The Desires of a Countess Read online

  By the sparkle in his eyes, she knew his last protest was over. To her surprise, she felt no fear at that prospect, but an aching anxiousness that throbbed like a drum in every nerve of her being. There would be no turning back.

  Not until both of them had what they wanted.

  Chapter Nine

  Simon slid his fingers through the long strands of Ginny’s silky hair and tilted her face up to his. How many times had he imagined this moment? Her naked and magnificent before him with her hair down like fire around both their shoulders. It had to be a dozen or more in just the short time since his arrival.

  Sometimes the images were hot dreams that woke him up heavy and full of need. Sometimes he found himself daydreaming about making love to her while he went over ledgers or worked on renovating the cottage.

  But this was no dream. One touch of his hot hands against her smooth skin told him reality was this moment, and there was no turning back for either of them.

  “Aren’t you going to kiss me?” she asked, almost as a whimper.

  He obliged happily, kissing her hard and hot and deep. Her anticipation and desire laced with his own to make a potent cocktail.

  Slowly, taking his time for sweet torture, he slid his hands down the curved column of her throat. He teased along her collarbone with just his fingertips, then around the soft curves of her shoulders. She gripped around his back tighter, pulling him closer, but he purposefully tugged back from her. He was in no hurry.

  Yes, he wanted to take her right then, but it had been a long time since he’d felt a woman beneath him. He was going to take his time and enjoy every sweet moment of this seduction. He was going to enjoy making her wait, making her beg.

  “Please,” she murmured as she kissed fire along his neck up to his ear. “Please!”

  “What’s the hurry?” he teased as he lifted her hips against his and rubbed against her in slow, suggestive circles. “We’ve got all night.”

  She shut her eyes with a long, low groan. He grinned even though this fiery need was almost unbearable in its pleasure, but he knew that before the night was over, the flames would be extinguished. Until then, he wanted to play games with her first. To seduce her. To make her so hot that she combusted before she found release from the honeyed torture.

  Ginny eyes to fluttered open slowly and in her gaze, he saw a new and dangerous control. One he hadn’t seen from her before and his erection throbbed harder.

  “You’re right, Simon. We do have all night, don’t we?”

  She pushed him back and returned her attention to the remainder of his buttons. One by one she popped them from their buttonholes without breaking their gaze. When his shirt hung from his shoulders and his chest was bare to her eyes and touch, she stepped back into his embrace.

  As he shivered, she slowly slid the hard peaks of her nipples back and forth against his chest. The motion created an exquisite friction that affected her as much as it did him. Her head tilted back and she stifled a moan as she gripped his arms with all her strength.

  She rose up to her tiptoes and pressed a soft, wet kiss on the hollow of his throat. His pulse leapt under her tongue and his body gave a rough jerk as the thin wire of control in him snapped.

  With a guttural grunt, he swept the desk clear. Ginny watched the papers and ornaments fly across the room, then her gaze came back to him, heated, needful and perhaps a touch fearful. With a kiss, he backed her up until she was half sitting on the desktop. He was thrilled by how much passion she returned. There was no simpering or pretending as if she didn’t know what was about to happen between them. No, she urged him on with every reaction, from the throaty moans she let loose, to the way she guided his lips to her throat. He followed her silent order with relish, tasting her skin like a man starved. He supposed he was, in a way. Ginny had been temptation embodied from the first moment he’d laid eyes on her.

  He pushed her back lower and lower, until she leaned at an angle and he had access to the soft curves of her breasts. He brushed a thumb across one tight nipple and she gasped in response. He repeated the action on the other and smiled when her reaction was the same. He leaned down and blew a puff of hot, humid air over her breast, but didn’t taste. Not yet.

  Ginny gripped the desk edge with a soft sigh. Her back arched higher and Simon finally gave into temptation. He drew one pebbled nipple between his lips and suckled. Immediately, she cried out as she curled one hand into his hair.

  Simon continued to suckle at her breast as he brushed just the tips of his fingers along the smooth curve of her stomach. Had any woman he’d touched before been so soft? Were there even any women before her?

  Her shiver had him lifting his eyes to meet hers. She was staring down at him from the desktop, her gaze glazed with passion.

  “Did you want me to stop?” He was teasing, but he loved the way her eyes widened with distress.

  “Never,” she murmured as she lifted her hips a little in encouragement.

  The soft plea ended any further need to play games, and he brought his hand to the soft mound between her legs. Already she was soaked and the image of driving into her wet heat nearly had him humiliating himself right there. He took a few deep breaths to calm his mind then ran a finger slowly across the cleft of her womanhood. She immediately bucked up to meet him.

  He put a hand on her hip to steady her then repeated the action, loving the way she let out a gasp of pleasure before he’d even touched her in all the ways he planned.

  Slowly, he pressed the pad of his finger against the hidden bud of pleasure beneath her curls. With another gasp, she sat up partially to blink down at him.

  He met her gaze as he ground down on her again. At the same time he slid a finger into her slick sheath. She pulsed around him wildly as she shut her eyes and clawed at the desk. He could see she was trying to control her cries. That wouldn’t do. He wanted to hear her release as well as feel it when she finally went over the edge.

  He built a slow rhythm with his hands, loving when she gave in and began to meet his thrusts. Her breath came shorter and shorter as she pressed hard against him.

  “Simon?” she panted as she continued to move in a jerky rhythm that only stoked his fire all the more.

  “Yes?”

  “Please. I want-I need-” She blushed as she arched up again.

  He nodded as he withdrew his fingers. Her moan of dissatisfaction had him shucking off his boots and trousers at breakneck speed. Cupping her bottom, he pulled her against him. She sucked in a breath and he felt her tense as he finally eased her onto his throbbing erection. It was a slick, hot joining and she let out a wild groan of pleasure.

  He pressed her against the desk edge with the first hard thrust and immediately Ginny pulsed around him in an intense release. Her body clenched at him, milking him as she drove him to the edge of madness. Somehow he held on. He wanted to enjoy each thrust. He wanted to make her come again and again before he finally spent.

  Her cries grew louder as she stopped caring who heard. Cupping her neck, Simon brought his lips down on hers to muffle the sounds. The last thing he wanted was a posse of servants coming to save their lady. The only one to save her tonight would be him.

  He’d never known a woman’s release to go on so long or be so intense. He continued his merciless, hard thrusts and she met him with jerky, hot movements at every turn. She clutched at his hard muscles and wrapped her bare legs around his thighs. She was so hot and tight around him in every way. He’d never felt anything like her arms around him. And he knew he’d never feel anything like it from another woman, no matter how long he lived.

  She kissed along his throat, darting her tongue out in torture so sweet that it drove him to the brink of madness. He could no longer control his pace or the inevitable explosion.

  “Ginny, I’m going to…” he panted as he drew her nipple into his mouth again.

  She moaned as she thrust her hips against him. “Let go,” she whispered against his ear.

 
Her body pulsed around his in a second orgasm and Simon allowed his own release. With a hoarse cry, he poured himself into her as he lifted her up off the desk and against him with all his might. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on as if her life depended on it while she bit back her own keening cry.

  For a long time, he continued to hold her against him, unwilling to allow the moment to pass. When he put her back down on the floor, he would be forced to remember his duties, and she would recall all her anger and protective impulses. He wanted to stay like this for a while. Just two people who wanted each other and had given in to those wants.

  She smiled against his neck. “Do you think you might put me down?”

  With a chuckle, Simon reluctantly set her on the floor, trying hard to ignore the sound of disappointment she made when their bodies separated. He was disappointed, too. In fact, his body was already making it clear that it wanted to be inside her again and quickly.

  Simon looked down at her and was surprised that the smile he’d been praying she would gift him with was right there. And she was more beautiful than ever with the relaxed, sated expression on her face.

  “Thank you.” She took his hand and pressed it. “I needed you not to turn me away.”

  “I couldn’t have turned you away for anything in the world.” He brushed back a lock of hair from her eyes. “We both needed this.”

  She nodded, but he could see she was drifting away from him. He had an urge to bring her back, to keep her close. But that was ridiculous. In a few weeks he’d return to his ship. Wanting her to be near had no purpose and would only lead to heartache for them both.

  With a blush of awareness, she reached down and grabbed her robe to cover herself. As her lush curves disappeared under a thin layer of muslin, another burst of disappointment rocked through him. All he wanted to do was carry her up to a bed… it didn’t matter what bed… and strip her naked again. He wanted to make love to her all night, and perhaps for a week or so more after that.

  Where the hell was that coming from? Had he been alone for so long that finally making love had robbed him of all his common sense? This woman hardly liked him, let alone wanted to crawl into his bed for a long-term entanglement. If anything, this brief encounter was about comfort and need.

  The thought stung him. Irritated with himself, he pulled his trousers back over his waist and buttoned the fly with clumsy fingers. He looked up to see her watching him with unreadable eyes.

  “I think I should leave,” he said as he turned away. The longer he looked at her, the longer he stayed, the more he forgot why he hid out on the ocean. The more he forgot about family responsibility.

  “Oh.”

  Even her voice was unreadable. Was she hurt? Relieved? He couldn’t tell. And that irritated him all the more. Why was it she could hide her feelings so easily?

  “Do you want me to stay?” His voice was a challenge and so was the way he looked at her as he shrugged his wrinkled shirt back over his shoulders.

  Her face hardened, just enough that he knew she wouldn’t say yes. She wouldn’t let herself.

  “No, of course not.” She folded her arms. “That wouldn’t be appropriate, would it?”

  He was surprised that she framed the statement as a question. As if she wanted him to be the one to decide if he stayed or went. He stared at her long and hard. If he said he didn’t care about how appropriate it was, if he took her up to her room, he wasn’t certain he could ever leave again. But he wasn’t ready to make that kind of decision, especially not with a woman who made herself a riddle to him on a regular basis.

  “No, I suppose it wouldn’t be appropriate.” He sighed as he turned to the door. It was against every impulse in his body and his soul to leave her standing there, but he did. “Good night, Ginny.”

  As he shut the door behind him, he heard her soft answer.

  “Good night, Simon.”

  With a curse, he walked away from her, and from the choices he couldn’t bring himself to make.

  ***

  Ginny sat at her dressing room table, but when she stared in her mirror, she didn’t see her own face. She saw Simon. She had been thinking of him since he walked out of Henry’s office the night before without so much as a backward glance. Not just of him, either, but of what the two of them had done in that office. And how good each and every moment had felt.

  She and Henry had never “made love”, as she heard other married women describe their marital relations. He had always simply taken her. The pain of the first few joinings had faded over time, but there had never been pleasure to take its place. She begun to think pleasure was a myth. Until Simon. She had felt something so amazing, so indescribable last night that it brought tears to her eyes when she merely remembered it.

  She snatched up her brush and began to run it through her hair. It reminded her of Simon’s fingers, raking down her scalp as he pulled her in for a kiss. She shivered as she set the brush away.

  She stood up to pace to her armoire. Get dressed and get on with her life. That was all she could do. She opened the double doors wide and looked inside. As she reached up to take down a gown, her muscles ached in protest. Why did she hurt so much?

  Again, she flashed to Simon wrapping her legs around his waist, driving into her as she leaned against the desk. Well, that explained the muscle aches. And why her body had begun to throb for his touch again.

  With an exasperated curse, she slammed the armoire and returned to her dressing table. Was there nothing that would help her forget those stolen hours? She sat down and looked at herself in the mirror. Beneath the edge of her robe, there was a small mark, a love bite.

  She pulled her robe closer to cover the bruise. Apparently there would be no escaping the reminders that she’d made love to Simon. That it had been the most glorious experience of her life. That she wished she hadn’t said no when he’d asked if she wanted him to stay.

  She put her head down on her table with a strangled groan. What was wrong with her? It was almost like she wanted him for more than one night. She glanced up at her reflection and saw the truth there. She did still want him. But she could never have him… could she?

  Before she could answer that question, the door to her chamber flew open, and Jack ran in on chubby legs. “Mama!”

  Behind him, Miss Frost was close behind. “Jack, don’t bother your mother! You shouldn’t enter chambers without knocking.”

  “It’s fine.” Ginny smiled at the woman as she gathered Jack into her lap. “Give us a moment, will you?”

  Miss Frost nodded and backed out of the room. When the door was shut, Ginny placed a kiss on her little boy’s brow.

  “Good morning, my little man.”

  He cuddled closer, his weight once again reminding her of her sore muscles. “Morning Mama.”

  “Are you being a good boy?” she asked as she smoothed her hand over his hair.

  “I am always good,” he declared as he slid from her lap and began to examine the bottles and jars on her dressing table. She took a container of lilac water from him as she smiled.

  “Have you had your breakfast yet?”

  “Yes.”

  Dutifully, he began to name off all the various foods he’d eaten. Ginny blocked out the words and just watched him. He was growing up so quickly. Soon he’d be old enough to understand his role in the world, and what kind of mother and woman she was.

  Which was exactly why she couldn’t have Simon remain, no matter how much her baser needs protested that reality. If she had only herself to consider, perhaps she would have been able to give in and let him stay. But she wasn’t alone. She had the responsibility of a child.

  Even if Simon were to ask her to marry him, she couldn’t give him that additional layer of control over Jack’s future. Any power she wielded to protect her son would be gone the instant she said ‘I do’.

  Why was she even contemplating such a thing? The truth of the matter was Simon didn’t act as if marriage was on
his mind. He wanted her, but he’d made it clear that he wanted to get back to his ship. So her other alternative was to be his mistress.

  What an image that created. One of elicit nights like the one before. Making love until they were both spent. Doing things lovers did for and to each other. She glanced down to see that her hands trembled. As tempting a prospect as that was, she couldn’t choose it. It was too scandalous, and would surely hurt Jack’s chances at success in the future.

  The door opened behind her and her ladies maid came in to dress her. As Jack scurried away and Nora began selecting her outfit for the day, Ginny’s mind continued to spin.

  Just being around Simon could bring nothing but harm to them both. She thought he’d have left by now, but he stayed and continued to dig into a past she needed to forget. If he remained too long he might find out the truth about her secrets, then she was sure his sweet words and caresses would come to a sharp halt. How could he care for her if he found out the truth?

  So she was back to her original plan.

  Get rid of Simon.

  And using their lovemaking seemed to be the best and fastest way to do that. God, she hated the thought. Touching Simon and being touched by him was the first good thing that had happened to her in a long time. The first time she’d felt so wonderful in years. But she couldn’t take the risk with Jack’s future. She had no choices.

  Just as Henry had always wanted her life to be.

  As Nora buttoned her dress and began to fix her hair, Ginny hardened herself. She had no choice. She had to forget her regrets and do what was best for Jack.

  Now if she could only face Simon without him bringing her to her knees with desire.

  Chapter Ten

  Simon pounded a nail into the new wall of the cottage with all his might. Pulling another from his pocket, he did the same, reveling in the loud, ugly sound. At least the noise blocked out the voice in his head that kept reminding him of Ginny and the way she’d responded while they made love.