‘Yes. You said if I wanted to explore other… options, you would be happy to do so. With me.’
‘And what options might those be?’
Penny swallowed. ‘Congress. Of the physical kind. With you. As long as you have one of those sheaths we discussed.’
‘I do. But I still have one condition.’
She didn’t reply, just nodded for him to continue.
‘This might be one night, but it must matter, Penny. To you and to me. Equally. Can you agree to that?’
She hesitated, her lids fluttering closed before she opened them and met his gaze. Her skin was glazed in silver light, her hazel eyes like midnight pools. ‘Yes. I can agree to that.’ She wrapped her flannel tight around her body.
Oh, no. That won’t do.
‘Take those off.’ Liam nodded to her robe and nightgown.
She took a step back. ‘I don’t, that is, you can’t just…’
‘Command you? Are you not commanding me? Fair is fair, Penny. Although I promise this. If you want to stop, at any time, for any reason, you need only say, and I will follow your orders without hesitation.’
‘What about you?’
‘What about me?’
‘What if you wish to stop?’
Liam pulled the covers aside. Penny’s gaze caught on his jutting cock and her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open. ‘Oh dear.’
He slid out of the bed, standing close enough to feel the heat of her. ‘I don’t wish to stop. Not with you.’Not ever.But he couldn’t say the words aloud. He wasn’t ready to admit she meant far more to him than one night of lust. And she wasn’t ready to hear it. In that, they were also equally matched. ‘Take off your robe.’
She held his stare, reaching up with shaking hands to pull her robe and nightgown down each shoulder in one fluid movement. The thin cotton pooled at her feet.
Her shaky breath almost broke him to pieces as she stood, gloriously naked in the moonlight, her skin glowing like a fairy. Full breasts tipped with puckered nipples. A narrow rib cage he could span with his hand. Her soft belly, succulently curved and as pale as a pearl. Wide hips flared and deliciously thick. He traced his hand down her side to grip the luscious globe of her generous bottom.
Her pixie eyes met his, full of apprehension, desire, courage.
God. I love her.
Oh dear, indeed.
15
Penny was standing in the Marquess of Stoneway’s bedroom. Stark naked. With the Marques of Stoneway. Also stark naked.
‘Touch me.’ Liam leaned closer, brushing his cheek against hers, rubbing his scruff against her soft skin. ‘Please.’ His lips tickled the shell of her ear.
It was the please that undid her. Because even when he put on the act of powerful employer, she knew. He would never force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. A trait he showed with all his staff. He treated every domestic with a level of respect she’d rarely seen in a lord or lady.
How could a man such as this have committed terrible crimes?
But tonight wasn’t for her endless queries. It wasn’t for confusion or conjecture. Tonight was for Penny. And Liam. She pushed everything else from her mind.
Lifting her hand, she rested her fingers on his granite shoulder. He was impossibly hot. His skin stretched like silk over steel. Liam was a tall man – at least a foot taller than her – putting his nipples directly in her line of sight.
The Marquess of Stoneway has nipples.
She needed to stop thinking of him as the marquess.
