Evil's Niece (20 page)

‘So we are.’ I sighed, deflating like a balloon. I wasn’t looking forward to facing my maid, to report the failure of our mission. We’d both worked so hard, for so long.

‘What happens now, Eve?’ he whispered. ‘What would you have me do?’

Again it struck me as extreme arrogance, his linking those two thoughts as though they naturally belonged together. When I looked at him, however, I couldn’t miss the longing in those fiery blue eyes, the heat that would scorch me if I got too close — if I allowed myself to bask in his warmth for these few moments of my recovery. Dewel Proffit was the
last
man to whom I should entrust my feelings, or confess my fears about what did happen now.

Is he really so wrong?
my heart retorted.
Seven years of your life you’ve given to Chapin, and he repays you by slipping off with Savanna, and sneaking another woman into his suite. Damned heartless of him. And careless. Very, very careless.

As my thoughts shifted, so did the expression on Dewel’s dusky face. I caught the brandy on his breath now, and that subtle, musky scent of a man who flaunted himself and his taste for loose women. Preferably bored society wives who only wanted a skilful, willing cock in exchange for keeping their marriages and reputations intact.

That was Dewel, down to his diamond-studded cuff links and his cold, calculating heart.

‘You haven’t answered me, Eve. I can leave, and let you go home.’

Or?
coiled around me, like the tight spirals that preceded an earth-shattering climax. My heart thudded. To fill the silence that was giving me far too many ideas, I blurted, ‘Do you find me attractive, Dewel? Monique swears I could excite any man, but —’

‘Oh, you excite the livin’ daylights out of
me
, sugah,’ he drawled, his chuckle rumbling like thunder. ‘Unfortunately, that leaves only my darkness to find your way in. And who knows what evil lurks in this black sheep’s heart? Knock on
my
door and you might never make it home again.’

A blinding streak of awareness — of
wanting
— shot through me. And while my proper mind wondered if I’d married the wrong Proffit, my body reached its own wayward, damning conclusion. I’d resisted this dangerous train of thought before, but now it raced along its track, like the fear and adrenaline in my veins, never to return to its proper station.

‘Take me, Dewel,’ I whispered. ‘High time I found out what I’ve been missing with a man.’

He was on me, his mouth burning into mine as he pulled me roughly against his body. The buttons of his coat bit my breasts as his hands found my hips, holding me captive for a kiss that left nothing to assumption. Shoving his tongue between my teeth, he slanted his face to give his passion full reign, stealing my breath with the sheer force of his arousal.

Then he pulled away, leaving me dazed. ‘We’re going to do this right,’ he muttered.

He disengaged himself to open the carriage door — to give our driver instructions brusque with urgency. The carriage lurched, clattering down the cobblestones so loudly I thought all the world must surely know that Chapin Proffit’s wife was now racing towards perdition, falling from grace into the arms of the man who’d ruin her.

Yet I was smiling. Welcoming Dewel with open arms and a body barely covered by lace I hoped he’d rip right off me.

But no, Dewel was ever the Southern gentleman, in his rakish way. ‘You look good enough to eat,’ he breathed, loosening his cravat. ‘But for now we’ll just nibble and suck and lick at each other. When I get you home, I’m gonna swallow you whole.’

So this was how it felt to be devoured by a man’s eyes, while he delivered delicious, intoxicating promises. The lace dress, insubstantial as it was, suddenly felt too confining. But he was right: better to be shut away from prying eyes. Better to be off the gossiping streets and in the safe haven — if any place with Dewel Proffit was safe — of Bayou Belle.

He lifted me into his lap, making me so very aware of his size, his power, his…rigid erection. As he cradled me in one arm, his fingers took their sweet time caressing my breast, watching the play of the unfettered flesh beneath the filmy black fabric.

‘I knew you were an eyeful, Eve, but Lord have mercy! There’s just
nothin
’ to this dress, but it does everything right.’ He caught my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, grinning when I twitched. ‘Ripe as a cherry, beggin’ to be plucked.’

‘No,
fucked
,’ I corrected, feeling brazen beyond belief. ‘I didn’t dress like this to go to church, after all.’

‘Good. ’Cause the way I want you to play my organ, nobody’s gonna be singin’ hymns anyway.’

With a flick of his wrist, he parted the flimsy lace to run his fingernail up the inside of my thigh. I held my breath, knowing where that finger would go — gasping when it slid into my wet slit, and was then joined by a second, and a third. My eyes closed with this incredible fullness, and as my head fell back over his elbow, I could feel his wicked grin.

‘You don’t yet know the meanin’ of surrender, Miss Eve,’ he promised in a sultry baritone, ‘but you’re gonna find out.’

A lady should never detail her adventures in the bed of a devil like Dewel, but then, by the time I got there, I was no lady. Once he carried me up the oak stairway, burning away my clothes and my best intentions with a gaze like a blue gas flame, my seat in hell was guaranteed. So I decided to enjoy every inch of the trip.

‘There’s worse places than hell,’ Dewel remarked when I mentioned this. ‘I’ll do my best to see you never visit them, but who can say? The next few weeks’ll take you a lot of places you never thought you’d go.’

Was that a promise or a threat? His look of raw passion filled me with an anticipation I could barely stand, yet his words had an ominous ring. ‘If Chapin finds out —’

He shushed me with his finger. ‘He won’t hear about it from me, Eve. No matter what incriminatin’ things he’s told you over the years, I’m the soul of discretion. Which means I know a lot of things I’ve never told anybody — and for your own protection, that includes
you
, sugah.’

I opened my mouth, but he stifled my protest with another mind-altering kiss.

‘But never mind that,’ he breathed, running the tip of his tongue along my neck. ‘From this point on, while you’re with me, Chapin doesn’t exist. I don’t want to hear his name, or anything about him. I only want to hear you hollerin’ out with a pleasure so extreme, you’ll never leave me — and then hear what you want me to do next.’

And I did shriek, with the sheer exhilaration of being tossed on to his four-poster bed! Chapin could never have managed such a feat — but I put my husband out of my thoughts. He’d had his chance, and I was tired of trying to entice him. His half-brother stood at the foot of the bed, stripping off his silk shirt with the determined grace of a man who intended to ravish me so completely, I might not get all my pieces back afterwards.

A frightening, provocative thought. As decidedly indecent as the way Dewel’s cock jumped free of his fly to sway like a divining rod pointing him towards water. My sex, completely open to his inspection as I sprawled on his bed, was already so wet his rod couldn’t possibly miss. And as he stepped from his pants, I once again marvelled at this man’s masculine beauty, at the strong symmetry of corded arms and muscled thighs and the solid body in between.

‘Yours for the askin’,’ he suggested, taking himself in hand.

‘Oh, God —
please
. I want it
now
.’

His rich laughter wrapped around us as he stepped closer, teasing me. ‘Gotta sound more desperate than that, Eve. Don’t you know I won’t leave you one shred of pride, woman?’

I fumbled with the pearl clasp at my shoulder, already writhing beneath his relentless gaze. Did I really
have
any pride? All I could think about was his body lowering over mine, watching that cock as it plunged inside my aching hole.

‘Leave it on.’

His breathy command stilled my fingers, while his smile gave me goose bumps. ‘You went to a lot of trouble to look this trashy, Miss Eve. Let’s enjoy it for awhile, before I rip that dress clean off you. I intend to spend all day fuckin’ you. And all night.’

Dewel took hold of my legs, to lift and spread them so the lace slithered to my waist. I couldn’t stop watching him watch my pussy while he toyed with me; his cock’s eye beaded with a drop of honey. When his thumb found the centre of my sole, I sighed with the exquisite pressure there — and then jerked with the sensation of having my toes sucked.

‘That’s not fair! I can’t reach you to —’

‘Who said I’d play fair, darlin’? It’s my game and the rules’ll change from one minute to the next.’

He kissed his way down my inner thigh, his eyes on the prize as he coaxed my legs closer to my shoulders. There was no modesty in my position, nor mercy in his face, as he wagged his pointed tongue at me — and then drew a teasing circle around my open hole with it. I was squirming with such torment, already thrusting as though he were inside me.

‘Dewel,’ I murmured, ‘oh please, Dewel, I want it hard and fast. I want it
now
.’

His chuckle infuriated me. ‘I’m not always gonna give you what you want, Miss Eve. Certainly not because
you
say I should.’

Damn his control! His arrogant way of putting me in my place even as he held me hostage. With blithe disregard for my quivering need, he kissed his way up the other thigh, leaving a wet trail that tickled when the air hit it…a trail punctuated by little nips that only intensified my predicament.

‘You bastard, give me —’

‘That I am, and I’m damn proud of it.’

‘— what I came here for!’

He leaned between my legs, his cock prodding just below the hole that so badly wanted to swallow it. ‘Sorry, sugah. You don’t get to come till I decide it’s your time. And to make my
point
—’

Dewel slid his shaft over my slit and then back again, spreading my wetness with a furtive slurping sound that drove me further to distraction. For a man so enraptured by my assets, he was doing his damnedest to avoid penetration. His slippery friction was just enough to rekindle my itch. Thinking to get around his tricks, I flexed my hips downward to catch his next thrust.

Again he laughed, levering himself on the backs of my thighs. Now he was looking down into my face, his raven hair mussed and the faintest sheen of sweat on his upper lip. I fixed my gaze on that lush fullness, and the soft mauve contrast to the shadow of his clean-shaven face. I reminded myself that patience was a virtue, even with a silver-tongued devil to whom virtue seemed a foreign concept. I held very still, hypnotised by the flare of his nostrils as he breathed, and the corresponding movement of his chest. If I dared look into those sparkling blue eyes, I was lost.

‘Eve,’ he whispered.

Just that easily I fell. When I saw myself mirrored in those huge black pupils, framed in cerulean rings that glowed with frightening desire, the air left my lungs with a wanton hiss.

He entered me then, moving only his hips, pressing me into the mattress with the slightest effort, letting those eyes take me captive…his willing, wayward prisoner in this battle he’d already won. Oh, so slowly he rocked, in and out. Filling me with his rigid cock, and then slipping it out. Waiting just a second too long, so my jaw would drop further with my need, before shoving it up me again.

Then, when I thought I couldn’t stand any more, he thrust all the way in, grinding his root high and hard against my bone — knowing he’d caught my clit, and knowing when my spasms began, even before I did. With a satisfied smile, Dewel held himself hard against me, his minimal movements making the wildfire leap until I shook uncontrollably.

‘Give it to me,’ he rasped, so close to my ear the dampness gathered in its shell. ‘Writhe with it, Eve. Yield yourself so completely that no other man can ever have you. And then call out the name of the demon that just stole your soul.’

I gritted my teeth, determined he wouldn’t dictate my body’s response. But Dewel was still rocking, showing no sign of letting up. His body was curled completely around mine, suspended just enough that I wouldn’t be crushed while holding me helpless. His victim. The woman who’d begun her day in search of her husband’s love, and would end it in the arms of his lifelong rival.

I heard a keening sound, and realised it came from my own throat. My head jerked back and my hips surged forward. The friction of his body hair against my lace rose to a sibilant hiss that drove me over the precipice. I arched, racked by spasms that claimed me from my pussy outward and didn’t let go.

‘
Dewel!
Oh, Dewel, my God —’

His hips kicked into a frenzy then, and he slapped against my wetness, grunting with each stroke. Between my slitted eyelids I saw his grimace grow tight, and when his body went stiff, I instinctively curled upward with one last seizure. He shot into me, grabbing me hard to squeeze out the last of it.

We collapsed. For several seconds we could only pant desperately. As the fragments of my rational mind returned, I realised the magnitude of what I’d just done: I had now sunk as low as the husband I’d set out to seduce. I had broken vows I considered sacred, even under the sad circumstances of a marriage arranged for my family’s financial benefit.

But I had also become a woman who gave herself over to desire, and I’d taken a man into oblivion with me.

This observation struck like a storm as my lover rolled to his side, taking me with him. Dewel still quivered with the force of our climax, and as he held me against his chest I felt the beating of a powerful heart. My epiphany seemed far too important not to share, in his rare moment of vulnerability.

‘Dewel,’ I whispered. ‘How can I ever thank you for —’

‘Don’t jump the gun, thinkin’ I’ve done you any favours, sugah,’ he sighed. Then, to soften the emotional blow, he kissed me so sweetly I wanted to cry. ‘And don’t start talkin’. I’m not nearly finished yet.’

I awoke from a doze to find Dewel grinning lasciviously as he sat on the edge of the bed, studying my nude body. Unaccustomed to being so closely observed, I scrambled for the length of black lace now rumpled among the covers, but he grabbed my hands.

‘No need for modesty on my account,’ he said with a low laugh. ‘You’re the most gorgeous creature I’ve ever seen, and my brother doesn’t deserve you. Should’ve kept you for myself, Miss Eve. Should’ve approached your daddy before Chapin had the chance.’

How different might the past seven years have been, had that happened?

‘Why didn’t you?’ I asked softly. ‘I know very little about that arrangement. I suspect my parents were deeper in debt than they let on, but when I asked Chapin for details, I was told not to worry my pretty little head over it.’

‘His answers don’t satisfy you any more, do they?’

Dewel slid alongside me, making the sheets rustle seductively as his warm skin tantalised mine. For a man who worked a plantation, he had a luxurious sensuality — just enough feathering of dark hair on his chest to render his whisky skin more mysterious, coupled with a softness I never expected. His midnight hair fell loosely around his ears, and as he smiled, with his Creole face directly over mine, I was overwhelmed by him all over again.

‘Kiss me,’ I whispered.

‘Glutton.’ He bussed my lips to tease me. ‘You think I can pleasure you again and again? Just because you can’t get enough?’

‘Yes.’

His laughter made my heart dance, and as he knelt between my legs, his eyes took on a feral glow, like a wolf’s at dusk. A wolf who’d found a willing mate and intended to chase the full moon into the dawn with her. Another erection prodded my bottom. Dewel was eager to do my bidding, even if he pretended to have other things on his mind.

‘After Daddy died — when my half-brother learned the plantation was goin’ to the bastard heir — Chapin felt the Proffit name and bloodline might be compromised, unless he became a family man,’ Dewel explained quietly. ‘Some legal affairs in St. Louis required both our signatures. While we were there, he caught wind of a stock market deal gone sour, involving your daddy. Mr Wheeler bemoaned havin’ a daughter he couldn’t marry off in the style local folks figured on.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘It wasn’t as though potential husbands were beating down my door. I was twenty-two, already written off as an old maid. The few men whose company I’d enjoyed were intimidated by Daddy’s high-falutin expectations.’

‘So my half-brother caught him with his defences down. And Chapin asked
me
to look you over.’

‘Why?’

Dewel chortled. ‘Because I enjoyed the challenge of sneakin’ a peek at you while he kept your daddy distracted. And because I had a way with the ladies — which was why, at the time, I didn’t snap you up myself. Didn’t see the need, cocky as I was at that age.’

He propped my hips against his thighs, splaying my legs over his upper arms. Was that a shadow of sadness beneath his blue eyes, as his gaze raked my body? Lying at a slant, with my head at the edge of the bed, I knew better than to assume Dewel Proffit would ever relinquish total control or confess to any regrets…although I thrummed with the anticipation of driving him to a wild, frenzied distraction, once he revealed all he was going to.

‘Your daddy was no fool. Said it was all or nothin’ — that Chapin would pay his promissory note, and take you sight unseen. But once I got you to the window by throwin’ some gravel at it, I assured him, durin’ our trip to the bank, that he’d never be sorry.

‘And when I saw you at the wedding, lookin’ so pretty and innocent,’ Dewel went on in a softer drawl, ‘I swore I’d never do that son of a bitch another favour as long as I lived. I hoped, for both your sakes, you could turn him around, but…’

‘But what?’ After all of Chapin’s warnings not to trust his half-brother, I was finally getting some straight talk. Not the most flattering information, yet I’d guessed long ago that romantic flights of fantasy hadn’t prompted the golden-haired Proffit to offer for my hand.

‘You’ve suffered more than your share of humiliation over the past seven years, and for that I’m sincerely sorry, Eve. No sense rubbin’ your nose in it now.’

‘Ah. His chasing after the others.’

‘Yeah. That.’ His fingertips skimmed my sides as he watched me closely. There was more he wasn’t telling, unless he heard certain cues from my response.

But what could I say? Even now, all I knew was that I knew very little about my husband, Chapin Proffit.

‘The wife’s always the last to find out,’ I offered, shivering when he brushed my nipples with his palms. ‘I didn’t have a hint about his…extramarital activities, until that day a few weeks ago, in the courtyard.’

‘And then you got into trouble for bein’ seen with
me
.’ His grin turned wicked again, and with the flats of his palms he coaxed my breasts into peaks of need. ‘So we might as well live up to his accusations! Nothin’ like a steamy little affair to highlight his campaign. We’d all suffocate, if it weren’t for society types waggin’ their tongues to create some breeze.’

Had ever a man sounded as downright unrepentant as Dewel Proffit? While part of me could laugh at his cavalier attitude, I might already be in trouble when I got home. ‘I should probably be going —’

‘
Nowhere.
’ His command sent shivers up my spine as he riveted me with those defiant eyes. ‘My illustrious brother didn’t tell you about tonight’s meetin’ to finalise the party’s platform? Damn thoughtless of him.’

Effortlessly, Dewel lifted me further up his spread thighs, opening my slit to his full view as he braced himself. ‘Wrap your legs around me. Take hold of my cock,’ he breathed. ‘You know where it wants to be, sugah. High inside your hot little pussy, makin’ you melt all over me again. Makin’ the bed so wet we can bathe in it.’

Like a dog trained to its master’s voice, my body was already anticipating that divine fullness when he shoved his shaft inside me. Its head slipped between my sex lips like a sausage filling a buttered bun, to leer at me, red-faced, above my coarse curls. I could feel the strength of Dewel’s bent legs; could watch his chest muscles flex beneath that swirl of black hair…could feel my honey pooling at the rim of my hole. I smelled shamelessly ready to fuck him again.

He sucked air when I wrapped my hand around his hardness, pressing it into my silky-wet folds. ‘Tell me what to do, Dewel. Tell me what you want.’

‘Keep your hand there, darlin’…rub it a couple of times, and then don’t keep your man waitin’. My Lord, but you’re pushin’ all the right buttons — again —’

His last word came out as a gasp and then he thrust downward, stopping with just his tip inside my entry, holding me with that blue flame of a gaze. I enveloped him slowly, savouring the tightness, the sense of being filled as never before while I used my legs for leverage. Ah, the luxury of loving a man whose overall size let me revel in his strength!

Dewel Proffit made me feel small and enticing and desirable. For the first time in my life I didn’t wonder what was wrong with me: my lover was as hungry for this intimate play as I, encouraging me with his smiles and quiet moans, and hands that cupped my ass with the promise of a passion like no other.

‘Up and down on it,’ he murmured. As I complied, I listened to the friction of our bodies and then the wet, sucking sound when he pulled out to tease me.

‘That’s disgusting.’ I laughed, and felt him shaking beneath me — with mirth and the building of his next climax.

‘No, Eve, it’s the sound of a woman who wants me. It’s the hot slickness of her pussy, beggin’ me to fuck her senseless. Communication in its finest form.’ Dewel buried himself to the hilt then, so thick and rigid I lay impaled at an angle that left me totally at his mercy.

My eyes closed as the pressure inside me mounted. The sensations danced like maidens around a Maypole, coy at first but more adventurous as they circled closer to the centre…to a completion that promised to be as cataclysmic as all the earlier ones combined. He was so deep his balls rubbed my butt; so still I began shaking with my need.

My head rocked back — over the edge of the bed! — and then adrenaline shot through me as my body slipped with the loose sheets. Dewel gripped my wrists, grinding against my mound until my clit rubbed his cock with each shove. I gasped, glazing over with pleasure as he rode me, giddy with the sense that at any second I might slip to the floor and be crushed beneath his weight.

A bloodless breathlessness overtook me. My legs parted further, despite my instinct to hold on with them, and then I hung suspended, almost upside down, connected only by his cock and the fingers around my wrists. His ruddy face emanated a power so elemental I couldn’t fully comprehend it, while those hot blue eyes held my gaze until lightning passed between us. I knew then that destiny had led us down its irrevocable path.

‘Take us home, sugah,’ he panted. ‘Got you right where I want you, and there’ll be no gettin’ into this bed any more with anybody else, little witch. Squeeze me, now! Clamp that snatch around me and make me surrender. I wanna shoot like a damn cannon. I want —’

My moan drowned out his provocative patter, for his root plied my clit with a steady pressure that would make me explode if release didn’t come soon. Once again my body clutched for meaning, in this reclamation of the woman who’d never sampled such delight in the marriage bed. I now intended to claim it as my right all the time.

Dewel dove deep, hard against my sweet spot, and I cried out his name. Bucking like a cowgirl on a bronc, I hung on by wrapping my ankles around his neck. Driving my hips up to meet his every thrust, I sought that blinding moment when I lost myself and soared out of this world and into the next.

*  *  *

I had to leave Dewel’s world that evening, of course, but I lingered, taking in the furnishings of pecan and cypress wood, and the whitewashed walls and beamed ceilings that graced Bayou Belle. It was the home of a man who was comfortable with himself; who chose decor that pleased him, rather than following current fashions.

Once downstairs in the main parlour, I fastened the clasp more securely on my makeshift lace dress. From above the mantel, a provocative portrait dominated this room, and I had no trouble guessing who she was.

‘Your mother,’ I murmured, walking closer for a better view. Her raven hair tumbled loose about her shoulders, which were bared above a peasant-style blouse. Large gold hoops dangled from her ears. Her blue eyes sparkled with a mischievous passion, and her smile looked every bit as mysterious as the Mona Lisa’s. ‘She was beautiful. Free, like a gypsy.’

‘Which was why Robert E. Lee Proffit loved her and kept her here. Maria Castalantez was everything Virgilia was not, and I’ve never felt an ounce of shame about bein’ her son.’ As Dewel stepped behind me, his hands found my loose breasts beneath the filmy lace.

‘Is that why Chapin strays?’ I asked in a subdued voice. ‘Because I’m not the kind of woman he —’

‘I’ve never understood Chapin’s tastes, so I won’t explain them,’ he said, turning me in his arms to emphasise his point with those probing blue eyes…eyes so like my husband’s, yet they focused on
me
whenever he spoke. As though I mattered. As though he couldn’t look at anything else. ‘But we are who we are, Eve. I’m a man with few regrets, but I’m sorry you’re not mine. And I’m doin’ my damnedest to change that.’

I could only stare as his words washed over me: Dewel Proffit intended to take me away from my husband. It wasn’t a question, and he didn’t ask how I felt about it.

This revelation rocked the foundations of all I’d been raised to expect as a woman, a wife. It made hope fly within me like a wild bird trying to escape an aviary. My breath left me in a rush, and I had to drop my eyes. What he implied defied decency, for if I became his mistress I’d be no better off than Maria had been: much loved, but socially unacceptable. Still held captive, but in a different sort of cage.

My lover lifted my chin, the lines of his bourbon-coloured face softening with a smile. ‘That’s not a threat, sugah. It’s a promise. Chapin’s had his chance to make you happy, and we both know he’s failed miserably.’

With a last glance at the intriguing mistress of Bayou Belle, we turned towards the door. My emotions warred within me: I had to go yet I yearned to stay, despite the consequences of a night away from home. With every step, the clinging lace reminded me that I’d started out as a hoyden with an honourable mission and was returning as a hussy — a fallen angel who’d made a mockery of her marriage vows. I was no better than the husband for whom I’d lost all respect.

On the small table in his foyer, a tabloid caught my eye among the other mail. An artfully drawn sketch of Honore Delacroix highlighted an article headlined, ‘Headmistress Seeks Students for School of Domestic Endeavor.’

‘Well, well,’ I murmured, lifting the folded paper on my way out. ‘Look who’s making news. Probably because three of her favourite pupils now live under
my
roof, and she’s not a bit happy about it.’

The brief article outlined requirements for potential applicants, stressing the School’s reputation for only the highest calibre of servants. At the end, it gave the time for a reception and open house, inviting the public to visit her facility in the Vieux Carré.

‘That’s tonight,’ I mused as we stepped into Dewel’s carriage. ‘Too bad we’ve had other things to occupy our time.’

‘Other things, to be sure.’ Before the horses were even on their way, the darker Proffit lifted me into his lap and parted my legs with his inquisitive hand. ‘And this little
thing
is gonna occupy my thoughts day and night, until I can claim it again.’

Did he never tire of sex? This brazen man took every opportunity to touch my body, to incite that inner riot — revelling in my responses even when I didn’t repay his favours. Tipping me backwards over his lap, so my head hung suspended lower than his knees, Dewel proceeded to drive me insane with his probing fingers. He fixed those eyes on me, found my vulnerable spots — all of them on edge from such constant attention these past several hours — and watched my face as I clutched him with another orgasm.