He lifted his head, trying to focus when she was making his body tremble with pleasure already. “I definitely do not mean a succubus. Those are demons and they suck the life force from a man.”
“I did that at least once last night,” she said as she slid over him and settled herself over his cock.
He gripped her hips and started to rock her, easy and gentle in their sleepy states. She threw her head back, her breath short and he couldn’t stop staring. This woman was gorgeous in all her forms, completely captivating. By design, he supposed, but also by nature. She would have been just as alluring as someone’s country wife.
Though he was very happy in this moment that she hadn’t chosen that path and was instead riding him, faster now, until she gasped out pleasure in the quiet and her pulsing sex milked his own release just to the edge.
He rolled her over, thrusting harder as he took her mouth and then spent between them with a long, shaky moan. Her arms had been pinned when he moved them and she wedged them free and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“What do you think about getting dressed and coming back to my home? I have the most amazing bath there, big enough for two. We can take a soak and have food prepared by people who don’t sneer while they do it and then do all this again for the rest of the day.”
He smiled at the idea. She was talking about the most lovely, wicked fantasy and that certainly sounded better than trudging over to his brother’s home and getting scolded for missing supper. He could put that off another day, couldn’t he?
He opened his mouth to answer when there was a knock on the chamber door. Not the outer one, but from the antechamber. He pursed his lips and twisted to look at it.
“Ugh, what it is?” he called out.
It was Poole’s voice that responded, as always, thick with censure even through the barrier. “You have a guest, sir.”
“Christ,” Silas muttered, and kissed her once, then got up. “I must have summoned him.”
“Who?” Arabella asked, sitting up a little, but making no attempt to cover herself as he threw on a robe and started for the door.
He hesitated. “The marquess. That must be who has come because I missed our supper. Climbed out of his sick bed, even.” A flash of guilt rushed through him at that thought, but he shook it off. “I’m opening the door if you wish to cover up.”
She responded by throwing the sheet over herself, though she didn’t move from her sprawled position. If the servant looked, and Silas had a good reason to believe he would do that, he was going to see her and know exactly what they’d been doing all night.
Not that everyone in the house hadn’t already guessedthat.
Silas opened the door. “A guest?” he repeated. “And who is that?”
“Lord Reginald,” Poole said.
Silas froze. “My middle brother?”
Poole inclined his head. “I did tell him I wasn’t certain you were in residence and he told me to tell you tosober up, climb off your whores and come down, I’m not leaving.” There was a twitch of pleasure to his lips as he spoke. “His words, of course, not mine.”
“Tell him I’ll be down in half an hour. I need to dress and ready myself.”
“Very good, sir.”
“And offer him breakfast,” Silas added as the butler turned away.
At the outer door, Poole stopped. “I would do so, sir, but it is nearly noon. I will offer other refreshment, though.”
With that, he was gone and Silas turned back into the bedroom. He shook his head, trying to absorb this. He glanced at Arabella, still wrapped in his bed. “I’m sorry about what he said. The whore comment.”
“It’s strictly true.” She shrugged. “I’ve been called worse, I assure you. This is your second brother, yes?”
“Yes,” he said. “Charles and I got along so much as we could. Reggie…well, he’s something different. He hated me as a child and I’m certain he hates me now.”
“Why?”
He indicated to himself with one hand without responding.
She surprised him by getting out of bed and crossing to the window, throwing open the curtain so that the room filled with light. “Because you’re so much younger and more handsome than he is?” she asked lightly.
He snorted, though his brother being here gave him no pleasure. “I’m certain that doesn’t help.”
