I Know You Read online

  Taking a breath he lifted his head and looked at Anne, her eyes closed in what looked like silent prayer. Her cheeks were flushed - and considering what they were doing it was no wonder - and her lips were barely parted, releasing gasping breaths of frenzied enjoyment. When she realized that he’d stopped, she fluttered her eyes opened and smiled shyly at him, yet she bore no sign of embarrassment or regret in her actions.

  “Anne,” he breathed again. “I don’t believe I can let you go tonight. I am too afraid that you will disappear again.”

  “Don’t let me go, Geoff. Just keep holding me.” Her voice held a bedroom quality, but her pitch betrayed a slight quiver of uncertainty.

  “If I don’t let go, you will not leave this room as you arrived.” He spoke those words not just as a warning, but also as a promise. He was swearing that he wouldn’t leave her untouched again. He had finally gotten her back, and he was now going to claim her.

  The hesitation that flickered in her gaze lasted for maybe a second before she locked gazes with him head on and nodded firmly. “I am already changed.”

  Her words spoke of her innocence, but her eyes held all the confidence of a woman who knew her mind. She was just as much staking her claim on him as he was on her. There was no going back for either of them.

  In response he dropped his lips gently to hers this time and took his time tasting every last inch of her. It was a moment of wonder and excitement. Though he’d kissed her dozens of times in their youth, he was now doing so with an appreciation of how fragile life truly was. It was a beautiful wonder that so much could change, and yet he found himself still loving the same girl as ever. Maybe even more so now that she was a woman.

  She was kissing him back with the same fervor he was kissing her. Her lips moving over his with just as much searching and just as much desire, building a friction between them that was likely to explode at any moment. With a jerk he ripped himself out of the kiss and brought his hands to her shoulders, taking her hem line in his fingers and pulling it down just so, allowing her to feel the cool air kiss her already heated skin. Without wasting much time he replaced his fingers with his lips, tracing the places of his kisses with his tongue and making her squirm with desire.

  The moaning was making him dizzy with his own need to feel her mouth on him. He brought his head up and stepped back, only long enough to unbutton his lawn shirt, baring a chest that was still smooth despite his mature age. Many times he’d lamented the lack of hair on his chest, but tonight he was going to enjoy feeling her lips and fingers tease their way down without obstruction.

  Geoff allowed his eyes to dance up and he saw that her eyes were sparkling with joy and mirth. Did she find this funny? But when her eyes fell on him her smile got even bigger and he realized that the mirth was in fact an unfiltered elation that was bringing tears to her eyes.

  Without any guidance she bent down and placed her lips on his left pectoral, nibbling and pecking as she traced the upper range and traveled down until she arrived at his nipple, tight with a wanting he’d never before known. With a flick of her tongue she had his body jerking in both surprise and ecstacy. If this went on much longer he would not be able to hold back.

  Slowly he pressed her back to a standing position and guided her to turn around. Once she had given him her back, he skimmed his fingers nimbly down the buttons of her dress, thanking God that she’d worn a simple walking dress tonight instead of a more elaborate evening affair.

  Once the dress was gaping at her waist he turned her back around and skimmed the material off of her shoulders, letting it pool on the floor. Her chemise was a lovely silk confection thin enough to allow a cool barrier to the heavier muslin of her dress. It allowed him to see almost instantly something that his hands had discovered just moments before.

  She wore no stays.

  As if she sensed the direction of his thoughts, she through her arms around her waist and blushed for the first time. “I was in a hurry to get here. The stays would have taken too long to put on.”

  Without really meaning to, he laughed out loud, shocking her out of further explanation. “Don’t,” he held up his hands. “Don’t feel that you have to explain the glorious state I find you in. You have done me a favor, though I doubt you knew at the time how delightfully it would work out.”

  And just like that his hands were back on her, slipping the chemise off so he could admire her beauty fully. And what beauty it was. Her hips were curved at just the right angle to hold his hands as he kissed her pert nose in chiding compliments. Her belly sloped just slightly out, leaving him in no doubt of her healthy and active lifestyle. In fact, everything about her screamed healthy and active. From her muscled calves to her generous bosom, not one thing lacked vitality and suppleness.

  During his viewing he felt himself becoming more and more aroused, but now he saw in her eyes that she had seen this as well. He followed her gaze to just below his waist and saw the tenting that seemed almost impossible considering the tightness of his breeches. Yet there it was for the world to see.

  “I cannot deny that your body pleases me.”

  “Will you…show me?” The question was low and shy, but she clearly desired him, and he was not selfish enough to deny her something he had just helped himself to. With measured movements, he unfastened his breeches and slid them down his legs, removing his stockings and shoes at the same time.

  Standing up again he was fully exposed, having also stepped out of his smalls. His member shot up, nearly hitting his stomach in reaction to her gaze, and she stifled a gasp upon seeing it so exposed.

  She licked her lips and moved her eyes back to his, her question clear, was this where everything changed for them?

  “Yes,” Geoff said simply. “Yes. There is no going back now.”

  Unsteadily she nodded and took a step forward, leaving her clothes behind and meeting him in the center of the room. Their mouths met in a celebration of a love lost long ago and found again this night. No other thoughts were going to interrupt what was destined to happen.

  David was a weak fool. He’d promised Anne that he would help find the man that had meant so much to her. However, he was pretty sure that the man she sought was living under his roof and inserting himself into David’s life just as much as the stunning little blond who had roped him into finding him.

  Thinking about MacAuley had him wondering where his valet had gotten off to. David had been avoiding him all day, yes, but he’s also been very much aware of where the man was at all times. Yet thirty minutes ago, MacAuley had slipped down stairs in search of one of David’s coats, and had not yet returned. That was very much unlike him. MacAuley was extremely timely in nearly everything he did. Never was a moment wasted throughout his day.

  Letting his curiosity get the better of him, David strode from his study and nearly ran full tilt into a footman who was bringing up a tea tray. He looked at the man questioningly and got back a blank response.

  “What is this for, Martin?”

  “My Lord, a guest arrived not long ago and MacAuley saw to them. I assumed that you would need refreshments brought up, since MacAuley hadn’t returned to the kitchen like he said we was going to. I figured he was too busy seeing the guest to your study.”

  A guest? MacAuley hadn’t let him know of a guest.

  Not wanting to embarrass the footman, he waved the young man into the study and bade him to set out the tea and leave. “I will see what is room MacAuley has my guest waiting in.”

  This night was becoming even more of a mystery. First MacAuley disappears on an urgent errand regarding a missing piece of clothing, and then he lets in a guest without informing anyone who this guest is or why they have arrived.

  Stepping into the entrance hall David could tell that all of the rooms at the front of the house were dark and unoccupied, however, a salon off the back of the foyer showed a flickering light below the door. It did not take much deduction to determine that this was where MacAuley was with the myste
ry guest, but it still didn’t answer why the subterfuge was necessary.

  Tip toeing silently to the door, David heard hushed words and heavy breathing through the wood paneling. Gently he turned the handle on the door and pushed it open, careful not to allow the occupants of the room to hear his interruption.

  “I cannot deny that your body pleases me.”

  MacAuley, that dog! Whoever was in that room with him was certainly a tryst. It wasn’t like he begrudged the man anything. After all, it had been he who had initiated their lovemaking the other night. However, he couldn’t deny that it stung a little to know that the man he’d come to regard as his own personal love interest, was seducing someone in the parlor right under his very nose.

  What he heard next nearly made him gasp in shock, and crow with delight at the same time.

  “Will you…show me?” The voice was Anne’s. What in God’s name was she doing here? And what was she doing in a closed room alone with his valet?

  Before he could make a fool of himself and barge in, demanding answers to rather obvious questions, he heard the unmistakable rustle of clothing dropping to the floor, followed by the thump of shoes hitting the carpet. If he was not mistaken, his valet was unclothing himself for his fiancee.

  “Yes,” came Geoff’s voice, answering an unasked question. “Yes. There is no going back now.”

  David couldn’t take any more. He didn’t want to interrupt them, but he wanted to see what was happening. In a sick and twisted part of his brain he could easily admit that this scenario was a gift to him. The two people he’d come to love after so long believing that he’d lost the ability to feel that particular emotion, were in the midst of making love in his back parlor.

  Ever so slowly he inched the door open until he could see two bodies twined in an embrace. Geoff’s red hair shone nearly scarlet in the candlelight. His body, already familiar to David rippled with muscle as he restrained himself from picking Anne up and carrying her to the nearest sofa. David knew that that was what MacAuley wanted to do, because it was what he would have done if he’d been in his place.

  Anne’s body was a glorious sculpture of curves. He couldn’t believe that God had blessed him with such a specimen of woman. So many ladies now a day prided themselves on a slender, almost birdlike physique, but it was obvious that Anne enjoyed an active lifestyle and ate accordingly.

  Her skin was a creamy mix of soft peach and silky cream. Few blemishes marred her skin, but when they did they added to her beauty rather than detracting from it. She truly was Venus rediscovered, and David was more certain than ever that he was going to have her for his own.

  It was such an odd thought to have, watching another man passionately kiss the woman he himself was mentally claiming as his own, but since David was also claiming MacAuley as his own, the idea didn’t seem so oddly placed.

  With thirsty eyes, David watched MacAuley back Anne toward the settee nearest the door. If David hadn’t known better he would have said that MacAuley chose that settee on purpose, knowing that David was watching, and wanting his actions to be seen.

  As MacAuley lowered his head to Anne’s breast, David lowered his hand to his breeches and found his manhood throbbing, wanting to be released from its confines. Without thinking about possible witnesses to his actions, David unfastened the placket of his breeches and gripped his cock, silently gasping at the sensitivity it had already achieved.

  Anne moaned in ecstasy as MacAuley switched sides and laved at her other breast, caressing the first in his palm and pulling yet another tortured moan out of her. She tossed her head back and forth, trying not to scream and not knowing how to contain all of the energy building up in her body. He’d had the body under him last night, doing much the same to her, and he knew exactly how she felt on the verge of completion. Her body physically hummed with the need for release.

  MacAuley’s hands were now roaming lower down, caressing her hips and thighs, but not staying in one place for long. They were heading for a single location and there was no stopping them. Just as MacAuley’s hand disappeared in between Anne’s legs, David began stroking himself, quietly praying that he could last as long as they could.

  A small shriek escaped Anne, before it was silenced by MacAuley covering her mouth with more lavish kisses. His hand worked slowly as his fingers danced inside her entrance. She was almost certainly starting to come apart as MacAuley was swallowing more and more of her shrieks and moans.

  Suddenly her head fell back as her body began to shake. Her hips moved in the rhythm of MacAuley’s hand but all David could hear from her was a purring sound that meant she had reached her peak and was coming down.

  David’s own heartbeat wasn’t anywhere near slowing down as he picked up his own pace and began to feel his own release nearing. Yet he wasn’t sure he wanted it quite yet. He wanted MacAuley to take his pleasure. He wanted to see his betrothed deflowered by the man who had taught him so much about himself.

  With excitement mounting David watched as MacAuley whispered something in Anne’s ear. Then, kissing her yet again MacAuley adjusted himself and sank between Anne’s legs, his cock lined perfectly with her center. Deepening the kiss, MacAuley thrust forward, breaking through Anne’s innocence and swallowing her scream as he moved slowly and surely, bringing her back up to a fevered pitch.

  David couldn’t even think anything past what was happening in the room in front of him. He wasn’t sure that he was being quiet enough, or even if his place in the shadows was guarded enough from the prying eyes of the other servants in the house. All he knew was the two loves of his life were making love and he was secretly a part of it.

  Anne’s face glistened with sweat as she shook her head back and forth, trying once again to rein in the passion that must be expanding in her core. Her eyes were shut tightly, making her blind to the world around her and allowing her only to be aware of the man giving her pleasure beyond her dreams.

  MacAuley’s hips continued to move at a steady thrust, grunting and moaning his pleasure as he moved closer and closer to culmination. They were the same grunts he’d heard just a few nights ago as he’d sucked on the same cock that was now planted inside of Anne. He could even still taste the seed as it had spilled into his throat. Running down the back of it as it had kept pumping relentlessly.

  The amount of cum had been a surprise for David, as he wasn’t sure exactly how much to expect. He only had his own experience to work with, but he was sure he’d never released that much seed in one go. Yet not long after he’d sucked MacAuley dry, he’d unleashed his own pleasure into MacAuley, and now that he was thinking about it, he’d watched the seed run between MacAuley’s legs like a fountain unleashed. Maybe the partner made the difference.

  A sharp grunt brought him out of his remembrance as he saw MacAuley stiffen and then thrust strongly into Anne. At the same time Anne came apart for a second time. The mingled climaxes were the signal David’s body needed, because just then his own core heated to maximum and tightened to an almost painful level.

  Try as he might, he couldn’t keep the sound from escaping his lips. He moaned as he grabbed for his handkerchief and spent himself into his covered palm for what felt like forever. He was positive, once it was all over that the only way he had been left unheard was because the moans coming from inside the parlor had been louder.

  David straightened himself quietly and eased the door back into place. He readjusted his clothing and stowed the handkerchief in his pocket for disposal once her got upstairs. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that tonight had changed much. But the one thing it hadn’t changed was his desire to marry Anne Edwards. Now the trouble was convincing MacAuley that his betrothal to Anne was going to benefit both of them and not just David.

  Anne lay on the settee in stunned silence. She’d just given herself to Geoff, in the parlor belonging to her betrothed. What had she possibly been thinking?

  The fact that she’d found Geoff at all was still a shock. She’d arrived at
the house in order to talk to David about finding Geoff. She hadn’t been able to sleep since he’d told her that he believed he’d known who Geoff worked for, so she’d decided to corner him and make him tell her all he knew. She hadn’t believed for one minute that the reason he knew where Geoff worked was because Geoff was under his employ.

  That thought made Anne sit up and gasp.

  “What is it?” Geoff’s voice was groggy and full of pleasure. His hand found its way to her breast and he began to caress it yet again.

  Flicking his hand away, Anne sat completely up and looked at him, so many questions running around her brain that she didn’t know where to start. The afterglow of their passion had now been replaced with the shocked realization that she’d just given her virginity to the man she loved, yet he was not the man she had promised to marry.

  “How is it that you are here?”

  Geoff sat up slowly and shook his head, as if trying to dispel the remnants of a dream. A dream they had both just made a reality, yet looked to be turning into a nightmare. “What do you mean? You found me.” And then the horrific look of dawning crossed his face. “Didn’t you?”

  Her heart sank to her stomach. He wasn’t aware of her relationship to David. He had truly thought that she’d come here looking for him. Which in a way she had…she just hadn’t figured he’d already be here.

  “I had no idea that you worked here. I came to see Lord Ridgely.” She swallowed hard through the lump in her throat before she finished her confession. “I am his betrothed.”

  Geoff jumped to his feet, a myriad of emotions crossing his face all at once. He was hurt, shocked, angry, confused, and…was that relief? They all crashed together so fast that she couldn’t even register all of them until much later. But why would he be relieved?

  “How…? I don’t understand.” He started pacing, not caring that he was walking through the room stark naked with evidence of her previous innocence still painting his thighs. “When did you even arrive in town? I’ve always kept my ear to the ground for word of your arrival. Yet, I’ve heard nothing.”