The Rebellious Rake (The Notorious Nightingales #4)

Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“ M ore than is healthy,” Ram said, running his eyes over her face.

She’d come to him when he’d needed her. Sitting out there on that seat in a street full of people, he’d never felt so alone, and then Flora found him.

“I want you,” he whispered against her lips. “So very much.”

She kissed him. Soft and sweet, and Ram gave up the fight. Flora was his, and he was fooling no one by thinking otherwise.

He wouldn’t tell her yet that one day they’d be man and wife. He needed to stop whoever was after him before he declared his feelings for her. He would not have Flora put in danger by letting anyone see their connection.

“I read several books on it,” she whispered, her lips kissing along the line of his jaw.

“It?”

“Lovemaking,” she whispered, her hot breath on his skin, making Ram shudder.

“I just bet you have,” he rasped .

“My friend Patricia stole one of her father’s books called The Finer Arts of Pleasure . It was particularly informative.”

His laugh came out forced. He wondered why her prim words made him even harder. Why did everything about this woman fascinate him?

“I—”

“Flora, shut up.” He kissed her, his hand moving to the tiny row of buttons running down her spine. He slowly undid each until he could slide his hand inside and stroke her back through her chemise. Ram was rewarded with her shudder. “No more talking,” he said into her neck, inhaling the soft, alluring scent that was Flora Thomas.

He pushed the dress from her shoulders, and it fell to pool around her ankles. She didn’t hide like some would but stood there looking at him, her blue-gray eyes filled with desire.

“Take off your chemise,” Ram ordered.

“You take off your shirt,” she countered.

He tore off his necktie. “Does anyone know you were outside?”

“No.” She grabbed handfuls of her skirts and raised them up and off her body, and Ramsey lost the ability to breathe.

Firelight cast her skin in a soft, rosy glow, and he let his eyes roam over her as she tore open the buttons of his shirt. He wanted to kiss his way to the hollows under her shoulders and then lick the slope of each full breast. Her nipples were hard peaks, and he could do nothing to stop the hand that reached out to cup one.

“You’re beautiful, Flora.”

“Thank you. You are too.” His Flora would never say, “No, I’m not.” She accepted his compliment and gave it back. Ram felt another piece of the heart his mother had shattered mend.

Her skin was alabaster and soft to touch. Warm, he thought, when he’d been so cold outside; he was now warm, and it was because of her. He shrugged out of his shirt and forgot his cuff links. Flora stepped closer to remove them. He pulled her body into his when she’d finished. The heat from her skin pressed to his made his eyes shut.

“I need you,” he said. “So much.” His mother’s words had broken him, but Flora was putting the pieces back together.

“I know, as I need you. Our fathers are not nice people,” she added.

“No, but we are.” His lips moved to the small indents below her shoulders, and he licked the hollows. He then moved slowly down her chest, running his mouth over every inch he passed.

Her fingers went to his hair, digging into his scalp.

“A woman touching a man’s hair can be very enjoyable.”

He smiled against her skin. Flora talked when she was nervous. He made a humming sound and kept moving until he reached the soft curve of a breast. He then licked it, and she made a small gasping sound that Ram thought he’d never tire of in the years they lived their life together.

Running his tongue over the peak of a nipple, she shuddered.

“Ramsey?”

“Flora.”

“That feels wonderful.”

“I’m so pleased,” he said, his words deep and filled with the hunger that consumed him. He then moved to the other breast and sucked the nipple into his mouth.

“I, ah, have heard that sometimes a person uses their mouth?—”

“Yes, they do,” he said, releasing her nipple to lick the curve of the breast. “And it increases the pleasure.”

“I found another book in my brother’s collection,” she managed to get out as his hand was traveling downward to stroke the soft planes of her belly. Ram moved lower, into the curls beneath. “It told me much about what happens between a man and a woman.”

Christ, she was wonderful, Ram thought.

“Do you wish for me to do that to you, Flora?”

“I don’t know.” The words rushed out of her.

The lust inside him was fierce. His head pounded; his body ached with need. But for her, he’d take it slowly and even stop if she asked it of him.

“We will do nothing that frightens you, but know this, Flora. Everything will change between us.” Raising his head, he looked into her eyes.

“No. It doesn’t have to. I will never marry, but I so wish to experience this.”

“Everything changes,” he said again, and then, before she could speak, as Ram knew she would, he kissed her.

The desperation between them had his fingers sliding lower and along the folds between her thighs. Flora tensed but did not pull away; instead, she moved slightly, widening her stance.

Ram stroked as his lips danced with hers. The small sounds she made pushed him on, made him forget everything but this, here and now with Flora. Nothing but them mattered in this room, in this moment.

Easing a finger inside her, he felt her muscles tighten around him. Moving to her jaw, he kissed his way back down to her breasts. Slowing, he brought her to the brink and taught her what could be between them. He had another finger inside now, and he could feel she was close. Sucking her nipple into his mouth, he felt her tension peak, and then she was gasping. Her fingers bit into his arms, and Ram welcomed the small sting of pain from her nails.

“Dear Lord.”

“Just like the books? ”

Her head shook at his question, and Ram swallowed down the male pride that he’d given her that dazed expression.

“More,” she whispered as he brought his hands to her cheeks. “I want more of you, Ramsey.”

He couldn’t deny this woman anything. Lifting her into his arms, he walked backward until she sat on the narrow table that held his brandy.

“I will remove my trousers now, Flora.”

“I want to help.” She tried to get off, but he held her in place.

“No, because if you touch me, I will explode.”

“Really?” Her smile was slow and sensual, clearly liking the power she had over him.

“Witch.” He kissed her hard and then moved to where he’d put his jacket. Removing his handkerchief, he then lowered his trousers. Ram watched her eyes running over the hard jut of his erection. But she did not shy away. “You know what happens?”

“I know.” She reached for him, and Ram went willingly, as he always would.

“I will pull out at the end, Flora.”

“To save the risk of children.” She nodded, and he fell a little more in love with her. His Flora was practical to her soul. He doubted there was anyone quite like her out there in the world, and she was his.

Leaving inches between them, he trailed his fingers down her cheeks, to the ridges of her shoulder bones, then along and down to her breast. Her breath hitched as he moved slowly, taking his time to build her pleasure again.

“You, Flora Thomas, are beautiful.” He whispered the words against her lips.

Her fingers mimicked his movements. Heat bloomed wherever they touched as she trailed them down his body. He shuddered as she scraped a nail over his nipple and then down to his stomach. Innocent she may be, but she was not shy. Flora wanted him as much as he wanted her.

“Touch me,” he rasped.

She did, tracing a finger over the tip of his shaft, then down one side and up the other. It was unbearable, sweet torture, and never, not even with the experienced women he’d been with, had anyone made him feel as Flora was.

Her fingers wrapped around him and stroked. Ram withstood as much as he could, but looking at her sitting there, lush and wanting him, he could only withstand so much.

“Enough now.” He pulled her hand free, then stepped closer. It was when she could feel him probing at her entrance that he felt the small tremor of fear. “I will be gentle.”

“I know.”

His kiss was soft, and yet there was so much passion between them.

“It may hurt.”

“I know that too.” She touched his lips. “I want this with you, Ram.”

He moved then, slowly, pushing inside her slick heat. He felt her tight walls release and allow him into her body. Her breath hitched, and then he was there, seated deep inside her.

“You feel exquisite, Flora. Tell me you are not in pain.”

“A little, but there is so much more than that.” She rested her face in his neck. “So much more.”

“So much more.” He raised her face and kissed her, deep and slow. Ram then eased out and back in. Her breath hitched. He did it again and again, keeping his rhythm slow and even when he was burning to drive in harder.

When her fingers bit into his shoulders again, he moved faster.

“Oh yes, Ram. ”

“Flora,” he managed to get out as emotion hit him from everywhere. Making love when you loved someone was a vastly different feeling. It consumed him. Her scent filled his nostrils, and Ram knew the feel of her body would be imprinted on his palms.

She shuddered out her release beneath him as he drove into her again. Ram then pulled out. Grabbing the handkerchief, he found his release.

“That is the one and only time I do that,” he whispered into her neck. “Next time I will stay inside you,” he vowed.

“Yes.”

“But”—he cupped her face—“until whoever is after me is caught, I will be keeping my distance from you, Flora. Do you understand that?”

“I do. But, Ramsey, please take care.”

“I will.” He kissed her again. Because now he had something else to live for: a future with Flora in this house and love.