Page 16 of The Devil Himself (The Devil You Know #1)

Fifteen

L ucian Fitzwilliam was bored.

He knew he was no prisoner in Rys’s house. He was there for his own safety. But Luc was accustomed to certain level of activity. He rode. He engaged in sport. He went to his club.

And even Rys had abandoned him this evening, saying Harris needed him at the Playground.

He’d tried reading. He played chess with himself, but sadly, he knew all his own moves. He’d paced, trying to work out some of his energy, which was returning full force now that he was mostly healed.

Mayhap he should deal with some of the correspondence his man of affairs had brought him.

But that held no appeal.

So he decided to explore the house. He knew there was a game room. Perhaps he could play some billiards, stretch his injured arm a bit without actually hurting it…

Oh, he was hardly fooling himself. He wanted to snoop about. He took the stairs to the second floor, where the bedrooms lay, and he started for the opposite end of the long hall from his guest chamber.

Rys had come to his chamber for breakfast that morning they had clashed in the breakfast room, and once since, but he’d never seen Rys’s bedchamber. And he wanted to.

He knew it was a trespass. Luc couldn’t bring himself to feel guilty. Pacing down the hall, he stopped at the final door, peering about first to make sure none of the very efficient staff was about.

Assured that he was alone, Luc knocked. Just in case. No valet called out, and Rys was definitely gone, so…

He opened the door, stepping in and closing it behind him. The scent of sandalwood, citrus, and musk came to him, and he breathed in deeply. Rys always smelled so good. Luc cast a learning eye around the room, noting the details.

The room was spare but somehow also opulent. Everything was of the finest quality, from the cut pile rug to the chest to the bed, which was an antique half tester that had to be a few hundred years older than the house.

“Fit for a king,” he murmured. “Or the devil himself.” He wanted to go farther into the room, but then again, he felt so out of place. Like an intruder. He turned, ready to leave, and he ran right into the solid wall of Rys’s chest, bouncing backward. “Oof!”

“Here now.” Rys caught his good arm. “No falling and injuring yourself.”

“I’m sorry!” He wasn’t even certain what he was apologizing for. “I didn’t truly enter. I immediately felt like an intruder.”

“I saw.” Rys’s lips quirked as he advanced into the room, his eyebrows rising. “But if you wanted to see my bedchamber, you need only have asked.”

“I did not want to step out of place.” Luc didn’t know what to do. A man’s bedchamber was his sanctuary, and he had invaded Rys’s without an invitation.

“No misstep at all. I had to come home because I spilled coffee all over my damned clothes. Now I’m glad I did.” Rys advanced on him, and he moved back, realizing only after he did that it took him deeper into Rys’s rooms.

He glanced about, but there didn’t seem to be an easy escape.

“What do you think?” Rys asked.

“Of what?” he countered, rather stupidly. Of course, Rys meant of the room.

“Of my quarters, Luc.” Rys backed him right up against the bed, his arse landing against it.

“They are very austere, honestly, save for the bed.”

“Well, what I do here is sleep.” Rys winked. “Mostly.”

“Oh, I?—”

“I meant that I take myself in hand on occasion, Luc. I have never brought another here.” Rys pressed up against him from hip to chest, his heat astonishing.

“Never?”

“No. If I have had a lover, it was at the club or at another residence. My home has been sacrosanct.”

“You have no lover now?” Luc asked, hoping against hope that Rys did not have the equivalent of a mistress set up in a house somewhere. That would be utterly humiliating, and didn’t seem like Rys at all.

“I have you.” Rys stroked his cheek. “I want you now, in fact, Luc.”

“I want you too.” They had spent a great deal of time at play in recent days, but Rys had been ever conscious of his injury, only doing things to him, rather than with him. Luc needed that to change.

“Thank God.” Rys’s smile was so wicked that he lived up to his devilish nickname at that moment. “And my bed just happens to be at our disposal.”

“It does at that.” Luc pushed back with his good arm just enough, then moved around to the side of the bed. He wore only shirtsleeves and trousers, so he unbuttoned the shirt and pulled it off over his head. Then he opened his trousers.

Rys stripped quickly, shedding coat, waistcoat, and shirt before he’d even gotten to his smalls.

“Eager,” he teased.

“I’ve been waiting a damn long while,” Rys said. “You and your bloody arm.”

“It’s hardly my fault one of your brothers shot me,” Luc retorted, taunting Rys a little, pushing him.

Rys’s expression hardened. “You could have been killed. I could have— If I find out it was one of my brothers, I’ll kill him. ”

“Not for me, you won’t.” No, Rys would not do violence to his family on Luc’s behalf. Not even those he didn’t purport to care about.

Rys advanced on him. “Not wanting to see me carted off to gaol?”

“No. I want you right here.” He raised his hand to touch Rys’s cheek. He stroked the sharp blade of Rys’s cheekbone, trying to calm him. He had pressed too hard with his teasing.

Those gray eyes went smoky. “I want you.” Rys grabbed his wrist, then turned it to kiss the point of his pulse.

“I want you too.” He breathed in deep, noting that Rys watched his chest rise and fall.

“Take these off.” Rys plucked with his free hand at Luc’s smalls. “I want to see all of you finally.”

They had lain in bed together, but never fully naked. Rys had touched him many places with both hands and mouth, but this was going to be different, and Luc knew it.

He shed his smalls, then climbed up on the bed, sitting back against Rys’s pillows.

“God.” Rys’s stare burned into him. “You are unreal in your beauty, Luc. Like an angel.” Rys laughed. “A fine contrast to the devil himself.”

“Stop staring and come here,” Luc demanded.

A smile curved that sensual mouth, and Rys stepped up to the bed, climbing in alongside him, then kneeling beside his hip. One hand came to rest on his belly, Rys’s palm warm and firm, his fingers callused.

His muscles quivered, and his cock stood to attention. All he could think about were the few times they had been together, when Rys had taken him in hand.

Or in his mouth.

His breath caught in his chest.

“I can see you thinking hard, sweet. What do you want most?”

“I have no idea.” Luc gave Rys a wry smile. “Everything I have done with a man I have done with you. I did my duty with my wife, but we did not really enjoy it.”

Rys studied him a moment. “I am sorry for that, Luc. But I am glad I get to be the one to show you so many things.” Rys slid his hand lower, stopping right at the base of Luc’s cock.

Luc licked his lips, staring down at Rys’s hand. He twitched, his ass clenching so his hips rose, trying to get that hand where he wanted it. He needed more pressure. More of everything.

Rys’s smile went even more wicked, and he circled Luc’s cock with his fingers, pumping it strongly.

Rys was so damn beautiful, with his silvery-gray eyes which had a darker ring around the outside, and the long lashes any lady would envy. The lines beside his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and his lips were made for sin…

Also, he was dangerous. Not just as the owner of a gaming hell, but to Luc’s composure. To his safe, controlled life.

His head fell back, and he moaned, his hips rocking so his cock threaded through Rys’s hand. He wanted that strong grip as much as he wanted those beautiful lips to close around the tip and suck.

“That’s it, love. Just like that.”

He arched again, searching for more of the sensation, and trying not to read anything into Rys calling him “love”. Such words happened during encounters like these.

They never meant more than that.

“Luc. I want you to touch me too.”

“Of course. Anything.” He reached up to touch Rys’s chest. It rose and fell with Rys’s breath, and the skin was so warm. Like a roaring fire on a cold day, he couldn’t get enough.

“Mmm.” Rys moved against him, hips rocking, and he stroked Luc firmly, making him squirm on the fine bedclothes.

Luc did as he was bid, even though he was as distracted as a man could be, with that hand pulling on him. He stroked Rys’s chest, then his belly, tugging at the much finer hair that led in a trail down to disappear into Rys’s breeches.

He tugged at the fall of said trous. “Off.”

“Demanding.”

“Very. Clearly, I feel better.” He wanted to see Rys. All of him.

Rys stripped out of the rest of his coffee-stained clothing, struggling a bit with his boots. Once a gentleman, always one, he thought. Rys was used to having a valet, just as he was.

Once they were both naked, he touched Rys’s cock, and it was as if Rys had been hit by lightning. His body bowed, his breath leaving him with a grunt, and Luc smiled.

He felt immensely powerful.

Rys’s silvery gaze fixed on him, the darker ring around the outside threatening to meet the dilated pupils. “I want you, love.”

“You can have me.” He hardly knew what he was offering, but Luc would give Rys anything in this moment.

“Do you have any idea what you’re giving me when you say that?”

Luc wiggled, trying to get Rys to touch him again. “I’ll take it.”

“Oh, Luc.” Rys groaned it, closing his eyes for a moment, his cock seeming to swell in Luc’s hand even more. “I know you had relations with your wife. But you’ve never seen how one man may take another, have you?”

His cheeks heated until they were nearly painful. “I have seen engravings.”

“Ah.” Rys cupped his cheek in one hand. “And is this something you wish to try?”

“With you? Yes.” He would grab this chance and take it and not look back. He knew it might actually hurt like a man taking a woman for the first time, but he also trusted Rys.

“Then lie down on your back and spread your legs, Luc.”

He took a deep breath, staring at Rys, afraid he might break and run. But then he did as he was told, pressing back against the pillows, feet planted, knees bent so he could spread his legs wide.

Rys stared at him for a long moment, eyes dark, lips parted. Then he slid his hands up along Luc’s shins to his knees, pushing them out to the sides. “My God, you are stunning.”

“I feel a bit exposed,” Luc said, trying for a smile.

“You are, but I would never do anything to hurt you, Luc. I swear it.”

“I know that.” Luc reached out to him, hands grasping, and he leaned down to take a kiss, letting Luc slide those hands up over his shoulders to his neck to hold him in place.

He needed some reassurance. And Rys gave it as he pushed into place between Luc’s spread legs, letting his weight be a comfort to Luc, allowing him to get used to the feeling of them together.

“Mmmm.” Luc kissed Rys over and over, and it became a haze of amazing heat and pressure and the scent of them together, their bodies moving slowly one against the other, rocking, rubbing.

Finally, panting, Rys pulled away to grab the oil on the table beside the bed. “Are you ready for this, love?”

Luc looked from Rys’s hand to his face, then nodded, choosing to trust.

So Rys took Luc at his silent word and prepared Luc with great care. One finger first, then two, stretching him as gently as he could. Luc could tell the need was riding Rys deeply, but he remained ever gentle.

And when Luc was moaning, tossing his head, and making demands, Rys pulled free so he could slick up his cock, the simple act so unbearably erotic to see that Luc shook.

Rys placed the head of his cock at Luc’s wet entrance, and then he was thrusting into that fiery heat, grunting as soon as he was in and stilling completely.

Luc grabbed his ass, pulling, impatient for more. “Rys. Don’t stop!”

“Oh God. I am trying not to spend immediately.” Rys pulled back to thrust again, his skin against Luc’s so hot, the friction stunning him.

Luc never felt anything so perfect in his life.

Rys held him so close no air could flow between them, slamming up against Luc. m He knew he was untried in this, but Rys had made it easy, which surprised him. Luc urged Rys on, and he moved faster and faster, sliding his hand between them to grasp Luc’s cock.

When Luc finally spent himself, he shouted, and his body clamped down on Rys’s cock so hard that he saw stars.

Wheezing, Rys rocked once, twice more before he filled Luc with his seed, a deep hungry sound akin to a growl coming from his throat.

They lay together, wheezing for breath, for long moments. Then Rys gently disengaged from Luc’s body so he could rise and go to the basin, wetting a cloth.

Luc frowned a bit, worrying that he had not been satisfactory. “Why did you?—”

“We’ll be more comfortable if we clean up a bit.” And Rys washed them both, taking great care with Luc’s arse, which made his cheeks heat with the intimacy of it.

“Will you come back now?” Luc held out his arms, waiting.

Rys joined him, pulling the coverlet over both of them. “Are you glad you invaded my chamber now, my angel?”

“Mmm.” Luc was drowsy already, his eyelids heavy, and he heard Rys chuckle softly.

“Rest then. I’ll be right here.”

Luc hoped that was true, but he could no longer answer. He closed his eyes and fell into sleep like a candle being snuffed.