Harker's Penchant (A Count Series Novel Book 1) Read online

  “Well now, I am eager to show you what other delights are in store for you. That is, if you have not changed your mind?”

  Ledi swallowed.

  Not yet, sure what else the count had to show her. In the next breath, she thought, what the hell did it matter? She was half-damned already as it was. What other dreadful things could he possibly have to show her at this point that would cause her to change her mind? Nothing. The damnable was already upon her at agreeing to sin. She gave him an apprehensive smile and a slight nod.

  A roguish grin slid up one corner of his mouth. “I need to hear you speak it.” When she still hesitated, he said, “Ledi, I gave you my word, I agree to the terms.”

  His nice mouth spread into a full smile, showing his nice even teeth. His sweet breath lured her closer. Though the enormous castle held a slight chill, Ledi felt perspiration on her brow.

  Still, she felt as if he might eat her next. His wolfish grin so purposeful. And intimidating.

  She heard herself saying. “I have not changed my mind.”

  “Swell. Shall we?” he waved a hand toward the gilded staircase she had climbed earlier led by the man he had called Chayton.

  Ledi stepped aside and he walked past her. The scent of him had her clutch the rail as they descended. Her stomach clenched in anxiety and something else she could not name, over two things. First, over what the certain feminine things Mrs. Beatrice had to show her. Second, how was she going to make it down the stairs in one piece without tripping down them from the sight of his broad naked back staring her in the face?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The girl was lovely. Simply divine and she was not even aware of it.

  Harker studied her from the corner of the room to where she stood on the two step ottoman for every lush curve of her to be fitted.

  Even the worn muslin gown of faded blue could not take that away from her. The bodice, cut too low and the breadth of skin it showed left little to the imagination.

  Her creamy skin, a faint rosy hue had spread across her neck and shoulders during their discussion and at his bold touch. The woman even flushed beautifully. The blazes he could not stop his gaze from taking in every inch of her as Mrs. Beatrice walked around her statuesque figure. And he well understood it.

  Her breasts threatened to spill out of the gown and if she breathed any deeper, Harker suspected she just might break her stays. He would not mind in the least. He shifted where he stood, his cock, still aching and hard inside his half-unbuttoned trousers.

  Enchanted by the vision she presented, he wanted to explore her generous bosom. Her neck, long, elegant and graceful. The bones of her clavicle and shapely shoulders made his fingers itch to touch her there again as he’d done before.

  A simple blue ribbon and a few simple pins decorated her loose chignon, pinned up hair, a few golden curls hung at the sides of her ears and nape. Wide eyes of honey-walnut stared back at him across the room.

  He needed to leave no and leave now. At the door, he said brusquely over his shoulder, “Something more suitable and to my taste, if you will, Mrs. Beatrice.”

  Then he left the room. Ledi stared after him and asked Mrs. Beatrice what he meant.

  “To whet his appetite, Miss Ledi. Not that I think ‘tis necessary after what I just witnessed between you two.”

  Ledi’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. Beatrice caught her expression and quickly hurried on.

  “My apologies, Miss Ledi, Count Benning treats us fair and square here. Odd lot we be. Let’s our tongues go on at times without reprimand. We’ve grown accustomed to a different way here—considering his lifestyle and all. Most of the young wom—his guests…welcome the directness and blatant chatter.”

  Ledi could not help but stare agog at the woman. This time the matronly woman flushed deeply and ducked her head, mumbling once again her apologies. “Pardon me, Miss Ledi. I’ll be about seeing you taken care of. This night is a night I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut.”

  Beatrice carried on with the measurements. Ledi felt bad for her prudent behavior. She had come to this home, their home well after the midnight hour seeking their master’s attention. Why would Mrs. Beatrice or any here think of her differently? Ledi sighed and placed a hand over the woman’s that she had at her waist.

  “Oh, Mrs. Beatrice, it is I who should apologize.” Yes, she should. Putting on airs when it was she who had barged inside their household. Not the other way around.

  Mrs. Beatrice words made it starkly and plainly clear to her what she’d suspected. Many women had probably stood right where she was standing now in this room, in this very spot. Having come to sample the charms of the stunning count. No. Monster they called him. Ledi’s brows went up at that. To her, he was a gorgeous monster.

  After the awkward taking of her measurements, Mrs. Beatrice had walked her to the many doors opposite the sitting room. Harker appeared from behind one of them and Ledi’s surprised breath died in her throat. The man still had yet to don a shirt.

  He nodded to Mrs. Beatrice and the woman left them alone. He waved Ledi ahead of him toward a different door from the one he’d come out of.

  It was feminine, from the paisley-patterned drapes to the Persian rugs on the floor, fine décor, but a mite extravagant for her tastes. Very clean. Ledi inhaled deeply and could not help but blurt, “What woman stays here?” Then she gasped realizing what’d she’d just voiced and rushed on to correct her bold mistake. “I meant…Is this one of your lover’s rooms? Companions, I mean. Oh…” her words trailed off. She had only made matters worse. Her nerves made her chatter or blurt things she shouldn’t at the most inappropriate moments.

  Those slate eyes darkened on her. “I’m afraid not,” he replied coolly.

  “Pardon me for my assumption. I just assumed…” Ledi clamped her mouth shut.

  Both brows went up. “What? That the halls would be filled with women roaming about.”

  “No. Not the halls. But you do entertain women here.”

  Her brown eyes went as wide as her mouth over what she blurted, then for the second time in a spate of seconds, she clamped those pretty lips shut. Distracted by them did little to sway away Harker’s irritation.

  “Of course, naturally. Several paramours. I’ve a hearty appetite that no one woman to date has been able to thoroughly satisfy. I enjoy the company of women. Should I be ashamed of that? Nonetheless, this is not a brothel.”

  Her aghast expression only incensed him further. “You cannot be that much of an innocent hearing these things, Miss Barrton. A woman, who comes to a well-known debauchers’ home in the dead of night, cannot be a holy virgin.”

  Indignation colored her full cheeks.

  Ledi wanted to be sick. What had she been thinking when she’d concocted this wild harebrained idea? That someone like her could control the interaction with a worldly lord like him. She may look like Rena, even pass for her sister, but not in the experience department. Rena would not be blushing the way she was nor would her sister have taken offense so easily to the things that went on between a man and a woman.

  She should have cast the reins to the right and fled quickly back to home. She had neither the will nor the stomach to carry this charade of a sacrifice out after all. Especially, with his naked chest staring her in the face and that mat of chest hair that went down below his breech line—God! Why was it so hot in here?

  Too many bloody candles. Ledi shook, resisting the urge to wipe the perspiration from her top lip.

  Ladies of society. Harker raked his eyes over her pale face. He was not at all appalled by his rakish ways or by the tall embellished rumors that followed his name. If she thought him the lowest of wretches, then so be it. It would make things easier to do what he had to.

  Fuck her fast and broom her afterwards without a thought. She was like all the others. Though her brother had done his best to tarnish her honor and they were piss poor, she was still like all the other ladies in society. Come to have a go at the monster to
sate their dark needs and desires in secret.

  She was sacrificing herself for her brother’s many sorry deeds. Why should it make a difference as to why she had agreed to give herself in trade? Who was he to stand in the way of her decisions?

  She was an adult. He guessed her to be around twenty-four or twenty-five, so she had her own mind.

  He had seen her from a distance just a silhouette. And he had wanted her. Her fool brother had jumped at the bit to sell this delicious morsel to the highest bidder to save his own neck.

  He opened the door and ushered her into the room to the small sitting area that was comfortably arranged. Not stiff and cold like an office. Ledi understood now why he’d brought her here. She sat down in one of the armless chairs, her knees together, and her hands folded tightly in her lap.

  He sat down across from her, his watchful gaze steady on her. Ledi fidgeted under the blatant scrutiny. “Must you stare at me so?”

  “Does it bother you?”

  She cleared her throat. “A little,” she replied, looking away, her eyes following the fringes on the carpet edges around the wallpapered room to the wainscoting.

  “You shouldn’t let it. You’re a fetching woman.”

  Her gaze shot sharply back to his, a strangled gasp dying in her throat, then she sat up straighter. “There’s no need for any of that. I’ve come here on my own free will. You don’t have to fill my head with falsehoods about my person.”

  “Good,” he responded without hesitation. “I’m not a man for pretty words. Fetching is as close to it as I get. What usually comes out of my mouth is ofttimes more crude.”

  His quick response sheared her heart. Ledi knew it shouldn’t have but it did, especially coming from a man like him. A man who’d had a bevy of women at his disposal. He’d all but had confirmed some of the rumors moments ago.

  She shoved the thought away. If she continued to think of the number of beautiful women he’d entertained she would not be able to carry this through.

  “Good. I think we should be honest with another as much as allowed, of course during this…”

  “Liaison?” he helped her out.

  Ledi flushed and simply nodded.

  His lip twitched in amusement, then he said. “That’s fair enough, I suppose. Agreed.”

  She had come here with a purpose. Now Ledi realized she had given in to much more. A purpose of her own. Need. Want. The pleasure of a man. The pleasure she’d only heard about or read about. Pleasure she thought she was past the time to experience. That something like it would ever come into her life.

  She had dedicated her life or so she thought she had on doing the right thing because her sister and brother had refused to. Now all those self-deprecating judgements seemed to fade away.

  For the first time in a long time, something she wanted was within reach. Moreover, it could be hers. Yes. She’d possibly struck a bargain with the handsome beast, but she was more than ready to pay the price.

  She would not could not turn back now.

  From the moment Mrs. Beatrice woke her, things happened one after the other at a rapid pace. Ledi met the sweet nurse, Miss Locken, a matronly and kind woman, who she asked several questions of and received satisfactory responses from whilst seated in the count’s study. The man had stayed for the entire interview. At the end, Miss Locken walked out carrying the missive Ledi had penned to her mother explaining her unexpected and last minute decision to visit Gwen in the country.

  She ached that she would not be there to tell her mother in person, but she had made an agreement that would make their lives easier. They would be reunited soon enough.

  After that, she was whisked off for the afternoon to that special room for more trying on of outfits with Mrs. Beatrice. Ledi was fed up by the third outfit and walked out in a huff. The beautiful gowns were not necessary. She’d not come here to play the role of his mistress.

  He’d said so himself that their time together would be confined here. So what was the purpose? To make her feel worse than she already did?

  The undergarments—those, she admitted she did not mind. They felt like a second skin against her body. It was nice to have something so nice and soft for once instead of her own usual tattered intimates.

  When Harker stormed into her room, Ledi was just about to don the silk nightrail, the one other item she had no reservations about accepting from the fitting. The dark stormy look upon his handsome face told her Mrs. Beatrice had informed him of what had happened.

  There was no break in his long stride as he headed directly for her. Ledi backed up, dropping the nightrail to the floor, breathless and her eyes wide.

  He shoved her up against the wall. The heat that had started to build inside her the moment their eyes had met the second he’d entered he room flushed her head to toe in a panting rush.

  His hand pulling her gown and skirts up in a panting rush, his hand slipped between her thighs and through the slit of her drawers in need of mending.

  Harker wanted to tear them off her. It angered him that she had gone back to her frayed drab clothing. She deserved to be dressed in the best laces, satins and silks the world had to offer.

  “The gifts are yours, Ledi. Others did not wear them, if that was your concern. I keep a stock of the most common sizes to a woman’s wardrobes here. You should have kept them,” he growled against the side of her neck, nipping her skin then licked her gently when she whimpered, melting against him.

  He slid a finger up her wet swollen cleft. A groan escaped him at how hot and wet she was. He plumbed her clitoris, stroking and stroking as she shook feverishly, moaning against him.

  Her hands curled into his hair pushing and pulling, not sure whether she wanted to push him away or keep him there.

  Harker did not relent. He dipped his head and took one rosy hardened nipple into his desperate, thirsty mouth. He moaned when his lips closed around the distended bud. She tasted as wonderful as he knew she would. Her groan above his head pushed him on. He kneaded her breast in sync with his fingers below. She was close. He could feel it. God was she hot! And deliciously wet. Ready.

  As her quivering increased, she arched against him and moaned, then tried to pull away. Gasping above him, he felt her hot breath on his hair and scalp. “Ha-Harker, please…ohhh!”

  Her throaty cry trailed off as she arched back into him. He held her tight. “This, Ledi, is what you have agreed to. You can change your mind. The papers have yet to be signed. You have that choice,” Harker said.

  Another breath swept out of her as she jerked her hips against him. He wanted her to think now? How the hell was that possible with the wicked things he was doing to her? What his fingers and the incredible sensations were crafting inside her…It was impossible!

  Ledi gasped and shook her head. “I—no—I have not changed my mind,” she managed to stammer out as something tightened in her belly, and her thighs clenched. She moved her hips against his sweeping fingers. She wanted him to stop as much as she wanted him to continue.

  “Good,” he responded and gave her breast one last lick.

  Harker removed his hand from between her thighs, popped her breast back in place and stepped back.

  Many emotions darted across her face. Wide-eyed she stared back at him panting, her chest heaving as she fought to control her breaths. Bafflement. Embarrassment. That pink tongue slipped out to lick those swollen and thoroughly kissed lips as she did her best to regain control of her shaking limbs. He knew he had had her on the precipice. A few more strokes and she would have come sweetly and hard right there in his arms.

  Oh, she was going to be a delight. Harker rubbed his fingers together, struggling with his own needs and impulses. Like lift, his fingers to his nose and mouth to inhale her scent, taste her. But he would not.

  Right now, he would settle for the look in her eyes as she grappled with what had almost just happened. That she had not changed her mind thrilled him. Eyes gleaming hot on her, he broke the sound of their hea
vy breathing.

  “So. We start. A light brunch will be served whilst we await my solicitor to draw up the contract.”

  Chayton’s voice came from somewhere outside the door. Harker had not closed the door behind him. Ledi stiffened. Had he witnessed that passionate assault on her body and senses? Ledi felt her cheeks burn hotter.

  Harker’s deep sigh at the man’s voice sounded annoyed and the roll of his eyes confirmed it. Ledi was grateful for the interruption for the footman’s voice seemed to break his heated look.

  “Brunch. I hope you’re hungry Miss Ledi. I’ve matters to attend. We’ll go over the contract after you’ve had your fill. Then we shall begin.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and left her standing there with her mouth open.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  He turned her around, groaning at the sound of her shocked gasp. His swollen cock throbbed in his hand as he held it and used the other to slide down over her bottom, her crack then lightly brushed over her glistening hairs to spread her thighs a bit wider, one leg at a time as he moved into position.

  They groaned in unison when the hard ridge of his cock slid against her wetness and pushed at her entrance. Ledi quivered.

  Harker tried to focus, his heart pounding in his chest. He had to get inside her. His seed was at the tip. “Place your hands on the wall,” he ordered her.

  She did, her whole body shaking in anticipation as his was.

  Anger merged with his passion that she made him lose control so easily and he surged into her in a single thrust.

  Her cry of pleasure was mixed with pain. Regret barely sliced through his haze of passion and raging emotions. Harker fisted his hand in her hair at the nape of her neck and the other he slipped around her body to the front to squeeze her breast. She moved closer to the wall to get away from him, but he held her fast.