More Than A Mistress (Siren Publishing Classic)

STORY EXCERPT



“You’re…you’re a woman.”

Erika swallowed. Her heart pounded despite the searing pain in her back. What would he do now? Turn in her in? Walk out? Curse?

She was beyond caring. She rolled onto her side still clasping the shirt protectively over her exposed breasts. A heated blush of humiliation infused her cheeks.

The ruse was up. And after only one day. Now she would have to return to Pomerania and marry von Ohlendorf.

What had made her think she could pull off such a farce anyway? Hot tears stung her eyes.

“Just go away and leave me alone.” But despite her bravado, her breath froze when he made no motion to leave. Out of the corner of her eye, she detected him glaring at her, no doubt thinking back over the day he had spent with her. But then, he’d thought she was a man, a fellow cadet in the army.

He expelled a sigh, and she felt the bed sink as he sat down beside her. Her heart raced but she didn’t dare move.

Damn those ruffians! She was doing just fine until they had come along. They’d only lashed her three times but to Erika, it might as well have been a thousand. Still, even this was better than marrying that horrible Baron von Ohlendorf.

“Your wounds need to be attended.”

Gregor’s voice was terse. She considered refusing him but the pain was too great. Dismay choked her. She had lost every shred of dignity. Silently, she damned her pride. There was nothing left to do but accept his help.

Bracing herself, she turned and gazed up into his eyes, the last remnant of decorum she possessed dissolving. “Very well,” she said, her voice but a whisper.

He held her stare for a heart-stopping moment before turning to the wash basin.

Erika could not believe she was allowing this. It was scandalous enough to be alone with a man but to be half naked in his presence was ruinous—and it did not help matters that he oozed masculinity.

He had removed his coat and was dressed in only his white shirt and tan breeches. She had never seen shoulders so broad, and the way his hair eluded his queue made thoughts of desire crash over her in wave after exquisite wave, despite the misery she was in.

He turned to her and she quickly hid her face in the pillow, tensely aware of his weight as he sank onto the bed again. A hard, muscled thigh pressed against her side, and she thought she would go mad from the mixture of pain and pleasure that coursed through her veins.

When he began to wash the cuts on her back, she gritted her teeth and tensed, expecting more pain. But instead, his touch was surprisingly gentle—gentler than she would have thought him capable.

“You brought this on yourself.” His words were not nearly as compassionate. “What made you think you could get away with passing yourself off as a man?”

“I had no choice.”

“No choice? That is utterly ridiculous. Who are you?” he asked as he continued to attend her wounds. “What’s your real name?”

“Erika von Ecker. Erik was…he was my brother. He died.” Just uttering the words rekindled her grief.

“That is unfortunate.”

His voice resounded with sympathy, but Erika sensed some other emotion, one that was not going to benefit her or her plan.



* * * *



“But that hardly gives you license to think you can join the army.”

She turned just long enough to direct her stare into his eyes. “Did you not think I was a man?”

Gregor did not answer. Instead, he eased the waist of her buff breeches down just a little so that he could wipe away the blood that had run down her back. He couldn’t help but wonder how she had ever concealed these voluptuous curves—and those breasts—he had caught a glimpse of them as he had removed her shirt earlier.

“You’re angry because I fooled you,” she said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

He was damn angry, and his first thought had been to walk out on her, but the helpless look that pervaded her eyes tore at his conscience. She was injured, and if he did not dress her wounds, she would surely suffer for it.

He knelt on the hardwood floor and slipped off her boots. How could such an attractive woman pretend she was a lieutenant in the Prussian army? He couldn’t fathom it. But whatever her reason, he could not allow this farce to continue.

When he had been called upon to serve, as was the custom for the nobility, he had accepted King Frederick’s code of honor. Allowing a woman to make a mockery of the institution was not his idea of upholding his pledge to king and country.

“I am going to have to tell them who you really are.”

“No!”

Her voice was charged with alarm. She struggled to sit up. Desperation, undaunted by her pain, was evident in her eyes as she clutched the white linen shirt to her breasts—a gesture which made her even more irresistibly beautiful and vulnerable. This soft, alluring creature had no business in the military. She was meant for delicate things. For being held and kissed and…

No, he would not think about that. Not now. She was obviously in dire circumstances to have done what she did. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you in,” he said, trying very hard to direct his stare into her eyes, to keep his gaze away from her bared shoulders, away from the hollow that was visible just beneath one of her breasts.

“Because if you do, I will have to go back home and marry a horrible old baron. My father is arranging it to cover his gambling debts. My brother was our only hope and…” Her voice trailed off, and then she grasped his sleeve in her tiny fist. “He is twice my age. Please Gregor. Give me one week.”





ADULT EXCERPT



Clinging to his shoulders, Erika reeled. She opened her mouth to his intruding tongue and returned his kiss with wild abandon. Propriety screamed at her to end this. Love and curiosity demanded she let him do anything he damn well pleased with her. But panic surged when his hand moved between them and began dragging up her nightshirt.

She tore her lips from his. “What are you doing?”

“Hush.”

His free hand clamped over her mouth. Erika whimpered as his other hand delved between her legs. She tensed, but then liquid heat pooled in her abdomen as his fingertips massaged the swollen nub that so ached for his attention. She lifted her hips to show him she wanted more.

Conflicting emotions raged through her. Terror. Lust. Love.

He shifted down, and she ached for his touch. “Not a sound, Erika,” he whispered. “Spread your legs.”

Instantly, she opened her thighs. Confusion swamped her. What was he doing? He was so close. She couldn’t abide—

Oh God in heaven…

His mouth closed on her cunny, plucking her flesh with his lips, exploring with his tongue. Erika’s mouth dropped open in a silent moan. Her breath froze. She had never felt anything so wonderfully good in her life.

One hand pushed her leg wider as he wedged his shoulders between her thighs. His other hand slid down her body until he found and cupped of her breasts. Erika arched into his palm and bit her lip to keep from crying out when he kneaded her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

She had guessed about the things men and women did together. Hell, she had seen enough animals in the field to know how babies were made. But she had never—not ever—imagined a man would do this to a woman.

She should be ashamed. She should demand that he stop. Instead, she lifted her hips and rocked against his teasing tongue.

Something was happening. Something very, very good.

Instinctively, she burrowed her fingers into his thick hair and clutched his head as bliss mounted and then crashed over her like rolling thunder. She heard herself mewling, and some part of her knew she should be quiet so the others wouldn’t hear, but she couldn’t help it.

The pleasure was far too penetrating to keep quiet. Rampant sensations radiated from where he had his mouth latched onto her through her, stretching, reaching, tingling in her face and scalp until she was mindless and floating.



* * * *



Gregor wrested every ounce of orgasm from her, sucking her clitoris with furious intent. Every part of him urged him to mount her and fuck her. His cock was ramrod stiff. It ached to fill her, to feel her.

“Take me,” she pleaded in the darkness. “I want to feel you inside me.”