Free A Gentleman's Wager by Madelynne Ellis

to the ground, ignoring his protest. ‘If you really want to know how I feel, let me show you.’
    She shimmied back a few inches and brought herself down to straddle him.
    ‘Jesus!’
    Bella rocked against him and felt him stiffen. She leaned forwards and snarled through a kiss. Their tongues jousted, the touches making her vulva tingle. His penis was straining against the fabric, eager for release, and she guessed from his reaction that he had his own demons to exorcise. As she moved to unbutton him, he pre-empted her and pushed the flap of his breeches away. Annabella gazed down at his proudly rearing cock. The head was purple, the shaft pale. He slid on her wetness and dipped inside with a satisfied groan.
    ‘You’re eager for this,’ muttered Frederick.
    ‘Shut up and fuck me!’
    ‘As you say.’
    Almost immediately, Bella felt herself climbing. Sensation built between her legs and spread out in waves across her thighs and stomach, making her nipples stiffen so they were visible through her dress. She rode him hard, throwing back her head. Her lower body felt as if it was on fire. All she wanted was him deeper, harder, faster. Whether he was enjoying it was incidental – although he appeared to be, from his eager thrusts.
    ‘Oh, God!’
    His body shook as he tried to maintain the pace. Bella knew he was going to come very quickly but the realisation didn’t slow her down. She wanted quick satisfaction, and if he couldn’t give it to her, she’d find someone else who could. There were plenty of men at the party, and she wasn’t feeling fussy.
    He gasped wordlessly, as his head whipped back and his orgasm swept through his body. She held herself still until his breathing calmed then began to lift herself from him, but he clamped his hands over her thighs.
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘You’ve finished.’
    Wakefield’s smile reached his dilated eyes. ‘Not properly.’ He clenched his muscles and his penis twitched inside her. It was already losing its hardness, but Bella groaned at the stimulation all the same.
    ‘Don’t be so eager to run off,’ he said.
    ‘I’m not normally encouraged to stay.’
    Delving beneath her skirts, he sought out the point where their bodies joined. He circled the base of his prick with one hand and massaged her sensitive nub with the other. Bella felt her whole body leap at his touch as he delivered what Lucerne had only teased her with the promise of. Sensations pure and raw in their intensity flooded her excited body. She flexed her inner muscles around him and ground against his circling thumb, climbing then soaring as her thoughts slipped away. It wasn’t until she came back down and the afterglow had washed itself out of her cheeks that she wondered what Louisa would think. Millicent kissing him had already upset her friend, and that was nothing next to what she had just done. It was best Louisa didn’t know, she decided immediately, and from the guilty look Captain Wakefield was giving her, she guessed he felt the same way.

5
    THE REMOTE NORMAN church stood in a hollow, halfway between Lauwine and the source of the copper-tainted stream that flowed down from Hill End, past the Rushdale mine. At first glance the ancient building appeared to be sinking into the earth, for the graveyard that had once been at the same level as the church now came to the sills of the stained-glass windows, and only a narrow channel separated the two.
    They had come out to view the tiny building and get some air, amid complaints, mostly from Charles, about having spent several days indoors following the party. Louisa was walking with Captain Wakefield, quite recovered and oblivious to anybody else while Joshua and Vaughan were equally deep in discussion, much to Bella’s surprise, with Charles Aubury trailing behind them. Lucerne was admiring the detailed patterns and rich colours of the stained glass. He was immaculately turned out in white breeches and a black coat, square-cut