Magnus easily recognized that glint of determination in Olivia’s expressive eyes for exactly what it was. Every thought this young woman had, every emotion she felt, was revealed in those violet eyes, and currently, she had decided she was going to make love to him.
While Magnus had no argument with that plan, he first wished to kiss and caress her.
He bent down to place his arms beneath hers to pull her up and onto the couch before, taking most of his weight on his elbows, he lay down between her parted thighs.
She frowned up at him. “I was about to enjoy sucking your cock.”
Magnus chuckled, both at her disgruntled expression and at the candidness of language. “And, knowing you, you will no doubt do exactly as you please before we are finished. But first I want to kiss you.” He lowered his head and claimed her lips with his own, very aware of the way the heat between her thighs was pressing against the hardness of his released cock.
Dear Lord, how hot and succulent her lips and mouth tasted. A feast of heated nectar Magnus reveled in as he kissed her more and more deeply. A heat of desire Olivia returned without a single hesitation.
Magnus had no idea if the soft moans came from Olivia or himself, only that they were becoming increasingly more urgent as their kisses deepened to a devouring hunger where it seemed they couldn’t get close enough to each other.
They couldn’t, because layers of clothes still separated them, his own as well as hers.
Magnus shifted slightly and attempted to shrug out of his jacket as he continued to kiss Olivia. Unfortunately, the garment was tailored so perfectly to his wide shoulders and chest, it refused to move any farther than the tops of his arms, trapping him rather than freeing him.
Olivia, seeing his dilemma, began to giggle.
It was such an unexpected sound from this usually composed and serious young woman that Magnus couldn’t help but smile himself. “I would appreciate,” he finally drawled, “once you have ceased laughing at my predicament, of course, if you would help me off with my jacket?”
“Of course, my lord.” She sat up, but after assisting with the removal of his jacket, she pressed her hand against his chest to push him onto his back on the couch. She then slid down his body until she was on her knees between his parted thighs. “But first I wish to finish what I have already started,” she murmured huskily, the fingers of one hand moving about the girth of his rigidly aroused cock, before she lowered her head to take the flared head into her mouth.
Searing heat.
Overwhelming pleasure.
A laving rasp of a hot tongue.
A nip of teeth.
Creating such an intensity of emotions, they had Magnus’s fingers clawing into the couch beneath him as his body arched so that he could thrust his cock up harder and deeper.
All those feelings and emotions were being given to him by the woman currently sucking his cock into the cavernous heat of her mouth, her tongue licking and lashing his sensitive flesh as her fingers stroked along that length of his cock she wasn’t able to fit into her mouth.
Magnus felt the increase of pre-cum escaping from his cockhead as Olivia’s other hand moved to cup beneath his balls. His pleasure intensified as she began to gently roll and squeeze them in the same rhythm as she sucked his length deeper and deeper into her mouth. The pleasure was so intense, Magnus had no idea how much longer he could continue to hold back his release.
“I am going to come if you continue to do that,” he warned gruffly, never wishing to do anything that might shock or alarm Olivia.
She looked up at him from beneath dark lashes and gave him a nonverbal reply by deliberately sucking his cock even farther into her mouth. So deep the mushroomed top breached and then slid downward into her throat to be squeezed remorselessly by the tightening muscles there.
Magnus gasped as his cum released in spurt after heated spurt down that slender throat. His pleasure intensified as Olivia greedily swallowed every drop until she had drained him dry.
She released him to sit back on her heels and lick her lips. “Delicious.”
Magnus was almost too depleted to move, but finally managed to regain enough strength to reach out and touch the tousled beauty of her hair as several curls fell down onto her shoulders. “My…arousal and release did not frighten or upset you?”
Had Olivia been frightened by the size of Magnus’s aroused cock, his loss of control, and then being privileged to watch as this often distant and severe gentleman came completely undone by releasing into her mouth?
“Absolutely not,” she answered firmly. “Indeed, I cannot wait to do it again.”
His smile was self-derisive. “I am no longer a youth who can produce another cockstand within minutes of coming the first time.” He sat up to straighten his clothing. “Give me an hour or two. In the meantime, I would very much like to taste you.”
By taste her, did he mean…?
Olivia drew in a ragged breath. “I believe I should like that very much.”
Magnus gently turned her so that he could unfasten the buttons at the back of her gown, allowing the silk material to fall down to her waist as he turned her round to face him.
Olivia glanced down to where her red and plump nipples were now visible through the thin material of her chemise. In anticipation of having Magnus’s mouth on them again? No doubt.
“What…?” She broke off with a gasp as Magnus easily lifted her onto her feet to remove her gown altogether, leaving her wearing only a thin chemise and cotton drawers edged with pink ribbon.
Olivia had never felt so exposed.
But not vulnerable, she realized. Instead, she felt empowered as she saw the way in which Magnus’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes had darkened almost to black as he stared at her. There was also, despite what he had said, the return of a noticeable bulge in his breeches.
Between Olivia’s thighs became warm and slick as she returned his increasingly heated gaze, the perfume of her arousal intensifying with each second that passed.
“You are a very beautiful woman.” Magnus finally broke that silence as he reached out to gently run a fingertip down the slope of her breast, the caress across her nipple causing her to give a soft groan as pleasure heated her body. “And so headily responsive,” he admired. “I cannot wait to—” He broke off as a banging sounded on the door back into the main house.
“Olivia!” The sharp hissing of her name was accompanied by a rattling of the handle of the locked door. “Olivia, if you are in there, and the flickering candle says you might be, then you need to come back to the main rooms as quickly as possible,” Cecelia continued frantically. “Mama is aware that both you and the admiral have been missing for some time, and she is now looking for you. Both of you,” she warned. “I shall go back and try to distract her, but you really must return. I should advise you to do so separately,” she added softly.
This last was followed by a silence indicative of Cecelia having done as she had said and returned to distract her mother.
Olivia had felt the color drain from her cheeks the moment she recognized Cecelia’s voice. She had no doubt become even paler when her friend warned that Franny Fitzgerald was looking for her. For both her and the admiral. Because the older woman had guessed that wherever they were, the two of them were together?
Olivia could no longer even look at Magnus as she bent to pull her gown up her body so that she could slip her arms back into the capped sleeves and cover herself, even if she couldn’t refasten the buttons.
She held the front of the gown to her as she finally dared a glance at Magnus.
He remained seated on the couch, his expression no longer one of passion and admiration as he instead looked at her with unreadable blue eyes.
Olivia immediately hated that she no longer knew what Magnus was thinking or feeling, when seconds ago, he had been as openly aroused as she was, their lust for each other unmistakably heavy in the air around them.
But there was no time to regret the loss of that intimacy when her aunt was looking for them. “We must, as Cecelia advised, return to the main salon separately. Perhaps we might meet again tomorrow…” A brief glance at the harshness of Magnus’s features brought a halt to that suggestion. “Or not,” she accepted dully.
In the past few seconds, she had become more and more aware that Magnus hadn’t spoken a word since Cecelia warned them Franny was searching for them.
Because he was displeased at the interruption to their lovemaking?
Or, a more likely explanation, because he was angry at the thought that the two of them might have been caught together in a compromising position.
Did he think she was like her aunt after all?
That she had deliberately set out to entrap—
No, that surely could not be the case.
Magnus had been the one to invite her to dance privately in the gallery with him, and then to venture alone with him into the conservatory.
If anyone should be angry at the thought of being compromised, it was Olivia.
Except she couldn’t quite bring herself to feel that way. How could she, when she didn’t regret a single moment of the two of them being alone together. Not the dancing or the lovemaking that followed.
“Either way, as I cannot reach them, I need you to refasten the buttons on my gown,” she continued briskly at Magnus’s continued silence. “If my aunt questions me as to where I have been, I shall simply tell her I was feeling unwell and went for a walk in the portrait gallery to clear my head,” she dismissed. “Part of which is true. I shall leave you to think of a similar excuse to tell the governor—”
“Olivia.”
“—but I should have thought the same excuse would suffice as long as you do not say you were also clearing your head in the portrait gallery—”
“Olivia.”
“Yes?” she prompted sharply after he said her name more firmly the second time.
He rose to his feet, once again towering over her as he pulled on his jacket far more briskly than he had removed it earlier. “As I am a man grown, I shall not be making any excuse to the governor for my having been absent for over an hour.”
Olivia felt stung by the harshness of his tone. “Of course not.”
Magnus nodded. “The two of us will, as you suggest, meet again tomorrow to discuss what we should do next.”
Olivia gave him a searching glance, but could still read nothing of Magnus’s thoughts or feelings from his stony expression and the coldness of his blue eyes. “I suggested the two of us meet again tomorrow, but I do not recall saying it was so that we could discuss anything,” she felt stung into denying.
Magnus gave a hard smile. “Nevertheless, the two of us do need to talk again before I leave the island. I suggest, with your agreement, that I call upon you at your aunt and uncle’s home late tomorrow morning.”
Olivia felt an inner, pained twinge at this reminder Magnus would be leaving the island soon, after which she would never see him again. They hadn’t met in London before now, and Olivia could see no reason, with Magnus at sea for the majority of time, for that ever to change.
She grimaced. “Very well, if you insist.”
“I do.”
She gave a brief nod and one last futile searching glance at his visage for the lover of a few minutes ago in this cold and distant man. Not finding him, she turned away to move some foliage aside so that she could use one of the conservatory windows to straighten and reapply the pins in her hair. It didn’t look as neat as it had when she arrived here earlier tonight, but it would have to do. Magnus refastened the back of her gown.
She turned to face him. “I will say good night, my lord.” She turned with a swish of the skirt of her gown, hurrying to the door before unlocking it and escaping into the dimly lit gallery.
Hoping she would find her aunt before Franny Fitzgerald found her.