[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

so it would seem to her her own choice, but the weighty hunger in his groin, his belly,
trebled at the feeling of her supple flesh against his fingers.
In his imagination, this had gone this way, just this way, until the next moment,
when Madeline braced her body against his and lifted her hands to his face. She
smoothed her fingers over his cheekbones, his jaw, his nose and lips and eyes, touching
him the way she touched her flowers, as if his face were a precious thing, as if she had
never explored anything so wondrous. Her lips parted a little, and pressing into him
tightly, she bent and kissed him.
It was an inexpert kiss, a little awkwardly fit at first until she thought to shift a
little and slant their mouths tightly together. Lucien felt the kiss from his forehead to his
knees, her simple soft movements, her tongue darting out to seek his own, her full, hot
mouth open and hungry
He groaned, and pulled her tight, shifting their bodies so that Madeline lay in the
thick, cool grass, her skirts scattering over the lawn. He kissed her in return, teasing and
showing her how to move, how to join, to dart and retreat, to play. Kissing her was a
thing unto itself, and he had not ever known that it could be such a big thing, so
satisfying, so arousing all by itself.
Violins and flutes and cellos rang in his mind; the colors danced and threaded
together, and Lucien was suddenly afraid. What if he could not escape the music any
longer? What if he could never sleep again for it? What if all he could do was write it and
burn it and write it and burn it, forever?
In anger and fear, he grew rough. This little innocent had so overridden his senses
that he could not even properly ravish her. Not that he made a habit of ravishment, but
this moment seemed to call for it. Harshly, he yanked her dress from her shoulder,
pushing at the fabric to expose her breasts.
She cried out, "No!" and grasped at the fabric in a rush.
He paused and held her, kissed her again, leaving her breast uncovered but
touched only by the naked air as it never had been, left it open to the kiss of his gaze. He
lifted his head, his arousal almost painfully acute now, and looked at her a full round
plumpness tipped with coral, like a flower hearing the swirl of violins swell in his head.
He touched the point with one finger only. Her breath caught. The flesh beaded
tightly and he gently moved to take the dress from her, so her shoulders and breasts were
bare and open to his eyes and his touch and the sensual caress of wind.
Looking at her, Lucien touched her nipples with his thumbs, then bent and
suckled her, deep and hard. She cried out a bright cry that burst into the day with
surprising and erotic force. Her fingers clutched his arms. "I want to touch you."
He turned her and unlaced the dress and pushed the fabric off her arms, so she
was naked to the waist in the thick green grass, and he wore all his clothes, and that
didn t seem fair. She sat up, purpose in her eyes, and reached for the ribbon in his hair,
and plunged her hands into it. She straddled him boldly and bent her head to his, and
kissed him. Lucien groaned and touched the long smooth stretch of her back, her sides,
her waist. He squeezed gently at her buttocks, and bit her mouth with light nips.
Her movements were restless, her fingers combing through his hair, over his face,
down his back. She pressed closer and closer to him, as if she didn t know...
Of course she didn t know. With a great burst of joy and arousal, Lucien realized
he would enjoy the pleasure of teaching her for the first time all the secrets of her
responsive body.
He broke away from her lips and kissed a path down her chin, over her throat,
slowly, slowly, all the while stroking the sides of her soft oh, soft! breasts. When he
kissed the high round swell of flesh, she pushed at his shoulder again, only a little, her
protest dying in the space of a breath, for he knew what she would like, and he did it he
opened his mouth and covered her nipple, and suckled lovingly until she near melted, a
sound like pain coming from her throat.
Lost in his own passion, Lucien reached for her skirts, and pulled them up and
touched her leg, just above the knees, and skimmed his hand upward to her hip. He ached
for her, and a hard ragged sigh came from him at the tenderness of that hidden skin. He
moved his fingers on her
Madeline bolted. "No!" she cried, shoving at him with impossible strength. "No."
He captured her once more. "Shhh," he said, and kissed her or tried. She fought
hard, pushing against him, her clothes askew. Her work had made her incredibly strong,
and he could not keep hold of her long enough to coax her back to softness.
"I love you, Madeline!" he blurted out in desperation. "Don t go!"
It startled her, he could see that, but not for long. She pushed away, pulling her
clothes around her. She stumbled to her feet. Her hair had come loose and a lock of
darkness fell down to touch one white breast.
A blaze of need bolted through him at the sight, and he jumped up. "Madeline,"
he said roughly, bending to capture her mouth, holding her face in his hands. Against his
sleeves, he felt her breasts, against the sides of his wrists, but he did not touch her again,
not like that. He held her face as lightly as he could and kissed her, letting himself fall
adrift on the taste of her tongue and the fullness of her lips and the softness of her hair.
"Madeline," he whispered, and kissed her face, her eyes, her bare shoulders. "I
love you, let me love you. Let me show you."
She shoved him, hard, and he stumbled backward. Angrily, she pushed her hair
off her face. "Love." She spat out the word. "You wouldn t know love if it killed you."
"Madeline
She struggled with the dress, trying with a flush on her cheeks to cover herself.
She turned her back to him. "Go away, Lucien!" she cried.
The sight of the small white rise of bones in her back pierced him. Stabbed with
uncommon guilt, he reached for her sleeve, and before she could shove him away, tugged
it into place. "Madeline "
"They that are rich in words in words discover that they are poor in that which
makes a lover, " she quoted softly. "Go, Lucien. Can t you see I m not like you? Seduce
some other woman."
"I don t want another woman," he said.
 She looked at him. "You ll destroy me."
Music ripped through his brain, bright and loud and sorrowful. Without a word,
he turned on his heel and left her. She was right he was a coward and a rake and he had
no business dragging her down with him.
With a kind of lost desperation, he headed for the stables.
&
Juliette thought the weather oppressive, and it had grown worse by evening, when
it should have been cooling off. Instead of soothing breezes blowing in from the water,
there was a thick humid stillness weighting the air. It affected the guests adversely,
making them quarrelsome. Madeline had snapped at her, and Anna bit the head off three
maids, sending one after the other down the stairs in tears. In exasperation, Juliette
herself had stopped by the countess s room, on a thin errand, to help her dress. Anna
complained about this and that, but it was plain she was pouting because she wanted
Lucien, and Lucien didn t return her lust at all.
"I d watch him, Juliette," Anna said as they went downstairs. "I can t think how [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]