25

Lynx de Warenne signaled Grace Murray to carry his son upstairs, knowing full well that Jane would immediately retire. He bade the company good night, pitying the poor devils who would amuse themselves with their dice half the night and made his way to the Master Tower.

He stayed in Jane’s chambers only long enough to retrieve his black velvet bedrobe, but she didn’t even notice. As usual, Jane only had eyes for her son once she had him to herself. In his own chamber, Lynx stripped, bathed, and donned his favorite robe, allowing Jane ample time to feed his son. Then he opened the door at the top of the stairs that led to the chamber below and stood quietly observing the maternal scene.

Grace stood by with a fatuous look on her face as Jane cuddled, kissed, and cooed at the baby, far too absorbed in her motherly ministrations to be aware of the man who looked down at her with hungry eyes. When he spoke, his deep voice startled her.

“That young cub takes up every living, breathing moment of your time. You lavish all your attention upon him. His father would like some of that attention. Grace will stay with him tonight, while you come up here where you belong.” Having delivered his ultimatum, Lynx withdrew inside his chamber.

Jane handed the baby over to Grace, then moved hesitantly to the foot of the stairs. She gazed up into the shadows, pondering what had just happened. Her pulse quickened with excitement. So, it hadn’t been her imagination after all. During the past week, Lynx had hardly taken his eyes from her as she flirted outrageously with all the males who had conspired to lavish her with their attention. She had followed Jory’s advice meticulously and at last it was going to pay off. For the first time Lynx de Warenne was seeing her not as the mother of his child, but as a female in her own right … a desirable female from the hunger she heard in his voice.

Jane glanced questioningly at Grace Murray. The nursemaid waved her hand, urging Jane to mount the staircase. “Go, go!”

With her heart hammering inside her chest, Jane took the first two steps slowly, tentatively. Suddenly she turned, ran back across the chamber, and picked up her fur cloak. Then with eager steps, she climbed the stairs to do her lord’s bidding.

Jane secured the door, then turned to face him, breathless from her eager climb. Her breath deserted her entirely when she saw him clad in the robe. As his eyes fell on the fur she had brought up with her, he smiled in approval and held out a powerful hand. “Come to me. It is time we got to know each other … intimately.”

His voice had the same black velvety texture as the robe she adored. Jane’s heart turned over in her breast. How long had she waited for this moment? A lifetime? An eternity? It seemed she had waited forever and a day, but at last the night had finally come.

“Have you enjoyed the weeklong celebration, Jane?”

“Oh yes, it has been the happiest time of my life.”

He took the cloak from her and laid it aside. Then he took hold of her hands and raised them, one at a time, to his lips. “For me also, and you are the one who is responsible for bringing me the pleasure I’ve enjoyed. I want to repay that pleasure. Tonight is for you alone.” His glance lingered on her lips, her breasts, then lowered to the ruby. “Have you the faintest notion how tempting you look?”

Jane thought she had a vague idea, until he drew her to the mirror and described what she looked like in his eyes. “Look at your face. Your eyes are like brown velvet pansies and your slanting cheekbones make you look like a witch at her enchanting. When you glance at me sideways or over your shoulder, I want to follow you to paradise.

“When you are happy or when you wish to tease me, the corners of your mouth lift and I find myself holding my breath, hoping that your elusive dimples make an appearance. The shape of your lips is utterly wanton.” He ran his thumb along the fullness of her lower lip. “Your mouth makes a little moue when you concentrate upon my words, and I am left wondering if you want to spit on me or kiss me.”

Jane’s cheeks tinted pink with pleasure. She had known he was watching her, but hadn’t the faintest idea that he saw her in such minute detail.

“A woman’s hair is one of the things that attracts a man and holds him in thrall. Your long, silken mass floats about you, whispering in your ear, clinging to your shoulders, sometimes caressing your breasts or curling about your waist; always brushing and caressing your back. It makes me want to play with it. It makes my fingers ache to touch you as possessively as it touches you. It conjures visions of lying with you and becoming erotically entangled in it.” Lynx threaded his fingers into her hair, lifted it high, then let it fall about her like a waterfall.

“This soft wool dress clings to your breasts so cunningly, it has been more arousing to me today than if you had walked about naked.” He moved behind her so that he could cover the upthrusting globes with his palms. Jane watched in fascination as her nipples peaked and stood out jewel-hard. She gasped with delight as his thumbs brushed over the sensitive tips.

“And now we come to the heart of the matter. Your woman’s center is decorated with a ruby! It has winked at me, teased me, taunted me, and tempted me to madness the entire day. Even in the chapel, or I should say especially in the chapel. I wanted to lay you on the altar and sacrifice myself upon you.”

His bold hands moved down the curves of her rib cage, down across her belly, and came to rest upon her hips. Then he pulled her back against his hard length to let her know the marked effect she had on his body. “I have been waiting over twelve hours to get you out of this provocative dress. Who said I wasn’t a patient man?”

As his fingers undid the tiny buttons down the back, his lips traced the satiny flesh that covered her spine. Jane shivered over and over as his mouth went lower. One moment her skin was on fire, the next, icy cold. The effect he had on her was intoxicating and she adored every moment of it. Please God, don’t let him stop!

But Lynx had no intention of stopping; he had only just begun. When he removed her gown, along with its silver chain, he laid them aside with reverence. “We must never let anything happen to this pink lamb’s wool or the magic jewel.”

Jane stood mesmerized by their reflection in the mirror. Her fine lawn shift was in startling contrast to his black-clad body towering behind her. She watched his hands pull up her shift inch by inch to reveal her creamy thighs. “The only time I’ve ever seen you completely naked, you were full term with my child. I found you absolutely beautiful that night, so can you imagine the effect your slim body is having on me tonight?”

She gave him a sideways glance up over her shoulder and Lynx groaned at the impact she had on his arousal. She could not have been more seductive if she had been an experienced courtesan. The shift followed the gown and Jane stood absolutely still while he looked his fill. She knew if he touched her bare flesh she would scream with excitement, but Lynx did not touch her. He simply stared at her reflection hungrily, devouring her with his eyes.

She held her breath as she saw him reach for the emerald cloak. When the fur touched her nude flesh, Jane gasped then moaned at the silken torment she experienced. The nerve endings over her entire body were heightened by her arousal. Beneath the silver fur her skin felt like hot silk and she began to quiver.

Lynx took her hand. “Come,” he urged.

Incredibly, Jane realized he was taking her outside onto the parapets into the cold winter night. She followed him, knowing that whatever Lynx wanted, she would give him. Her body and her will were his for the taking.

He led her across the parapets to the high crenellated wall, then he lifted her so that she sat upon it. His hands slipped inside the fur to explore her body and he murmured, “Your stolen moments beneath the mistletoe have made you imagine you know something about kisses. You are mistaken. I intend to teach you everything there is to know on the subject of kissing.”

Because she was elevated, their mouths were on the same level. When he pressed his lips against hers for their first full, frontal kiss, their mouths became ravenous. He deepened the kiss and at the same time explored the lush secrets of her body beneath the fox fur. What he was doing to her was shocking and primal and more intimate than anything she’d ever dreamed of. The hot sliding friction of his thrusting tongue and his insistent hands played in concert over her silken body, luring her to be splendidly uninhibited.

Jane slid her hands inside his robe and felt his heat leap into her fingers and spread up her arms. Without volition she opened her thighs to his questing hands and arched with pleasure at the sensations his knowing fingers aroused in her. She tore her mouth from his, opened his robe, and set her lips against his corded throat, then she slid her tongue down the muscles of his chest until her mouth fastened on a diamond-hard, male nipple.

They had an unquenchable thirst for each other that made them feel as if the night exploded about them. What began as tiny sensual tremors soon grew to full-blown shudders. Lynx traced the outline of her lips with the tip of his tongue. “I think that’s enough cold air, are you ready to go back inside and let me warm you?”

“I’m hot,” Jane panted, moving against him sensually.

“You are indeed, and I thank God for it.” He lifted her from the wall, but did not set her feet to the cold stones. Instead, he lifted her high against his heart and carried her inside. He set her feet to the warm carpet only long enough to lift off her fur, then he removed his own robe and lifted her once more.

He carried her before the fire and after the coldness of the night, the heat of the flames felt delicious against her sensitized skin. “This chair served us well in the past and will again tonight,” he murmured huskily. He sat down, holding her facing him on his lap. He did not have to tell her to put her legs around him.

Jane straddled him and looked down at his long, hard phallus that rose up between them. Her fingers could not resist exploring him and he covered her hand with his as he had done the night they first became intimate. Lynx was a big man and his size momentarily frightened her as she recalled the pain when he had first thrust through her hymen. But her mounting desire soon overcame her fear, so that even the memory of it was wiped away forever.

Lynx slipped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her onto his engorged shaft. Then he pulled out until just the swollen head was inside her. “I don’t want to give you another child just yet. It is too soon, I don’t want to hurt you. I only want to give you pleasure.”

Jane thought if he gave her any more pleasure, she would surely die of it.

Very gently his hands raised and lowered her on his shafthead until she caught the rhythm and began to move up and down herself, riding him as if he were a great stallion. When she took over, he removed his right hand from beneath her bottom and reached out with roughened fingertips to massage the tiny bud of her sex until he could feel it pulsing.

The sensations he aroused were so exquisite that she arched backward giving him a splendid view of her pink cleft as it became love-slick and her cries of pleasure began to mount with her passion. Suddenly, a throbbing began deep inside her and then she imploded, drawing him deeply inside her as if she would devour him. She moved rapidly up and down his long shaft until he was seated to the hilt.

Lynx held on to his seed with dogged determination as her hot and hungry body caressed him. He was anchored deep and it took an act of iron-hard willpower to withdraw without climaxing.

“Lynx, Lynx,” she panted, overcome with the raw carnality of her first orgasmic experience. She unwound her legs from about his torso and slipped down on her knees between his hard thighs. Then she was kissing and tonguing the object of her adoration that had brought her such untold pleasure.

“Jane, sweet, you don’t have to do that.”

She stopped, mid-kiss, to murmur, “Lynx, I must.”

He groaned and gave in to her. She opened her mouth and took him inside the hot, wet cave.

After her wild exertions, he held her possessively cradled in his arms until their fever cooled. Strangely enough it did not cool and almost immediately Lynx wanted to pleasure her again. Because she had tasted him, he now craved the taste of her on his own tongue. But he wanted her to see him make love to her with his mouth. So once again he carried her to the mirror and set her down before it.

He took her fingers in his and lifted them to her cheek. He bent his head and bit down gently on her earlobe. Then he began to whisper. “I want to show you how to touch yourself. When I’m away from you and the night is long, I want you to know how to pleasure yourself.”

He stroked her cheek with her own fingers, then slowly drew them across her lips. When he saw the corners lift with delight, he trailed her fingertips down her throat, over her delicate collarbone, and across the swell of her breast. He brushed her fingers around its lush, full roundness, then circled the nipple until she moaned with pleasure. As his tongue came out to trace the shape of her ear, he drew her hand across her belly and heard the swift intake of her breath. He felt her fingers stiffen as he approached her mons.

“Lynx, I can’t,” she whispered, shocked for the first time since she had come upstairs to him.

He nuzzled her neck. “Repeat after me, I will and I shall!”

Jane’s objection dissolved in soft laughter. “I am so bad.”

“What you are is innocent, and it is bringing me more pleasure than anything I’ve ever experienced with a woman.”

With her fingers held firmly in his, he placed her fingertip at the top of her woman’s cleft. “Just here is a tiny rosebud that blooms with the slightest stimulation. Let me prove it to you.” He bent his head to cover her mouth with his.

She felt her rosebud begin to unfurl. Then his lips forced her mouth open and he thrust his tongue inside to taste her sweetness. Jane felt her rosebud throb and hot threads of desire shot up inside her. Lynx separated one of her fingers from the others and slipped it up inside her sheath.

“There now, does that feel bad?” “No, it feels good, but Lynx, I need more, I need you!”

He withdrew her finger from her trembling body and kissed her eyelids. “Trust me to know just what you need.” He went down on his knees before her and as she breathlessly watched in the mirror, she saw him separate her tiny folds and make delicious love to her with his mouth.

Jane threaded her fingers through his tawny mane of hair to hold his head at her woman’s center. The act was so intimate, she knew that Lynx had breached all her defenses. She was a timid girl no longer, but a woman who was fast learning the power of her own sexuality.

This time her climax was quite different. A dozen small spasms strung together, yet were somehow separate in their intensity. The last one left her limp and languorous, and when Lynx picked her up and carried her to the bed, she marveled that he knew exactly the right thing to do.

Lynx reclined and drew her down to him. To Jane, he felt like a solid wall of muscle. He was the most powerful force she had ever known and she felt completely safe and secure for the first time in her life.

His fingers gently cupped beneath her lush breast, lifting it so that its pale curve swelled up from his calloused palm. His other hand stroked her back, going lower each time until his fingers splayed over her soft bottom, making her shiver, then burn. The last barriers that had stood between them had tumbled down tonight. She had never experienced such closeness with anyone, ever. She felt as if she were a part of him. She knew his scent had mingled with her own and would stay with her forever.

Jane loved him with all her heart and longed to tell him. Her lips opened to utter her fervent declaration, but Jory’s words floated to her through the love-scented air. Never tell a man that you love him until he has declared his undying love for you! Jane caught back her words and instead yielded up her body to him, rubbing herself against his delicious hardness.

He crushed her against him and she felt his body’s savage heat leap into her own, scalding her wherever they touched, Jane realized this was the way it was supposed to be between a man and a woman. When they shared their bodies, the male grew strong and powerful, while the female grew weak with love.

She felt his need become rough and elemental as he rolled with her to take the dominant position. Suddenly he had the ferocity of a lynx and she reveled in the fierce desire he unleashed as he lost control and lust consumed him.

As Jane floated in and out of slumber, she was vaguely aware that she lay sprawled across his magnificent body. Her cheek rested on the soft tawny pelt that covered his chest and the steady beat of his heart lulled her back to the edge of sleep whenever she stirred. She was completely happy. She dropped a kiss upon his heart and sighed with contentment.

Jane was confident that Lynx de Warenne had developed a burning desire for her and in her wisdom realized that this might be as close to love as a warrior like Lynx would ever come. Was she being foolish in holding back from marrying him when he had almost begged her? The thought of Lynx becoming her husband made her weak with love. No, she wasn’t being foolish, she was being extremely clever, and enjoying every moment of his ardent wooing. Jane decided to let the passionate courtship continue for the present. A smile of pure bliss lingered on her face long after she drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.