Cora (Virtue & Vice #4)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

GIDEON

G ideon yanked her silk gown up. Cool air kissed Cora’s bare legs. She hated the way he made her feel so hot and empty. She knew what would happen if she gave into her natural urge to fill the aching emptiness within her.

He wouldn’t be gentle, judging from the way he handled her on every prior occasion. He would thrust inside her and make her gasp with the stretch, pump a few times, and withdraw. Or, probably, he wouldn’t withdraw, and she would be carrying his child.

Strangely, she was not appalled by the idea.

“Say you forgive me for what I did to you.”

“I don’t,” she breathed. She never would. Certainly not after that pathetic excuse for an apology. “But you can show me what it is you believe I’ll find enticing enough to make me reconsider.”

After all, what was the point of being married if one couldn’t discover the delights of the flesh? She had to admit that his touch unraveled her in ways no one else’s ever had. She had wanted his hands everywhere—and there was no denying that he felt the same way. The evidence was pressed against her thigh. Against all reason, her husband desired her, and vice versa.

He went still and tense. Cora hung there, suspended over a billiard table with her nightdress pooling over the dark wood, and wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.

Softly, firmly, he kissed her lips. He moved down her throat, taking his time. Tasting her. Cora’s body responded despite her misgivings and hurt. Gideon palmed her breast and she arched into his touch, clinging to him. Her breath quickened, until all she could do was exhale.

The belt of her wrapper had been slowly loosening for some time, and now it fell open. Gideon pushed it down her shoulder and pressed a hot kiss through the silk. Wordlessly—she would never admit to desiring him out loud—she tugged his hair until he moved down and captured her breast in the damp, heated cavern of his mouth. He flicked his tongue over her nipple and sucked hard.

“Oh, God,” she moaned. Maybe he could make her see stars. She had certainly never felt this fervid need to throw caution to the wind and take him inside her, right now. Here, on the billiard table.

“Say my name,” he commanded. “No one else’s.”

The audacity of this man made her teeth sink into her lower lip.

He made light circles on her hip, with the other braced on her back to keep her from falling, blunt fingertips stroking her need higher and higher until she was lightheaded with it.

“Gideon,” she said in a low whisper. “You haven’t shown me stars yet.”

He kissed her slowly and worked his hand between her thighs.

There, he gave up gentleness. He kneed her leg aside and dragged two fingers straight up her center. His hot exhalation blasted the crook of her neck. “You’re so wet.”

Dimly, Cora registered that he sounded half astonished, half relieved—a realization that she would contend with later, for the worshipful way he said it shredded the last threads of her resistance. Sitting up slightly, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply.

He groaned and thrust inside her. She opened her legs wider. He delved inside her, meeting her frantic kisses with needy ones of his own.

“So tight and hot,” he muttered through clenched teeth, followed by a nip on her earlobe. “I knew this would be good, songbird, if you ever gave me a chance to get close…”

Cora tried to file that statement away for later, but Gideon ground the heel of his hand against the apex of her sex and crooked his fingers just so. The thought vanished. Stars burst behind her eyelids, a full display of fireworks popping and rushing through her blood as her thighs clenched, her back locked, and her core pulsed. She rocked against his hand, clinging to his shoulders as whimpering cries tore out of her throat.

“In me,” she pleaded. “I need you in me, right now.”

Gideon froze.

Cold shock sluiced through Cora’s body. A throb of physical pain sent a shudder coursing through her as lust drained abruptly from her limbs.

No shy virgin would have said that. She’d given herself away.

Vulnerability gripped her. Stupid. She’d given him the power to eviscerate her all over again. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for his reaction.

She could no longer hide the truth from herself. Dreaming of Gideon touching her like this had been what drove her to seek out substitutes. She’d still wanted him despite the cruel trick he played. How could she desire such an ass?

How could she have married him when he finally deigned to offer for her?

She couldn’t bear looking at him. She kept her eyes squeezed shut as Gideon withdrew and gently let her skirt skim down her legs. She wanted to crawl under the table and stay there forever.

“Cora. This isn’t your first time, is it?”

Her ire sparked. She whipped around, pushing a strand of hair away from her face. “No more than it was yours.”

She didn’t need to ask. Gideon was not a man to deny himself anything he wanted.

His jaw worked.

“I’m sorry I left you for so long. I meant to claim you sooner. I couldn’t.”

Her chin dropped. This apology felt sincere, but she’d never dreamed that he wanted to claim her.

He left her there, weak-kneed and bewildered as his broad-shouldered shadow retreated down the hall.

Cora picked up the lacquered 8 ball and rolled its smooth surface in her palm. Perhaps she hadn’t imagined his interest in her all those years ago, after all. One thing was certain—billiards was proving an excellent game for getting at the truth.