But it wasn’t enough for him.
“Give me more,” he said.
He arched over her. The hairy ridges of his chest abraded her spine, making her arch. When he gently fisted his hand in her hair, pulling her ear to his lips, she shivered with feral delight.
“The next time you come, Lottie”—his promise scorched the rim of her ear—“I am going to make you not only drench my cock but the bleedingsheets.”
She moaned as he made good on his vow.
Charlie came awake, her heart pounding.
She wasn’t disoriented. Her constant travels as a girl had given her an uncanny ability to instantly recognize her surroundings. Moreover, every inch of this airy, high-ceilinged bedchamber bore her personal stamp. She’d selected everything from the mahogany half-tester bed she was lying in to the rose velvet settee in the sitting area.
The reason her heart was banging like a fist in her chest was because she’d had another erotic dream. About Sebastian, damn his eyes. Always about him.
Perhaps if he’d cocked up his toes in his dotage, he wouldn’t be forever immortalized in her memory as some virile, insatiable sex god. But, oh no, Sebastian could never do anything like a regular husband. He had to die in his prime in a fiery death whilst tupping his mistress.
I hope it was worth it.
Yet even anger failed to quell the energy pulsing through Charlie. She needed to take care of herself. She kept a box in her wardrobe that contained equipment to aid her self-pleasuring, but she was too close to the edge to require more than her own touch.
Closing her eyes, she fell back into her head. Into that place where dark desires ruled the imagination. When the fantasy that emerged starred her husband, she was too needy to fight it. At least he was good for something. Her hands became his, roving under silk to find her breasts. He knew just how to touch her, rubbing the velvety-hard tips, making them throb between the pinch of his finger and thumb.
“You’ve the prettiest tits,” he murmured. “I could worship them all day.”
He took his time and palmed her breasts in his big, rough hands. He kissed the full curves, working his way toward the straining peaks. When he finally put his mouth on her nipple, she whimpered with delight. His tongue did wet, magical things. He went back and forth, sometimes sucking, sometimes blowing, always building her pleasure until she was wild with want.
Then he gave her more.
His tongue traced a winding path down her body, over the bumps of her ribs, the dip of her belly. She shivered when he kissed the crease of her thigh. Then, with a rough movement that set fire to her blood, he spread her legs.
“Christ, look at you.” Embers of lust blazed in his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “I won’t ever get my fill of this sweet pussy. I don’t know if I ought to fuck you or eat you first. Lucky bastard that I am, I don’t have to choose.”
Spreading her with his thumbs, he lowered his head. She moaned as he licked his way up her slit. He found her pearl, his tongue working it with expert strokes, her spine bowing as the wet, hot friction sent fire streaking up her legs. The low, hungry sounds he made in his throat fanned the flames, and when he slid two fingers inside her, pumping as he licked, a climax began to quake.
Sebastian lifted his head, his smoldering eyes holding hers.
“I love you, Lottie,” he said fiercely. “You and only you. Now and forever.”
A moan lodged in Charlie’s throat as she trembled with release.
Afterward, as her heartbeat steadied, she felt a tear slide down her cheek. The lust had subsided, leaving too much awareness in its wake.
Of the power the past still held over her. Of her weakness. Of her stupid, traitorous longings.
This has to stop. I have to let go of Sebastian once and for all.
And she knew what she had to do.
Eight
When Charlie arrived at the Kendall residence that evening, the ball was in full swing. Crystal chandeliers cast sparkling light over guests dressed to the nines. The dance floor was packed as the orchestra launched into a lively polka. The bright, swirling skirts and humid air laden with perfume, powder, and sweat created an ambience that Charlie found suffocating.
“Lady Fayne, there you are,” a voice trilled. “Have you been hiding from us?”
Why, yes, as a matter of fact.
As Lady Kitty Kendall and Lady Agatha Price cornered her, Charlie put on the smile she’d perfected in front of a looking glass.
