“She’s right,” Lord Beverly said with a nod. “Unlike the confrontation in the garden or the spectacle in the plaza, my guess is that The Jackal will try to make this exchange appear as casual as possible.”
“Otherwise he wouldn’t be demanding it take place in one of the most crowded sections of Rome,” Thomas said, putting the pieces together.
“So it’s settled, then,” Hattie said, clapping her hands together. “We’ll all go to the Forum tomorrow, and when this Jackal person pushes things, we’ll pounce.” She grinned just like a cat about to pounce on a mouse.
There were still more plans to make. Lord Beverly had a role for each of them to play and specific locations where they would stand. He taught them ways to signal each other once the mission was complete and Asher was rescued, as well as how to let the others know if they were suddenly in danger. Much to Thomas’s surprise, he ended their strategy session by teaching Hattie and Charlotte how to use some of the most modern and sleek firearms Thomas had ever seen.
“The idea of a pistol like that in my cousin Hattie’s hands terrifies me,” he told Violetta as he escorted her home after the meeting. “It’s likely to go straight to her head.”
“It’s a good thing Lady Hattie has Lord Whitemarsh to keep her in line, then,” Violetta laughed as they strolled along. Like their walk the other afternoon, to any casual observer, they appeared as nothing more than lovers headed home for the night. Which suited Thomas just fine.
“Lord Whitemarsh won’t be much better,” he laughed as they approached the door to Violetta’s flat. “He and Hattie only encourage each other into more mischief. And I’m saying that only having known Whitemarsh for a few weeks.”
“It sounds as though they are a match made in heaven.” Violetta stopped in front of her door, grinning wickedly up at Thomas. “Not unlike another couple I can think of.”
Thomas’s pulse sped up. The way she gazed at him with unmistakable invitation had him hot in no time. “Do you know, my dear,” he said, inching closer to her and resting a hand on her side. “I think it would be wise for me to accompany you upstairs. You know. To be certain you don’t have any other pesky suitors loitering around to accost you.”
“I think you’re right.” Violetta’s grin was like fire and lightning combined. She swayed back, taking Thomas’s hand and leading him on into the building.
Within seconds of entering her flat, Thomas spun Violetta into his arms and slanted his mouth over hers. He would never be able to get enough of kissing her. Her mouth was warm and eager. He adored the fact that she kissed him back with as much passion as he had. She knew exactly what she wanted, and he was more than willing to give it to her.
She expertly undid the buttons of his jacket as they stepped blindly through the main room of her flat to her bedroom. The place could have been on fire and he wouldn’t have noticed as she shoved his jacket over his shoulders and went to work on the buttons of his shirt. He struggled out of his jacket, dropping it on the floor, shrugged out of his suspenders, then reached for the buttons on the front of her blouse as they continued to move.
Violetta laughed deep in her throat as they crossed into her bedroom, glancing up at him with a mischievous grin. “You are eager, Lord Landry,” she said, tugging his shirt out from the waist of his trousers.
“With you, my love, eager isn’t an adequate word,” he replied, pulling her close. He wrapped his arms around her, leaning in for another searing kiss, but the true aim of circling his arms behind her back was to unhook the back of her skirts.
She laughed when they sagged around her hips, then wriggled to step out of her skirt and petticoats. “I like a man who knows what he wants,” she said, reaching for the fastenings of his trousers. “Mostly because I am a woman who knows precisely what she wants.”
“And what do you want?” Thomas asked, responding to the impishness in her eyes as though it were an electric current that was lighting him up.
She answered with a flicker of her eyebrow, sinking to her knees in front of him. He barely had time to suck in a breath of anticipation before she tugged his trousers and drawers down to his thighs and closed her hands around his stiffening cock. He couldn’t help but groan with pleasure as she stroked his length, making him harder by the second, and cupped his balls. The intensity of the pleasure she gave him had his blood pounding in his veins and the tell-tale energy of orgasm building up at the base of his spine in no time. He wouldn’t embarrass himself by coming too soon, though. If she wanted to test him, she would discover just how much stamina he had.
That determination promptly went out the window as she took hold of the base of his cock and brought her soft, pouting lips to his head. He let out another moan of pleasure as she lightly kissed and teased him, drawing only his head into her mouth and teasing the underside of his cock with her tongue. The sensations she raised in him were so powerful that he grabbed handfuls of her hair, if only to steady himself.
It was hard enough to hold on in the midst of everything her lips and tongue were doing, but when she slowly drew him deep into her mouth—so deep he was genuinely impressed—it took every ounce of concentration he had not to explode. He broke out in a sweat as she set a punishing rhythm, swallowing him deep and heightening his pleasure with her tongue. It felt insanely good, but the sight of her pink mouth stretched around his cock as she moved and the expression of ecstasy she wore made it all a thousand times better.
She was too much for him. As desperately as he wanted to hold out, he jerked and cried out as he came hard down her throat. She swallowed, then laughed, making him feel perfectly helpless and totally under her control. And nothing had ever made him so happy.
“I should have held out,” he panted as she rose to her feet, brushing the side of her mouth with a finger. The simple gesture drove him wild. He would be ready to go again in no time.
“You couldn’t possibly have held out,” she said with a cheeky grin. “But, of course, I expect the same from you now.”
He couldn’t have resisted her if he’d tried. As fast as he could, he shucked his trousers and shoes as she sped her way through shedding the rest of her clothes. They tumbled onto her bed without bothering to pull back the bedcovers. Violetta’s naked body was the most enticing site Thomas had ever seen, particularly when she spread her legs wide and shamelessly. She arched one brow and shot a brief look to her sex, as if ordering him to drive her as wild as she’d just driven him.
Thomas laughed, surging in to kiss her lips long and lingeringly first. “I don’t ever want to be without you again,” he said, still pulsing with warmth and satisfaction from his orgasm. The sentiment wasn’t one born out of lust alone though.
“What do you mean?” Violetta asked, resting her hands on the side of his face.
“I mean, I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” he said, meaning every word.
For a brief moment, her expression pinched to distress. “I don’t ever want to let you go either,” she whispered.
“Whatever is to become of us?” Thomas asked, kissing her lips again lightly. “Will Her Majesty let one of her secret agents become the wife of a lord with a bad reputation?”