The Sweetest Sin Read online

  THE SWEETEST SIN

  Book 2: The Sin Trilogy

  By

  Jess Michaels

  The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE SWEETEST SIN

  Copyright (c) 2005 by JESS MICHAELS

  ISBN: 1-59836-080-9

  Cover art and design (c) 2005 by Nix Winter

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form without permission, except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

  For information, you can find us on the web at

  www.VenusPress.com

  Dedication:

  For Tracey, who wanted more.

  And for Mike who doesn’t complain when I hole up to do more and then makes me come out to see the sun again.

  Prologue

  1813

  “Say it again.”

  Landon Hawkins looked down at the beautiful woman in his bed. Her auburn hair, tangled from his fingers, was spread across the white sheets like a streak of fire. Her eyes, so blue, captured his, reflecting her every emotion. And right now they were filled with love. Passion.

  He leaned over her, bracketing her head with each hand, trapping her against the pillows as he settled himself between her legs on top of the sheet. Her warmth and floral scent surrounded him.

  “You are my wife,” he whispered as he dipped his head to capture her lips.

  “No.” She dodged his assault with a playful giggle. “No, Landon. Say my name. My new name.”

  “Viscountess Juliana Hawkins,” he said, humoring her because he saw her pale skin beginning to flush with desire. Her nipples pebbled beneath the thin sheet.

  Had it only been an hour since he last took her? It seemed like forever since he sank into her hot, wet heat. Since he stroked her to completion. Since he felt her shudder with release.

  It was an oversight that required immediate remedy.

  Meeting her gaze, Landon caught the edging of the sheet between his thumb and forefinger and slipped it down. She sighed with pleasure as the cotton rasped over her skin.

  “Viscountess Juliana Hawkins,” she said on a moan as his knuckles brushed her swollen nipples. “Your wife.”

  “My.” He bent and sucked the bud between his lips, swirling his tongue around the pale pink flesh in a sinful way made to have her crying out. She did not disappoint. Her back arched and a wanton moan escaped her lips. “Wife.”

  “Landon,” she groaned as he slipped the sheet lower. “Teach me. Teach me to pleasure you.”

  His eyes darted up, snaring her gaze with shock. It had only been a few days since they snuck away from London, escaped the awful plans of Juliana’s father, ran to Gretna Green and married in utmost secret. While Landon had always sensed a sensual, erotic edge to the woman he now called his wife, he hadn’t expected her to call on his significant experience in the bedroom so soon. He’d wanted to ease her in to the desires he wished her to fulfill.

  But now, her eyes flashing, her body lifting to brush his… he could see she was ready, nay, begging for more.

  “You please me already, Juliana,” he whispered.

  She shook her head as her hand trailed between them. Her fingers brushed down his chest, over his bare stomach until they traced the hard thrust of his cock from head to base. He shut his eyes and sucked in a breath.

  “Yes,” she moaned in response. “That is what I want, Landon. I want to make you bite back a curse because I leave you wanting. I want to make you tremble as you make me tremble. I want to know how to pleasure you the same ways you have pleasured me.”

  She batted her eyes as if she were all innocence, but the wicked turn of her lips let him know she was aware of the affect of her words. Of her touch. His new bride was a quick study now that her maidenhead was gone.

  “Isn’t there something you have fantasized I would do to you during the long months we courted in secret?”

  Landon rolled over on his side next to her, letting his fingers trace the line of her side absently. God, there was so much he had imagined since the moment he met Juliana. But one fantasy always came to him most. A fantasy he could not deny when he watched her full lips form words.

  “Last night, before we made love,” he whispered, almost reverent in his confession. “I kissed you, gave you pleasure with my mouth and tongue.”

  A shiver wracked Juliana’s body and he knew she was remembering the sight of him, lying between her legs and bringing her to release with his mouth for the first time.

  “Yes.” Her eyes widened as she realized what he was asking of her. “You wish me to do the same?”

  He nodded slowly. “I have long imagined you taking me between your lips. Sometimes it was all I could think about when I watched you talk.”

  She swatted his arm playfully. “I was right that you were not always attending me!”

  With a chuckle, he flicked a thumb over her exposed breast. “Trust me, my love, I am always attending to you, even if your words don’t sink in. I have watched you from a distance, yearned for you. And now that you’re mine, I look forward to exploring your body in every way. To teaching you to enjoy my body in return.” He touched her face and she leaned into his palm. “But only when you’re ready. I would never force you to do something you did not wish to do.”

  She met his gaze, holding it steady for a long moment. “I love you, Landon.”

  He smiled. She could say those words a thousand times and he would never tire of them. Who knew that he, a rake of the first order, though never as publicly as his brother, Lucius, could be so easily ensnared by a woman? But he was caught and well pleased with that position.

  But then he forgot all thoughts as Juliana leaned over to press a kiss against his throat, then lower to his chest. Cautiously, she lapped at his skin, nipping at the flat disk of his nipple and smiling when he drew in a breath of pleasure.

  She traced her tongue along the tightening muscles of his stomach as she urged him to lie on his back. Her hot, wet mouth drifted lower and lower, slowly exploring him as her blue eyes darted up to mind his reactions and expressions. He put his hands behind his head in an effort to keep from touching her. As pleasing as her kiss was, he had to let her do this on her own time. He could not rush her lessons or frighten her with his ardor.

  Her lips broke contact with his skin as she reached his cock, already hard and curling against his stomach. She tilted her head as if inquisitive as she examined him closely.

  “It is lovely,” she said softly.

  He laughed at her observation. Like his erection was a pretty hat at the milliner that she wanted to buy. “Thank you.”

  She pursed her lips as if she didn’t appreciate his laughter. “I’m not in jest, Landon. I have never looked at it so closely before. Just enjoyed it from afar.” Her eyes lit with teasing for a brief moment before she turned her gaze back to his cock. She cupped his balls with one hand, while she gently stroked him with the other.

  Landon suppressed a groan with difficulty. The woman would unman him in five minutes flat if she kept up this innocent, yet sultry exploration. And she hadn’t even taken him into her mouth yet.

  “The skin is like satin, but there
is steel beneath,” she mused as she stroked him a second time.

  A pearly droplet of come slipped from the head and she swirled it around the sensitive area as if she were born to do so. As if such a thing would not have been shocking to her a week before when she was the perfect lady in a sitting room. When she didn’t belong to him in every way.

  “You don’t have to-” he began as she leaned in closer. “Until you’re ready.”

  Her gaze snagged his and the wicked gleam returned, so sensual and utterly wicked. “I’m ready, Landon.”

  And then her mouth was on him. At first, she was timid, only kissing him with closed lips. She glanced at him, as if gauging her movements by his expression. But as she kissed him, she grew bolder. Instinct, strong and erotic, kicked in. Landon arched toward her mouth as she closed her lips around him and swirled her tongue in a circle around his cock.

  “Oh God, Juliana,” he moaned, his hands fisting behind his head. “Yes, that’s it.”

  She smiled, but didn’t break the contact of her mouth. Slowly, she took him in further, deeper. Her tongue massaged him gently, her throat relaxed to take him and every nerve ending in his body went to full alert as she sucked, ever so gently.

  Her retreat was just as slow, drawing him out. When she pulled free with a loud ‘pop’, she looked at him. “Am I doing this correctly?”

  He nodded, unable to speak past the rush of blood in his ears, the throb of his pounding heart. “Y-Yes. Just move your mouth.”

  “Like you were inside me?” she asked, all innocent and unaware of what that statement did to him. His cock throbbed, tingling and tightening as his come began to move with pleasurable speed.

  “Yes, just like that.”

  She seemed to understand now, for when her mouth returned to his cock, her movements became surer. Up and down she let him fill her, then retreated. Her tongue swirled, her head bobbed and every time she took him in, she let out a deep, wicked moan that told him she was enjoying her education as much as he was.

  He was going to come. She was building him to a crescendo with too much speed. His balls tightened with every stroke of her mouth. But he didn’t think she was ready for the explosion of his essence into her mouth. Perhaps someday, but not this first time.

  “Juliana,” he groaned, barely keeping his control in check. “Ride me.”

  Her gaze snapped to his, glazed with need and the recognition that with this act she had ultimate power. But the lure of his request seemed too much for her to resist. With one final lick, she withdrew her mouth, leaving him cold and aching. But she crawled up his body in less than a minute. The heat of her mouth was replaced as she let her wet sheath envelop him with a welcoming wet kiss of its own.

  She moaned as she took him in, slowly to let her still tender channel stretch to accommodate his girth and length. Landon reached out to grip her hips and when he was buried deep within her, he helped her move.

  He repeated his demand. “Ride me, Juliana.”

  She didn’t answer with words, but let out a keening cry as her hips bucked. He met her thrusts, nearly lifting her off the bed with his movements. They rode, grinding against each other, rocking with a rhythm destined to bring ultimate pleasure.

  Juliana found hers first. Her back stiffened, high color darkened her pale skin and she clutched his shoulders wildly, struggling for purchase as her body trembled with release. Landon tried to hold on, tried to wait, but it was too much. He filled her as he cried out her name, cried out his love and passion for her.

  Juliana collapsed on his chest and he held her, stroking her damp hair as he marveled, yet again, at how easy it was to love her. How right it felt.

  He had never been so damned happy.

  “Did you hear that?” Juliana whispered, lifting her head from his sweaty chest.

  Landon shook his head. “Hear what?”

  Outside the window, there was a sound. Doors slamming. Horses neighing. Voices.

  “’Tis nothing,” he reassured her, drawing her closer. “Just others arriving at the inn.”

  She shook her head as she pushed from his arms. Wrapping herself in the sheet, she crossed to the window and slowly pushed it open to glance outside.

  “Oh my God. Landon, no!” She turned to him, face pale and filled with horror. Despair. Terror.

  Landon knew what she was going to say as he sprung from the bed to join her at the window, but he asked the question anyway.

  “What is it?”

  Her hands trembling, she collapsed against him. “My father, Landon. He’s found us!”

  Landon looked below just in time to see Lord Trevington push his way into the inn, bellowing words he couldn’t understand. Didn’t need to understand.

  Trevington was a bastard. A waste of a good title on a bad man. He used both his daughters very ill, always had. Society whispered of his willingness to trade anything for a debt. Most recently it had been Juliana on the auction block.

  Trade his daughter to pay his vowels. Marry her to Andrew Breckinhill, a Duke known for his cruelty as much as his fortune or lands. To save her, to keep her, Landon had made her his bride.

  And now Trevington thought he could steal her away. Well, Juliana was his wife. There was nothing her father could do to change that.

  He grasped her bare shoulders and turned her toward him, forcing her to look at his face. Fear brightened her eyes, unshed tears threatened to fall.

  “Listen to me, Juliana,” he soothed, as he pushed tangled hair from her eyes. “He cannot hurt you now. He cannot reach you now. Do you understand?”

  She trembled even as she nodded slowly.

  “Just trust in me, Juliana,” he whispered as he drew her into his arms. Outside the pounding began on the door. “Trust in me.”

  Chapter One

  1818

  “You should marry. I find that it suits me.”

  Landon clenched his drink in his fist and tried to rein in the sudden emotion that rippled through his body like a boulder had been thrown into a calm lake. After five long years, he somehow expected those words wouldn’t effect him. They always did.

  And since he was a respected, well-liked, powerful man of a certain age, those words were said to him more and more often. By his mother. His friends.

  And currently, his brother, Lucius Hawkins. Hawk.

  Landon sighed, as he looked Hawk up and down. His brother’s words were true. Married life, something Hawk had entered less than a year before, did suit him.

  And Landon hated him for it.

  But he smiled in bland acceptance of his brother’s suggestion. After all, Hawk didn’t know the truth. Hawk didn’t know about Juliana. In Landon’s mind, he was already married. Her father’s lies, her lies, had allowed her to get an annulment all those years ago, but Landon knew the truth.

  Downing his drink in one swig, he turned back to Hawk. Damn, but his brother looked happy. Content. Fulfilled. He would never experience the pain of loss as Landon had. Hawk’s wife, Bianca would never leave him. She loved him too much. She would fight for him if she had to. Perhaps even die for him.

  “Is something wrong?” Hawk asked, cocking his head. “You look sick.”

  “Simply tired from my travels,” Landon explained.

  He tried to make his voice friendly. He and Hawk had been on shaky ground for a long time. Only in the past six months or so had they begun to patch a relationship long damaged by anger, misunderstanding and disappointment. He had let his fury over Juliana’s deception ruin enough things in his life. He wouldn’t let it ruin this wary reconciliation with his only brother.

  “And well you should be,” came a feminine voice from the door. Bianca entered the room with a wide smile. A smile that turned into something a little secret, and deeply sensual whenever she turned it on her husband. And Hawk’s eyes lit up with the same light. A light of passion, desire, love, acceptance. Optimism.

  Landon turned away, fighting to keep from reverting to anger. Rage. Those emotions were h
is safety net, but he was trying, trying not to turn to them as often. It had been five bloody years. It was time to get over this.

  Easier to say than do.

  “I cannot believe you rode so hard to London,” Bianca continued as she poured herself a snifter of port. She swirled the blood red liquid in the glass as she spoke. “You made excellent time, but you must be rung out completely. You should go to Hawkins House early tonight. Sleep. Let yourself rest. We understand, don’t we, Love?”

  Hawk looked at his wife as if she had said the most brilliant thing in the history of the Empire. Landon realized with sickening clarity that his sister-in-law wanted to be alone with her husband as much as she worried for Landon’s health.

  “Perhaps you’re right,” Landon said on a sigh as he downed the rest of his drink in one burning swig. He had a feeling the bottle would be his companion the rest of the night. It often was when thoughts of Juliana invaded his mind. “I only have a few days before I meet with the Prime Minister. I want to be rested.”

  Hawk nodded, then his eyes narrowed. “You will… you will come back, won’t you?” He stepped closer. “I admit that I missed talking to you while you were in the country.”

  Landon’s anger faded, replaced by something else. Something warmer and unexpected. Something he hadn’t thought he’d feel when it came to Hawk. Yet he did.

  “Yes. Of course. In fact, you and Bianca will join me at Hawkins House before the Cresterton ball. We can have supper together. How will that suit you?”

  Hawk’s face broke into a grin and Bianca beamed. “Yes. We would like that.”

  Landon set his drink aside and nodded to Bianca and his brother. “Very good. I’ll expect you around eight. Good evening.”

  He headed for the door as they said their goodbyes, but the moment he was alone on the front step, facing his empty carriage and his equally empty home when he arrived there, his smile fell. Empty. Yes, that described his life to a T.