“Indeed, I did! Much to my cousins’ dismay, though.” She laughed. “But was it my fault that their horses weren’t as fast as mine?”
Mirth made Reinier purse his lips as he, again briefly, locked gazes with Connor. He, too, was smiling mischievously. They had caught her unawares with that.
Now Connor leaned forward and breathed into her ear, “You had a horse?”
Her laughter died as abruptly as it had erupted. She blushed and her eyes widened, realizing she had been caught red-handed. Reinier felt smug. He enjoyed playing with her as much as Connor did.
Quickly regaining her composure, she came up with another facet to her story. “Of course not. I only helped the groom so often that he let me secretly ride a horse when the masters weren’t home.”
At the indignant glare Connor received along with her words, his eyes dilated. Reinier was sure that never in Connor’s life had reproach been that arousing for him.
“You were grooming horses when you didn’t work in your masters’ household?” Reinier took one of her elegant, slim hands into his. His eyes flicked to Connor’s. Receiving Connor’s minuscule nod, Reinier brought her hand up to his mouth.
Connor’s caress on her upper arms changed, slowing and softening to a light touch up and down her arms.
Reinier kissed her palm, a palm that was not flawed by calluses and old scars from blisters as a maid’s would have been. He decided to let it go. She must have her reasons for this. Besides, they had said quite enough.
Feeling the slight tremble of her hand under his lips, Reinier looked up at her. He slowly guided her hand in his to his abdomen and placed it there, letting her feel his body through his garments.
Connor’s fingers brushed her hair from one ear. She shivered when he brought his lips close. Leaning forward, Reinier mirrored Connor’s caress at the other side of her neck. Their lips whispered over her skin, raining featherlight kisses, lavishing gentle nibbles.
Her fingers on Reinier’s abdomen twitched, betraying her arousal. Not only that, her skin was already so sensitized, it rippled beneath his lips. Her head fell back a little and she gradually began to subtly move against them.
She was a highly sensual creature. Despite her obvious shyness, this was very promising.
A particularly precious aroma filled Reinier’s lungs and made his head light—the faint nuance of delicate white roses surrounded by a deeper note of sweet sandalwood, Connor’s natural fragrance. Reinier knew it so well by now, and still it did not fail to pique his arousal. The spice in the air mingled with his own darker scent and was accentuated by her feminine musk, growing and wrapping itself around them all.
As if that had been their cue, both he and Connor parted their lips. Their tongues wet the silken skin of her long, elegant neck. Again, she shivered. Then she sighed.
Never ceasing his attentions on her neck, Reinier knew Connor’s hands wandered down her sides to play with the little ribbon that held her gown together. The gown slipped down her shoulders as Connor nudged it off her arms and parted it to reveal her upper body to them. Obeying the slight pull, her arms fell to her sides and the fabric came off.
Reinier drew back just long enough to see her sensitive peaks harden, pleading for attention. He cupped her chin to gently urge her head back a little more now that Connor’s nibbling and caressing lips wandered down her shoulder. Subtly moving closer, Reinier spread his fingers over her delicate neck; then they wandered lightly down to the top part of her breasts.
Cupping one of them, he gently squeezed it. Connor’s hand came up to cup her other breast. His thumb toyed with the hard peak in his hand; Reinier could feel it, because the back of Connor’s hand brushed against his chest at the same time.
When Reinier’s lips found the frantically beating pulse at the base of her neck, he opened his mouth a little more and waited for another blissful gasp from her. As soon as it came, he gently bit into the satiny, frail skin.
She jumped at the erotic assault and bowed to allow them both better access to her body. Her body’s subtle movements against them became more urgent. She was restless. Her other hand grabbed the bedcover, but before she could ball it into a fist, Reinier snatched it and guided it to the buttons of his shirt.
“Undress me,” he whispered against her skin and helped her with the first button, noticing that Connor was busying himself opening the laces of her corset at her back. It slipped away just as Reinier’s shirt fell open far enough that he could shed it.
The garment hadn’t even touched the floor when Reinier’s lips found her skin again and his hand found hers. He guided her to him just like before, making her touch him. She complied, but when her fingertips brushed his breeches’ seam, she stiffened. At the sudden change in her, Connor’s head snapped up.
To be honest, Reinier was gradually growing a bit weary of her highly improper decency. He rolled his eyes with mild impatience at Connor, who bit his lower lip as if struggling to ban his obvious mirth from erupting in an audible chuckle.
Reinier resigned with an inward sigh. If this was going too fast for her, they’d do it another way. Capturing her earlobe between his lips, Connor’s hands came round her waist again and wandered up her front until he reached her breasts. He squeezed them just enough so that they stood up, begging Reinier for a lick, a taste…
Mouth closing fully over one puckered flower, Reinier suckled her until the erect pebble was right between his teeth and he could gently nip at it. His effort was not in vain. His reward was her honeysweet gasp full of want. Another shiver shook her, this time more intense than before. She threw her head back against Connor and Reinier took advantage of her distraction, quickly opening the lace that held her undergarment. He locked his fingers into its seam, and while Connor lifted her up a little, Reinier rid her of the last piece of cloth shielding the rest of her body from their seduction.
She blanched briefly at being fully exposed to them now, but Reinier paid that no mind. She’d blush with hunger in a moment, sigh and moan and beg for more. He knew it.
Connor laid her back onto the end of the bed but left them, crawling farther up and, leaning against the headboard, watched their performance. Looming over her, Reinier let his lips draw a path of wet kisses and mild nibbles down her body. Bracing himself against the bed with one arm, his other found her thighs and nudged them apart for his exploration. At his touch a ragged sigh escaped her throat. Instantly, her hips were rolling in a slow rhythm as old as time.
Connor’s eyes were sweeping over them both, lingering here and there. Reinier could feel it. The heat in the Irishman’s gaze provoked ripples of gooseflesh running over Reinier’s skin and his nostrils flared. He could smell her syrupy musk, intense but not quite ready for the taking. Lust exploded in his mind. Anticipation sizzled through his veins.
Just as he was about to let his tongue flick over the hollow where her neck met her shoulders, he saw her balling her hands into the bedcover. Reinier’s eyes narrowed. This would not do.
His hand wandered over her thigh and up to her lower belly just above her mons. He heard Connor’s low, appreciative rumble. He was watching as Reinier let his index and middle fingers draw a luscious path down to her warm, welcoming heat.
At first, she moaned low as Reinier let his fingers play over her, caressing her, spreading her. Then her body heaved off the bed as his fingers found her erect nub. He circled it, then concentrated on
