A Regency Duo Read online

  It seemed Alexander had not been able to do as Adam asked and curb the other woman’s jealousy of Emma.

  A visit from Adam later today would leave that lady in absolutely no doubt as to which of the Stirling brothers held Emma’s welfare in the highest regard. By the time Adam had finished that conversation, he would have ensured the woman was muzzled and declawed.

  Emma frowned. “Surely she must have realized we would get to the truth of the matter quite easily, when many in Society are aware of her husband’s hobby of beekeeping?”

  “I can only assume her less than healthy infatuation with my brother has addled her wits.” Adam frowned. “I overheard you telling Lady Langdon earlier you are allergic to bee stings?”

  Emma nodded. “Since I was a child. The doctor warned then that I should take care never to be stung again, as the consequences could be dire.”

  “The Millbrook bitch might have killed you!” Adam knew, whether or not Emma was allergic to a bee sting, she could have died anyway if she had received enough of the poisonous venom into her bloodstream.

  “And I can only assume, as Lady Millbrook could not possibly have thought the Duke of Hawkwood was interested in me,” Emma teased, “that she did not believe me when I assured her I was not pursuing Lord Stirling nor being pursued by him.”

  Adam was relieved to hear some of Emma’s sense of humor was returning.

  Although quite how he was to continue keeping his hands off her once they were alone together again at Hawkwood House, he had no idea. But refusing her request had been beyond him when she had asked so shyly and he desired her so utterly.

  Adam doubted even his considerable willpower or his iron control would be enough to resist her. He might have lost Emma today. The possibility of loss through death, he now realized, was a great leveler as to who and what was or was not important in one’s life.

  “I am becoming very fond of this room,” Emma acknowledged ruefully a few minutes later as she glanced about the familiarity of Adam’s private sitting room.

  He quirked a mocking brow. “Might I take that remark as meaning it is one of the rooms you are not intending to change the décor of when you become mistress here?”

  Emma now trembled for quite another reason than her reaction to having almost been stung by bees. The thought of being mistress of this magnificent house, of becoming Adam’s wife, his duchess… “Your brother will not interrupt us again today, I hope?”

  “I have locked the door and left instructions with the servants to inform Alexander not to come knocking on it, under sentence of his premature death,” Adam assured her dryly.

  “Then will you please kiss me?” she invited huskily.

  He winced. “I am not sure that is a good idea, considering what I wished to do with you last night.”

  Emma was counting on that being the case. Because she very much wanted, needed, Adam to kiss her right now, and then for them to both enjoy together anything that came after that kiss. She needed that reassurance of warmth from him.

  She now had absolutely no doubt the two of them would marry, so what did it matter if they anticipated their wedding night by a few days or even weeks? “When is your birthday?”

  “Next month.”

  “Then we should probably arrange a wedding date soon.”

  Adam scowled. “Is this about that ridiculous clause in my father’s will?”

  Emma gave a rueful smile. “I should not like the tardiness of a few days’ or weeks’ delay in our wedding to be the reason you lost your fortune.”

  His nostrils flared. “It is not my own but the Hawkwood fortune which I would forfeit to the future hair, whether that be Alexander or a son of our marriage. I have accumulated enough personal wealth to not need to touch a penny of the family money.”

  “Does a gentleman ever have too much money?” she teased.

  “Emma—”

  “Please kiss me, Adam,” she encouraged huskily.

  As all the blood had now rushed from Adam’s head to his rapidly engorging cock, he had little sense left in his brain to think of anything more than touching and tasting Emma again.

  But he would not forget this conversation regarding the Hawkwood fortune.

  Nor had he forgotten the need to call upon Lord and Lady Millbrook, to put a decisive end to this unreasonable vendetta the other woman now waged against Emma. But as Emma was currently safe and here with him, that visit could also wait a little longer.

  A lot longer, he amended, the color having fully returned to Emma’s creamy cheeks and her eyes bright with arousal, as indication she desired him as deeply as he did her.

  As Adam had suspected might become the case, being with Emma, touching her, kissing her, was fast becoming an addiction. As necessary to him as the air he breathed.

  Rather than responding only to raw desire and emotion as they had last night, Adam was determined to make love to Emma today. To take his time and worship every inch of her, as she deserved.

  “If we are to start a new fashion of the gentleman proposing to the woman rather than simply asking her father’s permission, then the least that woman deserves is a romantic setting for such a proposal. Which we do not have here.” He frowned. “Instead, can I make you a promise that the proposal will be forthcoming when the time is right?”

  “Of course.”

  His jaw tensed at this further evidence of Emma’s complete trust in him. “Last night, I managed to part from you before I anticipated our wedding night. I cannot promise to be so…to have that same willpower today once I have kissed you.”

  Emma stepped forward until she stood only inches apart from Adam, determined to leave him in no doubt as to her own need. “I shall say yes to your proposal when you choose to make it. I might be stubborn, but I am not silly enough to say no to becoming your duchess.”

  Adam smiled ruefully. “So the incentive is my title.”

  “Not in the least.” Emma met his gaze steadily, leaving him in no doubt as to who or what was the main incentive. Him.

  Adam exhaled noisily. “Do you have any idea how much I desire you?”

  Desire, Emma noted, not the same love she felt for him. But there would be time for love to grow between them, and if it did not become love on Adam’s part, then she would enjoy his desire for her for as long as it lasted.

  “As much as I desire you, I hope,” she returned shyly.

  A fire flared in the depths of his eyes as Adam stared into hers for several long seconds and then pulled her gently into his arms to lower his head and claim her lips with his own.

  It began as a slow and exploratory kiss, but the want, the need, the heat between them, quickly spiraled out of control.

  “So good,” Emma gasped as Adam’s lips traveled hotly down her throat to the swell of her breasts. Her back arched as she felt the rough lave of his tongue across her nipples.

  It was the first realization she had that her gown was now unfastened at the back and gaping open at the front, freeing her breasts to the ministrations of Adam’s mouth and hands before it slipped down her body completely to pool about her ankles, leaving her wearing only her chemise and drawers.

  Emma had never helped a man to undress, and she had no idea how to go about doing so now either. But she was more than willing to be guided by Adam as she helped divest him of his boots, jacket, waistcoat, and neckcloth before he pulled his own shirt over his head and drop it to the ground with the rest of his clothes.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the broad expanse of Adam’s naked torso: wide shoulders, tautly muscled chest with a dark dusting of hair across bronzed nipples and then in a vee down to his slender waist. His arms were also muscular, with a similar dusting of hair on his forearms.

  Adam was so much more without his clothes and with his dark hair disheveled. More muscular. More mouthwateringly handsome. More!

  Emma’s hands reached out tentatively, only to freeze just short of touching him as she heard Adam’s sharply ind
rawn breath.

  “Touch me,” he groaned, hands clenched at his sides, every muscle tensed beneath that golden flesh. “For God’s sake, Emma, touch me!”

  She could feel Adam shaking as she placed her hands against the heated skin of his chest, the play of muscles beneath her caressing fingertips, the rapid and heavy beat of his heart. A man such as Adam would not take it as a compliment to be called beautiful, and yet he was. As perfect as a painting Emma had once seen of Michelangelo’s David.

  Emma barely suppressed a giggle at the realization one part of Adam’s anatomy, at least, was far larger than David’s. Adam’s cock was so much longer and thicker than the statue depicted David’s as being.

  She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Might I kiss you?”

  A nerve pulsed in Adam’s clenched jaw. “You can do whatever you wish with me.”

  She gave Adam’s face a quick glance before hastily looking away again, feeling feverish at the hot lick of desire she could see burning in the depth of his glittering eyes.

  Unlike a statue, Adam’s flesh was hot and fluid against her lips, and Emma acted purely on instinct when she laved the wetness of her tongue across one of his bronzed nipples. She heard Adam groan, his hands reaching out to grasp the tops of her arms to pull her closer still as that nubbin hardened beneath the moist caress.

  Emma wondered whether he was as sensitive and would feel the same pleasure as she did when he suckled on her nipples.

  “Dear God…”

  Emma’s heart leapt at the sound of Adam’s aching gasp when she sucked his nipple into her mouth at the same time as her fingers plucked at its twin, caressing, pinching, until it was hard and throbbing.

  “That is— No woman has ever— I had no idea of the pleasure— Do not stop!” Adam groaned achingly.

  Emma had no intention of stopping, continuing to bite, pinch, and suckle on those bronzed nubbins for several more minutes and then trailed kisses down the vee of dark hair leading to his taut waist. “Adam, is it too forward if I—”

  “I gave you leave to do whatever you wish,” he reminded her gruffly.

  She straightened, looking straight into those darkened gray eyes as she slowly slipped the straps of her chemise down her arms, first bearing her breasts, her slender waist, and allowing it to fall to her feet.

  “Let me.” Adam gently pushed her fingers aside as she would have unfastened her drawers.

  It was Emma’s turn to tremble now as the silk bow was released at her waist and her drawers began to slide down her hips and legs, fully exposing her in a way she had not been before. Previously, Adam had undressed parts of her but never revealed all of her at once.

  The warmth of Adam’s hands remained on her naked hips, not quite tight enough to bruise the flesh, but enough that Emma felt that touch to the depth of her core.

  “Take down your hair,” Adam instructed softly, eyes hooded by lowered lids as he watched her delicate arms lift and remove the pins. Her blonde curls tumbled down onto her shoulders and the length of her spine. She looked— “You are so beautiful,” he groaned as his lips captured the softness of Emma’s in a fierce and possessive kiss.

  Within minutes, they were both prone upon the couch, Adam groaning into the warmth of Emma’s throat as his fingers lightly caressed the wet heat between her thighs and then up to the nubbin which pulsed above.

  “Oh please!” Emma’s hands clung tightly to Adam’s shoulders as she arched her hips up in rhythm with those caressing fingers, giving her the friction she desired until pleasure burst inside her, spreading to the whole of her body in wave after wave of heady release.

  Then Adam’s mouth was at her cunny again, his lips hot as he lapped up her juices with his tongue, piercing her swollen nether lips to thrust inside to the same rhythm as his thumb rubbed and tweaked her clit.

  Emma’s second release was fiercer than the first.

  The third was even more intense.

  She rolled onto her side to push Adam onto his back beside her. “I want to pleasure you now.” She unfastened and pulled down his pantaloons, revealing that he once again wore nothing beneath them and his cock was fully erect and leaking that liquid she liked so much.

  “Not this time.” Adam held her gently at bay as she would have taken that delicious length into her mouth. “Unlike a woman, a man needs recovery time between each release,” he explained gruffly. “Much as I love having your mouth on me, today I should very much like to release my cum inside the heat of your pussy.”

  Emma felt her cheeks warm, not from embarrassment but from the pleasure she felt at knowing how much Adam desired her, wanted to possess her completely. “I am not sure we are lying on the correct piece of furniture for that to be possible,” she murmured derisively.

  “Straddle my hips,” Adam encouraged, nodding his approval once she had done so, the pertness of her breasts a delicious temptation above him. “Now lift up until you are high enough for the tip of my cock to touch the entrance to your cunny.” His fingers tightly gripped and raised his cock until the tip touched the heat of Emma’s pussy lips. “Now I want you to slide slowly down onto my cock. It might hurt a little at first,” he apologized as she gasped. “But in this position, you will be able to control the depth of the thrusts. The pain lasts only seconds, and the pleasure will follow shortly thereafter, I promise.”

  Her channel was hot as wildfire, and it took every effort of Adam’s will to slowly feed each inch of his cock inside her until it was totally engulfed and swallowed by stretched nether lips and the heat inside her pussy.

  “All right?” he prompted hoarsely.

  Emma breathed raggedly as her body slowly adjusted to the intrusion. “Are all gentlemen as large as you?”

  Adam chuckled. “As I have never entered into a conversation where the size of my cock is compared to another gentlemen’s, I could not say.”

  She raised her brows. “Not even with your brother?”

  “Perhaps as youths.” His humor faded. “But I believe you now have more knowledge as to the size of my brother’s cock than I have.”

  “Yours is larger,” she instantly assured him.

  Adam had not been pleased at mention of his brother at such an intimate moment, only to seconds later find himself holding back a smile at Emma’s eagerness to reassure him. “Witch,” he teased.

  Emma’s hands were placed on his chest, Adam’s cock still buried inside her to the hilt. “What do we do now?”

  “Are you now quite comfortable with the intrusion?”

  “Quite,” she assured shyly.

  “Then now you slide up and then down again, and when you slide down, I shall thrust upward.”

  Emma swallowed before slowly doing as Adam instructed, able to feel every inch of that silky cock as she rose high enough to leave only the bulbous tip inside her.

  “Now slowly down again,” Adam advised gruffly. “Then repeat.”

  Much as Emma enjoyed the intimacy, it was also torture, she decided after repeating that movement half a dozen times. The pulling out of Adam’s cock was too slow and the thrust back in was not nearly hard enough.

  “More?” Adam prompted intuitively.

  “Oh yes please.” She breathed her relief that she had not actually had to ask Adam to fuck her harder.

  What followed was the most wondrous experience of Emma’s life as Adam’s hands on her hips now controlled the upward and downward movement of her cunny onto his thrusting cock. He brought her to release again and again until she felt him stiffen inside her and seconds later her pussy was awash with the heat and fierceness of spurt after spurt of his hot cum.

  Chapter 11

  “You are looking as smug this evening as a cat that has lapped from a bowl of cream,” Felicia teased Emma as they stood together in the Thomases’ ballroom.

  Emma had no doubt she felt as satiated as that cat, if for a very different reason.

  Her afternoon with Adam had been pure ecstasy. A feast of lovemakin
g that had no doubt left its mark upon her, in her demeanor if in no other way. And it had been lovemaking to her. She could only hope it had been the same for Adam.

  In any case, she had found herself smiling as Adam escorted her home in his carriage and kissed her lightly on the lips as they parted. She had been smiling still when she dressed to join Adam at the Thomases’ ball this evening, after all. Emma’s maid had arranged her hair in such a way as to hide the scratches down the side of her neck.

  “Or savored your first taste of cock,” Felicia added softly.

  Color warmed Emma’s cheeks. “I am sure your conversation did not used to be as scandalous as this.”

  The other woman chuckled. “Marriage to Langdon has made me less prudish, I agree. Nor did you deny my comment,” she added speculatively as she arched questioning brows. “Tell me, is Hawkwood as cold a lover as he seems as a man?”

  “Adam is not in the least cold—” Emma broke off as she realized from her friend’s satisfied smile that she had fallen into the other woman’s trap. “That was hardly fair, Felicia.”

  Her friend chuckled softly. “All is fair in love and war, darling.”

  Her cheeks warmed. “I do not remember mentioning love.”

  Felicia gave her a sideways glance. “I know you well enough to be sure nothing less than love would tempt you into engaging in an affair with Hawkwood.”

  Emma had every reason to hope it would be much more than an affair. Adam still had yet to propose, of course, but she did not doubt his promise to do so.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she looked across the crowded room and saw Adam standing in the doorway of the Thomases’ ballroom. Her heart rate increased at how absolutely magnificent he looked in his black evening clothes. It then stopped completely the moment Adam’s gaze caught and held her own, and he began to walk purposefully toward her.

  “I will speak to you later,” Felicia murmured softly.