Her walls continued to pulse around his cock, albeit lessening until he began to thrust again.
“My turn,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. He grabbed her hips, wrenching back then jerking forward again, hard enough to shift the sofa an inch.
She sobbed, looking for his hands against her flesh in the mirror. The sight was blocked by her skirts. Seeing their reflection but unable to view the act itself created more intimacy. Her breasts swung with every jolt of his thrust as his cock hit a fraction deeper with his grip. Her hair slipped from its pins on one side.
The couples she’d seen in the other rooms wound through her thoughts. A man holding a woman’s hair as he fucked her mouth, another man literally tying a woman open to do what he wanted with her. She and Evan were another couple in another room, available for her viewing, one more man directing a woman for his pleasure and hers. His intent furrow between his brows, his focus on where their bodies touched, and her mask still in place despite her dishabille lent them anonymity. They could be anyone. For this moment, they were. And it inflamed her further.
She dropped her hands to the settee cushion and drove back against him, watching his face.
“Holy hell,” ripped out of his throat, and he raised his gaze to lock on the reflection of hers.
He sped up, pounding into her with his thumbs digging into her bottom. They’d leave bruises, marks that would remind her of this new pinnacle. She tilted her hips another inch, leaning forward, and he hit a spot inside her that had her keening.
One of his hands covered her mouth to keep her quiet, and his hips pistoned even faster, the skin around his eyes crinkling as it did when he neared climax. That sight more so than all the internal sensations took her over, and her eyes finally fluttered close as heat poured through her. Her breasts rubbed the settee back, her knees and back softened while her internal muscles tightened, feeling every convulsion and leap of his cock as he came with her, groaning quietly in her ear.
Afterward, he helped her up, offering his handkerchief for her use. Taking it back, he swiped at himself, then pocketed that and the cock sleeve.
Awkwardly, she tucked her bosom away and shook out her skirts, hoping for a kiss or a hug. This was beyond the emotional distance she’d worried about those late nights at her home. A coldness emanated from him.
Tugging his waistcoat flat, Evan checked a mirror on the wall. He turned to her and tipped an imaginary hat and shot his cuffs. His tone was indeed frigid when he dismissed her with the words, “My gratitude for the secret orgasm, my lady. Enjoy your evening.”
He walked out.
****
Shocked, Althea stood frozen for long minutes after Evan left the room. He had closed the door behind him, so there were no hallway gawkers.
I cannot believe he would simply leave after that. Did he not feel what I felt? If he was angry with me, why did he fu—she couldn’t even think the word—want me?
With her brain cleared of the fog of passion, she remembered his words after locking the door. Damn him, ’twas a deliberate act of vengeance. He’d planned for it to be their last encounter. Yet he’d told her repeatedly he understood her concerns about a public relationship.
She sighed. This was his world, far more so than hers. Men such as he made the rules, and he’d made his more than clear.
She bit her lip, took a deep breath, and made her way downstairs, where she was relieved to find Beth in the main room and fully dressed.
Her cousin knew her well enough to call the carriage as soon as she saw Althea’s face.
Althea made it into the vehicle with the door shut before she broke down.
Between sobs, she related the events of the past hour. As she came to Evan’s parting words, her sobs abated, replaced by anger. Straightening her back, her heart hardened. “I am done with him. This is twice he’s been heartless and dictatorial rather than having a rational conversation. I thought I loved him, thought I had seen beneath the façade, but ’tis clear he does not care for me—”
Beth opened her mouth.
Althea sliced her hand through the air. “—or at least does not trust me. I am done.”
Beth patted her hand. “I understand. I still think he might have been protecting himself, but that was unnecessarily cruel. Or if ’twas meant to spur you to a change of heart, ’twas poorly thought out.”
“I’ll show him. This Bath expansion will explode. Mayhap I shall go beyond it to Brighton. Hell, I might even put one in Cheltenham to spite him.”
Beth watched her dubiously.
“What?”
“If you are truly done with him, why are you worried about showing him? The thing to do is show yourself. You have nothing to prove to anyone…besides maybe Lady Peterborough.”
“Fine.” Althea gave a firm nod. “That is what I shall do.”
****
