When he finally released her from his attentions, Alice whimpered.
Why did you have to stop?
With her hand in his, Harry led Alice over to a nearby low sofa. When he had arranged her with her back against it, he took her lips once more in a soft, tender kiss. She sensed his hard erection poking against her stomach, and the memory of the woman downstairs with her lover’s cock in her mouth suddenly filled Alice’s mind.
Will he want me to do that to him? He will have to teach me.
“Are you ready for more?” he asked.
This game of sexual manners was exactly what he had promised. Nothing happened without her express approval.
“Yes.”
He slid a hand beneath her skirts, tracing his thumb up the inside of her thigh. When he touched the tip of her sex, he stopped. Alice whimpered with need.
“May I?”
“I shall die if you don’t” she replied.
And with that, he slipped his thumb into her wet heat and began to stroke. Each time he withdrew to the edge of release, his knuckle rubbed over her sensitive bud and she sobbed.
“Harry.”
Harder and deeper he stroked her, creating an urgent need which built steadily within. Between her sobs and groans, all Alice could do was let Harry take the lead. She was completely at his mercy.
“You saw the woman on the table being pleasured by a man’s mouth. Did it arouse you?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“May I?”
She had got in enough of an aroused state simply watching from the top of the landing. The prospect of Harry doing that to her had Alice sucking in a shuddering breath.
“Please,” she whispered.
He drew her onto the carpet, then knelt between her legs. The instant his tongue touched her oversensitive nib, her hips bucked. A wicked chuckle echoed in the quiet space. The rogue knew how close she was to exploding.
“Harry,” she begged.
He answered her plea with his thumb and mouth, thrusting into her sex while he licked and sucked at her clitoris. She grasped for him, her fingers spearing into his hair.
Tension throbbed through her body. She was desperate to reach that final climax. After tearing his mouth away, Harry rose over Alice and thrust two fingers deep into her heat. He continued to run his thumb around the edge of her bud, teasing cries and groans from her.
She met his gaze, hungry and urgent. It was as if his green eyes had turned ablaze. The passion on his face was breathtaking.
“Come for me, Alice. Break free of that cage and embrace who you are.”
“Kiss me,” she demanded.
He wiped his face on the edge of her torn corset, then captured her lips. As his tongue pressed into her mouth, his fingers thrust deep into her sex. Alice clutched at the soft linen of Harry’s ridiculous toga, tearing it between her fingers as she sought to find purchase in the swirling maelstrom.
One hard, final thrust pushed her over the edge. She came hard, screaming. “Harry!”
He kissed her once more, while continuing to stroke her as she lowered from her climax. Her whole body still thrummed with pleasure.
“Good girl. Now you get champagne,” he murmured.
He got to his feet, leaving Alice lying on the floor. For a time, she lay staring up at the ornate cornice which edged the cream-colored ceiling, her heart still thumping hard in her chest. She had just had her first orgasm with a man, and it had been stupendous.
Her brain, meanwhile, was still trying to make sense of it all. Of where she was and with whom. A matter of days ago, she only knew Lord Harry Steele by word of his reputation. And now . . . well, that had just happened.
When her orgasm-scrambled mind finally took in her surroundings once more, Alice sat up. Across at the table, Harry was busy pouring champagne into a glass.
“I think I may have to hide this corset from my maid. She might ask questions as to what happened to it,” she said.
He wandered back over to her and helped Alice to her feet. “I could explain it to her if you like. Or you could just leave it here.”
She returned his cheeky grin with a soft chortle. The less any of the North family servants knew about her secret, scandalous life, the better. There was already more than enough explaining to be done when her parents returned to England.
With champagne glasses in hand, they settled onto the sofa. Harry drew Alice into his arms, brushing a kiss on her forehead.
“I’m proud of you tonight. You stayed when many other women would not have done so. And you shared a part of yourself with me that honestly leaves me humbled.”
This evening had been one of many revelations. She had placed her trust in Harry and allowed herself to come under his careful loving. What she had learned about herself and her desires, however, would take some careful thought and reflection.
Alice had an ever-growing list of questions to ask Harry about his life, but now didn’t seem the right time. They had shared an intimate moment, one where she had offered her body to him freely.
She didn’t want to think about how many other women he had brought to this place. Nor which of them had also fallen to Harry’s tempting touch and foolishly offered him their hearts.
Here am I trying to save Patience from making a stupid mistake, and yet I could be doing something even worse.
The irony of the situation was all too clear.
“What happens now?” She left it an open-ended question, allowing Harry to decide the direction his answer would take.
“We finish our champagne, and I take you home. As for our friend, Mister Saint, I am expecting some reports to arrive tomorrow regarding him and his provenance. Once I have those, we should make some decisions. I have a feeling time may not be on our side,” he said.
Alice pulled out of Harry’s embrace and sat up, setting her champagne glass on the floor. She pulled the ripped corset free and set it aside. Here seemed as good a place as any to abandon it. She began to work the laces of her gown as best she could. Focusing on dressing seemed the best response to her disappointment at him failing to mention either them or what had just occurred.
Perhaps he is angry. Was he expecting me to pleasure him? Of course, he was.
She turned and laid a hand softly on his knee, brushing her fingers up and down.
His hand stilled hers. “No. Now is not the time.”
“You don’t want me to do anything for you?” she asked.
He shook his head. “The only thing I want you to give me is not mine to claim. Only the man you choose to marry has such a right.”
Alice withdrew her hand. Harry’s words were clear enough. He was prepared to take their sexual relationship only so far. Anything that would compel him into making an offer of marriage to her was not a part of those plans.
He did say we might be a part of each other’s lives for a time. He didn’t say forever.
“Would you please take me home?” she asked.
She chided herself for being foolish enough to allow her growing crush on him to whisper promises of a future—the only solace being that Harry at least had the good sense to know where to draw the line.
If he had asked ‘May I?’ I might have said yes. Thank god he didn’t.
To a man like Harry, Miss Alice North was likely nothing more than just another interesting diversion—one of many in his colorful, scandalous world.
The sooner they had the matter of Cuthbert Saint sorted, the quicker she could conclude her contract with Lord Harry Steele and be out of his life. He would go on to his next client, and she would be left to tend to her wounded heart.