Taken by the Earl (Regency Unlaced 3) Read Online Free

together, although perhaps more as friends than lovers. They had never spoken on the subject, but it was obvious Stephen had thought it unseemly to make too many demands upon Fliss in the bedchamber.
    When Stephen was home, he would visit her bedchamber once a week, kissing her gently on the brow as he pushed her nightgown up to her waist to lie between her thighs and ease his member slowly inside, before quickly taking his release, usually with no more than half a dozen thrusts. Afterward, he would disengage just as gently before climbing out of bed to wet a cloth in the bowl of water on the dressing table. His gaze would not quite meet hers as he handed her that cloth and left to return to his adjoining bedchamber.
    Never in any of their encounters had Stephen touched her breasts in the intimate manner Sinclair Montgomery had just now, as he sucked on and squeezed and pinched her nipples.
    Fliss had never dreamed… Never known such pleasure existed…
    That was not true, and she would be lying to herself if she even allowed such a thought. She might never have experienced physical pleasure for herself, or even come close, but these past few months of seeing two of her three closest friends either marry or become betrothed to gentlemen who loved them deeply had substantially changed that opinion.
    One of those friends had recently married the austere Duke of Blackmoor. Except he was not in the least austere when in Thea’s company, and the way the two of them looked at each other, could not stop touching each other, was indicative of the depth of their love for each other and the pleasure of their intimacy.
    Fliss’s other friend, Sally Derwent, had only recently become betrothed to the Marquis of Oxbridge, but anyone with eyes in their head could see those two had and continued to enjoy each other in every way.
    Her third friend, Rachel, also a widow, had taken to walking about with a secretive cat-that-had-lapped-the-cream smile on her face, and Fliss had long suspected it was a secret lover who had put it there. Considering how unhappy Rachel’s marriage had been, Fliss wished her friend well.
    But inwardly, Fliss knew, she had become envious of the reason for her friends’ glowing eyes and secret smiles. An envy she barely acknowledged to herself and had certainly never confided to any of her friends.
    Partly because she had always been the quiet voice of reason in the quartet, and widowhood had only intensified that air of matronly respectability. But also, she now acknowledged, because until this moment, she’d really had no idea what she had been missing out on all these years.
    An only child of strict parents, Fliss had always been aware of an inner aloneness that had been alleviated only slightly when she had her first Season and became such close friends with Thea, Sally, and Rachel. Her marriage to Stephen had been arranged by her parents, and it was more that of polite friendship than lovers. Luckily, Fliss had retained Thea’s, Sally’s, and Rachel’s friendships during that marriage, and they had all rallied round when Stephen was killed.
    She was pleased that two of those friends had found happiness in the past few months, and that Rachel was also occupied with her secret lover. At the same time, Fliss admitted those things had brought back a return of her own loneliness until at times she had felt as if she could have screamed with the longing, the need, to have a man love her as Thea and Sally were so obviously loved. That whether or not Rachel loved her lover or he her was unimportant, when the relationship gave her such a glow of happiness.
    Fliss had ached to know that intimacy for herself.
    As she had ached for a pair of strong arms to hold her.
    The arms holding her now were incredibly strong, supporting her weight as if she were as light as thistledown rather than slightly plump.
    “My turn,” the earl murmured throatily.
    Fliss’s forehead still resting against his chest gave her an