The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(238)

Blake, unable to withstand the thrill of her undressing him, touching him so ardently, moved to position himself for the first blissful stroke.



He leaned down on the mattress with his left hand. His right landed squarely on her bandaged ribs, wringing a pained cry from her which caused her to cringe away for a brief second.



His lids flew open, and he stared in horror at the young girl lying beneath him grimacing in pain, and naked as a newborn.



He leapt up dragged himself from the bed, hauling his trousers over his throbbing erection to shield himself from her gaze. "Good God, girl. Have you lost all reason?"





CHAPTER NINE



"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked in a daze, her sore ribs all but forgotten compared with the need which had been building inside her.



"Wrong! Have you any idea what you nearly did!" Blake barked.



"I-I don't understand-"



Belle lay prone on the bed, her legs wide, completely bared to his ardent gaze. He had never seen anything more lovely in his life. Or more dangerous.



He snatched one end of the sheet and pulled it up over her before he did the unthinkable and pressed their foreplay to its natural conclusion.



Anger at himself made his words even more harsh than he intended. "I could have spread you like butter and had you for supper, for Heaven's sake! If you're a light-skirt, didn't anyone tell you you're not supposed to give it up until after you've discussed payment?



"And if you really are some naïve little miss from the country on your way to visit the big city, have you got any idea how many far more nasty men than me are just waiting to snap up a tasty morsel like you? Do you prize your virginity so lightly that you would give it to a passing traveller at a flea pit of an inn?"



His words finally registered through her daze. She gasped, and blushed crimson, snatching the sheet tightly to her bosom.



"Get out! Get out! Who are you to judge me?" she shrieked, her tears falling. "You are no better than I if you can simply behave so with a woman you have only just met."



"You were the one who was behaving so invitingly. I had the self-control to stop. And the discipline and decency. I'm not proud of what I almost did, but I broke off in time. Most other men would not have."



She averted her face, tears springing to her eyes.



He moved to her side of the bed and cupped her chin to force Belle to look at him.



"Even worse would be if you inflamed one to such a degree that he could not stop, and took you by force. There's a name for that, and the consequences are dreadful. Don't dress it up with the word seduction. That makes it sound more romantic than it really is. The cold reality is that it would be rape."



At her appalled expression, Blake ran the fingers of one hand through his hair and sighed. He relaxed his grip on her chin, stepping away from the bed.



He tried to keep his voice gentle as he said, "Please, Belle, I'm telling you this for your own good. Stop whatever folly within you which has brought you to such a pass as this."



Her face suffused with colour. Her countenance reflected indignant outrage. "I'm a virgin! I will swear it on a stack of Bibles. I'm sorry, I've been a fool. It's just well, I know little of men and women. Nothing ever prepared me for the way I felt when you touched me. Or when I touched you," she admitted, the tears beginning to fall. "I'm so confused, I don't know what to think. Am I an evil person? Am I now a fallen woman?"



Her look was so beseeching that Blake relented in his anger. Tugging on his shirt to cover his bareness and conceal his still-towering bulge, he sat down on the edge of the bed furthest away from her and shook his head.



"No, Belle, not evil, and not fallen either. It is natural to feel pleasure in the act itself, with the right person, a person you admire and respect. Are married to. Committed to, at the very least, if you feel you simply cannot wait until marriage for whatever reason.



"But always keep in mind that any child of such a union   will be called bastard and shunned in society. Even if you are not concerned with your own fate, you need to be aware of the impact of your actions upon others. To indulge in carnal pleasures for their own sake is the sin of lust.



"Sin is evil. You were tempted to sin. But you did not sin. You believed you esteemed me, I hope, and trusted me. Our proximity and the, the spark between us, led us astray.



"But I did not damage you. You shall go to your marriage bed whole. You need have no fear that any shame will come from this except the wound to your pride and dignity, and my harsh words of admonition that you must never, ever allow anyone to persuade you to do something which you feel is wrong."