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

  It looked like his lips barely moved.

  Oh, this was too hard, Ledi groaned. She was not going to be able to bear it. “Yes—yes,” she gasped. Damn him to hell and then some!

  “Seems like I spoke too soon about you passing the test lesson. Seems like we’re going to have some trouble with you, aren’t we?”

  Ledi could scarcely breathe now, let alone get a word out as his one hand, fingers teased her nipple and the other used that cool, now warmed tool on her below. Her eyes went wider when he turned his head for a quick moment. Ledi looked quickly.

  The wide strap looked like a belt. She wished it were a belt. It was a brown whip.

  She looked straight at him when he leaned back. His hand left her breast and picked the item up. Ledi opened her mouth to tell him No, but the word died on her tongue when he dragged the leather strips torturously over her puckered nipples. Her head nearly fell backwards from the stabbing gratification.

  “Yes. Yes. You can moan, Ledi. You have permission.”

  She was going to deny him, not give in and give him more. But when he lowered his head, seized her right nipple into his hot mouth and sucked, her body bowed against her will toward his. The deep groan of fulfillment burst from her chest. He rolled whatever he had used earlier up over her belly as he moved his mouth to the other nipple and repeated his sweet torment. Ledi fisted her hands in the ropes.

  Pleasure. Fiery. Burning. Molten.

  Then just as suddenly, it stopped. Her breasts felt heavy and ached for his mouth. Her cheeks burned with her shame on that.

  He looked down at her. ”Tsk, tsk. What am I to do with you and your flagrant disobedience?”

  “I—oh my—I am looking at you. I will obey. Please no more.” Her words came out unsteady, breathless.

  His answer was to drag the strips back over her taut aching nipples, driving her mad. Starting the sadistic cycle all over again. The sensations unlike anything he’d done so far.

  “I wish we could stop right now. However, I fear I do not believe you have control, the willpower to obey my word. Now one more stroke and we shall see.”

  Ledi opened her mouth to beg then she clamped it shut in surprise when he stroked that cold item back down her swollen slit. Her body jolted from the contact. She gasped, cheeks reddening. She could not help but thrust forward for more, disobeying once again.

  Her focus was next to none now and her eyes shuttered closed. It was too much to bear. Ledi missed the smile of victory that spread across his handsome face.

  He struck her nipples. Her eyes jolted back open. Ledi was lost. Fire.

  Each one after the other he whipped lightly with the whip. The smell of the leather against her sweaty skin filled her nostrils. Her sex, her own scent. She lost all sense of embarrassment and shame at her body’s reaction to his slow introduction into this unique pleasure.

  Her outstretched arms went taut against the ropes and she yanked on them as her head fell backwards. He had whipped her sensitive flesh up into a frenzy of nerve tinglings and she was ready to burst from every pore.

  Her thighs and legs shook. With her legs spread wide, she was vulnerable, open to him. Her sex fully exposed for his perusal. His voice sounded shaky, husky and his warm breath fanned across her throat.

  “Wet, quivering in anticipation. Fear is gone now, isn’t it, my sweet? By god, you are a treasure to behold. Such a beautiful neck, strong bones and you smell so wonderful.”

  Why did a breath seem so difficult to draw in? Ledi struggled to lift her head.

  “Looks like my little student is ready to experience a release. Come for me. Are you ready to come Ledi without me being inside you? What say you, another stroke perhaps will do it?”

  “No. No, please,” Ledi pleaded, then “Oh god, yes! More…”

  “No. Not until you look at me.”

  Ledi’s eyes shot open. She lifted her head and met his smoldering slate-blue gaze.

  Harker ignored the well of tears in her depths, the gaze of wonderment, joy the unknown and hunger. She wanted release and at the same didn’t know what she wanted. He took delight in knowing he had brought her to this point so easily once again.

  In the hall earlier, it had taken everything in him not to shove his cock inside her and bury himself deep.

  Now that same urge was upon him again and damnation, he was ready to shoot his load inside his breeches. He ached so hard and was swollen to bursting.

  Ledi Barrton had him nearly out of control as no other woman had ever done before. The realization unnerved him in ways he was unfamiliar with nor wanted to visit.

  The uncontrollable jerks of her body and bounce of her pert breasts when he’d struck the lovely globes one after the other, had nearly undid him. He’d been careful to slide the soft leather in a tantalizing caress over them. At one point, he didn’t know who was being more tortured or driven mad with pleasure more, her or himself.

  The intense pleasure he’d caused, his handiwork, glared back, taunting him in those soft pine-brown eyes. Her deep blush-colored nipples, erect, stared him in the face, mockingly. He clamped his jaw tighter to still his watering mouth. He hardened even more, if that was possible.

  She licked her parted lips. Fury and passion mingled in her eyes. She looked lovely and lush with passion. Absolutely divine. Cheeks hot, flushed and beyond pink. Her breaths, deep, shallow as she breathed through her mouth, her chest heaving up and down.

  “Where do your eyes belong?” Harker asked, damning the treble in his voice.

  She narrowed her eyes on his and he bit back a groan on the oath that choked him. Who had lost this game?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Mrs. Beatrice looked unsure for a moment as she hovered by the door and did not exit. Harker sighed.

  “Yes?” he queried without turning around, his fingers digging into Ledi’s hip.

  Ledi kept her eyes on him as she’d been ordered. The position he had her in was humiliating and exciting at once but she still wanted Mrs. Beatrice to leave them alone. She was very uncomfortable with anyone else witnessing her humiliation. Ledi swayed as his gaze bored into hers.

  “Ah, the other, my lord?” Mrs. Beatrice asked.

  He blinked slowly, something flashed in his eyes as if he’d just suddenly remembered something. Then he said, “Not tonight. Send them away with my apologies and a gift, if you would kindly, please.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Then they were alone. Harker cracked a smile.

  “Shameful wicked things. Things I did not think at all proper to discuss…openly. Let alone talk about with…”

  Harker smiled at her sweet blush and pressed his thumb to her bottom lip. “The person who has done those shameful and wicked things to you?” he finished for her.

  The softness of her lush upper lip came down over his thumb. Harker could not stop his own lips from parting at the delicious jolt of pleasure that rocked his body at the sight.

  He withdrew his hand and she nodded. A slight look of disappointment creased her brow. Did she have any idea how astoundingly tempting she looked in that moment?

  He sat up, dropped his legs over the side of the bed, and raked a hand down over his face. “Nothing we’ve done is anything to be ashamed about, Ledi. We both agreed to a mutual agreement and satisfaction. An agreement between two consenting adults that will end at a certain time agreed upon. How wicked we decide to be, is between us. Not others. Just you and me. How shameful we care to be, how uninhibited—that too is just between us. As you’ve witnessed, I’ve a staff I trust, whom are paid handsomely for not only their services, but for their discretion in regards to their master’s lifestyle. You have nothing to fear in that regard. What happens here, stays here.

  “No one needs know about the improper things I do to you or you to me outside of any of these doors. I need to know that you fully understand this.”

  Her soft gasp at his back made him stiffen and Harker turned. “Ledi. I need to know you understand?”

&n
bsp; She shook her head. “I do understand, Harker. I signed the contract. Nonetheless, it makes what we’ve done no less wicked. I am no fool. I know what I signed up for now. It’s just that the feelings—I mean, never mind.”

  He leaned over her when she ducked her head. He knew what she was getting at. “What you are feeling is new from being introduced to a brand-new world and learning what your body can and can’t do. There are no limits here or between us, Ledi.” Harker left off feelings. He had not wanted to think of her innocent heart falling in love with him.

  She was just adjusting to the intimacy between them and plenty of women confused such emotion with love. He reached out and caressed her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I’m infatuated with you and I know that is what you are experiencing. The newness will wear off at the end of the contract. Trust me.”

  He kissed her to silence anything else she might have said for he did not want to talk about it any longer. He wanted to fuck her, nothing more. That was why she was here. That was all.

  Ledi soaked in the tub, the hot water soothed the aches she had sustained last night after Harker’s rough lovemaking. Well sex, she corrected, flushing as the night came back to her.

  If she stuck to thinking that way—just sex—then she would not expect anything more or something deeper. Calling what they had done making love would only lead her down a path to heartache.

  Even though Harker had been gentle, stroking her as a true lover who cared about his partner might, Ledi knew what they had done was just what he’d said it was. Sex.

  They had not spoken much after he had kissed her silent. The rest of the night had been filled with intercourse, French acts of tongues and lips. He had touched her buttocks in ways she had never imagined and though he had not penetrated her with his rod, he had used his tongue and fingers in ways that had made her cheeks burn hot.

  Her body tingled at the memory of the incredible and numerous climaxes she had had. Orgasms, Harker had called them. Six in all until she had gone numb and fallen asleep.

  Today her mind raced with the dark things she’d allowed him to do and her infatuation.

  “We lost our father when we were very young. I remember him as a mean-spirited man to my brother and I. However, Mother…mother loved him heart and soul. After he died, her health declined and she went blind in one eye, almost lost one of her legs. And would have if I had not forced her to let a doctor see to her about her ailments.

  “She’s gotten better and is a bit more pleasant to be around of late. She’s all I know. I’ll do whatever I have to, to help her.”

  Harker just stared at her for a long moment. “Even sacrifice yourself?”

  She shrugged. “She did for us. Things could have been a lot worse. My father was not good to her. How or why or what possessed her to continue to love that monster in the way that she did is something I’ll never understand.”

  “Stay like that and watch me sup your sweet juices.” he dipped his head

  That coming thing he had explained to her was going to happen again.

  He loved how she would not say the word aloud. But he would get her to say both words he’d taught her soon enough. Coming and Orgasm. She had opened up a great deal. But there was so much more to show her. Much, much more. The world of sexual pleasure he had opened her up to and was continuing to do so…it left her with no qualms. She was an eager student. Eager for the knowledge. Eager for him.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Damn it to hell! She had him coming inside his breeches and he was helpless to do anything about it save enjoy the shuddering explosive pleasure. It took all he had to slide her stroking hand away. Eyes still closed, Harker took in a deep ragged shuddering breath.

  Though she was still beside him, no sound came from her other than her own raspy breathing. Harker knew she watched him. He slowly opened his eyes then cursed and sat up. Those eyes were on him indeed with renewed passion glistening inside them.

  “That was fascinating watching you experience pleasure. Your sweet mouth fell open, yet no sound came out.” She traced the outline of his bottom lip and Harker flinched under her delicate touch. “Your eyes squeezed tight, your face flushed and your body went rigid, yet shook in a controlled fashion. Intriguing and very, very exciting to watch you, Harker. Tell me, is that what you see when you watch me? Does it make you think wickedly as it did me? ”

  He sighed. Harker could not help but grin at her exuberance and the joy on her face. “Sort of, I suppose. I’ve never watched myself in the final moment.” Harker moved uncomfortably and removed his hanky. He would change as soon as they returned home. For now, he would mop up his seed with his handkerchief.

  She watched his movements. “But you have mirrors on your ceiling. How could you not?” she asked excitedly. Harker noticed she moved closer when he slipped the cloth down under the waistband of his trousers.

  He spoke without thinking. “My attention is usually too focused on my partner.”

  She drew away from him a little. “Oh. I see.”

  Harker lifted his eyes to see her head turned to look out the window as she shook out her one glove and drew it on. Her lips were pressed in a thin line.

  “Ledi…” he began.

  She turned back to face him, a strained smile plastered upon her face. “I suppose that’s what’s important.”

  She was upset that he’d said nothing about wicked thoughts.

  He wanted to fuck her like the animal, the monster she believed him to be. Plunge his raging cock inside her to the hilt, feel her hot desire and let her milk him dry in that way that left him mindless and without breath. Her hot channel—just the head of his rigid cock had been inside her sheath, her slick liquid heat, nearly had him come undone.

  He’d used every ounce of his control not to spill his seed at her entrance. To stop himself.

  What madness had she brought down upon him? The curst powerful carnal need she evoked in him to have at her, left him gagging for her all the more.

  Harker lifted his left hand to his mouth. Her fragrance lingered. All of her wafted through his senses for her stimulating scent still clung to his fingers.

  The charade had truly enraged him. That she and her brother had thought to play him the fool. Had he truly not noticed the difference? The twinge that something about her at their first meeting had been starkly off.

  Yes, Harker, you had noticed. You had been too achingly aroused with intrigue and let your prick lead you. He chided himself with a scoff, which sounded more like a laugh.

  After swallowing back a shot of whiskey, he stopped and stared at the decanter for the first time in a long time before he poured a second glass.

  Harker walked away from the short bar without drinking it and went over to his washstand.

  He tore angrily at his mangled starched cravat, unbuttoned his waistcoat the rest of the way then his shirt, and dipped his hands into the washbowl.

  He could not, would not, let Ledi go.

  She had no idea that the count knew her sister’s name. She just assumed he wanted to bed her sister from what she’d heard her brother Evann say.

  Ledi had thought the count had not bothered to look deeper or care enough to inquire after her sister’s name.

  Catching a retreating silhouette in the arch of a doorway—how much could he have actually seen of Rena? Enough to notice the minute differences and shade of hair?

  “Oh, you’d be surprised how much one can see when the light is just right. Who’s to say it was the only time that I saw her? Your brother told you that?”

  Her silence and visible flinch told him the truth. Harker scoffed. “Thus far, believing anything he says has not been a very sound thing, has it?”

  She seemed to sway a little as she stood up slowly. Her chin jutted upward, tears sparked in her eyes showing all she felt. Harker took a step toward her. Her hand coming up between them stopped him from moving the final step.

  “A letter, sir.”

  Chayton’s crackl
y voice drew Harker’s head up from poring over the leather-bound ledgers where he was seated in his study behind the large desk. As usual, he’d not heard the quiet moving footman open the door.

  Harker gave his man a look and indicated with the quill in hand toward the edge of his desk. “All right. Put it with the rest,” he instructed and bent his head back to the pages of the ledger.

  When Chayton made no move to follow his order, Harker glanced back up, brows raised. The old man cleared his throat, the letter still clutched in his hands.

  “A special letter, sir.”

  Harker’s brows furrowed and sighing heavily at Chayton’s persistence, he stood up and walked around the desk. “Well, give it then. Seems like I must open it now so as not to leave you standing here all evening holding it until I do.” The address on the letter caught his eye stopping further words as Chayton handed him the letter.

  Harker’s chest constricted and he would have stumbled had he not caught himself. He took a step back. Without looking up, he walked back toward his desk, his legs suddenly felt weak, and stood at the window, the letter in his hand.

  “That will be all, Chayton.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Harker listened for the sound of the door closing. When he heard it, he finally dropped his gaze back to the letter, lifting it to study the handwriting—a notable masculine flourish scribbled above the familiar recognizable Scottish emblem seal. He drew in a ragged breath.

  He did not even reach for his letter opener. He simply tore off one end.

  His eyes quickly scanned the short note. When done, he cast it atop his desk, then turned and gazed out the window. A painful breath left his chest as he clasped his hands behind his back.

  Well, seemed like his cousin Hollis was going to pay him a visit soon.

  “You have no family?”

  His response was a long time in coming. There was no change in him as he took a long drink from the glass of wine, emptying it. Still he did not answer as he set the glass down. Ledi cursed herself for thinking that just because they’d a pleasant evening and conversation outside of sex, he had not said now I’m an open book.