Then came other sounds. Rhythmic sounds accompanied by a noise that resembled the mewling of a cat.
Oh, lord.What he needed was a glass of water.
Or a dunk in it, more like.
Hortense’s gaze broke from his and found her feet. He wasn’t sure he could endure this.
The moans.
The groans.
Theoh’s.
Theah’s.
The sound of one naked body sliding against another.
The couple fornicating on the chaise longue weren’t the only ones sweating in this room. Awareness blossomed into full effulgence.
Awareness of his body.
Awareness of her body.
Awareness of his body in relation to her body. His was rangy and hulking compared to her small, graceful form. Yet he suspected they would join together in a perfect fit.
She bit her lower lip between her teeth, and his overriding thought was that he wanted nothing more than to test its delicate plumpness between his own teeth.Cherries, he decided. She would taste like cherries.
He summoned the last shreds of his willpower. When had he last experienced desire? Months?Years?
A particularly strident screech jerked him back into reality. The sexual interlude on the other side of the curtains was only getting louder and rowdier and shoutier.
And the interlude that had begun to play out in his head with the woman at his side, well, best stop at lips and cherries.
“Don’t you think it would be wise to go?” he asked. Wisdom, that was what the moment called for. The wisdom of Solomon. His cock, however, had other ideas as it stretched hard against the superfine of his trousers.
The stubborn woman at his side shook her head. “Not without the dog.”
Jamie inhaled a groan of a thousand frustrations, but one in particular. “Have any ideas come to you?”
“We need…” Her gaze screwed up to the ceiling as if she might find the answer there.
“What?” he asked, jumping on her words. He needed her to save him from himself. “We needwhat?”
“We need…” she began again. “We need something to lure him.”
“A lure?” Jamie patted his coat pocket. “Like food?” he asked, the idea only just coming to him.
Black eyebrows crinkled together, questioning. “Um, yes.”
When he dug a small cut of bacon from the pocket, her mouth gaped open for the split of a second. No small amount of gratification coursed through him. He suspected it was bloody difficult to shock the woman.
Decision entered her eyes, and she stepped forward—so close her subtle scent reached his nose.Fresh…clean…lemon—and reached up. He went rigid in anticipation of her touch. Perhaps a brush of his cheek. Or mayhap her slender fingers would slide around his neck and curl into his hair. He didn’t think he would mind very much.
Or at all.
Her hands, however, stopped at his neck and began tugging at his cravat. “Pardon?” There was no mistaking the scratch of desire in his throat.
“I need this.”
