love to make love in a carriage. It has been far too long since I…oh, never mind. I am here with you and that is all that matters.”
“Have you no lover then?” Marko murmured. “It seems hardly possible that a woman like you would not.”
“No.”
Marko pulled up the velvet folds of her gown, pushing it back to reveal her bare thighs. “Marvelous stuff, this. As soft as your skin, I suspect.”
And he very much desired to find out just how soft that was.
Severin sighed when his hand settled upon one thigh, curving around it in firm possession. His other hand gripped her waist, keeping her on his lap, her head nestled against his shoulder. “Don’t stop,” she breathed in his ear. “I love to be stroked on the inside of my thighs.”
“Do you now.” He obliged. Her skin there was unbelievably soft, far softer than the luxurious velvet that had hidden it.
Marko traced his fingertips up, feeling first one thigh and then the other, savoring the heated fragrance of an excited woman. No perfume on earth compared to it.
Severin parted her legs to allow him more room. Great Wolf, if she didn’t stop squirming and rubbing all over his lap, he was likely to explode. He didn’t want to touch the sweet, soft flesh between her legs just yet. No, he would save that ultimate intimacy for later.
To have her open to him this much was intensely sensual. That he did not know her added spice to the unexpected encounter. He would need every bit of what was left of his self-control not to move her off his lap and lean her back against the cushions.
“You’ve stopped,” Severin moaned softly in his ear. “Why? I liked what you were doing.”
“And so did I. You are so beautiful, Severin,” he murmured. “And shameless.” His exploring fingers moved just a little higher.
She slipped a hand inside his coat, touching his tight nipples under the linen of his shirt.
Marko drew in his breath. She knew what she wanted—and she knew what men liked.
Her expertise became more evident when she moved her hand over the front of his breeches, rubbing and squeezing the stiff rod trapped within.
She murmured naughty things in his ear. How much she wanted to see what she could guess at was the least of it.
Marko moved her hand to the buttons at one side. “All shall be revealed,” he whispered.
One by one, she undid them, single-handed, with great dexterity. He cared not where she had learned to be so wanton—he only wanted to receive pleasure from her experienced hands.
She dragged her gold-tipped nails over the taut flesh of his groin. The stimulating effect went straight to his cock, which was still trapped beneath the flap of his breeches. She had undone only the buttons on one side.
The pressure was agonizing, although she had moved to the side to help free his eager flesh. Severin settled herself beside him and undid the other buttons.
There. He groaned. His cock rose up of its own accord. She took him in her soft fingers and gently stroked the heated shaft, searching for his mouth with her own, kissing him tenderly.
Marko scarcely knew where he was at that moment. In heaven or about to be, he thought vaguely.
He reached over to cup her breasts within the velvet bodice. Her nipples were erect and easy to feel in his cupped palms.
He squeezed both breasts as gently as she was handling him, following her lead. If, later, she wanted him to be a little rougher, pleasuring her darker needs with love bites and firmer handling, he would do that.
For now, as aroused as he was, it was best to go slowly. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, kissing her lasciviously. He broke off only to breathe. “Severin…I wish I could rip this damned dress to pieces.”
She laughed a little. “But then we would not be able to leave the carriage.”
“Must we leave it?”
“Do you not want to lie with me, Marko?”
He wanted nothing more. At last, by a stroke of luck he would never understand, he had found a woman whose talent for amorous play went beyond his wildest dreams. Consumed by lust though he was, Marko knew that there was far more to Severin than that. He would never get enough of her. In just one night—and the night was far from over—his world had been turned upside down.
Eventually, he answered her question with sensual strokes and loving murmurs. “Yes. Yes.” She responded in kind. He could love her, he thought, befuddled. Surely the intensity of everything he was feeling, even its suddenness, was a sign of that celebrated emotion. They were off to a wonderful start.
Marko trusted his instinctive response. Dimly he remembered Kyril telling him that one just knew when the love of one’s life appeared, because there was nothing else like it. The body echoed the joy of the soul at that moment.
The carriage began to slow and Marko groaned, stiff all over with the aching need he felt for her.
“Where are we?” she asked softly. Severin pulled down her dress and patted her hair, breathless with excitement. “I am not fit to be seen.”
“I disagree.”
She moved away but she shot him a sensual look. It was clear that she was as thrilled as he was by the dizzying progress of their encounter. The odd feeling of déjà vu that had followed his first look into her eyes had been a sign of sorts. Marko was almost convinced that the mysterious Severin could be his one and only.
To join completely with her would naturally come next. He was drunk with new love and just able to keep from declaring the unexpected feeling then and there. He did not really know her. He wanted to, he would, but it would not do to rush that either.
She pushed aside the curtain that covered the small window of the carriage, and looked out.
He noted how her face had changed when the carriage came to a sudden stop. Had the sudden jolt brought her to her senses? Her rosy cheeks paled and the radiance in her eyes vanished. Marko leaned over, wondering if she had seen some swaggering ne’er-do-well who frightened her. The street was empty but it was familiar, at least to him. The driver had brought them to St. James’s Square and the house of the Pack, evidently tired of going in circles.
“Is this where you live?” There was a wary edge in her soft voice.
He thought nothing of her question. There were at least a thousand buildings just like it in the better neighborhoods of London, remarkable only for their anonymity. Which was precisely why the Pack had made it their headquarters—that, and its nearness to the Court of St. James. As well, its thick walls made it ideal for a lair, when they were in the mood for a Howl, the traditional celebration of the Pack, or just a wild party. “At times, Severin. Not always. The driver came here out of habit.”
She only nodded, pushing the curtain back a little more to look far up at the top windows of the house.
Marko sat back and fumbled with his buttons, willing his overexcited cock to soften. In another minute, he managed it.
