ROSEDALE IN APRIL
Chapter Nine

Rated NC-17 for Content

Rose’s heart was pounding as fierce as the distant clap of rolling thunder echoing on the horizon. The brewing storm that had threatened earlier in the day was now vastly approaching…and with it came the ominous heavy footfalls. He and his damn Yankee Northern army had blasted onto Rosedale Plantation bringing the promise of a raging storm…and now they both were lurking a mere heart beat away! The loud scuffling of boots crashing outside the master’s chambers sent cold chills racing up and down her spine, chased by a breath that came in soft anxious gasps. Taking a deep calming breath, Rose fearfully stared into the mirror’s reflection as the door was shoved wide open. No knock…no announcement of his coming…none needed. That had all been settled with that one word…done! For she knew he would come…there had never been the tiniest doubt that he would harbor a twinge of conscience and spare her virtue. The damn dirty Yankee Captain!

Imperviously standing in the open doorway, his arm braced over the door jamb while the other held a glass of brandy dangling from his wrist, Rose hesitantly met the Yankee Captain’s smirking grin in the looking glass. Unfathomable blue moonstone eyes slowly ran down the length of her…assessing…caressing. She thought she detected an inaudible sound from his throat…was it a sharp intake of breath or maybe a hiccup from an overindulgence in alcohol? But no…he couldn’t be drunk…she had barely had time to bathe and change into Marie’s gracious wedding gift. Leering, he leisurely took a long sip, and then as if to come to a decision, he determinedly stalked across the room to stand directly behind her. In a deep, husky murmur that stirred a warm swirl of heat scorching across her neck, "Red velvet…black lace and silk…seductive tricks of the trade…sensuous, very sensuous indeed!"

"It was a gift," Rose softly rebuked.

"I expected as much," Captain Jack Dalton allowed but with a bit more disdain than he could fathom.

Initially, Jack had climbed the stairs tonight to inform the mistress of Rosedale that their "deal" was null and void. He had intended to remove his things and sleep as far away from the tempting seductress as possible…preferably in the garconiere. It had seemed as if his inborn honorable side had won out over the gnawing ache that was torturing his warring loins. But, upon glimpsing the lady unexpectedly perched in front of the vanity gowned in the sexiest black lace and silk negligee he could have ever imagined, waiting for him…he spontaneously changed his mind! Although he might hate himself in the morning and for the rest of his days, tonight he would have her. Claim and possess…ravish and conquer…the tantalizing oh so coveted spoils of war. After all, she needed it…obviously she wanted it. Besides, it wasn’t as if she was an innocent. An ebony sin provoking gift from a lover…Henley perhaps? Yes, he would sate his uncontrollable, unquenchable lust tonight in a woman so irresistibly ready in anticipation. A hot-blooded wench that he had been desperately craving since the first moment he had lain hungry eyes on her. Besides, he was in dire straits for a female to cool his raging ardor. It had been way too long since he had gotten any kind of sexual relief and Jack surmised that was exactly why he had been rutting so after the Texas beauty. What not enjoy such a delectable treasure so generously offered? And on the morrow…well, let tomorrow be damned!

Slowly, Jack shucked his uniform jacket and slung it over the back of a nearby chair. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he tugged off his boots and as each hit the floor, Rose unintentionally started. Unfastening the top few buttons to his trousers he seemed to hesitate and instead pulled the white undershirt up and over his head letting it fall across the coat. Rose stared in fascination at the slick sheen tan skin, taunt with muscles forming ridges from just under his male nipples downward to his hard flat stomach. A line of dark hair started from just below his navel and mysteriously disappeared under a partially open waistband. Reluctantly, she perused him…tall, lean and muscular, he lent the uniform a dignity and bearing that few men could. She would even concede that he was exceptionally handsome and possessed a powerful mystique that dangerously emulated from every graceful move that he made. But, he was a damnable, dishonorable, vengeful Yankee and that, in Rose’s opinion, was an unpardonable sin.

Unconsciously, Rose bit her bottom lip to keep her mouth from gaping open at the wondrous sight of his abbreviated garb and the man who would shortly claim her virginity. But she couldn’t renege on their immoral agreement…Rosedale had to be spared from the Yankee torch…this was inevitable…and such as it was, she solemnly accepted her fate. After all…this had been foreseen in Madame India’s tarot cards. No way to possibly stop it…and Rose confusedly found herself glad that she couldn’t.

Reaching out a tanned lean hand, Jack gingerly touched her shoulder before sliding the narrow strap down her arm to gain access to her collarbone and neck. She could feel his hot rasping breath on her neck that sent shivers of delight racing through her molten veins. Suddenly, his full sensual lips were there, trailing a wet hot path from the base of her throat along her shoulder blades. Rose slowly closed her eyes to the intense whisper of sensations his magical touch and warm breath were creating along her satin smooth skin. Goose bumps tingled along her arms and chased down her middle…stopping and intensifying in her softest woman’s flesh. Immediately, an alien moisture formed between the junction of her legs and a sweet painful longing overtook her…a need that demanded to be touched.

"Surrender what you’ve promised me," Jack huskily rasped just beneath her earlobe.

No response. Rose’s heart almost exploded at his sudden request for the sealing of their deal. Although she knew this was going to happen, she had stubbornly chose not to think about it…up until now. Up until he had sauntered into the room with that lustful gleam burning in his vivid blue eyes…scorching her skin…sinfully awakening feelings that unmarried proper ladies should never contemplate. After tonight, she could never claim that title again…no longer a lady, always a whore. But she wouldn’t think about that tonight…that would come much later, maybe tomorrow.

God, she smelled like night jasmine! Breathing deep, he inhaled her sweet alluring fragrance…drinking in the rose. Skin as soft as magnolia petals, he found himself wanting to touch, caress, but more…so much more. A bare inch from her ear, he sent shivers of delight swimming through her veins as he hoarsely whispered, "You know how to please a man, Rose?"

She couldn’t utter a sound, afraid if she did the only thing that would come out of her suddenly dry mouth would only be a helpless squeak. She swallowed hard as his masculine hands clutched her around her tiny waist to bring her to her feet so she was standing with her back pressed against him. Moving her hair to one side for easy access, he began nibbling along her shoulders up to her ear. His massive hands came around to fondle her sensitive breasts, which were throbbing and hardening in readiness. Rivulets of desire were pulsing through her firm rounded globes, feeling near to bursting, as if she were swelling from his experienced arousing touch. Gently squeezing, rubbing, then harder, pulling and tugging at the feminine piece of anatomy that branded her a voluptuous desirable woman. A low moan escaped her throat as the caress continued to grow bolder. Turning her around to face him, Jack lowly whispered, "Kiss me, Rose. Please me…like I know you’re capable of pleasing a man."

With her head tilted back, ever so slowly her hands started at his bare chest and gingerly moved up to the cording of his neck. Warm, powerful, satiny smooth to her touch. Hesitantly at first, she offered her mouth to his warm sensuous lips. Jack opened his mouth and delved deep into her, urgently breaking through her pursed lips with his greedy tongue as it voraciously lapped and plunged. Sucking her mouth till she felt near to fainting. His groping hands came around to her hips to press her hard against his full thick erection. Taking one of her hands from around his neck, he guided it down to cover his swollen manhood inside his pants. A loud gasp shot through her lips at the feel of his velvety warm shaft already moist at its tip in obvious arousal.

"Feel me, Rose…put your hands on me."

Rose snapped…pushing away from him her lungs near to bursting…she couldn’t catch a ragged breath. She was so nervous that she was shivering as if she were floating in a pool of ice. She had to fight to remember to breathe. And his man’s flesh was so…strangely alarming!

"Have you ever caressed a man, Rose?" Jack throatily challenged.

Jack knew this part of lovemaking was probably new to even her. Convinced that he had shocked her sensibilities, such as they were, he lustfully grinned at her awkward fear. Most proper genteel women endured sex just to please their partners. Performing as an act of duty…giving to get what they wanted whether it be more baubles and trinkets or some other lame selfish excuse. Only the most sensuous and active wantons, along with the harlots of course, really desired it and experimented with its many forbidden indulgences. Yes, he could definitely teach her a few of those risque secrets of the art of love and make her glad he had.

"No…I…" Rose nervously stammered.

"Have you ever been caressed like this…" Jack slowly turned her around and started backing her up until the backs of her knees were against the mattress. He gently pushed her onto her back and with one swift movement, he rid her body of its delicate ebony silk. He sucked in his breath at the enchanting beauty laid out for his immediate ravishment. Yes, Aphrodite would not have even come close to this mystical goddess. Leaning over her, his hand tenderly touched her flat smooth belly as his eager mouth closed around a hardened nipple, moaning as he sucked her throbbing breasts. Delighting in the passionate sighs whispering from her mouth, he hardened to the point that his pants could hardly contain his rigid body. God, she was overwhelmingly beautiful…her body so perfect, so incredibly pleasing to his touch and taste…and she liked his mouth licking and sucking…pulling him closer as her fingers threaded through his hair to hold his warm mouth to her tighter. Reluctantly, he left her nipples and tentatively ran his tongue downward, licking his way to her most private hidden region. However, he briefly hesitated at her navel to tongue her in its tiny opening.

"Have you ever wanted to be touched like this…" As Jack throatily whispered the passion laced words, two fingers slid across her bud of pleasure, swollen in its desire, wet in its anticipation.

"Oh God, Captain…yes…I’ve wanted it…I would be…when I was…Oh God!"

Breathlessly, she sighed her exquisite pleasure at his magical sin provoking touch. Jack watched in fascination as her face contorted into a mask of sensual sexual awakening. Her gyrating hips lifted off the bed, still quivering in tremors. She was beginning to writhe in frustration…panting in her need for him…so very close to that peak of forbidden ecstasy that it actually stunned him. The bed was shaking from the uncontrollable tremors of her love-starved body. She was shivering as if she were encased in ice. She couldn’t control it…she was powerless to stop it! And he thrilled in her fear…her wanting…her needing. And with one hand stroking her most sensitive spot, he began to slowly slide his pants down and kicked them onto the floor. Never halting the insistent kneading…the ever so slightly rubbing. He knew without a shadow of a doubt she wanted him inside her, ready for his immediate penetration and possession. Nevertheless, he forced himself to hold back…waiting.

"Go on…finish…when what, Rose?" Jack was throatily taunting, driving her wild with torrid unleashed quivers of sexual frustration and tension.

Rose was so close to something…something that promised a wonderful world of paradise she couldn’t even begin to imagine or comprehend. She wanted something more but couldn’t tell him what she so desperately craved. She was burning alive, the flames of desire licking her insides yet freezing on the outside, trembling in fear. How could she be both? All she knew was that he was swiftly taking her to the point of no return…and she loved every delicious second of it!

Gasping between words, she moaned her answer. "When…I…when I…was forced…to bed…a man."

"No one’s forcing you to do anything, Rose. You offered and I merely accepted. Do you want me now? Are you ready for me to come inside you?"

Placing his weight fully upon the bed, Rose instinctively winced. Her insides were wound like a coil ready to spring its release. His head moved towards the essence of her femininity replacing his stroking fingers with the tip of his moist tongue. Abruptly, she grabbed the top of his head and bolted upright at the shock and the reality of what he was doing to her. Her widened eyes immediately collided with an enormous erection…a sight that until now had just been a haunting suspicion. She gulped in honest downright fear…and hesitant anticipation. She never imagined in her wildest fantasies that any woman could endure such dominant masculinity. So afraid…frightened of him taking her virginity…terrified of him not making her a woman.

"I…can’t…take…that…Captain! You’ll…tear…" Rose fearfully stammered.

"Not as hot and wet as you are now, Rose." His throaty whisper seduced, drawing her in like a moth to a flame, however, the deadly fierce flames of his desire would surely burn this moth.

Jack knew he was better equipped in that area than most men. And that was another reason he had made sure he had never initiated a virgin into the ways of love. However, it erotically excited and aroused him to hear her fearful hesitation and doubt at being able to take him entirely. He enlarged at the carnal thought and began throbbing in heady anticipation of feeling her hot tightness around him…squeezing him until he spilled himself deep inside her wet, warm womanly sheath.

"You mean there’s another way to be besides wet?" Rose innocently probed.

Jack shivered at the erotic effects her words were playing with his over active libido. He groaned in response.

"Are you always so hot and wet down there, Rose?" Jack ground out in heavy passion.

"Am I not supposed to be?" Rose softly whispered in curiosity.

Rose realized, even in her innocence, he was fighting some inward battle. Instinctively, she knew he couldn’t answer her question. As his probing tongue ran across his lips once before he bit down on his bottom lip and closed his eyes in excited arousal while an animalistic guttural sound rasped from his throat. But she curiously wanted to know the answer to her next brazen question. For Rose somehow knew, if she never asked, she would never know.

"Captain…are all men so big?"

Jack grinned self-consciously. He actually thought he would shame himself with those huskily whispered words. Didn’t she know how incredibly sexually stimulating her seemingly innocent words could provoke in a man? Aw, yes, wantonly toying with him…driving him into a lusting frenzy of raw hunger to mate her like a mare in heat. God, she was good…she knew how to drive a man into an all out savage rut! Indeed this was going to be heaven!

"Suppose…you tell me…" He braced himself over her and with his knees spread her legs wider. Reaching down between them, he guided himself to her hot tight opening and slowly began to rub the velvety smooth head up and down her crevice wet with passion’s desire.

Unable to wait any longer for total fulfillment, Jack impatiently lunged forward, loudly grunting his need. A shrill scream pierced the night air. Shocked, Jack savagely cursed, then covered her mouth with his hand…sure that everyone within the house had heard her cry of pain. His body went stark still…near to exploding his aching loins inside her. Never in his life had he bedded a virgin…dammit to hell! With the rending of her virginal seal, he had ripped open his heart. Replacing his hand with his love-starved mouth to silence her cries, he began kissing her deeply, frantically urging a response. For he knew he had literally split her asunder…actually felt her tear. Although it was painful to stay motionless…only partially inside her…he dared not move. He had to get her to relax…to open up more to receive him in his entirety. Because there was no way in hell…wild horses couldn’t drag him away from where he was sheathed…where he knew he belonged, to pull out was not an option for there was no turning back. The consequences be damned!

"My God, mia…try to relax…you were made for this…let me give you heaven."

Rose thought she was dying…the most unendurable, unbearable, burning sharp pain exploded in her loins impaling her like a sword. And that deadly terrorizing dagger was still incessantly sinking into her further…promising her more of the same. She didn’t think she could take its torture any longer…she just couldn’t make herself relax despite his impassioned urgings…the pain was too incredibly intense. Her eyes were tightly clenched and she was too afraid to open them. She bit her lip until it bled before tasting the coppery scent of blood.

"Mia…don’t deny yourself this pleasure. Take a deep breath and look at me. Put your hands around my back and hold on. Let me take you higher than you’ve ever been before!"

Fighting back the tears, she hesitantly opened her eyes. Limpid pools of blue stared down…swimming with sorrow, regret? Oh God no…she couldn’t face that! She had to make this good for him…for her. He couldn’t live to regret this. Remarkably, she needed him to want her…she had shamelessly given him her most precious gift…something no one else could ever claim and she refused to let it be given in vain. Yet, she knew there had to be heaven at the end of the severe torture…or maybe it was just the first time that carried so much pain. She had to find out the answer to that mystery…with him. Taking a deep shuddering breath, her hands crept under his bulging arms to clasp his sweat-slicked smooth back. Slowly, tentatively, she began to stroke his well defined spine with her fingertips and lightly let her questing fingers languidly run down to his powerful hips. Wrapping her legs around him, opening up wider for his determined intrusion, she locked emerald gazes with his half closed sapphire eyes, throatily echoing his words, "Kiss me, Captain. Please me…like I know you’re capable of pleasing a woman."

Firmly grasping his flexed buttocks, Rose suddenly, without warning, thrust her hips upward off the bed to meet his forceful downward plunge. They screamed in each other’s mouths…unsuccessfully muffling their cries of rapture. Rose’s long nails dug deep into the Captain’s arching back prompting him to cry out again at the insurmountable sharp pain. She had undoubtedly scarred his back as he had surely scarred her…and he marveled at the intense pain mingled with incredible pleasure.

Slowly, he began to sensuously grind his hips, forcing himself deeper within her warm cavern. Surprisingly, she dampened with each stab of his maleness. With every hard thrust he groaned his need…with each whimper, she throbbed for more. Heavily panting, the distinct grunts and moans of lovemaking drifted out the open windows into the spring stormy night. Musky odors of mating invaded their senses bringing them closer to their final destination…one in ignorant wonder…one in great expectation. Their heartbeats thundering loudly with the storm, each felt the other’s pounding inside their body.

Jack had held himself back beyond any capable human endurance. He had to stop and catch his ragged breath. He desperately wanted to prolong the exquisite torture her delicious body was affording him…building inside ready to erupt like searing volcanic molten lava. He had never been so deep inside a woman…with each plunge he had assumed he was sunk to the hilt, but no…she kept opening wider and drawing him further inside until he felt himself sucked in by the force of her erotic magnetism…losing himself and any control he possessed. But remarkably, Jack found himself wanting to pleasure a woman like she was pleasing him. For once in his life, he actually needed to feel her come with him to the top of that mountain and experience that same heavenly paradise with him…together bound in the throes of their passionate embrace.

"Mia…not yet…be still," he brusquely grunted in her ear.

Leaning slightly back, one hand wandered down between their sweat slicked bodies to lingeringly touch the part of her that was throbbing with each labored breath…each beat of her heart. Bracing himself with his other arm, he knew he couldn’t stop it…the intense pressure was building and he was nigh to bursting…swelling and contracting with each ragged breath. Smelling the anxious readiness of her first virginal climax.

Rose couldn’t take the frustration any longer. She was so incredibly close…she couldn’t lose what she was so close to finding. Grasping his neck, she forcefully pulled him down and hungrily forced her tongue inside his mouth and sucked the breath out of his lungs. Simultaneously, she wrapped her legs around his waist…and squeezed the walls of her womanhood with every bit of strength she could muster.

"God!" Jack loudly bellowed for he had unmercifully lost all hold on reality, incapable of all reason. No concept of where they were…no inhibitions, not caring that his men were trying to sleep in the rooms that flanked their current romantic haven…he didn’t care…only that he needed that sexual gratification that was so near. She was pulsating around him, tightening her sheath so small, he thought he might instantly lose himself inside her without even having to take another thrust. His hands slid down under her hips to bring her closer, arching her back, seeking in deeper.

Frantically and savagely he began to ram himself inside her slipping deeper with each hard forceful thrust of his powerful hips. That carnal instinct to breed her with his hot fertile seed his only palpable goal. And as he felt his nectar rip through his precious jewels and explode inside her sucking femininity, she convulsed into spasms around his pumping manhood. Squinting their eyes shut, they both arched and cried out in their unleashed passion while Jack violently shuddered, impaling her one last time as deep and hard as he had ever drove. Collapsing with all his weight upon her, he continued to painfully throb still wanting more…still fighting for breath.

Rose felt his warm ocean of seed flood her battered body…that instantly sent her vaulting over a mountain of sheer blissful ecstasy. She didn’t think she could go any higher…yet higher she did go. All of his weight pinned her down into the rumpled damp sheets and she reveled in it. She could barely breathe but reached around as she sensed he was about to pull out. Clutching his hips, forcing him further inside her throbbing woman’s flesh, she huskily whimpered, "Not yet, Captain. Oblige your slave again…like I know you can."

Jack trembled at her lust-laden words. She was a hot blooded wench…couldn’t get enough of it, sensuous by nature! But then again, she was so full of surprises…and this was one surprise he intended to take full advantage of…over and over and over! He had never came so much or hard in his entire twenty-six years! Shit, even his toes had curled at the incredible ecstasy she had determinedly milked out of him…every drop of his seed she had deliberately and most eagerly taken from him…and yet she wanted more…she demanded more. Oh yes…he was in for the ride of his lifetime…and thank you Major Caledon Hockley for the pleasure of this magical April night at Rosedale.

He took her twice more before his body exhaustedly revolted…surprising even himself with his stamina for this night’s mating of their flesh. But, he couldn’t move another muscle. Sated beyond human endurance, he at last fell across her sweat soaked body that reeked of sex and night jasmine. With a satisfied sigh and after his breathing returned to normal, at last he raised his tousled head to lock moonstone eyes with inquisitive jade pools. And with that stare, reality sunk in. He felt like such a…rapist, he had vindictively declared and took Rose as his own personal mistress. After what had just transpired between them, shit the whole god damned household knew it with a certainty that he had made good on that claim…a deal began as a means for dark revenge against a bitter enemy but had harmed another innocent victim in its stead…just like Mel. He was no better than Henley was…a war criminal that plundered and pillaged and defiled innocent girls. Regrettably, Jack’s self-loathing and guilt reflected in those limpid pools of ocean blue.

Rose saw the look…and she knew. He hadn’t said a word in the aftermath of their heated couplings. She had seemingly disgusted him with her wantonness, reviled him with her wild, untamed promiscuousness…had proven to him what a whore at heart she obviously was. Instinctively, she curled into a fetal position and shamefully closed her eyes, as unbidden tears coursed down her passion flushed cheeks.

"Rose…I didn’t know…" Jack stammered in an attempted apology of some sorts, the words literally hanging in his throat.

"I’ll hate you till the day I die, Captain!" Rose vehemently rebuked. Not wanting his pity…still feeling as a result of her own naivete, that she hadn’t pleased him as she had so desperately wanted and vowed to do. She felt like a failure…the only man she had ever wanted to touch her and had done so…yet she had disappointed him with not conducting herself like a proper well bred lady!

"Good…let’s keep it that way. Nothing else…nothing more!" Flipping her over onto her back he menacingly loomed above her while Rose glared her hurt and anger. His finger reached out to trace her kiss-swollen lips as the smell of her desire brushed across her lips. "But you don’t, you know. You hate the way I make your traitorous body surrender to a hated enemy."

His mouth was quirked in mockery of her shame and humiliation and she angrily bit down on his finger emitting a sudden yelp of pain.

"You little slut…but dammit it all to hell…I love how you hate me…so come here and hate me some more."

Jack throatily groaned his need as he pushed her deeper in the sweat soaked sheets. And he took her more urgently and harder than he thought humanly possible, like a savage rutting animal with the only instinct to swiftly release himself into the nearest most available female he could find. With his last shuddering gasp, he rolled with her until she was straddled above him limp in her own obvious abuse.

"If you love, Rose…like you hate…heaven help the man!" Jack sighed as he again thrust upward into her, craving yet again, the powerful waves of intense relief she was so capable of giving a man!

Chapter Ten
Stories