Mistress by Amanda Quick Read Free Book Online Page B

he had written that she was able to find. She had spent hours contemplating the smallest details that she had learned about him in an effort to comprehend him and make him seem more real.
    In the process she had created a very private fantasy for herself, one she had not shared with anyone, not even Amelia or Aunt Zoe.
    Late at night, after a long, tension-filled evening of playing her role, she had lain awake imagining how it would feel to actually be Marcus’s mistress, to be the woman he took to his bed, to be the woman he loved.
    The woman he loved
.
    A long time ago she had quietly concluded that she was not the sort of female who could experience great passion or inspire it in a man. She had come to terms with that knowledge, accepted it. She had told herself that she was too levelheaded, too practical, too intellectual to fall in love.
    Nevertheless, in spite of her own self-knowledge, she had woven a web of fantasies around Marcus.
    It had all seemed harmless enough because the man was safely dead.
    But tonight he had walked out of her dreams straight into her life. And he was far more fascinating in the flesh than he had ever been in her dreams.
    “You are most unusual, Iphiginia. Not at all what I expected.” Marcus’s voice was dark and shadowed with heavy sensuality. “Yet you are exactly what I seem to want tonight.”
    She could not answer, not only because he captured her mouth again, but because she was quivering from head to toe. His arms tightened around her as he nibbled gently at first, then persuasively, and then more insistently. His hands tightened on her shoulders.
    She gasped, parting her lips. He responded by invading her mouth with his tongue.
    The momentary stiffness created by her initial surpriseevaporated, leaving Iphiginia feeling incredibly warm and pliant. Heat pooled in her lower body. It was an extraordinary sensation.
    She gave a muffled moan which seemed to please Marcus. His fingers flexed on her skin. Another wave of delicious shivers went through her.
    She lifted her hands and gripped the dangling ends of his long, white cravat. “This is really most astounding, my lord.”
    “Yes, it is, is it not?” He kissed her jaw and the tip of her nose. “And I promise you that you are no more astonished than I.”
    “My lord.”
    “My name is Marcus.”
    “Oh, Marcus.” Consumed in the fires of her excitement, she released his cravat and wound her arms snugly around his neck.
    The movement instantly brought her body into closer contact with his. She was pressed tightly against him now. Her breasts were crushed against the wall of his broad chest. She could feel the shockingly hard bulge of his manhood straining beneath his breeches.
    His long fingers brushed against the nape of her neck.
    She cried out softly in response. The place between her legs began to grow damp. Her head tipped back against his arm, and his lips found her throat.
    “Marcus
. Dear heaven.” She clenched her fingers in his hair. Her senses were whirling now. She could not seem to think.
    “I believe you will make me a most excellent mistress, my sweet.” Marcus took a step back toward the wide green and gold Grecian sofa. He tugged Iphiginia with him.
    She heard a dull thud as his boot came up against one of the broken chunks of marble.
    “Bloody hell.”
    “Oh, dear.” Iphiginia started to pull back. “Do be careful, my lord. You’ll do yourself an injury.”
    “No doubt, but I trust it will be worth it.” Marcus sidestepped the stone and fell back onto the sofa.
    He kept one foot on the floor and tumbled Iphiginia swiftly down on top of him. She spilled across his hard, muscled body and lay captive between his thighs. Her airy skirts fluttered delicately for a moment or two as if in protest. Then they settled across Marcus’s legs with a soft whisper of surrender.
    The heat that poured from Marcus threatened to burn Iphiginia. She had never felt anything so intense.
    He caught her face between his