A smile curved her lips. “I suspected when I smelled your cologne, but I was certain when I felt that scar on your hand.”
He turned his palm down and frowned at the offending evidence. “I forgot my gloves,” he said, as if chiding himself. “I was too desperate to get back to you.”
She tilted her head and tried to calm her pounding pulse. “Is that true?”
He sank onto the end of the chaise but made no move to reach for her. “I’m afraid so.” His lips quirked as he realized he’d repeated her own words from earlier.
“You aren’t teasing me?” she pressed. “I’m not just one of a hundred women you’ve brought up here and seduced?”
His brows lowered. “No! God, no. You’re the only one I’ve ever brought here.” He stared deeply into her eyes. “You have to believe me. I was so stupid four years ago. I wanted you, but I didn’twantto want you. I fought it with everything I had. I told myself I was about to leave for war, that I was in no position to offer for you. But it’s different now.I’mdifferent now. And not just because I’ve got this scar.” He touched his left hand to his head. “I know exactly what I want, and I’m not afraid to go after it. I want you, Lucy Jane Montgomery. Now and forever. Will you marry me?”
Lucy bit her lip and pretended to give the matter serious thought. A warm glow of happiness was building in her chest, but he deserved to be punished, just a little bit.
“Only if you prove that you love me.”
He gave a groan of dismay. “How? Please don’t say you’ve thought of some ridiculous, heroic quest for me to undertake, like tramping through a snake infested jungle, or finding the source of the Nile.”
“Would you do something like that for me?” she asked, genuinely curious.
“God, yes, if you asked me to.”
She threaded her fingers through his. “I don’t think I need anything quite so dramatic.”
“Then what can I do?”
“Make love to me. Here. With the lamp lit.”
A wicked spark of interest flared in his eyes. “What, now?”
She nodded, astonished by her own daring, certain that her cheeks were a hectic shade of pink, and his lips curved upward in that devilish grin she knew so well.
“Lucia Jane Montgomery,” he chided, mock-sternly.
She raised her brows in faint challenge and leaned back against the arm of the chaise longue. Her pulse beat a frantic tattoo in her throat as he moved over her, sleek as a jungle cat, caging her with his hands on either side of her head.
“Are you sure?” he asked softly. “We can wait for a bed. Do this properly.” His grey-blue eyes bored into hers. “I want this to be perfect for you.”
“It will be.”
He shook his head, sending his disordered hair falling over his brow. “But it’s been so long, and I want you so much. I don’t think I can go slowly. What if I’m too rough? What if I hurt you?”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve survived worse.”
“You deserve better for your first time. You deserve candles and cushions and—”
A smile curved her lips. “I deserveyou, Will Arden. Right now.”
“No going back from this.” He traced her lips with his thumb, watching the movement as if mesmerized. “This is the point of no return.”
Acting on pure instinct, Lucy sucked the tip of his thumb into her mouth, then gave it a gentle bite, and his guttural growl sent a thrill of feminine satisfaction through her.
She sent him a mocking look. “Oh no, I’m about to be ravished. What a terrible fate.”
He narrowed his eyes at her sarcasm. “You, Lucy Montgomery, are a hellion.”
“Yes, but I’m yours.”
His eyes darkened. “Mine.”
