He was sinning tonight.
Because this woman?
He’d welcome the flames of hell if it meant he could sin with her.
She drew the backs of her fingers up her thighs, slow and sure and ever the seductress. Her hands settled on her hips—exactly where he had held her months ago. Her fingertips curled, dug into her flesh, and the embers of gold sparking in her eyes seared him. She knew. She relived that moment. The moment he discovered how truly dangerous this woman was. That she bore the power to bring him to his knees.
And fuck if he didn’t want to be on his knees before her right now. His tongue rolled over his bottom lip before he tugged on it with his teeth. He was a man starved, perpetually staring through the window of the confectioner’s shop, never allowed to taste what lay inside. But today he was finally allowed to indulge.
“Off with your clothes,” she demanded.
His eyes flared wide at the brazen order. At the way his body instinctively obeyed, divesting himself of his shirt and trousers without thought.
Her lids fell low, a small satisfied smile curving her lips. She liked telling him what to do. His daring minx liked the control. It was evident in the heady glow in her amber irises, the lift of her chin, the way her shoulders rolled back.
Felicity was in command. He would be a fool to think otherwise.
And when she slowly crooked her finger, he obeyed, went to her without hesitation.
She reached for him, but he intercepted her hand. Brought it to his lips, skimmed kisses over her knuckles. If she touched him, he’d lose all ability to form rational thought.
“How is your back?” He let out a slow breath, the rage from earlier trying its damnedest to resurface. And then his eyebrows shot up. “And God, your ankle?” Some of the lust roughening his tone cleared, and he held her hand out wide, his gaze flitting over her head-to-toe. “Are you sure you are well enough for this?”
Her lips twitched, one corner tugging up. The right side. It was always the right side.
“Nothing but a bruise,” she said, soft laughter lacing her tone. “But, Ash? The way I want you, I could be covered in bruises, and I wouldn’t give a bloody fig. So, there is no way I am letting a small measly one get in the way ofus. And I told you back at the grove, my ankle is fine. Doesn’t even hurt in the slightest any longer.”
She batted her eyelashes at him. “If it would ease your mind, you can check every inch of me with your hands to be sure.”
His smile flashed. Saucy minx.
But his amusement disappeared on a groan when her palms landed on his chest, trailing unhurriedly in the most torturous of explorations.
Her lips parted, short and stuttered breaths puffing past them. She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “Or perhaps I could check every inch of you.”
He hissed out a breath as her fingers traced over the ridges of his upper body and then skimmed down the small dip between the muscles in his stomach. His skin quivered, his blood growing thick and heavy.
“It is unjust how delicious your body is,” she murmured.
He couldn’t help it. He preened. He was three-and-forty, after all, not a young buck. But his work with his horses and swims in the channel kept him lean and fit.
Her touch on his skin, the awe slackening her jaw—they were heady, hazardous. No one had ever looked at him thus—more than want, more than desire. Reverence. His heart threw itself against his chest.
Right there with you, mate. I long for her desperately, too. Enjoy tonight, because she is not for us.
“Perhaps we should discuss this first,” he said quickly, his voice strangled. “The implications of what we are about to do.”
Before he lost all semblance of control, they should discuss what this night meant. That it was one night. That they could have this, but they couldn’t have more.
She is not for us.
27
Felicity
Inside,Felicityfroze,thoughshe did everything in her power not to let it show. There was no way they were talking. She wasn’t risking this beautiful man changing his mind. Wasn’t risking him coming up with some convoluted reason why this shouldn’t happen.
Her hands trailed lower. She had worried enough already as it was, fearing he wasn’t going to come to her. He had never said yes to her request. And she knew the man was adept at building barriers. She wasn’t so sure he had ever lived without those barriers erected.
