Lily and the Duke (Regency Spinsters Alliance #1)

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Gabriel regretted bringing Lily to the large house in the quiet London Street the moment the two of them stepped into the narrow hallway after entering through the back of the house.

They had been admitted by the security guard once Gabriel had ensured his carriage was safely in the hands of the groom who had run out from the stables.

There was no sign inside the house of the scantily dressed ladies who lived here, mainly because it was the middle of the afternoon. He knew that was because most of them would be enjoying a well-earned sleep after going to bed in the early hours of this morning.

But there was still an odor of smoke and alcohol from the entertainments the evening before, when the house would have been alive with music and the laughter of half-dressed and beautiful women.

Gabriel had arranged with the hostess that the only person visible during their visit would be the security guard, who would show them to a private room.

Seen in daylight, their surroundings were far from salubrious, and Gabriel realized belatedly what a totally unacceptable establishment it was to bring a lady. To have brought Lily .

He reached out to grasp her arm and halt their progress down the hallway. “It was a mistake to bring you here.”

“Did you mean me any disrespect by doing so?”

“No!” he protested. “Absolutely not,” he added in a softer voice. “I simply wished to be alone with you.”

Lily nodded. “Then you should know that, unorthodox as it is, this is undoubtedly the most excitement I have ever experienced in my life!” Her eyes glowed and her cheeks were flushed as her gaze darted everywhere at once. Presumably so that she did not miss seeing a single feature of the establishment.

Gabriel could feel a smile curving his own lips as he took in her unfiltered reaction to the novelty of their surroundings. “You do not wish to leave?”

“Certainly not!”

“Wine and refreshments have been set out for you in the parlor, Your Grace,” the guard informed them as he showed them into the private sitting room Gabriel had requested in a letter. The madam of the house had confirmed by return that such a room would be made available to him, along with the refreshments.

“Thank you.” Gabriel dismissed the other man.

Lily turned once the guard had left and the door closed behind him. “You can have no idea how wonderful it is for me to be allowed to see something as scandalous as this residence when my life is usually so narrow and regimented into what is believed to be proper.”

A spontaneous reaction, Gabriel hoped, which might make Lily open to the suggestion he was about to make.

A suggestion he knew to be highly im proper, but the intensity of his desire for Lily gave him little choice but to at least make it to her. If her answer was no, then he would have that same lack of choice when accepting her answer.

Gabriel literally felt as if he was going insane with how deep his need was to kiss Lily again. To caress and make love to her.

His cock was growing sore from how many times a day he gripped it in his hand and pumped it to completion. Only for that disobedient member to plump back into arousal again mere minutes later.

Gabriel now found it impossible to think of anything or anyone but Lily.

“So.” She turned to him now. “What is the subject of this conversation you wish to have with me?”

Gabriel had grown to admire Lily’s straightforwardness since they became better acquainted. But he now wished it were not quite so forward as this.

He drew in a deep breath before speaking. “I would like the opportunity to show you what a waste it would be if you keep to your decision to remain indifferent to men and the physical enjoyment you might find together.”

Lily eyed him skeptically. “You have seen my mother. Would you really wish me to suffer the same deep dissatisfaction she feels for her life?”

Gabriel shook his head. “That will not happen to you.”

“You sound very sure of that.”

“Because you are not the same woman as your mother,” he chose his words carefully.

“In what way do I differ from her?”

Gabriel studied Lily for several seconds before giving a derisive smile. “I believe you are fully aware of the true nature of the countess and that you are just toying with me by pretending you do not.”

“Only a little.” She chuckled before sobering. “I freely admit that it is the example of my mother’s and two sisters-in-law’s deep unhappiness, along with knowledge of the mistresses my father and brothers choose to keep and whom the ladies of my family choose to ignore, that is one of the driving forces behind my decision not to marry. I have no wish to be treated with that same indifference and disdain by my own husband.”

Gabriel’s hands clenched at his sides at the thought of any man treating Lily so shabbily. He would gladly beat to a pulp any man who so much as dared to dishonor her in such a humiliating manner.

“Not all men behave like those in your family. For instance, I was never unfaithful to my own wife.”

“You were barely married a year!”

“That is true,” he allowed. “But I would never have dishonored Mariah in such a disrespectful way, no matter how long we were together.”

Lily's eyes narrowed. “Is that another way of saying you would have used more discretion when it came to hiding your liaisons?”

He glared. “I am saying there would not have been any liaisons.”

Her gaze remained skeptical. “From what I have observed, all gentlemen seek…physical satisfaction outside of their marriage. More so once the heir has been secured.”

Unfortunately, Gabriel also knew this to be true. At least as far as the arranged marriages in Society were concerned. He did know of some that were a love match, but there were far fewer of them than there were those that were forged for the benefit of one partner or the other. Money or prestige, or both, being the main reasons.

“Then it is as well I am not about to propose marriage,” he bit out angrily, and instantly had reason to regret his temper when he saw the way Lily flinched. “I am fully aware that I am too old, and possibly too jaded, to be of any serious interest to a beautiful young lady such as yourself,” he reasoned in a softer voice.

Lily could see Gabriel really believed that to be true.

Whereas she knew it to be absolute nonsense.

Not just in regard to herself, but to any of the women in Society, most of whom Lily had watched eyeing him covetously, no matter what their age. Not just for his title and wealth, but for the powerfully attractive man that he was.

Lily had known and recognized that force of attraction from the moment she first saw him the previous year. Now that she’d had opportunity to spend more time in his company, she felt herself falling more in love with him every single day.

Until nine days ago, she believed she had felt a futile infatuation toward him. But talking with Gabriel, being kissed by him, had turned that infatuation into a full-blown love so big and so strong, the emotion now filled her heart to overflowing.

It was a love Lily could never, would never, allow Gabriel to see. That depth of humiliation was something Lily would never recover from.

“But I also know,” Gabriel continued, “that I have other useful attributes, primarily experience instead of youth, to offer a young lady such as yourself.”

She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin until her own gaze was able to steadily meet his. “What are you suggesting, Your Grace?”

“An exchange.”

Her brows rose. “I do not believe I possess anything that could be of the least interest to you.”

“You are wrong. You possess everything I have wanted since the moment I kissed you.”

Lily eyed him warily. “Such as?”

“Such as an exchange of your beauty and desire for knowledge, set against the experience and pleasure I would like to show you. Please do not insult me by attempting to say you do not feel that same pull of passion toward me,” he advised gently. “I may not have any recent…liaisons to guide me, but I believe I am still capable of telling whether or not a woman returns my desire for her.”

As he had now admitted to knowing that Lily desired him.

Curiosity won out over her feelings of embarrassment. “So, you propose offering me the benefit of your experience in the giving and receiving of physical pleasure so that I might fully appreciate that the marriage bed does not need to be all duty but can also be enjoyable? So that I might persuade my friends, including Chloe, into that same realization?”

“It would be very easy for me to agree to that being my only reason.”

“Is it not?”

“No,” he acknowledged. “The truth is, I desire you, and whilst it is to be hoped Chloe will eventually come to her senses in this matter, I do not give a damn what decision your other friends choose to make for their own future. My offer of being your tutor, your lover, in exchange for your willingness to open yourself to the pleasure I can show you, is for you alone.”

“But that, in turn, would seem to narrow that pleasure to being only with you rather than a future husband.”

Gabriel’s jaw tightened. “With your permission, I will also teach you ways in which you might secure his interest in you. Hopefully, that, in turn, will secure happiness in your marriage bed.”

“This all seems to be a very huge leap in our acquaintance when I do not believe you were even fully aware of my existence until just over a week ago,” she scoffed.

“That is partly true,” he conceded. “I did not know you personally, but I assure you I knew the names and backgrounds of all of Chloe’s friends.” He hesitated. “I employ the services of a man who provides me with such information on anyone Chloe comes into contact with.”

Lily reared back. “You had someone check into my background? Into me ?”

Gabriel sighed. “I have just told you I do the same to everyone my daughter knows or spends time with.”

“Without that person’s knowledge or consent,” she accused.

He winced. “Chloe is far too precious to me to allow any danger to come anywhere near her.”

“You thought I might have been a danger to her?” she challenged.

“I think the same of everyone until proven otherwise.”

Lily drew in a deep breath. “If you had my family investigated, then you must know of my father’s…depleted fortune?” As she had suspected some in Society might.

“Yes.”

“And the…circumstances of my sister’s abrupt departure from our home?”

“Yes.”

Lily winced. “And?”

He eyed her quizzically. “I do not understand…?”

“Do you not consider either or both of those things to be detrimental to my associating with Chloe?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you are not your father, your mother, your sister, nor your brothers,” he snapped. “Your father is incompetent and has been, and still is, derelict in providing for his family. Your brothers have chosen to behave as irresponsibly as he does. Your mother is selfish and greedy. Your sister has chosen her own path, away from that family. But you are not like any of them, and none of those things is a reflection upon you or your suitability as a friend for Chloe. Or my wish to enjoy physical pleasure with you,” he added huskily.

“And is it your intention to offer all of Chloe’s friends within the Spinsters’ Alliance this same pleasure so that they might also be convinced of how wrong they are?” she taunted to hide her dislike of even thinking of such a possibility.

“Absolutely not!” he disclaimed, his expression one of horror.

Lily shook her head. “Why have you singled me out for your attentions?”

“I have already told you it is because I desire you.”

“And is hearing you voice that passing whim really enough for me to discard all sensibility and caution?”

“It is not a passing whim. It is a burning need to possess, to take, to own you,” he grated through clenched teeth. “And I promise I will make it enough for both of us.”

Lily studied his handsome face for several long seconds. Gabriel’s expression was fierce, his eyes gleaming with that same fire. As if compelling, rather than cajoling her, into accepting his offer of intimacy and pleasure.

It was an offer she ached to accept. But no matter how much pleasure or time Gabriel chose to spend with her, she knew it could only ever be a fleeting ecstasy.

Was she willing to spend the rest of her life longing for the man she loved for the sake of experiencing the pleasure he was willing to give her now? It was too important a decision to make without giving it serious thought first.

She pulled her cloak more tightly about her. “I believe I need more time to think through your offer—”

“No!” Gabriel’s protest was accompanied by him pulling Lily into his arms. “No,” he groaned again. “I need you to stay, Lily. Please,” he urged again before his lips claimed hers. “Lily, I need you .”

If anything, Gabriel’s kisses were more fevered, more demanding than last time. Within seconds, Lily knew she would give this man anything, agree to anything, if he would only continue kissing her.

Lily tasted like pure nectar and lust, addictive in every way, the longer Gabriel continued to devour and claim her lips and mouth for his own.

He rested his forehead against hers when he finally released her lips to stare down at her. “Will you allow me to touch you?”

She moistened her lips, her pupils expanding when she no doubt tasted him there. “Where?”

Everywhere!

Anywhere and everywhere Lily would allow.

But there was no rush, Gabriel reminded himself. They had time. Time to enjoy each other. To learn each other.

“Your breasts,” he breathed softly. “I should very much like to touch, caress, and suckle your breasts.”

Her eyes widened. “Men do the latter?”

“I cannot speak for other men, but this man intends to do so, yes.” Even the thought of drawing one of Lily’s nipples into his mouth, licking, and then sucking on that turgid bud, caused Gabriel’s aroused cock to throb and leak inside his drawers.

He wondered what it would be like to suckle Lily’s breasts if they were full of milk so that he could taste that creamy nectar for himself. He had never done such a thing before, but he knew that suckling on Lily’s full and milky breasts would be the height of eroticism.

That sucking on her breasts at all would surpass any other pleasure he had experienced these past twenty years.

He was right!

Having unfastened her gown and chemise at the back, before pulling that material down low enough to bare her breasts, he then lay her down on the chaise before allowing his gaze to feast on the uptilting globes. They were tipped with nipples that were a deep pink and fully engorged.

“Beautiful,” he admired as his hands cupped beneath them and the soft pads of his thumbs brushed lightly over those sensitive buds.

Lily’s response was to groan, her back arching into the caress.

Gabriel moistened his lips. “I have heard, but I have never experienced it, that some women are able to have an orgasm only from nipple play.” He stroked his thumbs over her nipples a second time and she instantly responded with another aching groan and arching of her back into the touch.

“What is nipple play?” Lily finally gathered her senses enough to ask.

“This is,” Gabriel murmured as he continued to rub one of those aroused nipples with his thumb whilst taking the other one between his thumb and fingers to squeeze and then pull on it in the same rhythm as the pad of his thumb ran lightly over its twin.

Lily had absolutely no idea what was happening to her as pleasure such as she had never experienced rose inside her. High, then higher still, her limbs moving restlessly in an effort to reach a pinnacle that she desperately needed but seemed just out of her reach.

“Gabriel, please,” she begged. “Please!”

“Tell me what you need,” he prompted gruffly, his eyes so dark, they appeared black.

“A release from this torment. Something. But I do not know what— Oh dear God,” she cried out as the heat of Gabriel’s mouth closed about one of her nipples, sucking hard at the same time as his fingers and thumb pulled down on her other nipple.

Pleasure exploded deep inside her, radiating out to every particle of her body, accompanied by a kaleidoscope of colors behind her closed lids.

The pleasure went on and on, fired by Gabriel’s continued sucking and pulling on her sensitive nipples until another even fiercer force of release coursed through her.

Followed by another.

Until it seemed that the pleasure of Gabriel’s mouth and hands on her breasts, the touch of him, was all that did or ever would exist.

Lily knew she would never forget this pleasure for as long as she lived.

“You are magnificent,” Gabriel looked up at her to praise wondrously. “A rare and precious diamond.”

At that moment, Lily felt like one.

Gabriel’s rare and precious diamond.