Duplicity Ch. 05

"Then I beg of you, sir, if you despise me so much, tear up that marriage contract and set me free! I will tell his Majesty that you found me wanting. I don't care. Don't subject both of us to a lifetime of misery. Please--!" A sharp hiccup caught Evelyn's throat cut her off in mid-rant and she covered her face, unable to continue. She won't cry in front of him! She simply mustn't! Yet hot, angry, frustrated tears welled up in her eyes and leaked through her fingers.

Philip clenched his fists at the tightness in his chest to see her misery. No gentleman could remain cold and impervious to a woman's tears, and it certainly had it's affects on Lord Davenport.

"I--I don't despise you," he objected softly as he came around the table and took several, measured strides towards her. When she shrank away and refused to look at him, he took her hands from her face and tilted her chin up to brush away her tears with his finger tips. "Forgive me, Evelyn. It's late and I'm ill tempered. This has been a most trying day--- . It's not my intention to make you unhappy. It's just... you wouldn't understand..."

"But I think I do!" she said with trembling lips.

Evelyn tried to hold onto her hurt and anger with everything she had. One look at his handsome face though, she felt it all melt away. Lord Davenport loomed protectively over her as he cupped her face in both hands. His expression was kind and compassionate for once, without a trace of his usual arrogance. With one hand brushing back her hair, the other still cupped around her face, he splayed his long fingers over her left cheek and he slowly rubbed her chin and lips with his thumb so very gently and seductively. His eyes, so hypnotically light suddenly grew darker as he followed the movement of his thumb over the curve of her lips.

"You confound me sir," she murmured in a raspy, dreamy voice against the caress of his thumb. "I suppose I'm only starting to come understand your lot. The aristocracy is exacted to be an example of righteousness and virtue, or so I was taught, but instead I sense hypocrisy everywhere! Perhaps if I were stronger, wiser, if I have any reason left in me at all, I would leave this place and go far, far...."

Out in the hall, Philip felt himself die inside as he watched Evelyn close her eyes and ever so slightly turn her face into Lord Davenport's caress and rubbed her cheek against his palm. It was a gesture that told Philip all he needed to know. Whatever hope Philip for Lady Evelyn just a moment ago, he saw on her face, in the way her whole body seemed electrified at Lord Davenport's touch, that he might well long for the moon instead. There was nothing more for Philip to see, to hear. He retreated from the door and silently, sadly went back down the corridor to his bedchamber once more.

Neither Lord Davenport nor Lady Evelyn noticed they had an audience, so lost they were in each other.

"Go back to bed!" Lord Davenport croaked in a thick and husky voice, even as he dropped his forehead down against hers, while still caressing her face. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth like a man in pain. "Do as I say-- for your own sake!"

Evelyn's breath grew ragged to hear the strain in his voice. She knew what it meant now and her heart suddenly skip a beat. A familiar chill ran deliciously down her spine even as her core burst into a hot, liquid flame.

"God forgive me, but I can't! I shan't!" she cried from deep within her heart. Before the last words left her lips, he pulled her roughly to him and pressed an urgent kiss against her lips.

The world melted away. There was no sound. There was no floor beneath her feet. All that existed were his lips... his tongue, hot and fervent, seeking out hers. Evelyn clung to his broad, muscular shoulders forcing him closer in her youthful greedy lust. She yelped a little when he suddenly picked her up. Her legs instinctively wrap around him waist. He walked the short distance to the enormous table and laid her gently down on top of it. Documents crinkles beneath them and a pot of ink fell and shattered on the floor. Neither of them noticed.

This was quite different from her dream, Evelyn thought wildly as his hands made their discovery of her body again. There was no gentleness, no teasing! He didn't hesitate to untie the ribbon of her nightdress and drew back the fabric to reveal her neck, shoulder and breasts. Hungerly he grabbed handfuls of her milky white, supple breasts and fed them to his eager mouth. Evelyn's eyes rolled back in her head and barely noticed when he climbed up on the table over her. He didn't simply kiss her, he devoured her!

"Do you remember that night in the carriage?" he murmured hotly against her burning skin as his hands pulled up the hem of her gown to reveal her naked thighs. "Do you remember how I touched you down here?"

Evelyn gasped out loud and jackknifed against him when he found her sex! "I cannot forget that evening, my lord," she moaned as she did her best to swallow her suddenly watering mouth. "I couldn't forget as hard as I tried... every moment... of every day!"

His fingers combed through her coarse and wiry pelt to make its way towards her slick, hot center. He slipped two fingers into her narrow, tight passage while kneading her with the heel of his palm so expertly that soon Evelyn was writhing and bucking against him. Her head rolled back and banged against the desk, but she was beyond caring. Nothing could soothe the ache in her save for his hand!

"I was wrong again," he said with a twitch of his lips. "I see I am to be the first, my lady."

"This isn't proper!" she gasped, regaining her senses momentarily. She lost herself again when he bent over her to lick, and suck a little pert pink nipple into his mouth. "W-we're not married yet!"

"What does it matter if it happens now or in a few days?" he replied absently while he twirled and pumped his fingers in and out of her till they could both hear the wet, suction her body made.

She moaned when he took his hand away and then felt her heart pound loudly in anticipation and trepidation when he straddled her hips and rose upon his knees to deftly unfastened his trousers. The pain of first penetration shocked Evelyn from her stupor!

He was seated deep inside of her with one swift upward stroke of his hips! Tears flooded her eyes and blinded her! Oh the tearing, the burning! It was unbearable!.... for several agonizing minutes before it turned into a dull, throbbing ache. This was it then! she thought wildly. He had conquered her, but then again she had all but thrown herself at him. Where was her pride? Where was her honor? a shrill voice in her head demanded.

"Oh no!" she cried helpless as he pushed her knees back against her chest and hiked her legs higher around his torso. She suddenly had a clear vision of how she must appear, spread wantonly across the top of the table, naked except for her nightgown bunched uselessly around her waist, while Lord Davenport, still fully clothed, was buried deep within her. Fresh tears sprang to her eyes as much from her own shame as from each deep, battering stroke of his ramming rod.

"My lord!" Evelyn squeaked as she bit her swollen lips as she gripped his thickly muscled arms. He scooped his arms around her slender and held her in place as he continued to drive up into her mercilessly... over and over. She squeezed her eyes shut to the pain and tried to turned her face away.

"Look at me, Evelyn," he panted as he captured her face to turn her back to him. "Look up at me!"

Evelyn turned her enormous eyes, filled with fresh tears, to look fearfully up at him. His handsome face was barely recognizable so intense he appeared, with his upper lip pulling back from his teeth in a snarl with each upward thrust. Each time he exhaled, his breath blew hotly down on her face.

"Stop! I don't want this!" she suddenly cried out. "STOP!"

With a sudden force that caught him by surprise, she pushed and pounded her little fists against his solid shoulders and chest. Her blows fell harmlessly against him, but he rolled off of her nevertheless. Evelyn winced at his withdrawal and the fury on his face as she quickly closed her aching legs, smoothed her skirt down with one hand and pulled up the neckline of her gown over her bare breasts with the other.

"I didn't want this!" she said in a half whisper as she hugged her knees towards her chest.

He cursed angrily as he rose to his feet to glare down at her.

"Don't you?" he shot back angrily, as he impatiently tucked his still achingly hard member back into his trousers again. "You came down here flaunting your little body at me. Then you won't leave when I asked you to--! I can smell just how much you want me. So don't tell me you don't want this!"

"I wasn't thinking," she mumbled humbly as she hide her face behind the veil of her hair in shame. "But this isn't---"

He dragged a hand over his face with a frustrated growl. It took several moment for him to compose himself as Evelyn waited, still hugging her knees on the table. When he turned his scowl back to her however, his gaze softened at how small and helpless she looked.

"You little fool," he said, though not unkindly. "I suppose some part of me still thought of you as more a woman than you are. But you're not, are you? All this is all new to you. I didn't mean to frighten you-- it's all perfectly natural. I'll be more gentle, if only you'd tell me--" He bent down to kiss her cheek even as he reached for the neckline of her gown again.

"Please-- wait!" Evelyn moaned when he peeled back her gown to cupped her milk white breasts. He uttered a small moan as he kissed his way down the curve of her neck. His touch, his kisses were simply intoxicating, but still Evelyn resisted. She had a nagging thought that simply couldn't be put aside, no matter how much he drove her to distraction. "Can we please talk!"

"Why?"

"There are things I need to say to you," she replied with a frantic little sob when his hands roved over her thighs again. "Please listen! I-- I need you to understand my intentions--"

He raised his head to peer at her from beneath his heavy brows. "I'm getting to know you now," he retorted with barely restrained impatience as he pried her thighs apart again.

He wetted two fingers in his mouth and eased his digits into her tender and sore passage. So tight! So hot! So unbelievably wet! At Evelyn's throaty and lustful moan when his long fingers worked in and out, in then out of her sore pussy, a corner of his lips pulled back in a knowing grin. His stroking grew faster and faster till nothing else matter but what his fingers were doing to her.

"Stop," she whimpered again, barely conscious of anything else but the delicious feeling he was coaxing out of her. "Please my lord. I must say my peace."

"Tell me you don't like what I'm doing to you," he murmured, into her ear with an arrogant smirk. "Tell me you don't want me to stop... and I will!"

She uttered a small strangled sob against his chest and clung helplessly to his powerful, muscled body. "How can I possibly make you understand? You control me so utterly wherever you happen to be. You're in my dreams. You're in my every waking thought! It hurts me more than it ought to know that you constantly think the worst of me. That it is only lust you feel when you see me! Oh what does it matter?"

He gathered her tighter against him, and kissed and nuzzled against the curve of her neck.

"My lord, I'm desperate! In spite of it all... ev--even if I haven't been betrothed to you, could you ever-- look at me, and, and think well of me?"

He chuckled lightly. "I will if you'll be a good girl and part these thighs again!"

Evelyn bit back another sob. "'I'll do everything you ask of me. I'll obey you as my lord and master, willingly! And maybe one day, you'll think better of me, even if you can never love me... the way you loved Clara!"

No sooner than she had uttered that name than Lord Davenport released her-- No! He practically flung her away from him as he stepped away from the table!

"What did you say?" he asked in a low voice.

Within an instant his expression hardened. Gone was the man who only a moment ago looked at her like a hungry man before a feast. Now his icy blue eyes were clear and dangerous. A thick vein running down the side of his temple throbbed and grew more pronounced. He was as imperious and cold as she had ever seen him.

Evelyn nervously bit her lower lip. She shuddered at how cold the room suddenly felt as the fire have long since burned itself into just a few glowing embers..

"Who told you about... Clara? " he asked in a low voice that echoed through the valued chamber.

Evelyn swallowed hard, suddenly more terrified of him than she had ever been before.

"Was it Charlotte or Philip?" he asked through clenched teeth.

She couldn't bear to meet his cold, hard glare. "I'm sorry! I -I didn't realize she was a secret."

"Hardly," he said, taking a breath to draw himself to his full height as he continued to glare down at her. "BUt why was she brought up?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Oh, I'm riveted!"

Evelyn swallowed hard. She frankly couldn't recall who spoke of that name first to her. It must have been Charlotte or even her friend, Lady Ann in some off-handed way. "I suppose I may have heard her name mentioned in passing. The way she was spoken of made me want to know more. I thought perhaps she might have been the reason that you stayed away all this time. I remember asking Charlotte to tell me who she is, or was. I gathered that you loved her very much---"

After a brief silence he upper lip curled into a humorless smirk.

"What stupid romantic notions you women have!" he intoned archly. "Charlotte drudged up some ancient history so you would live out some silly romance you women like to read? You need to find some reason from my past to make yourself the heroine in this story? After awhile you'll melt my cold heart and make a new man of me? Is that it?"

Evelyn winced slightly at his scorn. "Do you still love her then?"

"Who, Clara? I suppose... once. Promises were made at least. What did Charlotte tell you exactly?"

Evelyn drop her eyes to her nervous hands wringing in her lap. "Just that she was your greatest love.

Lord Davenport crossed over to the fireplace and selected a cigar from an ornate silver box. With slow, deliberate movements he set about lighting the thing. Evelyn waited with baited breath as he first bit off one end of the cigar, spat the bit into the fireplace, before he pursed his lips around the fresh cigar. There was a sharp hiss when he struck a match and the air was instantly filled with the sharp smell of burning sulfur. She watched him hunch his shoulders as he cupped the lit match in his hands to light his cigar. Every follicle of her hair tingled with impatient when he took his time to shake out the match, take a deep drag from the cigar, tilted back his head before blowing several silvery blue rings towards the ceiling.

"I was very young when I met Clara." He finally flicked his gaze back down to her with ribbons of silvery smoke curling up around him. Neither his tone or expression betrayed any emotion as he spoke. "Her father was my tutor. There was just the two of them and they lived on our estate for the better part of my childhood. Everyone felt I was foolish and set my sights too low with her. I couldn't be dissuaded. First love and all. I would have married her if her father was a butcher. So we made our promises to each other."

He took another drag from the cigar and blew a column of smoke upwards. "One winter the Fever took my mother's life. By that spring Clara had married my father."

He leveled his hard, penetrating stare upon her again and she felt her stomach flip. He may have been speaking of the weather, so impassive was his expression. Yet to hear him speak so stoically, almost casually, broke Evelyn's heart and she felt her eyes well up with tears. "Oh my lord!"

"I suppose she couldn't help herself. Had she married me she'd still be waiting to be a duchess as the old bastard refuses to die," he quipped with a slight shrug of his shoulders. He drew deeply on the cigar again. "So much for all her promises to love me."

"Clara... she... she is your step-mother?!"

"Was. She lasted only three years. The unpredictable factors in life and all. So Charlotte decided to relay that bit of family history?" His upper lip curled once more into a disdainful smirk as he studied her with his penetrating glare, as she crawled off the table to stand beside it. "It's not great secret I'm afraid. Sorry. And many have forgotten it by now as it's really not that interesting. There aristocracy is full of salacious scandals after all. Throw the bait of money, land and title and all sorts of interesting dramas will play out. Then again, you ought to know."

"I wish I never asked."

"I'm sure you are full of curiosity, my darling girl. Hopefully next time you'll uncover some truly juicy family secrets from my cousins. Something more relevant and salacious to entice your imagination!"

"They would never say anything that isn't in praise of you!" she said defensively.

"I'm sure," he muttered with some bitterness.

"Please!" she plead, holding up her palms as he stalked towards her.

His hypnotic eyes bore into her as he cradled her in one arm and walked her back till she was trapped between him and the edge of the large, ornately table. He sucked in his lower lip as he dragged his gaze, deliberately up and down the curves of her body. It was a heated, lustful examination, with none of the tenderness from before.

Even so, he overpowered her and made her head spin with the sheer force of his presence. Every hair on her body seemed to tingle and a thin layer of sweat formed on her skin. Evelyn breathed in his clean masculine scent so close to her that she could have easily reached out to his muscular chest beneath his linen shirt.

He hadn't moved.

Lord Davenport took another deep drag from his cigar and blew a column of smoke down her cleavage and watched, amused, as the thick smoke broke apart into ribbons over her supple mounds. A torrent of hot fluids pouring down her legs that made her feel light headed and faint.

"What else have you been doing with your day?" he asked, his velvety baritone husky and low. "Tell me what delightful moments you and Philip shared. He's quite taken by you."

Evelyn's long, thick, curled lashes fluttered. Her mouth was dry and her mind turned to mush. "He tells me stories from your childhood together... how happy you all were."

"I'm sure Philip spun quite the beautiful tale for you."

Abruptly he tossed his cigar into the fireplace and spun her around till she nearly fell forward if he hadn't caught her around her waist! She felt him grab a fistful of her silk tresses and pull her back against his chest.

"Please!" she begged.

"Did you like his stories?" he purred into her ear. "He's got quite a flair for poetry."

Evelyn swallowed hard and ran her tongue over her dry lips. "I care little for poetry."

"No, you'd rather hear about Clara." He buried his face in her fragrant silky hair and inhaled deeply but his voice lost none of it's edge.

"I want to know you," she confessed. "I want to know everything about you."

"Well then, my lady, I'll tell you about me. Clara marrying my father was just the vehicle that drove me to the Continental wars. Do you want to hear what I did there? Do you want the full numbers of men killed and maimed or would you rather I tell you about the times I nearly forfeited my own life? You want a vivid description of the sights and the smell? Or would you care to know the failed battle strategies devised by your father's best generals. Do you know how many men were sacrificed for your father's need for glory? Too complicated for your womanly sensibilities? How about if I described all the times I ate rats, tree barks and lived like an animal to survive? All the while I lived with the stink of death caked on me. These hands that caress your milky, unstained skin? They use to crack with dried blood. Should I go on? Have I shocked yoru delicate sensibilities yet? No, I think not!. I think you want to hear about the blood and gore. You want to know all my darkness and be a miserable creature for you to mend. Isn't that so?"