Far Beyond Scandalous (23 page)

They stood like that for a long
time, each holding the other, offering strength and comfort.
 
In Gibson's embrace, Amy understood two
things very clearly.
 
One, Letitia had,
in fact, meant well, even though complete trust of her was still not
forthcoming on Amy's part.
 
Two was
that, no matter what, Gibson truly did have her best interests at heart.
 
He did care for her - probably more than he
should.
 
If nothing else, she should
trust in that.
 
And in him.

Looking up at him, she saw all that
she wanted in a lover and a husband.
 
All that could never and would never be hers.
 
After today, she would stick to her earlier resolve to be more
circumspect.
 
He was going through quite
a lot of trouble for her, and she would not allow herself to be the reason he
lost everything.
 
She had not been wrong
on that measure.
 
Perhaps she was a bit
more selfless than she had thought after all.
 
Perhaps she was learning.

But right now?
 
Here, where no one could see or hear
them?
 
This one last time, she would
skirt the boundaries of propriety and behave as scandalously as she dared.

Slipping her hands beneath his
waistcoat, she nuzzled lightly at his shirt.
 
"Gibbs, I want you.
 
Now.
 
Please.
 
Give me another taste.
 
And this
time, I want it all."

Wrong.
 
This was wrong.
 
So very,
very wrong.
 
He should not even be
contemplating doing this.
 
The moral
compass which had ruled Gibson's life since his family had lost everything
pointed him in one direction.
 
The
correct direction, the proper one.
 
And
it pointed, very clearly, away from Lady Amy.

He knew that with absolute
certainty in both his heart and his mind.
 
In the park clearing, he realized that Amy was coming to understand it
as well.
 
There was no future for them,
only ruin.
 
Much as he longed to reclaim
his place in society, he never would.
 
He would never be a viscount.
 
He
would remain a lowly physician.
 
Unless
that changed - and it would not - there could never be anything between
them.
 
She saw it now as clearly as he
did.

And she was asking for one last
time with him before they parted forever.

He should refuse her.

The other part of Gibson, however,
the part that was human and tired of being punished, inadvertently anyway, for
a crime he did not commit, hungered to take something he desperately
wanted.
 
Just this once.
 
One last time.
 
And above all else, he wanted Amy.
 
He had from the very moment he met her, all lush and golden and
lovely.
 
She was his dream, his
fantasy.
 
And she was offering herself
to him without hesitation.

Still, he was not so far gone that
he would simply give in to his more craven nature.
 
She deserved better.
 
But
damn it, for once, he would follow her lead and do as he pleased.
 
The waltz the previous night was only the
prelude to his final fall away from any pretension he might have had to being a
gentleman.

"We should not," he
whispered, still attempting to be a proper gentleman, even though he was fairly
certain that was no longer possible.
 
"It is not right.
 
You are a
lady and I am..."

"A gentleman," Amy
finished for him, pulling back so that she could rest her hands on his hard,
muscled chest.
 
"At heart, that
is
what you are, Gibbs, and you know it.
 
As do I." She looked at the blue-tinted sky beyond the circle of
lush, green hedgerows where the bustle of London carried on without noticing
they were missing.
 
"As do
they.
 
Society.
 
The
ton
.
 
Whatever you wish to call them.
 
And while perhaps one day the rules will change, for today, they remain
the same.
 
But I, for one, am tired of
those rules.
 
And for just this one
time, I wish to ignore them completely."

He closed his eyes and tried to
push her away, though all he somehow succeeded in doing was nestling her closer
to him.
 
"That still does not make
it right."

"No," she countered
softly, her blue eyes darkening with desire, "but it is also not right to
remain apart when, for a time at least, we can be who we truly are once
again."

"And who are we,
love?"
 
Gibson made one more attempt
to put her off, even though his resolve was weakening quickly.
 
"A disgraced former peer and The
Paragon.
 
If there are any two more
unsuitable people in all of London, I have yet to meet them."

Amy had not expected this level of
resistance.
 
He was weakening to her,
but in her heart, she knew he would do what was honorable in the end.
 
Just this once, she wanted him to be
scandalous.
 
"I am not what you
think, Gibson."
 
She could not tell
him the truth.
 
In time, perhaps, but
they had not reached that point in their relationship yet.
 
"I thought you understood
that."
 
Then she placed her hands
on his chest once more, smoothing her palm over the hard plane of his stomach,
feeling the wall of well-sculpted muscle beneath.
 
"For me, there is no one but you.
 
There will never be another.
 
I know it in my heart, as do you."

Gibson did not want to hear those
words.
 
She was granting him permission
to take what he wanted, even though he did not deserve it.
 
Amy was tempting, too tempting really, and,
in the end, he was a man.
 
A man of
honor, but a man nonetheless, one with physical and sexual needs that had long
been denied.
 
He could not be strong
forever.

For once, he, too, would give in to
what he wanted.
 
For once, they were in
complete and total agreement.

Amy instinctively knew the moment
Gibson let himself go and gave himself silent permission to take her.
 
His body relaxed against hers and he settled
her more firmly against him.
 
"I
cannot resist you, my love," he whispered into her golden tresses, and
then, his lips were on hers, teasing, tasting and finally demanding that she
surrender to him.

There was no way she could do
otherwise.

Amy pressed herself firmly against
Gibson, allowing him to feel the soft mounds of her breasts and the way her
nipples tightened into hard, tight peaks at the merest contact with his
body.
 
She wiggled her hips suggestively
and when he spread his legs a bit, she inserted herself between his thighs to
rub against him, behaving rather like a wanton.
 

That they were both fully clothed
did not matter, at least not to her.
 
She longed to be unclothed, though she knew he would not take things
that far here in the public park, not like he had the previous year when they
were secluded away from prying eyes.
 
Still, she would be grateful for whatever he gave her.
 
It would likely be the last bit of pleasure
she would ever receive from him.
 
After
this, they would abide by their original agreement, even though neither of them
had spoken of it.
 
It was simply
understood.

Around Gibson, the sounds of the
other revelers in the park faded away until there was only Amy.
 
No other but her.
 
Her soft, sweetly scented body pressing against his.
 
So warm and willing.
 
Offering him what he knew was most likely
his last chance to be alone with her.
 
He might be moral, but he was also no fool.
 
He took what she was offering, unable to deny himself - or her -
any longer.

He kissed her with more passion
than he had known he possessed, his heart swelling as she opened for him,
darting her tongue out to tease his lips before pulling back as if uncertain in
her actions.

There was nothing uncertain about
his response, however and when he crushed her to him, she moaned and wiggled a
bit more, as if his passion had given her leave to finally unleash her own.

He kissed her face, the delicate
column of her throat, even the sensitive skin of her eyelids.
 
Nothing was too unimportant for him to
lavish attention upon.
 
When he felt her
knees begin to buckle, he released her long enough to strip off his coat and
then eased her slowly to the ground, trying his best not to muddy her dress,
even though the hem was already splattered after their fast walk.

"We should be in a bed,"
he whispered as he settled beside her.
 
"You deserve better than this.
 
A cold, hard patch of ground in a public park."

"As long as you are with me, I
care not where we are."
 
She rose
up a bit so that she could loop her arms around her neck.
 
"I am yours, Gibson.
 
Now and forever.
 
I want to feel as I did that day at Seldon Park.
 
Please.
 
Just this one last time and then, we shall go back to our original
agreement."

Gibson could not give her precisely
what she asked for, of course.
 
That was
one magical day out of time.
 
He could,
however, bring her close.
 
At least he
hoped that he could.
 
It had been a long
time for him as well.
 
After Amy, he
couldn't bring himself to touch another woman.

"I will make you soar, my
love" he assured her, praying that he could make good on that
promise.
 
At the very least, he would do
his best.

With a yank, he tugged down her
bodice, and her chemise along with it, baring her breasts to his gaze.
 
If it were possible, she was even lovelier
than she had been a few days ago.
 
When
he leaned down to take one nipple in his mouth, she bit her lip to keep from
crying out.
 
Just because they were
secreted from view did not mean they could not be heard if they were loud
enough.

With sure, gentle strokes, he laved
her nipples until they tightened even more into hard little buds, and she was
squirming beneath him, her hips bucking slightly.
 
Each swipe of his tongue brought her to new heights of pleasure,
and she arched up as he bit down on one raspberry tip, eager to give her more.

Amy was awash in sensations, her
body on fire.
 
All Gibson was doing was
playing with her breasts, but he might as well have been sliding his massive
erection - which she felt laying heavily against her leg - into her heated
core.
 
She was not as
naïve
as
one might think, and she knew very well what went on between men and women in
the bedroom.
 
She wanted that experience
with Gibson and no other man, even though she would not have it today.
 
If ever.

Still, she craved more than what he
was currently giving her, and when he moved his hand up to toy with one breast
while he continued to nibble at the other one with his mouth, she decided that
it was time to take what she wanted.
 
She undid a few buttons on his shirt, enough to bare a small portion of
his broad, well-muscled chest to her gaze.
 
She did her best to stifle a gasp when she caught a glimpse of his taut
skin.
 
He was even more perfect than she
had remembered.

Gibson slid his other hand beneath
her delightfully rounded bottom to help steady her, and she took full
advantage, nosing his shirt open further so that she could kiss his heated skin,
giving him pleasure as well.
 
When his
cravat got in the way, she simply ripped it off and tossed the offending cloth
aside, allowing her more access to his chest, including his flat male nipples.

With a flash of clarity, she
remembered how much pleasure he had taken when she touched him there last
year.
 
So with trembling fingers, she
began caressing him, just as he was touching her.
 
When his body clenched against hers, she smiled to herself.
 
She had given him a small taste of what he
was doing to her and it felt gloriously freeing.
 
Not to mention extremely naughty.

"Wench," he laughed
softly against her neck as he peppered her with feathery light kisses, "I
will make you pay for that."

"I hope so, my dear
doctor," she teased in return, feeling happier than she had in
months.
 
"Otherwise, I shall be
gravely disappointed.

She was taken aback for a moment
when she felt him slide down the length of her body and push her skirts up
slowly, his hands stroking her legs as he first removed her slippers, followed
by her silk stockings.
 
His hands were
bigger than she remembered and she felt the slow burn begin inside of her once
again.
 

Amy had only experienced that
delicious sensation twice before - the first time at the summerhouse and once
again only a few days ago - but each experience left her craving more.
 
Gibson would never give her what she truly
longed for, but at the moment, she would have to be satisfied with the
deliciously wicked feelings flowing through her veins.

"Open for me, pet," he
coaxed and when she allowed her legs to fall open a bit more, she was rewarded
with another round of light, feathery kisses on her inner thighs.
 
Absently she plucked at one of her
still-swollen nipples and was shocked with pleasure when an electric current
ran from her breast directly to the very center of her.
 
She must have jumped enough to make Gibson
notice, for he ceased kissing her and brought his head up in time to see her
with her fingers still on her nipple.

"Good God, woman!
 
You have no idea what it does to me to see
you thus!"
 
It was a scene straight
out of one of his most secret and dark fantasies.
 
Amy giving herself pleasure while he pleased her as well.

Cocking one eyebrow, she smiled
wickedly at him, relishing the heat and desire she saw in his hungry gaze.
 
"Like this, do you?"
 
Then she rolled her nipple between her thumb
and forefinger.
 
The exquisite sensation
caused her to draw in a sharp breath as she bit her lower lip, and she threw
her head back with barely restrained pleasure when the same erotic pulse
streaked through her again.