Duke of Scandal (Moonlight Square, Book 1) Read online

  The footsteps stopped outside the doorway; the door creaked and then clicked closed to leave them their privacy.

  Jason moaned, apparently taken off guard by her wanton response. On her knees across his lap, she was delighted to feel his strong, smooth hands sliding down her back. He grasped her hips, then she drew in her breath sharply as he gripped her backside hard through the fluffy layers of her skirts and petticoat.

  He gave both cheeks a roguish squeeze. She laughed breathlessly, rocked against him. He nuzzled her breasts, and then used his lower position to start kissing her throat.

  He made her dizzy with delight. “Oh, Jason.”

  She clung to him, quivering as his lips roamed up the curve of her neck to her earlobe.

  “You taste so good, my darling Felicity,” he whispered as he licked and kissed her neck. “Better than I dreamed.”

  She ran her fingers through his sable hair, loosening the light, stiff hold of the clean-smelling stuff that he used to slick it back. But this was only fair, since he had messed up her hair, too. He now brought it tumbling around her shoulders as he stole the combs that had been holding it up. With a slight, expert tug, he even robbed her of the ribbon serving as her headband. She countered by likewise untying his cravat.

  “There. That’s better,” she whispered, undoing his top button and then sliding her hand into the intriguing region of his neck usually hidden by the collar of his shirt. It was lovely. She bent and kissed it.

  He cradled her head against the crook of his neck, clearly enjoying this as much as she was; however, having loosed her hair, and certainly her instincts, he pulled back just a little to admire her with her hair down.

  His stare was intense as he studied her, as though for the first time. “You really are so damned beautiful.”

  She dropped her gaze modestly.

  He smiled at her blush and then pulled her down for another kiss. She did not know how the man could be so calm. She was going out of her mind with tingling sensations she had never experienced before, feelings that made her want to ride him like a horse. He did not seem at all surprised by this; indeed, the gentle pressure of his hand at the small of her back welcomed her without a word to do so. It guided her down to rest astraddle him, their bodies flush.

  For his part, he sat up straighter, kissing her sweetly, nibbling her lips, and teaching her the marvelous results of what happened in her body when she moved against him just so.

  “Oh my.” The dizzy whisper escaped her.

  “God, Felicity,” he uttered, clutching her to him. “You’re so sweet. So innocent.”

  “Jason.”

  She was so swept up in the tantalizing pleasure throbbing in her mound that she gasped in surprise when his left hand cupped her breast and then began rhythmically squeezing it.

  Meanwhile, his right had begun roaming up her thigh beneath the drapery of her skirts. She felt his fingers curl around her garter like he wanted to tear every stitch of clothing off her.

  She did not think she would have minded one bit.

  She loved the scoundrel. Trusted him. God help her, she still believed in him, too. And if he wished it, she would gladly give herself to his pleasure right now in glorious abandon.

  “Lie down, sweeting,” he panted, but he was already helping her do so, switching positions with her, and slowly laying her on her back on the sofa. He moved atop her and leaned between her thighs, running an expert hand down her bared right leg to her bent knee.

  She slid her arms around his neck, a little scared, but utterly excited to see what he might do next. Her lips burned, swollen as his own. His dark eyes gleamed with seductive knowledge.

  “So many things I want to do to you. Show you,” he breathed.

  “Do them, Jason. Show me.” Her voice was but a sigh.

  “So willing?”

  “You’ve always been the one. Haven’t we both wanted this for ages?”

  He eyed her in stormy defiance, unwilling to admit it even now.

  She smiled in spite of herself. “Very well. I’ll play along if you prefer it thus. We’re just friends.” Then she pulled him down to kiss her once more, and did some exploring of her own.

  Unbuttoning his waistcoat with trembling fingers, she pulled his shirt out from his trouser waist and slipped her hand boldly underneath, moaning with admiration as she fondled his sculpted abdomen.

  The hard, chiseled muscle and velveteen warmth of his skin drove her wild with twofold hunger. She ran her hands up his smooth sides, caressing his stomach and trailing her fingers across his muscled chest.

  She laid her palm flat over his heart and felt it pounding as he kissed her.

  The heart whose devotion she craved.

  “Felicity, my darling.” Braced on his hands above her, he shook his head gently. “We have to stop now.”

  “No, we don’t.”

  “We do,” he murmured in regret. “This has gone far enough.”

  “I want more.”

  “No. This can’t happen.”

  “It already is happening, Jason. Mmm, you’re harder than Hades.”

  He flinched and closed his eyes with a look of agonized pleasure when she cupped his rigid manhood through his clothes, just as she had done to the marble god.

  “You heartless tease.”

  “I’m not teasing. You feel much nicer than that cold statue. Yours is hot. And pulsating.”

  “Yes, I know,” he said through gritted teeth. “Please stop.” Then he groaned, making no effort at all to pull away.

  “Such a liar,” she taunted.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  “Well, I did.”

  “Felicity, no.”

  “Jason, don’t start something you’re not prepared to finish.”

  He looked down at her in astonishment, his hair tousled, his clothes undone as he lay between her legs, with her skirts hitched up around her hips.

  “’Sblood, what am I doing?” He suddenly wrenched backward, shot dizzily to his feet, and turned away, looking routed. “I have to go.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Felicity came up onto her elbows, glaring at him. “You choose this moment to go all virtuous on me? No. You cannot be this cruel to me again. Get back here, Netherford.”

  As your future duchess, I demand it, she thought, staring boldly at him.

  But she was not mad enough to utter this aloud. That would send him running for the hills.

  Standing a few feet away, weaving slightly on his feet, he seemed to struggle for sanity. “You don’t know what you’re saying. One of the servants already saw us.”

  “I don’t give a damn,” she said politely. “And neither do you. Not really. Now, you come back here, you naughty man, and finish what you started. Or else.”

  “Or else what?” he retorted.

  She gave him angelic smile. “Or I’ll tell big brother.”

  His jaw dropped.

  She crossed her legs enticingly and waited.

  “Oh, you little devil,” he whispered, but as he shook his head at her, she could see that, somehow, he was perversely intrigued that she would use the threat of blackmail to force him into doing what they both wanted.

  She bit her lip to stop herself from caving in to propriety.

  “And here I thought I was the scandalous one.”

  “Oh, stop complaining,” she chided in amusement. “You know you want this. Besides, it’s only fair.” She shifted the angle of her legs and let him stare at them. “You’ve done this with nearly every other woman in Town, so why not me?”

  “Because you’re the one that matters,” he replied.

  Felicity went motionless, and Jason seemed to have startled even himself with his own soft words.

  He looked away while she hid her astonishment. “Of course, I had no idea you were such a naughty thing.”

  She shrugged, fascinated, but on her guard. “Maybe you just bring out the bad in me, hmm?”

  He eyed her over his sho
ulder. “I rather like the bad in you.”

  “Don’t run away,” she whispered, holding out her hand to lure him back.

  His eyes gleamed as he glanced at the clock. “When do you expect Mrs. Brown to return?”

  She shrugged. “Not yet.”

  He took a wary step toward her, and when he came to stand by the arm of the sofa, his hand descended to pet her head. She savored his gentle touch, nestling against his palm. She looked up at him with almost unbearable yearning, and he seemed to reconsider.

  Taking pity on her. Enjoying his control.

  He walked around the sofa, trailing his fingertips down her leg as he came alongside her. “If we do this…it’ll only be the once. I mean it, Felicity. It’s not going to happen again. But…I suppose I can’t just leave you in this state.”

  Whatever you say. “I knew you weren’t that cruel.”

  “Yes. And if it’s just to be this once…I suppose I ought to make it worth your while. Something to remember me by.” He slowly lowered himself to kneel beside her on the floor.

  Felicity trembled with raw anticipation. He kissed her bent knee, still holding her stare. “Because it all ends when I walk out that door. Understood? I won’t be back.”

  Yes, you will, she thought, but she just stared at him, panting with desire.

  “And, very well, I admit it. I suppose I’ve been a bit curious for a long time now.” He pressed her legs apart.

  “Will it hurt much when you take me?” she whispered. “They say—that is, I’ve never—”

  He silenced her with a finger over her lips. “I’m not doing that to you. I don’t care how you beg. I can give you what you need in other ways. Lie back now, there’s a good girl.”

  Pulse slamming, she obeyed, and tried to relax as he kissed his way down her body. He pushed her skirts higher, nuzzling her thighs.

  She watched him in nervous sensuality, but then closed her eyes with a silken tremor that ran the length of her when he gently touched her core.

  “Ohhh.” She blushed scarlet when he pressed his finger into her drenched passage. She could not help but move her hips as he began to stroke her, in and out. But she gasped in scandalized delight when he lowered his head and started kissing her mound of Venus, exactly as he’d done to her mouth. So warm, so shocking.

  So Jason.

  She rested her hand atop his head, petting his sable hair while he pleasured her with expert skill.

  Felicity was in raptures. Contrary to her maiden fears, it didn’t hurt at all. Between the intoxicating thickness of his middle finger penetrating her, and the wet, lusty glide of his tongue’s wicked play at her mound, it was only moments before she climaxed with a series of violent shudders and a muffled shriek of blissful release.

  He swooped up to capture her frantic moans on his tongue before they faded away completely. She could taste herself on him, which was strange, but what Jason had just done to her seemed to have almost as potent an effect on him as it had on her.

  His hand shook as he pulled her touch to his member through his clothes.

  My goodness! She marveled at the size of it. Ecstasy had left her reeling, but she immediately squeezed it to oblige him.

  “Do you want me to kiss it, too?” she asked breathlessly.

  He jolted where he knelt. “Oh God. Stop.” His hand clamped down on her wrist like a manacle. “No,” he said hoarsely.

  “Why? I’m game. That was wonderful. Just show me how to give you pleas—”

  “For God’s sake, Felicity!”

  He pulled away from her almost angrily, his eyes ablaze, his brow furrowed with a general look of dazed need.

  “What? What did I do?”

  “Be quiet!” He rose and turned away, then visibly strove to get himself under control.

  There was silence, but for his panting.

  He stood with his hands on his hips, head down, his back to her; she could see his shoulders moving as his chest heaved.

  “Jason?”

  No answer.

  The spring breeze tickled the window, and the clock tick-tocked.

  She sat up, watching him with an anxious little flutter in the pit of her stomach. “Why are you so angry at me?”

  “Not at you!” He turned around and looked at her incredulously, as if it was the stupidest question he had ever heard. “At myself—because I shouldn’t have let this happen!”

  For a heartbeat, his anger almost scared her back into being prim and proper, but thankfully, she was shrewd enough to realize that she was finally getting somewhere with him. The bold approach had really worked thus far, so she vowed to stay the course.

  “Oh. Is that all?” she said, pleased to sense that the balance of power had subtly shifted between them—in her favor for once. She laid her head on a throw pillow and gazed at him. “Well, I, for one, am glad it happened. I must say, it was worth the wait.”

  He cast her a glance full of dark longing and shock at her frank answer, clearly resenting that everything that had existed for so long between them was now fully out in the open, whether he liked it or not. Perhaps he had preferred the safety of self-deception, ignoring their attraction. He shook his head.

  “Little fool,” he muttered under his breath as he hurried to fix his various garments.

  “Yes, probably so.” She laughed idly, holding to her chosen path of brazening this out. Indeed, she found it oddly liberating. “A fool for you, my dear. I don’t deny it. I love you, Jason. And I always will.”

  When she raised herself up onto her elbow, he looked at her like he wanted to devour her all over again.

  Instead, he turned away, shaking his head. “I am leaving, Felicity. And I won’t be back.”

  She let out a sigh and collapsed onto her back again. “Suit yourself.”

  This was apparently not the answer His Grace had anticipated. He paused in the middle of tucking his shirt in and arched a brow at her.

  She slanted him a wry look. “What did you expect from me, tears? Pleading?” She shook her head. “No. Do as you please. You always do, anyway. You know how I feel about you, and that is sufficient.”

  “You’re deluded,” he muttered.

  “If you think that, then you’re the fool, Jason.” She sat up again and pinned him with a challenging stare. “Do you think I would’ve ever let you touch me if I were not in love with you?”

  He stared at her, mute.

  She let out a sigh. “Yes, yes, I know. You don’t want to hear it. Well, I really don’t care if you love me back or not, as it happens. I’m not going to die without you like some brainless miss. So, go. Run away, just like you always do. Nobody’s forcing you to stay. Get out of my house if you don’t want to be here. Frankly, I’m tired of your games.”

  “My games?” he nearly shouted. But he snapped his mouth shut on whatever else he might have wanted to say and merely glared at her.

  Turning away, he dragged his hand through his hair in a useless effort to tame it, snatched his coat off the chair where she had placed it, and marched to the doorway. “Farewell, Felicity. It’s been fun.”

  “Come back anytime, Your Grace,” she taunted, refusing to wince at his callous barb. “We both know this isn’t over yet.”

  He scowled at her, then huffed out of the parlor.

  Though his angry reaction to her declaration of love made her wince, she managed to laugh softly as she heard him go slamming out the back door into the mews. Ah, why, of all the men on the earth, did I have to lose my heart to that beast?

  But her hopes soared, for he had said with his own lips that she was the only one that mattered…and the way he’d said it, she believed him.

  So she refused to be daunted, refused to get angry, refused to give up. Not now, when she finally saw she was getting to him. That’s just my Jason. The scoundrel of the earth.

  Monster, she thought with a fond chuckle, remembering the diva’s song to him. He’ll be back, she thought with a shiver of lingering delight. But Lord, a
s bad as he was, he was certainly good at some things.

  Letting out a delicious sigh, she fell onto her back again, cast her forearm across her brow, and wondered in amusement what she could do to torment the rogue next.

  CHAPTER 9

  A Losing Battle

  How could I be so weak? Why did I give in to her? I can’t believe I let this happen!

  Jason fled out the back door of her house, shaken to the core. I’m playing games? Why, the little lunatic. She did not behave like any other female he had ever dealt with—neither lady nor whore.

  Get out of my house if you don’t want to be here? he marveled, confounded. I don’t really care if you love me back?

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  He did not understand what she was after, and with his mind a scarlet vortex of sexual frustration, there was obviously no hope of puzzling it out until he got to come. He resolved to go at once to his favorite brothel, and paused outside the back door of Felicity’s house.

  There, with hands still shaking, he put his clothes back into some rough semblance of order before striding over to his carriage.

  As he untied his horses and then jumped up into the curricle, he could not believe she had blackmailed him into pleasuring her with the threat of telling her brother. Wicked little vixen.

  She was shameless.

  And he utterly adored it.

  Just when he thought Felicity Carvel could not get any more fascinating, any more alluring, she turned his world upside down.

  If you are wise, his survival instincts warned, you will never go near her again.

  Well, of course he would stay away from her. He had staked his pride on doing so, making his big, manly pronouncement that he wouldn’t be back.

  The thought of it already made him sick to his stomach. Indeed, a weak, sniveling, craven part of him wanted to go racing right back to her and throw himself at her feet, tell her he hadn’t meant it and beg her to forget he had ever said it. That what she had “made him” do to her was exactly what he had longed to do. God, what was wrong with him?