AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hades...could only be a woman.
“Do you know that you’ve made a liar out of me, princesa?”
“A liar?” Manuela gulped, as she fisted the frothy fabric of her dress to keep from reaching out.
Cora nodded, leaning close enough to slide slender fingers down Manuela’s face, her neck, her chest. “I’ve spent the last ten years ensuring that my work and my desires never cross. I have striven to harden myself to anything that could veer me off the path I set for myself. I was convinced I’d achieved it.” She gave a sardonic laugh at that bit and pressed in so close that their faces were merely inches apart. “And you,” she breathed out, her fingers curving around Manuela’s chin, the side of one rubbing delicious circles on her skin. “You, Manuela, have dropped into my life like a cyclone, and I have not known peace since.” She whimpered, she couldn’t help it. “These lips.” Cora ghosted her mouth over Manuela’s as she spoke, making her tremble. “I dream of kissing them, of licking inside. I dream of watching them slide down my body. Of watching you taste me.”
“Ah...” The choked gasp escaped her lips, and Manuela had to bite her tongue to keep from moaning.
“Your neck,” Cora’s hand drifted down, the tip of her nail softly scoring Manuela’s sensitive skin, “I want to bite into it, suckle that soft, velvety skin until I leave you marked with my hunger.” Manuela pressed her feet onto the floor of the carriage, as she fought for purchase. “I’ve lain awake at night wondering what it would be like to bury my face between your breasts. Lash my tongue over your nipples and watch them tighten. Suckle them until I hear you cry out for me.” Both her hands were there now, grazing softly over Manuela’s décolletage, cupping the underside of her breasts until they were lifted high enough Cora had only but to lower her face a fraction of an inch and she could take one in her mouth.
“Please,” Manuela begged, a shaky puff of air escaping her lips. Cora made atsksound, her firm, gloved fingers sliding down Manuela’s bodice to her waist. She gripped her for a moment and then continued her journey south until her hands were at the juncture of her thighs. A low, appreciative sound came out of the duchess as her thumbs caressed Manuela.
“This is the prize for all those sleepless nights,” she whispered, her mouth against Manuela’s ear. “This is where I plan to spend an age, tasting, nibbling, suckling... Has anyone done that to you?”
Manuela’s body went molten, her thoughts sluggish from arousal. “No,” she confessed, feeling shy and terribly inexperienced at that moment. She knew about this kind of caress, had read about it, even seen art depicting it.
She’d never done it, but she’d dreamed of it. Spent hours touching herself as she fantasized about how it would feel for a tongue to explore such a secret, private place. “But I want it,” she rushed to confess, beyond pride.
“Mm, I promise to make it good for you. Perhaps I’ll start right here,” Cora’s index finger was now making circles over that place that throbbed with need. “Do you ever touch yourself there? Slide your fingers inside and relieve that throbbing ache?”
She did. She had, many times in the past two weeks, thinking about Cora. Wishing it were the pads of her fingers rubbing that perfect spot, that it was this woman’s making her fall apart.
“I’ve done it thinking about you.”
The groan that escaped Cora’s throat was pure sin. Something hot and starved unfurled in Manuela in response to it. The duchess leaned back and shot her another of those sultry looks. “Do you still think I don’t want you?” Manuela shook her head, ready to come out of her skin.
“Good,” Cora said approvingly, leaning further away, eyes heavily lidded. She seemed remarkably calm, while Manuela shook like a leaf. It was impossible to say anything coherent in that moment, so she decided to watch the other woman. She noticed that though the duchess might appear in control at first glance, when she slid a hand over her lapel it shook, just a little. That there was a tightness in her jaw indicating she might also be struggling with maintaining control. When she spoke, she was looking out the window. “I intend to carry out every single one of the things I just promised to you the moment I get you behind closed doors.”
“That’s exactly what I hoped for,” Manuela whispered, without hesitation into the semidarkness as lust crawled deep in her bones and a frantic sort of greed enveloped her. She wanted to pounce on this woman, sit astride her lap, make her as disheveled and undone on the outside as she made Manuela feel on the inside. She was imagining herself ripping every button on Cora’s shirt and kissing every inch of skin she exposed when Cora spoke again.
“There is the matter of our arrangement. Whatever happens tonight won’t change what we agreed on.”
In the recesses of her brain where rational thinking still occurred, the wordarrangementseemed to register, and Manuela nodded. “Nothing will change.”
She had signed that contract, and she intended to honor it, but she understood what Cora was truly saying. There was no future for them, nothing beyond what they could have in the next few weeks. And Manuela would take it. This was what she’d been looking for after all, something impersonal and fleeting, nothing more. She’d already sold hermorein exchange for never risking being left with nothing again.
But tonight, in the Duchess of Sundridge’s bed, she intended to have absolutely everything.
Fifteen
“Send a tray ofrefreshments to my sitting room, Laurent.” Cora had barely managed to get her coat and hat off before pressing a hand to Manuela’s lower back and practically running into the house. “And tell Juliette that I won’t need her tonight. I am not to be disturbed until I call for breakfast.”
“Of course,” the stoic man said, as if this wasn’t the first time she’d ever brought a woman home in the decade they’d been in Paris.
“This way.” Cora ushered a quiet Manuela to her rooms. She’d been subdued in the last few minutes of the ride, but now she was very alert, looking around the room with open curiosity.
“Is that Celia Castro’s work?” she asked, demanding Cora’s attention as they made their way down the hallway leading to her rooms.
Cora stopped, smiling at Manuela’s weakness for a pretty painting. Even when the urgency to get this woman into her bed was practically propelling her across the house, she was charmed. Manuela didn’t just appreciate art, she was fueled by it. There wasn’t a painting or a sculpture, she didn’t give her full attention once she was in front of it. Even at the Rapp Gallery when she’d been so disappointed by their treatment of her work, she’d patiently perused every piece with Cora. Made observations, answered questions. Manuela was irreverent in almost every way, but she had deep respect for artists and their work. Cora, in turn, respected that quality in her.
“Her shadow work is truly exquisite.”
“Sweetheart,” Cora whispered, before leaning in to kiss the bare apple of her shoulder, “I cannot overstate how enticing I find your passion for art.” She let her tongue flick over the place she’d kissed, eliciting a delicious shiver from Manuela. The reaction made Cora’s own body respond intensely. Her hands shook with the need to touch more. “But right now, you cannot expect me to reasonably carry any conversation that doesn’t involve the quickest way to get you out of all these clothes.” There was a giggle and then a sweet little moan when Cora nibbled softly on that beautiful brown skin.
“Won’t someone catch us?” Manuela asked, not quite concealing her eagerness, as she offered more of her neck for Cora to kiss.
“We won’t see another human until I call for them,” Cora assured her, before lowering her mouth to the pulse point at the base of Manuela’s throat and sliding her tongue over the dip there. “In fact, I could undress you right here in this hallway, and no one would know.”
