any intention of telling Alexander any of what had occurred during Emma’s visit. Although, after Emma’s admission of ignorance regarding physical pleasure, he should probably thank his brother for having so ably demonstrated to her the art of performing fellatio on a man, at least.

  Not that he would ever do so.

  But the adeptness and speed with which Emma had learned the act told Adam she was going to be a very attentive and eager student to his tutoring. It was to be hoped in both the receiving as well as the giving of pleasure.

  Adam’s mouth watered at thought of the ways in which he might be the one to give Emma that pleasure.

  “I have nothing to say as yet on the subject of Miss Harris,” he answered his brother.

  Alexander’s brows rose. “As yet?”

  “Just so,” Adam confirmed tightly.

  Alexander’s interest Adam’s intentions was understandable. His brother was currently Adam’s heir, and if Adam decided to marry and that marriage produced children, specifically a son, then Alexander would no longer be heir to the title of the Duke of Hawkwood.

  His brother grinned. “I have often speculated as to whether or not there might be more to the prim and proper Miss Harris than appears on the surface.”

  Aware of his brother’s proclivity for preferring the safety of having affairs with married women, Adam felt a jolt of displeasure at Alexander’s having noticed Emma to such a degree he should have made any observations about her. Especially coming so hot on the heels of Emma having seen and obviously been fascinated by watching Alexander’s cock being repeatedly thrust into another woman’s mouth.

  “Then I suggest you speculate in another direction forthwith,” Adam snapped.

  “I will certainly try, brother.” Alexander chuckled as he rose to his feet before leaving the room.

  His brother had better do better than merely trying. In fact, Alexander would do well to avoid Emma altogether unless he wished to feel the full force of Adam’s displeasure.

  “Is there a specific reason, apart from my brother’s untimely intrusion yesterday, as to why you seem somewhat subdued today?”

  Emma glanced up at Hawkwood and then quickly away again. She was not subdued exactly, more…numbed, and more than a little skeptical, following her conversation with her friend, Lady Felicia Langdon. She had called upon that lady immediately after leaving Hawkwood House yesterday afternoon, eager to learn if all Hawkwood had told her was true or if he was merely still punishing her for her wrongful accusations toward him.

  Her conversation with Felicia was something Emma could not banish from her mind, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Care to enlighten me as to what this sudden curiosity is all about?” Felicia had prompted lightly once she had poured tea for the two of them.

  The two women had become firm friends during their first Season together, but unlike Emma, Felicia was the daughter of a wealthy earl and she had married the handsome and wealthy Lord Langdon almost two years ago.

  Even so, Emma really did not care to discuss the reason for her questions. Not when the answer was in relation to one of the closest friends of the other woman’s husband. “It is, as you say, merely curiosity,” she evaded. “After all, I hope to be married myself one day and I doubt my husband will appreciate my complete lack of knowledge regarding what happens in the marriage bed.” Am ignorance she had already demonstrated far too easily to Hawkwood.

  Felicia chuckled. “I believe those needs to be so diverse and unique to the individual that we are all ignorant when it comes to what will please and excite our own bed partner.”

  She wrinkled her brow. “I do not understand.”

  “It is something you and your husband will learn together,” Felicia explained. “For instance, I would not have thought so once but after Langdon and I were married I very quickly learned that I very much enjoy it when Richard puts his mouth— I enjoy having parts of my body licked and sucked by my husband,” she amended ruefully. “Whereas for many women that would be unacceptable. Even being naked in front of their husband is not something all woman enjoy.”

  Emma barely heard the rest of the other woman statement as she wondered where Felicia liked to be licked and sucked.

  “There are many sexual intimacies a man and woman might enjoy together,” Felicia continued lightly. “As well as the normal face to face sexual position there is being mounted and claimed from behind, or the woman on top of the man. There is also mutual oral sex. Anal sex—”

  “That really is possible?” Emma gasped.

  Her friend eyed her curiously. “It is, yes. Do not look so horrified, Emma darling, it’s not as painful or unpleasant as you might imagine.”

  Oh Emma had definitely imagined, on the carriage ride here. “Have you and Langdon— Never mind.” Her cheeks blazed with color and she turned her gaze away. “I should not have asked such an intimate question as that?”

  The other woman chuckled. “As we are discussing the subject of sexual relations we might as well discuss all of it,” Felicia gently teased Emma’s obvious embarrassment.

  And her friend had proceeded to do exactly that, to a degree Emma had been squirming with embarrassment—and something else she now knew to be sexual arousal—by the time she and Felicia parted.

  That sexual arousal had continued to plague Emma all evening and then again today. It was a burning heat that caused her nether lips to feel swollen and wet, her nipples engorged and hard when Emma undressed for bed. After sleeping fitfully Emma discovered her breasts were still uncomfortably swollen when she woke this morning.

  Being in Hawkwood private sitting room again today, the intimate warmth of a fire burning in the hearth, was not helping with that physical discomfort. Especially when he was looking as handsome as always in a dark green superfine and snowy white linen.

  “I asked you a question, Emma.”

  Her face was tilted upward by the placing of Hawkwood’s finger and thumb against her chin, and she found herself looking direction into that harsh and handsome face.

  Did Hawkwood really want to do all the things with her she and Felicia had discussed yesterday afternoon?

  It would be naïve on Emma’s part of think the duke, at almost five and thirty years old, had not already performed all of those acts with other women. More than once.

  Emma found she did not like the thought of that at all!

  If she became Hawkwood’s wife then she would not be happy if he was to then take a mistress. Felicia’s answer to that had been blunt and to the point; what a man cannot have at home he will seek elsewhere.

  “I will only ask you once more—”

  “I called upon Lady Langdon after I left here yesterday,” Emma blurted.

  “Indeed?” Adam had no idea what significance that had upon Emma’s current reticence.

  Unless Emma now knew that it was Langdon who had asked him to dance with her at the Faulkner’s ball, and she had taken umbrage at the knowledge?

  Or perhaps she was confessing to having revealed, inadvertently or deliberately, their own close association?

  Emma nodded. “Felicia is one of my dearest friends.”

  “I am aware of that,” Adam said cautiously.

  She pulled away from his restraining fingers. “You told me it was to be my pleasure today, and I—I wished to know what ch
oice of pleasures there might be.”

  Adam was incredulous. “So you asked Lady Langdon?” Gentlemen, he knew, might praise or dismiss the physical attributes of a mistress in conversation, but they did not discuss such things when it came to their wife or the woman they intended to marry.

  “Yes.” Emma’s gaze remained averted from his own.

  “So she knows you have a lover?”

  Emma glanced at him curiously. “Do I have a lover?” She appeared intrigued by the notion.

  “I will happily give you another demonstration if you doubt it,” Adam challenged.

  Color brightened her cheeks. “Well I told Felicia only that I was curious as to…as to what I might expect in the marriage bed. I certainly did not mention that you have made an offer for me or what had happened between the two of us yesterday afternoon.”

  “Then I must be thankful for small mercies,” he drawled dryly.

  She shot him a reproving frown. “My only intention was to ensure you did not find me lacking, Your Grace—”

  “Good God, Emma, you really cannot continue to address a man with such formality when you have had his cock down your throat!” Adm snapped his exasperation. “And, since your admission of innocence in such matters, it was—is my intention to be the one to…educate you,” he gentled his tone at he saw her stricken expression at his previous rebuke, “on the pleasures of your own flesh.”

  “Oh.”

  Adam forced the stiffness from his shoulders, able to relax a little now that he was aware of the reason for Emma’s tension when she arrived. A reticence which did not detract in the slightest—or prevent his cock from engorging!—at how beautiful she looked in a pale green gown that perfectly complimented her creamy complexion. Today, he intended to know, intimately, exactly what bounty lay beneath that gown.

  He quirked one dark brow. “I trust Lady Langdon’s revelations did not shock you too much?”

  Langdon, also being a gentleman, did not discuss his wife or his marriage bed with any of his friends. But the contentment of the Langdon’s marriage was obvious for all to see. Based, Adam did not doubt, upon the couples’ enviable physical compatibility.