Duplicity Ch. 06

Why didn't he want her?!

The touch of her own fingers on a tender nipples sent a ripple of shivers down her spine. She remembered clearly how his mouth and tongue felt when he suckled her... how he's knead both breasts and squeezed them together to lap and suckle on one then the other. God, how he seemed to enjoy straddling her chest to slide his turgent member between them... Evelyn choked back a strangled moan that would certainly have woken her maid. She bit down on her curled fingers while her other hand felt her own heat and wetness flowing between her legs.

Oh God! Her fingers were coated with her own wetness! The very same wetness he insisted on lapping at just before he rose over her and stuffed her till she nearly couldn't breath. Her own fingers were simply unsatisfying by comparison even as she urgently pumped them in and out to mimic his movements. The best thing she could compare this feeling to was a fall she took as a child. The scab on her knee itched so badly beneath it's bandage but yet she couldn't scratch at it. So she scratched around it. Somehow she found some relief and made the itch worse all at once. Only this was ten times worse!

Evelyn buried her face in her pillow and screamed in frustration as she writhed on the bed. Then she glanced around the room wildly. For some reason a statue on the mantle caught her eyes. It was from the orient and carved from ivory of a exaggerated figure with a doomed head and flowing robes. It was the right height and width... as him!

"I couldn't! " Evelyn chided herself at the ludacris thought. She fell back on the bed once more. Her hand returned to her hot, gushing gash. The ache, the itch was unbearable and drove her out of her mind. She rolled over to look at the statue again, then shut her eyes as she recalled how hot, smooth and so very hard he was when he urged her to wrap her little hands around him and stroke his length. For some inexplicable reason her mouth watered to see the purplish, angry head of the thing and smell how distinctly masculine he was. Whenever he left her bed, Evelyn always buried her face and nose where his body touch to catch just another whiff of his distinct aroma.

"He's enslaved me," she realized with acceptance. "My body needs him as much as it needs food and water to exist."

She must have slept for she woke with a jerk several times. Her mind must have imagined hearing a familiar tread at her door. For once, the house made no sound at all. She was met with just a deafening, taunting silence.

*******************

"What is this?" Evelyn asked.

She barely took two steps into the portico of Keswick Hall before she stopped short at the sight of Lord Davenport, staring up at the clear morning sky. Beside him stood a smart little chaise carriage, harnessed to a magnificent black stallion. He was clean-shaven and appeared more well-rested than Evelyn.

He smiled a thin, cheerful smile and gestured to the carriage. "Will this do, or would you be more comfortable in the barouche?"

"Where-where am I going?" she asked with growing excitement. It was a pleasant day for a drive. She had yet to venture further than the grounds of the estate.

"I thought you and I could have a brief holiday by the sea," he said. "I thought I'd drive us in the chaise. I had a small bag packed and loaded for you. We won't be gone too long. Just a night or two. What say you, wife?"

Just the two of them! Evelyn felt too giddy and terrified for words as she climbed on board. Thrilled that he wanted to be alone with her, but terrified by what mood she might find him.

"You're very quiet," he shouted over the sound of the rumbling carriage after they've traveled for awhile.

"I can't think of a thing to say," she replied honestly. "You were in such a humor last night. So different from you are now. I guess I'm simply trying to guess what you are thinking, my lord."

He appeared not to hear her and they drove on for a distance. "I suppose I must seem awfully strange to you. We're separated by what, over a decade in age? You're new to the ways of the world and I suppose I've grown accustomed to being a jaded old bachelor."

At his calling himself old, Evelyn smiled broadly. "I'd hardly call you old, though jaded is fitting to describe you."

He briefly glanced at her with a slight crooked grin of his own, before returning his attention to the road again. "Is that all you think of me then... if you think of me at all?"

Was he flirting with her? Evelyn wondered as she glance over at his regal profile. Once glance at that heavy brow, straight nose that was almost too long and strong jawline was enough to send her heart aflutter. In Evelyn's mind she saw herself moving closer to him in the small chaise and place her gloved hand in the crook of his bulging bicep that strained the seam of his jacket sleeve. She could even image how his arm would feel, so light and strong. She did not move though. Instead she kept her hands folded neatly in her lap and swayed to the rhythm of the carriage. Not even when he turned slightly to cock a inquisitive brow at her, could she utter the words that hung on her silent quivering lips.

"From your silence I gauge you haven't formed a very favorable opinion. I suppose I desire it," he said.

"No!"

He smiled his crooked smile with his eyes fixed on the galloping horse pulling them and the road ahead. "But perhaps I can change those earlier impressions of me. Perhaps, in time, we may become friends even."

"Friends-? I'm your wife-"

"Ah but marriages where the husband and wife share friendship and trust is best, don't you think?"

"True friendship can only exist between equals," Evelyn replied with her brows furrowed in confusion. "I don't think such equality can exist between a husband and his wife."

Lord Davenport's upper lips curled into a slight smirk. "Why ever not? Haven't you learned that our lot may do as we wish. We set the example that others follow."

"And you wish us to be friends?" she asked, carefully. "And how should a husband and wife, as friends, behave?"

He ducked his face towards her to dragged his admiring gaze brazenly from her thighs up her breasts. "However you like," he said invitingly before turning back to the road again.

Evelyn grew thoughtful as she gazed out into the passing countryside. "Then you will be indulgent after all?"

He arched a brow to be reminded of his own words. "I made that oath before I knew what it was to have a wife. So far you've not asked a single thing of me. Not a single new frock. No complaints of my being away from you as often as I am. I'd like you to freely express yourself your needs and desires to me -"

"Then I desire to seek out the woman who was- is, my mother!"

Lord Davenport stiffened beside her and audibly sucked in a deep breath. "Why now?" he asked, sternly. "Why do this now?"

"I've tried for several years to convince Edward to help me. There are certain places I cannot go alone. Certain avenues I can't pursue. But with you help now-"

He cast another sideways glance at her, to where her hands were clasped in her lap. "Evelyn for more reasons than I can enumerated I can't allow it. Please trust me."

"I see. Are we still to be friends then? Or are you once more my lord and master?"

He cursed under his breathe, but his tone remained calm, reasonable. "I will always be your husband and protector if I think you'll come to harm."

"You do not trust that I wouldn't harm myself," she replied with equal calm. "Because you question the soundness of my judgement."

"Need I remind you what your judgement nearly cost you?" he shouted over the rumbling of the carriage wheels.

"Then why would you propose we'd be equals?" she asked. "You'd never adhere to it. And I don't believe Lord Davenport would ever stand for his veracity to be questioned."

That made his lips tightened. "I was proposing an amity-!" He blew out his cheeks, exacerbated. Instead of becoming angry as Evelyn expected, he actually chuckled and shook his head. "You're simply impossible to please aren't you? You don't like being complimented. You won't accept friendship. I've even had my banker bring you my family jewels and you've sent them all right back-

"My lord, it was most generous of you-"

Finally he was vexed. "Its not generosity, my wife! Those belong to the women of my family and now yours by virtue of our marriage. Keep them, throw them away. I care not!"

Evelyn quietly observed his side profile as he fumed in silence. She finally placed a delicate gloved hand on his arm to console him. "Please- don't be upset. I don't want to anger you. I only thought such precious things- maybe in a few years-"

"What shall I do huh?" He barked the questions at the trees they were driving past. "How can I please you? Tell me? - Oh! Right! That one thing I can't consent to!"

"No my lord, I won't ask again," Evelyn assured him, soothingly with a small shake of her head. She chewed on her lower lip a bit. "I won't question your reasons for it for I'm sure you have very good ones. I will only thank you for what you have granted me. My friendship with Lady Ann. I've written to her and invited her to visit. So, beyond that I can think of nothing I want. I desire nothing at all-!"

He pulled the carriage to the side of the road and pulled in the reins for the horse to stop. Before Evelyn could grasp what he had done, he had her around the waist and pulled her sharply against him for a deep, lingering kiss. His tongue couldn't be satisfied as he drank her in. One hand wrapped around her back. The other gripped her head for better access. Her own small hands could only clutch at his jacket lapels.

"Not even me?" he asked huskily when he pulled his lips away. The hand on the back of her head grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged her slightly. "Hmm?"

"I-!" she squeaked. Her heart pounded loudly and she couldn't take her heated, tormented gaze off his sensuously curved lips, red and glistening from their kiss.

"I want your desires to be for me!" His penetrating gaze pierced her soul! His warm breath, richly timbered voice washed over her and took her will. Evelyn was left with her thighs soaked through and through. "I want it all to be for me!"

To be continued...