Nicholas' Bargain Ch. 05

'I thank you,' Nicholas returned. It earned him a glare.

Seeing it, Nicholas said after a pause, 'And you look a delight. That colour favours you. I will have more gowns made in that hue.'

Smoothing a hand over the pale green silk, Lara said, 'You have been most generous already, my lord – I have more gowns than I have places to wear them.'

'It is rather tight about my bosom – did you notice, my lord?' Lara pushed her chest into his hard forearm in emphasis but Nicholas merely stiffened at the query and gesture, glancing about them to test whether she had been overheard.

'Oh, for goodness sake! Why are you acting so...so...careful?'

'I am doing right by you,' Nicholas said stiffly. 'I am courting you.'

Lara stopped mid-stride and urged him to face her. 'You are courting me as any man would – a proper, uptight one at that. That is now what or who you are. Court me how you truly wish to, Nicholas,' Lara whispered, rubbing at his chest.

Fever-bright eyes looked down at her, at the glossy dark waves of hair swept off the delicate neck, at the beseeching eyes, the generous lips.

'It is not easy for me,' he said then, his tones hoarse. 'You try my vows to do good by you.'

'Doing good by me would be appeasing this ache I have had ever since I left your bed,' Lara pointed out.

Looking quite scandalised at the statement, Nicholas said huskily, 'You are becoming a saucy minx.'

'Do you disapprove?' Lara asked on a smile, curving a hand over his shoulder, uncaring they could be seen by all and sundry.

'Nay,' he muttered in low tones.

*

'What are you doing?'

'Courting you the only way I know,' Nicholas' grin was feral.

Lara watched him warily as he dropped to his knees in the carriage, his head level with her lap. Sliding a hand under her dress, he snatched off her undergarments and shoes, leaving on her pale blue garters. Shoving the length of her skirt up, he demanded that she hold it and spread her legs wide, pushing insistently until her pink woman's flesh was exposed.

Before thoughts of public decency could slip from her mouth, Nicholas was tonguing at her slit just as the carriage took off smoothly.

Pressing her lips together to stifle a moan, Lara watched Nicholas' black head between her thighs through hot eyes, the sight bringing forth a fresh surge of wetness and then she was dragging a hand through his soft hair, curving it around his head, pulling him hard into her mound as Nicholas closed his lips around her hungrily, suckling on the lips of her sex with a hard pressure, eating away at her.

Lara moaned as he moved her legs off the seat and onto his back. Arching on the seat, the soft velvet under her bare buttocks making her squirm, Lara pleaded with him to continue, to stop, to never stop, to lick her harder.

Closing his teeth around the tinging, hard bud jutting out and visible through the dark curls guarding her cunny, Nicholas nipped at her and Lara dug her fingers hard into his scalp, vaguely aware that she must be hurting him with the viciousness of the grip but uncaring either way – and she felt the tight, unbearable pressure in her stomach build and any shame she may have had at being so bold was an ancient thing as she circled her mound, forcing his mouth to follow the gyrations of her pelvis as she used him shamelessly to pleasure her.

Crying out in frustration as he pulled his mouth away, Lara rose up on her elbows, her legs dangling over his shoulders, and looked down at him. His mouth and chin shining with his wetness, Nicholas held her eyes as he stroked her tender folds with massaging fingers before plunging first one and then two fingers into her tightness with an abruptness that stunned her, the forceful invasion at odds with his melting look.

'I want you well prepared for me when my tongue fucks you,' he told her as his two fingers stroked her inner walls before widening within her, holding her open.

His eyes dropped then and softened as they admired the open, pulsing hole and with a final look up at her, her swopped down and thrust his tongue into her hole, pushing it in as far as he could, tasting her with greedy licks. Holding onto the head of the seat, Lara rode his face hard as she came in his mouth.

*

Turning towards the boneless figure nestled under his chin, Nicholas stroked a soft curl. 'And now I must leave you here,' he complained as the carriage came to a stop.

'It is the way of things,' Lara sighed, pressing a quick kiss to his jaw.

Nicholas laughed. 'You ride my face like a shameless wench and then act the shy virgin. You ever bemuse me, my love. Leave now with the feel of me still between my thighs to remember me by before I forget my will and take you from here.'

'Will you come again before the wedding?' Lara asked, reluctantly straightening herself before she left the conveyance.

'Nay. I have things to attend to. Do not look so bereft,' he chided. 'I wish for things to be...perfect for you.'

Lara shook her head, reaching for his hand. 'I do not wish for anything grand.'

'This is the tradition of your people,' Nicholas paused and looked down at their clasped hands. 'Nothing will be too grand for you.'

'Suddenly it all seems foolish – I am already yours.'

Nicholas stared at her unblinkingly before uttering, 'If we are to live a while in this place...then appearances are necessary.'

'But you hate it here,' Lara said shakily.

'I do not stay for the scenery,' Nicholas quipped dryly. 'I have decided...you will birth my offspring – we shall stay. For as long as it pleases you.'

Nicholas felt the pleasure and happiness emanating from the warm body beside him like it was a physical thing and he felt the impact of it – he felt lighter, more energised at the knowledge of her elation.

'Go now,' he said softly and as she would speak he placed a ceasing finger to her soft lips. 'You are already my bride in my lord's eyes – on Monday, you shall be my bride in God's eyes.'

He watched her climb the stone steps to the townhouse she shared with her kin and when she paused and turned, the purity of her profile and the contented smile on her face gave him a measure of satisfaction and completeness he had never before known. It was a difficult thing to allow her to leave, to allow her to separate herself from him now that they were bonded and so, with hard won will, he bade his driver to leave.

*