It was there, in her heart. In her mind. It was a feeling that consumed her, one she would never forget, even after she would be forced to leave him. And that was the real reason why she could not do as he asked. She loved him so much it hurt, and he had destroyed her for any other who would ever dare to come after.
“The words,” he urged, kissing back down her spine. “Say. Them.” Kiss, kiss, kiss.
Oh.
Something inside her unraveled. His mouth sent gooseflesh over her. A tremor of something wicked and wonderful licked its way straight to her core. She ached for him, and not just physically but… everywhere. Her heart, her mind, her body. In a short amount of time, this man had become so much to her.
He had become everything.
He palmed the left mound of her buttocks, fingers tightening just enough. “I want it on your lips, on your tongue. I want to hear it again, just once more if it is all I can have.”
His palm connected with her bottom. The sting was not strong, but just enough to jar her free of the weighty musings holding her down. “Tell me again. Say it, Cin.”
Good sweet heavens, the way he abbreviated her name. Sin was precisely what she wanted to do with him. Tonight, tomorrow, and every day thereafter. She had fallen in love with the man she had to betray. The man she continued to deceive with each word, each touch, each breath.
His palm connected with her flesh again. This time, it stung.
“Say it,” he demanded. His teeth sank into her flesh. The sensation of his mouth upon her rump was so wicked and foreign and unthinkable, she could not help but want more. But despite her wantonness, she would not bend.
“I cannot,” she insisted, defying him.
He delivered another swat, just as stinging as the last.
His mouth moved over the flesh that had just received his hand. Open-mouthed kisses worshipped her, making a lie of all his threats. “Damn you, Cin.”
She felt as if her heart had been gutted with the finesse of a fishmonger plying his trade. “I cannot.”
“Cannot?” He spanked her bottom again, inciting a deliciously wicked ache. “Or will not? It feels as if we have tread on this tired ground before, my love.
“Both?” she asked, half question, half response.
He gripped her hips again, guiding her onto her knees, bottom thrust upward. His fingers splayed on her thighs, urging them to part. And then his tongue was upon her, inside her. He worshipped her with his mouth, his fingers finding their way through her folds to the wanton bud within. She was slick and engorged, and the combination of his tongue and gentle, knowing pressure wrung a sudden, violent climax from her.
She surrendered. Gave in to him. To everything. To her heart.
“I love you,” she moaned. “I love you. I love you.”
With a satisfied groan, he replaced his tongue with his cock, sinking deep inside her in one swift, hard thrust. “Finally, my love,” he gritted, withdrawing slowly only to slide home again.
And again.
And again.
And nothing had ever felt so real. Nor had it ever felt so perfect. If only the morning sun never needed to rise.
Chapter Seventeen
“Oh, Miss Turnbow,orange cheesecakes,” said Nora with a sigh. “How lovely!”
Whilst Nora’s enthusiasm for the dessert plated before her was decidedly unladylike, Crispin had to admit Jacinda had managed a great deal of improving transformation with his hoyden sisters. Indeed, the entire household was ablaze with the light of her presence, and it seemed that no one—not even the ordinarily stalwart Nicholson who currently presided over dinner with an uncharacteristic smile—was immune to her charms.
“This is even better than the Portugal cakes, Miss Turnbow,” added Con, her eyes rolling in imagined bliss.
Jacinda flushed, her gaze meeting his for a moment before flitting wildly about the table, as if she searched for a safe place to look. He was staring, but he did not give a damn. All he could think of was her sweet voice telling him she loved him in the night.
She loved him. How impossible. How wonderful. She. Loved. Him.Him—the most imperfect, unlovable, unlikable bastard in the realm. He had spent the entirety of the day since their secret return from their night of indulgence reliving every second of it. His besotted mind had complete control over all the rest of him. It seemed that he could only see, hear, and smell her.
How he longed to be tasting and touching her as well.
