Shayla Black (28 page)

Maddie heaved a sigh of frustration. “What do you want, my blood? Do you want to own me? Or do you simply enjoy making me miserable?”

Brock felt her anger climbing, but where was all his resentment of her and her marriage to Colin Sedgewick now? Gone, he feared, in a single night of straining kisses, needy caresses, and tender lovemaking. He had yearned for her every day they’d been apart. He’d masked his unfulfilled longing with anger, animosity. Now, all that had burned away and he only felt desire and need.

Frustration mounted. “I presented you with a sincere offer of marriage. Regardless of whether you like or believe my motives, I require an answer.”

Maddie glared at him, fury shimmering from her. “Go to hell.”

“
I’m there, sweet girl,” he shot back. “You went to my chief investor and nearly managed to convince him to withdraw his funding. You’ve made your contempt for me known at nearly every moment this last month. As far as I’m concerned, we are even. It also leaves us back at the beginning of our recent association. You owe money to me. So I will ask you once more, do you wish to become a wife or a debtor?”

She glared at him, full mouth curled in a triumphant smile. “Neither, you blackguard. I have no intent to marry you. And though you may be mostly heartless, I believe last night shows that you will not send Aimee or me to the Fleet. Therefore, I shall pay you as I’m able and ask you to never darken my door again. Goodbye, Mr. Taylor.”

Maddie whirled away, her stride purposeful. Her soft scent lingered. Brock caught her arm and pulled her back, until she rested flush against him. She struggled, and he put his other arm across her waist to subdue her. The hammer of her heartbeat knocked against his arm, matching the rhythm of his own.

She had called his bluff. He panted, his mind racing. Damn, now what?

Though Brock wanted to deny the truth, Maddie was right—he could not send her and Aimee to the Fleet any more than he could send his own father. He didn’t want to see them suffer.

But how to keep her close? How to persuade her marriage was the best course? She had already turned down the lure of money and security. He had no family name to recommend him. Bloody hell, why did others wed?

Why? Brock paused, feeling the rise of her breathing against him. He had to think of another reason to compel her to the altar. What might that be? It wasn’t as if she were with child—or was she?

“
I think you should consider another matter. What if you conceived last night?”

She laughed, taking Brock aback, and stepped from his embrace. “Highly unlikely.”

“
Perhaps, but possible.”

“
I shall take my chances.”

“
And what will you do, bear a bastard? That would set the
ton’s
tongues wagging about you—and Aimee. There is a legacy for your daughter to be proud of.”

“
If
I were to conceive, perhaps I might be persuaded to marry. For now, I simply choose to believe the odds are in my favor.”

Her words gave Brock both hope—and an idea. “We still have the pesky matter of that money between us. You do not wish to marry me, and I admit I have no wish to see you put into the Fleet.”

Maddie flashed him a triumphant glare over her shoulder.

“
However,” he continued, “Neither do I think it fair to have you ‘pay me when you are able.’ You won’t find any creditor to agree to those terms. So we must come to a solution. I believe you once offered your services as my mistress as a way to alleviate your debt. I find that offer acceptable today.”

Her smile crumbled into a mask of shock. “You cannot!”

“
I can, and I do.”

“
I made that bargain with you under duress.”

Brock shrugged. “As I recall, you
offered
your... services to me. How is that duress?”

“
You were threatening me, pressing me—”

“
That’s irrelevant, really. The question is, do you truly mean to do the dishonorable thing and go back on your word? Tsk, Maddie. I expected more from one of your breeding.”

“
You intend to hold me to this bargain?”

“
For each and every night of the next six months.”

Already he relished the idea of possessing her again, her damp skin and heated sighs belonging to him. He wanted her to crave him, as he did her. He intended to consume her, urge her to take every bit of him until they both found mind-numbing satisfaction.

Against the small of her back, his cock grew hard.

And after six months of being her tender, demanding lover, he’d make certain that he’d tied her heart to his so that she could no longer simply walk away.

And if she happened to conceive along the way, all the better.

Cropthorne had given Brock a mere month to persuade Maddie into marriage. And Brock knew that unless he found some means to tie their fate, he would likely lose his chief investor. It might ruin him.

But in the end, he would have Maddie as his wife.

Maddie gasped and wrenched away. “I will hate you every time you touch me.”

Perhaps, but she had given in. She would become his mistress.

Still, her barb hit its mark, gouging him with pain. He refused to let it show. “Hate me if you wish. It’s merely pleasure that concerns me.”

He sent her a hot, searching stare, one that mentally disrobed her and liked the view. Then he crooked a finger at her, wearing a wicked smile. “Come here.”

Defiance and panic gripped her face at once. “No.”

“
That isn’t the answer a good mistress gives, Maddie. That word should be removed from your vocabulary where I am concerned. If I ask you to disrobe slowly for my pleasure, the answer is yes. If I say my plan to arouse you until you beg, you agree. If I ask you to look into my eyes as I thrust my—”

“
That is hardly asking; that is demanding I behave like—like some cross between your trained puppy and a whore.”

“
Semantics.” He shrugged. “A good mistress always says yes.”

She clenched her teeth so hard, Brock thought she might grind them into powder. Her lips pursed, her skin flushed. He’d seen her more beautiful before, but there was nothing like Maddie with her passionate spirit roused.

With an angry toss of her head, Maddie spat, “As you wish. I will return tomorrow so we may begin this degrading exchange.”

She turned away, toward the foyer. Brock grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to him again. He splayed his fingers over the flat of her belly and caressed.

“
I prefer right now,” he murmured in her ear.

Brock turned her to face him. Before she could protest, he captured her face in his hands and took her mouth in a sweeping kiss.

In that kiss, he vowed to give her pleasure. Maddie paused, then softened, losing some of the stiffness in her spine. As his fingers curled into the silken strands of her auburn hair and removed the pins, he promised to be gentle. And she returned his kiss. As he brushed his thumbs across the tips of her breasts, he told her wordlessly that he would tempt her as never before. She whimpered, and her nipples hardened to his touch.

It was a sweet victory for Brock. Knowing that she might soon be mewling for him and taking him deep, made his pulse leap.

Brock planted a trail of kisses down her neck as he began unfastening the hooks of her dress, one by one. Through it all, he could tell Maddie tried her damndest not to respond. But by degrees, she continued to yield.

He licked the hammering pulse at her throat and smiled against her erotically fragrant skin as he unfastened the final hook low on her back and shoved her dress down. The garment slid down her arms, exposing the swells of her breasts above her chemise. When her arms were free, the dress spilled toward the floor. He divested her of her corset and petticoats. Then Brock helped her away from the garments, back toward the cottage’s little parlor and its firelit warmth. She refused to look at him.

Not content with the scant inches of distance between them, Brock took hold of her arms and urged her closer. She resisted, as he’d suspected she would. Maddie was a challenge, no doubt, but one he was ready for. He wanted to give her pleasure like she had never had. Before she left this cottage, she would know how powerful the lure between them was.

“
I’m going to learn every inch of your body,” he whispered against her mouth. He was gratified when her eyes widened.

Maddie shook her head. “There is nothing to learn. I am willing to yield myself, so hurry and be done with it.”

She wanted him to hurry, take her blindly? Did she hope she would feel nothing if he did?

Brock almost laughed. If Maddie believed he’d allow that, she was sadly mistaken. No, she affected him, arousing him beyond bearing, damn it; now he would return the favor.

“
I won’t rush with you, sweet girl,” he whispered. “I plan to take my time, until I know you’re wild with wanting.”

Even as a rosy flush spread across her shoulders and cheeks, rebuttal gathered in her expression. Brock spun her around to face the wall, stunning her into silence. She stood a few inches from its surface, tense. In one quick motion, he grabbed her wrists, thrust her hands above her head, then placed them flat against the wall.

Her feet were shoulder’s width apart. She tried to bring them together, whether to close her feminine folds from his touch or out of misplaced modesty, he did not know. Nor did he care.

Brock leaned in to whisper, “Don’t move.”

“
But—”

“
The time for protests is over.”

“
Brock, wait! I—”

Brock did not wait. Instead, he nibbled at the back of her neck in soft, pressing kisses, little warm breaths that made her shiver. He lifted the edges of her chemise and slid his hands beneath. The silk of her bare skin sent a bolt of hunger through him. He hardened, ached.

His touch roved from her thighs, up to her hip, barely skirting her feminine mound with the tips of his fingers.

Maddie wriggled her hips restlessly.

Pleased with his progress, Brock trailed a finger up the center of her belly, then slowly explored the downy valley between her breasts. He drew a thin line across the swell of her breast with his thumb, coming dangerously close to her nipple. He felt her flesh draw up in arousal.

“
That’s it,” he coaxed as he repeated the process with her other breast.

Maddie exhaled raggedly.

“
I love to hear you sigh when I touch you,” he murmured.

Maddie stood stock still and scarcely took a breath. Brock smiled at her attempts to disguise her reaction. No matter. Her body would tell the truth.

Brock skimmed his palms down the curve of her waist. His fingertips brushed their way up her abdomen in the next moment—then continued over her breasts.

Maddie drew in a shuddering breath when he stroked oh-so-near to her hard nipples again and moved away. He returned an instant later, scraping his thumbs across the tips of her breasts until they puckered and engorged completely.

She gasped, then struggled to silence herself. Brock dragged his thumbs across her nipples again. And again. Maddie moaned, then bit her lip as if to keep further sounds in.

A fine sheen of sweat broke out across his back, and Brock summoned every ounce of his strength to stop himself from lowering her to the floor and burying himself inside her.

“
Your breasts are sensitive,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ll be certain to give them plenty of attention.”

He lived up to his promise, rolling her nipples between his thumb and fingers, pinching lightly, sliding his thumbs over their hard tops.

She whimpered. Her breathing turned fast, hard. She pressed her backside into his straining erection.
Yes.
He smiled. She was every bit as aroused as he was.

To prove it, he glided a pair of fingers down her stomach until he reached the soft curls covering her feminine mound.

Maddie inhaled sharply when he skimmed the top of her folds. He dipped his fingers into her vulva. She was more than slick; she was completely wet, ready. And without a doubt, he was ready to give her anything, everything...

Lust pounded at him, a constant, driving pressure inside him. He wanted her. On the floor, against the wall—he didn’t care as long as he had her.

“
I feel how wet you are, sweet girl.”

She moaned in answer, shaking her head. “No.”

“
Yes. You are.”

As he caressed her again, she heated under his touch. Exultation and need slammed into him, urging him on.

Fingers moist from her arousal, Brock sought her hardening bud. He circled, teased, captured, caressed, and stiffened it completely. Maddie sobbed. Her thighs trembled. He had her on the brink, he knew. She knew it too.