Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3) Read online

  Her back arched at the first pleasurable rasp of Sebastian’s tongue against her nether lips.

  Heat suffused her whole body as she looked down to see Sebastian’s head intimately lowered between her parted thighs.

  His dark gaze held hers captive as he parted the slit in her drawers further and his tongue slowly stroked from just beneath her nether lips, lingering to enter her channel and lap up the telltale flow of her juices, before moving to the sensitive nubbin above. His tongue licked and stimulated that tiny organ until it throbbed with need. Alys gasped when his lips parted and he sucked that nubbin fully into the heat of his mouth, and his tongue began to lash that organ in earnest.

  Pleasure coursed through her body with the force and speed of an out-of-control forest fire. She felt out of control as her hips bucked up to meet the lashing of Sebastian’s tongue.

  “No…” To her utter humiliation, she heard herself let out a groan of protest as that remorseless tongue ceased its stimulation before she had reached whatever pinnacle of pleasure she had been hurtling toward.

  Sebastian’s lips glistened with her juices as he sat up to cup her breasts in his hands. “I have not played with these yet.”

  “But—”

  “Trust me,” he said hoarsely as he began to squeeze and caress her breasts. “Your release will be all the more intense for delaying it a few more minutes.”

  Alys did not want to delay— Ooh!

  Her back bowed again as Sebastian’s fingers gripped her nipples and pulled on them, first one, and then the other. Not enough to cause her pain, but sending fierce and heated waves of pleasure between her already hot and needy thighs.

  She pushed her breasts into those caresses, gasping and writhing as Sebastian moved one of his hands back down between her thighs and his fingers began to roll and stimulate the hardened nubbin there.

  “Do you like me touching your clit?” Sebastian’s head lowered, his breath a warm caress as his mouth hovered a mere inch above the throb of her neglected nipple. “Alys?”

  She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. “Is that what that nubbin is called?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, yes, I— Oh dear God!” she choked as Sebastian’s parted lips covered and then sucked her nipple into his mouth.

  Alys became lost in the pleasure of having one nipple being pulled and pinched by Sebastian fingers, the other being suckled deeply into the heat of his mouth, and the fingers of his other hand stroking and pressing on her clit.

  It was a triple assault on her senses Alys could not even begin to resist. Instead, her arms moved up until her fingers became entangled in the dark thickness of Sebastian’s hair. She held his mouth against her nipple, in a silent plea for him to suckle harder and deeper.

  She felt the sharp bite of his teeth against that sensitive nub, which immediately resulted in wave after wave of pleasure coursing through her body in an ecstasy of emotion she had never imagined existed.

  It was only the first of many pleasures Sebastian introduced her to during the long morning that followed.

  “How can you sit there calmly reading a book when you are shortly to be married?”

  Devil looked up from where he occupied the chair beside the window in Newcomb’s library. The same chair he had occupied for most of the past five days. As Alys had kept to her rooms for the same amount of time.

  “Perhaps because I am calm?” He put the book aside before standing. “What are you doing here, Maxim?”

  Lord Maximillian Smythe, the Earl of Carlton, and another of Devil’s close friends known as The Sinners, stepped fully into the room and closed the library door behind him, neatly shutting the butler outside in the hallway. “I am sure you realized that one of us would come here once Stonewell had received your note requesting Prinny issue you a Special Marriage License so that you might marry Alys Newcomb?”

  The two men shook hands as Devil answered. “What I expected was for Nik to go to Prinny for the license and then send it with my lawyer, as I requested.”

  “Your lawyer is half a day’s journey behind me, that is all,” Carlton assured him.

  He nodded. “Good. Does he have the Special License, or do you?”

  “Devil—”

  “Do not even attempt to talk me out of this marriage, Maxim,” he advised softly. “My mind is made up.”

  The other man studied him between narrowed lids for several long seconds before answering. He was as tall as Devil, with dark blond hair and gray eyes. “I have brought the license with me, but also thought you might be in need of a friend as a witness at your wedding.”

  Devil’s brows rose. “You are offering yourself for that service?”

  Carlton nodded stiffly. “If you are set upon this course, yes.”

  “I am.” Devil might not have set eyes on Alys the past five days, but neither had she attempted to leave Newcomb Manor again without him. He had taken that as a good sign. The only good thing about the past five days.

  Rather than hang about the hallways himself, Devil had set Riley to observe the comings and goings to Alys’s bedchamber. His valet reported only the maid having entered the suite, which meant Alys’s brother had not attempted to visit her. Nor had Alys stepped foot outside her suite of rooms.

  Alys had avoided Devil’s since the morning he made love to her for hours in the hayloft. He had deemed it best not to attempt to follow her when she left him, a fiery blush in her cheeks, nor to interrupt her self-imposed solitude in the five days and nights that followed.

  He had, however, totally avoided spending any time in the company of Teddy Newcomb and his cronies, by remaining in his own bedchamber or the library. He had taken his meals there too. Nor had he spoken with the younger man again.

  Alys had sent a message that same evening, via her maid, claiming to be indisposed, and she had kept to her bedchamber or private parlor in the days and nights since then. Devil had respected Alys’s obvious need for privacy. A privacy which, now Carlton was here with the marriage license, would very shortly come to an end.

  “You do not exactly look the picture of a man happily contemplating marrying the woman he loves,” Carlton drawled.

  “I will be very happy once I can put this place firmly behind me,” Devil assured him.

  “With your wife at your side.”

  “Yes.”

  “Devil—”

  “Do not seek to give me counsel I have not asked for,” he warned. “I am to marry Alys Newcomb, and that is an end to it.”

  Carlton’s gaze narrowed. “She is innocent of treason, then?”

  Devil gave a humorless laugh. “I have no idea.”

  “I had thought… You intend to marry her even though it might later be proved she is guilty of treason?” The other man was obviously taken aback.

  Devil shrugged. “My feelings toward Alys are…complicated. Her life under her brother’s guardianship since her father died has been unpleasant, to say the least.”

  The earl made himself comfortable in the armchair opposite where Devil had been seated until a few moments ago. “A marriage based on pity will be no marriage at all.”

  Devil scowled. “I do not pity Alys.”

  “Guilt, then.”

  “I have nothing to feel guilty about.”

  “Miss Newcomb once accused you of killing her father. Does she still believe that?”

  Devil eyed his friend coldly. “I believe I stated I did not wish for your counsel.”

  Carlton appeared unperturbed by this display of anger. “That means she does still believe that. What sort of marriage will the two of you have, she believing you killed her father, you not knowing whether or not she is a spy against England?”

  “Take care, Maxim,” he warned softly.

  “I would not be any sort of friend if I did not at least try to understand this sudden urgency you feel to marry Miss Newcomb. And what sort of friend are you,” he added dryly as Devil’s scowl deepened, “that you have not
even offered me refreshment since my arrival?” He gave a pointed glance at the decanter of brandy and glass that sat conveniently on the table beside the chair near the window.

  Devil moved to pour amber alcohol into a second glass for the other man, aware Maxim was trying to lighten the tension between them. “It is not of a quality you are used to, I am afraid.” He grimaced as he handed the glass over before refilling his own. He had grown accustomed to the inferior brandy over the past few days but he thanked God Maxim would not be here long enough to do so. “To wedded bliss.” He raised his glass for the toast.

  “Wedded bliss,” the other man echoed evenly before taking a swallow of the brandy. “Good God!” he gasped once the liquid had passed down his throat. “Is all of Newcomb’s hospitality as inferior as this?”

  “Not at all.” Devil resumed his seat. “I believe I have the best bedchamber in the house, and the cook here is excellent.”

  “Might I ask where your betrothed is now?” Carlton stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the booted ankles as he settled more comfortably in the chair.

  “Upstairs in her bedchamber,” Devil answered. “She has remained there since informed of our betrothal five days ago.”

  The other man’s frown was pained. “Her brother is forcing this marriage upon her? I am aware of the money you intend to give Newcomb upon signature of the betrothal contract.”

  “Of course you are,” Devil drawled, knowing there were very few secrets between The Sinners. “But I am the one who is insisting on marriage. Newcomb would be perfectly happy if I merely paid him for his silence.”

  The other man raised his brows. “You have seduced Miss Newcomb?”

  Devil’s eyes narrowed. “I appreciate your having come here and the support you are offering me by standing beside me at the wedding, but do not overstep our friendship by asking questions I must refuse to answer.”

  Carlton drew in a sharp breath at the rebuke. “You care for her.”

  “I care about her,” Devil corrected. “I would not be marrying her if I did not.”

  “The butler told me Newcomb is out on a shoot this afternoon.”

  He nodded. “As he has been every day since my arrival here.”

  “You did not feel inclined to join him?”

  Devil bared his teeth in another humorless smile. “I thought it best not to, when my feeling of dislike toward my host is such that I might be tempted to aim the gun at him rather than the grouse.”

  Carlton chuckled. “I have not found him to be the most pleasant of young men in the past either. Too much of a toady for my liking.”

  “Where Alys is concerned, he is both a bully and an opportunist,” Devil grated with distaste. “But Peter Newcomb was my friend, and I do not enjoy seeing his daughter treated with such disregard by her own brother.”

  The other man looked at if he would like to say more on the subject but then decided not to. Which was perhaps as well, as the library door opened at that moment and their host stepped into the room. No doubt sent for by Holmes, who defined the word toady, as far as Devil was concerned.

  “I am sure Alys will be well enough to join us for dinner this evening.” Devil’s attention returned to the conversation between Carlton and their host in time to hear Newcomb’s remark and the sideways glance the younger man gave in his direction as he added, “She will be honored to welcome the Earl of Carlton. As am I.”

  “You’re too kind,” Carlton drawled insincerely.

  Devil rose to his feet, his gaze cold as he looked at Teddy Newcomb. “I will go and speak to Alys, and then I shall decide whether or not she is well enough to join us for dinner.”

  The younger man gave a tight smile. “Deveril takes his duties as my sister’s betrothed very seriously,” he informed the earl.

  Carlton nodded. “The ladies are to be cherished.”

  “Oh, indeed,” Newcomb gushed.

  “Excuse me,” Devil snapped before turning and leaving the room abruptly.

  Before he was either physically sick or tempted to take Newcomb by the throat and squeeze until the younger man’s face became an unbecoming shade of puce.

  Chapter 7

  “What are you smiling about?” Alys prompted warily after opening the door to her bedchamber in answer to what proved to be Deveril’s knock.

  He remained outside in the hallway. “I was imagining the pleasure I might feel as I strangled your brother.”

  Alys bit her top lip to stop herself from smiling. She had not seen or heard a word from Deveril for five days. Not since the incident in the hayloft.

  She had not imagined that the first thing she would want to do upon seeing him again was to laugh.

  It had been a lonely five days. Lonelier nights, when Alys did not even have the company of her maid to distract her from her thoughts.

  Thoughts of Sebastian.

  Not Deveril, but Sebastian.

  To her, they had become two distinctly different people.

  Sebastian was the man who had made love to her in the hayloft and asked for nothing in return. That had surprised her most of all about that encounter. Of course, her having quickly righted her clothes afterwards, before almost running back to the house and the sanctuary of her bedchamber, had made that rather difficult. But Sebastian could have followed her and had chosen not to. Nor had she seen or heard from him again since.

  And a part of her had wanted to see and be with Sebastian. The wickedly wanton part he had awakened in her that day.

  The same part of her that had wanted Sebastian to touch her in that way again every moment since.

  “Are you going to invite me inside?”

  Alys made a determined effort to bring her thoughts back from the intimacies the two of them had shared in the hayloft. Sebastian’s hands on her breasts. The heat of his mouth between her thighs. His teeth biting her nipple and his fingers stroking her clit before sending her hurtling over the edge of a maelstrom of pleasure. Not once but several times.

  She brought her thoughts back under her control as she looked at him. Was he Sebastian or Deveril today? Sebastian, the demanding and satisfying lover. Or Deveril, haughty and cold, and not to be gainsaid.

  The austerity of his expression now indicated he was Deveril.

  At the same time, the guarded expression in the darkness of his eyes said he might be Sebastian, and that he was unsure of how she would react to him as this was the first time they had seen each other again since their lovemaking.

  Either way, Alys was betrothed to this man and could not keep him standing out in the hallway indefinitely. “Of course.” She stepped back to allow him entry.

  He stepped forward, turning in the center of the room to face her once the door had closed behind him. “The Earl of Carlton has just arrived.”

  “Oh.” Alys did not know quite what to say in answer to that statement. She knew that Deveril and Carlton were close friends, that the other man was another one of The Sinners. But, without knowing the earl’s purpose for being here, she had no idea how to respond.

  Deveril’s eyes were narrowed. “Your brother has stated he believes you well enough to join us for dinner this evening.”

  All the air whooshed from Alys’s lungs at the thought of having to spend the evening, not only with Deveril and the earl, but also with her brother and his disreputable friends, all of whom would no doubt now be aware of her betrothal to the Marquis of Deveril.

  Alys had made no effort to speak to Teddy again since he discovered Deveril in her bedchamber. There was nothing more to be said on Alys’s part, nor did she wish to hear anything Teddy might have to say in his defense. Because there was no defense for what he had and was continuing to do to her, all for his own monetary gain. She knew her father would have been horrified at Teddy’s callous actions.

  Alys had thought long and hard about her brother’s behavior.

  As she had done the same regarding Deveril’s response to it.

  She had decided, of the
two men, she respected and trusted Deveril more.

  She liked Sebastian even more than she liked either of them.

  She looked up at him beneath lowered lashes. “Would you like me to join you and the earl for dinner?”

  His expression became less severe. “I should like that very much.”

  She nodded. “Then I shall do so.” She did not have to so much as acknowledge Teddy and his friends if she did not wish to do so. Which she did not.

  Devil thought it was perhaps too premature on his part to allow the tension to ease from his shoulders. “Carlton has brought the Special License with him, and my lawyer should be here later this afternoon to finalize things with your brother.”

  “I see.”

  Devil studied Alys, hoping he was not imagining that she seemed less disturbed today by the mention of their marriage than she had previously. “Are you well?”

  Her lips trembled slightly as she forced a smile. “I am as well as can be expected when my brother has sold me into marriage. I do not hold you responsible, Sebastian,” she added quickly as he frowned. “I have never thought my brother felt any great affection for me, and this latest trickery has shown me he feels none.” Her chin rose. “The earl is here to attend our wedding.”

  “Yes,” Devil answered, even though it had been a statement rather than a question. Although he felt slightly reassured by the fact Alys had addressed him as Sebastian rather than the more formal Deveril.

  “I— Does he know the circumstances behind it?”

  His mouth tightened. “I do not consider that anyone’s business but our own.”

  She nodded abruptly. “When were you thinking the wedding might take place?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon.” Devil had sent for and spoken to the local vicar three days ago and had the other man’s promise the ceremony could take place whenever he and Alys were ready to do so.

  Her slender throat moved as she swallowed. “When shall we leave here?”

  “Immediately after the ceremony.”