Cooper rose up from between her thighs and laid next to a still slightly dazed Emily. As she returned to herself, he stroked her body. Long gentle touches to both bring her back to him and to keep her now sensitized body still humming. What came next would not be as enjoyable for her, but it was a necessary step.

While he’d not bedded a virgin before, he was aware enough about the mechanics to realize that a swift approach would get them past the painful part. His cock ached with the desire to be inside his little hellion, but he refused to rush her. And so, counter to his usual style, he lay there continuing to stroke her skin until her lashes fluttered, and then her beautiful hazel eyes appeared.

“That was…” Her cheeks were still flushed from her orgasm.

He resisted the urge to command her to tell him what she was thinking. But he reminded himself this was how married men treated their wives. In fact, he’d already broken protocol by stripping her naked and loving her with his mouth. But there were only so many concessions a man could make.

“There is more to come if you’re ready.” He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, finding the urge to lick and taste every inch of her all but impossible to resist.

Her nipples tightened into peaks either from his words or his touch, he didn’t particularly care which once she nodded her head.

He hesitated. Normally, he would require verbal consent. There was far more pleasure in a shared experience. Perhaps some things shouldn’t be changed?

“Say yes. I want to be sure you are ready for this. No regrets come morning.”

“We are far past the point where regrets could be avoided if I were to have them.” She paused and snared his gaze with her own. “Please, take me.”

Cooper groaned, her words making him desperate with desire. He wanted to thrust into her and fuck until his top blew off. But his sweet Emily was not ready for such vigorous activity. Instead, he levered himself over her and knelt between her spread thighs. There, he donned a French letter he’d kept handy for the evening and pressed his tip against her still-soaked pussy. Leaning over her, braced on his arms, he warned her, “This will hurt the first time, and there is little I can do to mitigate it for you.”

“Go ahead, I’m ready.” She looked up at him, a wariness in her gaze that gave him pause.

Still determined to try to make her first time as pleasurable as possible, he rubbed the tip of his cock along her slit until she writhed against him once more. Then, he paused at her opening, took a moment to appreciate her gift to him, and pushed into her. He sank about halfway on one firm thrust and then seated himself to the root with a second.

Emily cried out, her hazel eyes wide in surprise as the green flecks glowed in the gaslight.

He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead as she trembled beneath him. “The pain will pass in a moment or two.”

She nodded as her white teeth nibbled on her lower lip, already plump from his kisses.

Still bearing his weight on his arms, he hovered over her until she squirmed beneath him a bit. “Are you well?”

“Oh my,” she said. “I feel so full. I never imagined it would be like this.”

He groaned, lost in the tight clasp of her pussy, the way she looked up at him with wonder and a tiny flicker of desire. Needing to move, he shifted his hips and drew back from her body until just his tip remained. Resisting the urge to thrust deeply, he pushed back inside her on a slow easy glide. With each plunge inside her, he picked up his speed but maintained the smoothness of motion. His arms quivered with his restraint as sweat slicked down his back. All the while he worked in and out of her.

Once her breath changed to panting and she gripped him more securely, both with her core and her hands, he balanced on one elbow and reached between them with his free hand. A few soft strokes over her clit and she came for him. Not as intense as her first orgasm, but under the circumstances, he was pleased she was even able to find a second release.

With his own need driving him, he rose up on his knees for better leverage and grabbed her lushly round arse as he shuttled in and out of her snug heat. Once. Twice. And then he came. His body seized up until his hips jerked haphazardly, as every inch of his skin tingled with pleasure.

And as he withdrew from her sweet clasp, he knew he had to have her again. Once would never be enough, because he greatly suspected the next time would far outstrip the first.

* * *

Cooper walked into the Kilpatricks’ ball accompanied by Stone and Theo; however, he only had one woman on his mind. He deftly surveyed the crowd in search of Lady Emmaline. Her golden-brown hair offered her a certain anonymity in a sea of such similar hair colors, and it was the gleam in her hazel eyes that made her stand out. Finally, he caught a glimpse of her as she walked behind Lady Vardy, her usual chaperone. They appeared to be heading toward the refreshments.

“Stone, may I fetch anything from the refreshments for you and your lady wife?” He did not bother to look at his friend as he tossed the question over his shoulder.

Stone chuckled behind him. “Considering we’ve only just arrived, I can’t imagine either of us being in need of nourishment so soon. But do go about your business. Do not delay on our accounts.”

Ignoring his friends’ laughter, Cooper took off in the direction of his quarry. Perhaps he was being a bit fanciful, but it seemed to him that it had been too long since he last saw Lady Emmaline. Was it only the previous night that he had held her in his arms for the first time? He could not help but admire the straight column of her back as he approached her and her companion.

“Lady Vardy.” He bowed and kissed the woman’s hand. “Lady Emmaline.” He bowed again, repeating the gesture, but this time, he lingered as long as was polite while he stroked the underside of her hand in as intimate a gesture as he could muster under the circumstances.

“Lord Brougham.” Emily turned a fetching shade of pink as she curtsied.

He released her hand and offered a dashing smile—or at least he hoped she found it so. “I have come to claim a dance or two with you.”

“Have you? I don’t recall—” She stopped midthought and glanced at an all-too-interested Lady Vardy.

“What don’t you recall, Lady Emmaline?” Lady Vardy was too earnest in her query for anyone’s comfort.

Emily glanced at him, and he could see the wheels turning as she tried to muster up some plausible answer.

“I’m afraid I’ve caught the lady off guard.” Cooper pressed a hand to his chest as though he were responsible for the confusion. “When last I saw Lady Emmaline, having called on her earlier this week for a friendly visit, I had told her I would not be attending the Kilpatricks’ soiree. But as it turned out, I was able to make it. It seems my unexpected arrival has flustered her.”

Cooper couldn’t resist the urge to tease Emily just a little more. He leaned closer to Lady Vardy and put his hand up as though shielding his next words. “My lady, I believe she may harbor a tendre for me.”

As he had hopped, the matronly woman tittered and smacked his arm with her fan. Emily’s gaze shifted from calculation to shock to outrage. She sputtered for a moment and then snapped her mouth shut, as she must have realized she could neither acknowledge nor deny his claim. If she refused to respond, then Lady Vardy would rightly assume he was being playful.

“May I, Lady Emmaline?” Cooper pointed to her dance card and waited for her to relinquish the small paper with far too many blanks on it.

She did so with relatively good grace, and he promptly picked the two waltzes for his dances. It might have been pushing the socially acceptable boundaries, but he was a Lustful Lord. Appearances had to be maintained where they could.

“Lady Vardy, would you mind if I escorted Lady Emmaline over to meet Lord and Lady Stonemere? They are two of my dearest friends.”

“Of course, you may. I shall be right here when you are finished saying hello.” Lady Vardy indicated a spot out of the way.

“Thank you, my lady.” He scooped up Emily’s hand, tucking it in the crook of his arm, and escorted her over to where his friends stood. After the formal introductions, Cooper turned to Emily. “Lord and Lady Stonemere were only just wed.”

Emmaline smiled. “Felicitations, Lord and Lady Stonemere.”

“Thank you, my lady.” Theo beamed at her husband, and for a moment, jealousy pierced Cooper’s heart. He wanted what his friends had, and strangely, he very much wanted it with the woman standing next to him.

“Lady Stonemere, I believe you and Lady Emmaline share some of the same notions on the independence of women.”

Cooper heard Emily snort softly.

“I wouldn’t wish to bore anyone with such conversation, my lord,” Emily demurred as she glared at him.

Theo leaned in excitedly. “Lady Emmaline, please tell me you have read Wollstonecraft.”

Nonplussed, Emily swung her gaze from Theo to Cooper and then back. “I have, my lady.”

The ladies launched into a discussion of the merits of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, leaving Stone free to ask questions.

“Rather unusual of you to introduce someone to us.”

Cooper could feel his face heating, but did his best to ignore the sensation. “I suspected your wife would find her engaging.”

He refused to say so aloud, but he hoped Theo might be a softening influence on Emily. Show her that married life might not be so repugnant.

Stone’s eyebrows rose in disbelief. “May I suggest you not leave her alone with my wife if you wish her to be less independent? While Theo has settled into marriage, that is not indicative of her willfulness having been curbed.” Stone leaned closer to Cooper and lowered his voice. “She still provides plenty of reasons for me to spank her.”

Cooper chuckled and shook his head.

“Gentlemen, please excuse us for a short while.” Theo hooked her arm in Emily’s, and together, the women sailed off toward the ladies’ retiring room.

Cooper caught the ladies making plans for a visit soon. Despite being content with that arrangement, he couldn’t help but worry that Emily had maneuvered Theo into separating them for a reason.

“Stone, I had best follow after them. Lady Emmaline has a knack for getting into trouble.”

“Trouble?” his friend asked, only slightly surprised.

“Just so. Excuse me.” Cooper nodded and went to hover outside the ladies’ retiring room, using a nearby alcove as an excellent vantage point.

Just as he had suspected, a short time passed before Emily slipped from the room on the heels of a small group of ladies, and she was without Theo. As his little hellion slipped past, he reached out from the alcove and dragged her into the curtained shadows. “And where do you think you are going, my lady?”

“What the devil are you doing?” Emily hissed. “If we were caught in here, I would be ruined!”

“Do cease your nonsense, Emily. You were sneaking off to steal again.” Anger swept through Cooper in an unexpected wave. The woman had no care for herself. Not a one. Someone needed to, and it seemed to be falling to him. “Do not think to lie to me.”

“I do not owe you any explanations, my lord.” Her brows lowered over her sparkling hazel eyes as her mouth flattened to a stern line.

So, she reverted to formality to create distance, did she? He refused to allow her to employ such tactics.

“My lord?”

He took a half step closer to her, closing the little distance he had allowed.

Her gaze darted sharply toward the curtained entrance of the alcove.

“I think not, my little hellion. You appear to have an affinity for living dangerously. I find myself intrigued by such a notion.” He shifted his grip from her forearm to her waist, where he wrapped her up and hauled her against his chest.

Her breath hitched as her gaze drifted down to his lips, which pleased him immensely. No man wished to think he was the sole half affected so strongly by the other.

“I find myself intrigued by you,” he said. And then he captured her lips with his.

She stiffened for a moment, her hands pressed to his chest. But as he slipped his tongue deeper into her mouth to savor her exquisite taste, she melted into him with a soft moan. His cock hardened at the small sound of surrender, and more still as her arms twined around his neck.

Frustrated that she responded so sweetly to his touch but would not trust him with her secrets, he exerted the little dominance he could. Turning slightly, he walked her backward until his hand hit the wall and he could press her up against the support. As they kissed, tongues dueling, hands roaming, he needed more, wanted more.

Determined to show her how thrilling they could be together, he broke their kiss and sank to his knees. “Place your foot on the bench.”

“Cooper?”

Hearing his name spoken as a breathy whisper from her lips sent shivers down his spine. The depth of his need for this woman after only one night shook him to his very core, yet he could not relent, would not relent. “Do as you’re told, Emily.”

He lifted her skirts to help her move her foot as directed, and then he slipped under her skirts and parted her pantalets. Her quim was already wet as he leaned in and licked her. A muffled whimper from above had him worrying, so he retreated for a moment. “You must keep your voice down.”

He saw her nod in the shadows of the alcove and returned to his task. With single-minded focus, he delved past her nether lips and stroked his tongue over the little sensitive nub, then back down to her soaked opening. Another low moan vibrated through her, but not as loud as before. Determined to make her climax, he swirled his tongue over her clit with a relentless rhythm. Then he added two fingers to fill her, and she gasped as her hips bucked.

All the while, her sweet-tart taste teased his tongue and lips, making him desperate for more of her. He continued lapping at her center until a tightly drawn breath forewarned him of her coming orgasm. Her body tensed, and then she came. Her release coated his tongue and fingers as she came apart above him. He pinned her hips to the wall as best he could as she shook. The one leg she stood on started to give out. Steadying her as he backed out from under her skirts, he rose up to face her as she gathered her composure.

Before he could warn her off, she shoved off the wall and into his arms. Pressing her lips to his, she kissed him deeply, her body mashed against his throbbing erection. Then she paused and pulled back slightly. “Is that what…”

“Yes, that is you on my lips. I intended to wipe my mouth before kissing you, but you rather got ahead of me.” He chuckled a little.

She hesitated. “I like the way I taste on your lips. Knowing you brought me such pleasure that way, I find it…arousing.”

And then she swept in and kissed him once more. Suddenly, Cooper realized that if they continued as they were, he was going to impale her on his cock right there in the alcove of the Kilpatricks’ home. He’d already far exceeded his initial intentions—merely to steal a kiss and hopefully stop her from thievery. Pulling away, he said, “You should return to Lady Vardy. She will be worried about you by now.”

It was a bit like pouring a bucket of water on a drunk. The fog of desire cleared, and she stepped back from him, her arms dropping to her sides. “Oh my. How long have I been gone from the ballroom?”

“Not so long it cannot be explained away. But you must return soon.” He glanced down at his own rather obvious issue. “I believe I shall stay here a bit longer, which should help avoid any suspicion.”

Righting her dress and pressing her hands to her heated cheeks, Emily nodded. “Right, then. I suppose I shall see you soon.”

“Without a doubt.” He nodded.

As she opened the curtain and let more light into the space, Cooper caught a glimpse of Emily’s kiss-swollen lips and pink cheeks. Groaning to himself, he swore they were doomed.