Taken by Moonlight Read online

  This was his room. Lord Carew’s scent was all over the bed sheets. She wondered how long it would be until he sauntered through that door to take advantage of her vulnerability.

  She’d been such a fool to fall for his charming manner and rakish good looks. After her one disastrous brush with love, she should have known better than to trust any man. She should have never let Carew lead her into the garden. And she certainly shouldn’t have kissed him. How could she have so lost herself in a kiss that had clearly meant nothing to him? Lord Duncan had been right all along. Not only had the wickedly handsome Carew not raced to her rescue, he appeared to be the leader of the motley gang. A gang of monsters!

  His betrayal really shouldn’t hurt this much. After all, she barely knew him. But, dash it all, it did.

  How dare he kiss her with such feeling and then step back and let those creatures manhandle her and her brave, dear Aunt Lettie? Lia’s heart began to pound with a new, much more violent emotion. How dare he watch her with such intensity and then do this? This!

  “The bounder. The cad. The… The…”

  “Lovable rogue?” the offending cur offered. She jerked her head toward the bedchamber’s doorway. How did he manage to always sneak up on her as silently as a ghost? Not a piece of his clothing rustled as he moved into the room and closed the door behind him.

  “No? Not the right word, then?” he said thoughtfully. One corner of his mouth lifted in a half-grin. “Something stronger, perhaps? I’m a bloody bastard.”

  She fought the ropes with renewed vigor. “You are the devil. And you will rot in hell for what you have done.”

  “I’m sure that is true.” He moved toward the bed, toward her. She wanted to hold up her hands and force him back. But she couldn’t, not while her hands were tied. She was helpless against him. “I am the worst sort of blackguard because I will not help you escape, do you not agree?”

  He stopped when he was no more than a few steps from the bed. The hard look in his eyes had softened just a touch. His crooked smile faded as if he was truly sorry for the position she’d been forced into, which frightened Lia much more than anything he’d done so far.

  “Why don’t you defend yourself instead of helping me come up with nasty names to call you?” she demanded. She’d much rather be angry than suffer this terror beating through her veins. “Why don’t you concoct another lie for me to believe?”

  “You wish to condemn me.” He glanced pointedly at her wrists tied to the bedposts. “Who am I to take that away from you?”

  “Implying that you can take whatever else you want? I hate you! I hate you!” She fought to tear free of her ropes even if it meant ripping her hands from her body. She was not going to let him terrorize her like this, nor was she willing to lay motionless like a helpless doll while he violated her. If he forced himself on her, it would kill her. Didn’t he realize that? Hadn’t he seen how ready she’d been to freely offer what he now planned to steal?

  “Stop. Stop. You’re going to hurt yourself.” He bent over her. The lapel of his coat brushed against her cheek as he freed her wrist from the ropes. He moved to work on the knot binding her other wrist.

  She took the opportunity and grabbed his neck and squeezed with all her strength.

  His fingers stilled on the ropes. She continued to squeeze his throat, letting her anger and fear fuel her. Lord help her, she would kill him with her bare hands.

  She’d thought she was on the verge of winning when he moved with lightning fast speed. He grabbed her hand and peeled her crushing fingers from his throat. With the full weight of his body sprawled across hers, he pressed her arm into the mattress.

  “I know you won’t believe this,” he whispered into her ear, not sounding the least bit injured. “But I am trying to help you.”

  “By accosting me?”

  “Yes.”

  His gaze met hers.

  “I’m not going to harm you. But I am going to make love to you. Here. Tonight.” He paused for just a heartbeat. “Now.”

  When she moved to scream, he pressed his hand over her mouth.

  “Shh… If that fool Vlad hears you, he’ll come bursting into here. As it is, we don’t have much time. You don’t understand the situation. You don’t even know who you are, do you? No, of course you don’t. Please, you have to trust me. Certainly what we had in the garden was real. Tell me you weren’t playing the role of coquette behind the bushes. All I am asking is that we rekindle that flame of passion and finish what nature intended.”

  He was mad. Crazed. She shook her head, trying to get his hand away from her mouth. Perhaps if she screamed loud enough a servant would take pity on her and send for help. She had no idea why she hadn’t tried that before now.

  “Please, Lady Amelia, I beg you at least kiss me and see if you don’t still feel the same attraction for me that I feel for you. I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. But Vlad—that brute who grabbed you in the garden—he will.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Carew appeared to be holding his breath as he lifted his hand from her mouth. Lia considered screaming. Her heart banged against her chest. This was a nightmare, a horrible, terrifying nightmare.

  “Is Lettie…er…er…Lady Brampton?” she whispered, ashamed for not thinking to ask after her aunt earlier.

  “She’s safe. Her wounds tended.”

  Lia sighed with relief, though for the life of her she didn’t know why she trusted anything he said. Perhaps she did because it was better to trust him and cling to a thread of hope than to believe the worst.

  He shifted, moving his weight off of her, and finished untying the ropes. Once she was free, he sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her wrists until her numb hands felt warm and alive again.

  “Thank you,” she said, pulling her hands into her lap as she sat up. She could not bring herself to look at him. Being alone in his bedchamber was embarrassing enough. She didn’t want him to see her face. He seemed able to read her feelings better than anyone she’d ever known, even her family. If he looked at her, would he know that beneath her pounding fear a pulling restlessness still lurked? Would he know how her restlessness had flared into a roaring blaze at the suggestion she let him… let him…claim her?

  Her cheeks burned at the thought.

  “You are trying to trick me,” she mumbled. “But you see, I may be a woman, but I’m not an empty-headed fool. Men do women a grave injustice when they forget the gentler sex has the ability to think.”

  He curled his finger under her chin and turned her face toward him. He leaned forward slightly, closing the distance between them.

  “It’s not your mind that troubles me.” He lightly brushed her lips with his own. “It’s that you, Lady Amelia, have forgotten how to follow your instincts. We are animals, you and I. Nothing more than simple creatures who heed the call of the moon.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I know. Let me show you.” He gave her hand a gentle tug. With a nod of understanding, Lia rose from the bed.

  He kissed her gently at first, and then with more passion. Her senses bloomed to life at the reminder of the unfulfilled promises his body had made to hers in the garden.

  “Yes,” she whispered, despite herself. “Yes.”

  Dimitri ran his hands down her sides and across the flat planes of her belly. She was soft and tiny. Her blue eyes grew wide and dark as his caresses went lower. Her breathing deepened. He smiled at her readiness. She was certainly a biddable woman in his arms, and here he’d been thinking earlier he wouldn’t enjoy that about her.

  He unlaced her gown with exquisite care and let it slide down her glorious body. Her corset was the next to go. Lust darkened her blue eyes even further as she helped him remove it. Her breasts were swollen and taut against the plain fabric of her chemise, her rosy nipples visible. He kissed them through the fabric, sucking hard, feeling her respond as her chest rose toward him. She was panting by the time he let up.

&nb
sp; Sensing she was ready for more, he untied the ribbons and let the chemise drop to her waist. At first, he did nothing beyond drinking in the glorious sight of her young body.

  She nervously glanced away. Her hands trembled as she pressed them against his chest in both an invitation and a warning. Clearly, she didn’t yet understand the desire burning through her body. He would have to go slowly, teach her to accept and savor those feelings, teach her an animal’s need to trust its instincts.

  He bent his head and took her breast in his mouth. Suckling, pulling, nipping, he teased her until Lia’s mind spun like a top. She pinched her thighs together and squirmed. She grew damp and hot between her legs as he devoured her body inch by delicious inch, ever so slowly. She would not be able to survive the sweet torture.

  She only vaguely noticed when he eased her chemise down her narrow hips. The virginal white material dropped to a pile at her feet. Still trembling, she stroked his chest, circling lower and lower until she felt the hard bulge in his pants. His breath caught in his throat when she first touched him there. Pleased by the reaction, she stroked harder.

  With a frustrated growl, he took possession of her lips. His tongue thrust into her mouth, filling her as his hand followed the contours of her naked body until his fingers lightly stroked the mound between her legs, easing her thighs apart. Gentle at first, he stroked her damp, soft flesh, giving her time to grow used to his touch, his possession of her body.

  Then he stroked her harder, teasing her.

  “That’s right, cub,” he whispered in her ear. “Don’t think, just do what nature wants us to do. Open to me.” He eased his forefinger into her damp opening. “Stay with me.”

  Lia gasped as her body tightened. She pressed her hips against his caress, letting her instincts take control of her movements. The animal in her knew exactly what was happening. And it wanted more. She bit his soft earlobe, encouraging him.

  He pushed deeper within her soft folds and slowly pulled out. Before she could cry out, he pushed back inside her. Faster this time. He moved within her, stroking her from the inside out. He added a second finger, stretching her.

  “Please,” she whispered, grabbing onto his shoulders to keep her wobbly legs from collapsing beneath her. “Please.”

  “Please what?” he teased as he stroked her.

  But she didn’t have the ability to answer. Her whole body was tightening, tightening around his caresses, until she completely came apart. She bucked against his hand between her legs. Colors flooded her senses as her body throbbed with so much pleasure she could barely breathe.

  He seemed to be having trouble catching his breath as well. He tore the shirt from his body. The sparse hair on his chest was black, tapering into his breeches. Lia pressed her face to his warm chest, kissing him, loving the taste of his skin.

  He scooped her into his arms and lowered her onto the bed. He followed, kissing and caressing every silky inch of her tingling body. His touch was demanding but gentle. Too gentle. Lia bucked against him. She twisted her hips, raising her body to press against his tight breeches.

  “Shhh.” His voice was smooth against her throat. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  He drew her legs up, bending them at the knees, spreading her legs wide, leaving her open and vulnerable to him. He lowered his mouth to her.

  “Ohh…” Lia breathed her surprise. “Oh,” she repeated as his warm, rough tongue caressed her down there. The intimate pressure of his lips and tongue against her made her eyes roll back into her head. He suckled her, gently pulling. His tongue followed the path his fingers had taken just a moment earlier, mimicking the movements she was beginning to realize his cock would soon make. As he made love to her with his mouth, she felt outside of her body, as if she was nothing more than a feeling, a building force of excitement. His fingers joined his tongue, pumping in and out of her body in a rhythm the beating of her heart raced to match.

  She dug her fingers into his strong arms. Her body tensed. For the second time in only a few minutes, she was being pulled apart. She had long ceased to breathe. She mindlessly writhed against him, letting his tongue carry her back to those dizzying heights.

  “Hold on,” he said before her world exploded into beautiful sparks again. He placed a reverent kiss on her pulsing heat and then tugged his breeches, ripping them off. She had never seen a naked man before. And he was very different than her with his cock large and hard and jutting.

  He paused. His brows furrowed, his lips pressed together, she’d never seen anyone look so serious, or so tempting. “I won’t force you,” he said. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  She knew she should be scandalized at the thought of what she’d already let him do with her body and what she was about to let him do. But this felt too right. He felt right. She took an unsteady breath and tried to listen to what her instincts were telling her. “I think stopping right now would probably hurt me more than anything else.”

  He flashed the same disarming crooked grin that had won her over at the ball. “It would definitely kill me.”

  He turned her over on her belly and playfully nipped her shoulder. She arched up to him. He guided her, spreading her legs and lifting her so she was on her hands and knees in front of him. He eased her head to the pillow, positioning her so her bottom was in the air and he had free access to her. He caressed her soft folds with his cock until it was slick with her juices. He then pressed against her soaked opening. It felt hot like a brand.

  The pressure built as he entered her. She was tight and her maidenhead firmly in place. And though her body was moist and ready, she couldn’t help but stiffen when his member bumped up against it.

  He bit her neck. His feel of rough teeth grating against her skin zinged throughout her body. With a greater urgency, he pushed her legs wider and tilted her hips so he could go just a little deeper.

  “My name is Dimitri,” he whispered, sending delightful shivers down her spine. “I would like to hear it on your lips.”

  “Dimitri,” she said on a breath, losing herself to the sensation of his long, thick cock stretching her. “Dimitri.”

  He reached around and took her breast in his hand. His skillful fingers pinched and rolled her nipple until the sensation of his touch throbbed through her already tingling body. She felt as if she was standing at the edge of an abyss, begging to be pushed off the ledge.

  Her body moved with instincts she did not know she owned. She nipped his fingertips and cried his name several more times. He pinched her pebbled nipple even harder and with a grunt thrust fully into her.

  She cried out at the invasion.

  “Don’t move,” he said, kissing her neck. “Just get used to me. I promise it will feel better in a moment. You are mine now. Forever mine.”

  As promised, the sting quickly ebbed. His chest rubbed against her back as he began a slow rocking movement. His hands covered her body, caressing, teasing. He stroked her with much more force now.

  “Oh,” she said with renewed pleasure.

  They were both panting and urging the other to thrust harder to fulfill nature’s promise of pleasure. And then it came. The world exploded. Her body delightfully pulled apart. Dimitri’s muscles tensed, and he cried out her name. Lia felt the branding heat and dampness of his seed shoot through her entire body as he came deep inside of her.

  He slowly moved and turned her onto her side. With words murmured in that exotic language he’d spoken earlier, he pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. His chest was her pillow. She snuggled closer to him. Exhausted from the abduction earlier that evening and from the exertions just now, she started to drift off to sleep.

  “My family calls me Lia,” she mumbled.

  He had shared his given name with her. She felt she should do the same.

  “Lia,” he repeated, sounding groggy himself. She liked hearing him speak it. “Lia tastes sweet on my tongue. The name suits you.”

  CHAPTER
FIVE

  “Dimitri?” Lia asked in the hazy twilight between wake and slumber as they lay in his large bed. She liked the taste of his name on her tongue, too.

  “Hmm?”

  “That’s a foreign name.” And he’d spoken foreign words. She lightly ran her fingertips down the fit planes of his stomach. “Carew’s family didn’t have any foreign branches.” She yawned. “That’s what the old viscount always claimed. ‘Pure English blood,’ he’d liked to say.”

  “Hmm.”

  “You’re not his heir,” she said drowsily. “Not really, are you?”

  “No.” Being so close to him, Lia could feel his body tighten ever so slightly. “Is that a problem?”

  She kissed his warm chest. “If you hadn’t stepped forward, the viscount’s widow would have lost everything. You did her a kindness. She spends most of the year at the country estate, does she not?”

  “Country estate?” He sighed. “It’s in Kent, not very rural. When in London, she makes use of this town house.”

  “Does she know the truth? About you, I mean?”

  “She’d exhausted all her resources. There was no heir. She knew that well.”

  “I see.”

  He was silent for so long, Lia imagined he’d fallen asleep.

  “Are you shocked?” he asked at long last.

  “You kidnapped me. Why should I be shocked to learn that you’re a lair as well as a criminal?”

  He sat up and brushed aside her gentle caresses. “I have hurt no one. The old viscount was careless with his money. Since I’ve taken over management of the estates, I’ve more than doubled its income. His widow and the estate’s employees are enjoying a better lifestyle thanks to me.”

  She kissed his chest again. “I meant no insult. Despite your hard edges, Dimitri, I suspect you have a kind heart hidden away in here. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have…” She bit her lower lip, shocked at what she had almost admitted.