His desire for her was beyond his capacity to control it. Beyond duty and honor. He was mindless, helpless, thoughtless. She was everything, all around him, making him weak. Making him hers.
On a groan of painful pleasure, he coaxed her mouth to open. Her tongue met his, and the kiss turned decadently carnal. It was primal, a mating. Her fingers were in his hair, tunneling through the strands, grasping handfuls. She rose on her toes, pressing her mouth into his harder.
He had not been wrong about the passion flaring between them. She felt it, too. He would stake his life upon it. This was not the kiss of an actress but the raw, real kiss of a woman. A woman who wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her.
His instincts took over, and he guided them across the salon toward the piano where she had sung for him two nights earlier. Alone, in the darkness of the night, he had imagined having her here. He had thought of her sitting on the bench with her skirts raised, her legs spread to reveal the sweet pink flesh hidden between them. He had thought of sinking to his knees before her like a supplicant at the altar of a goddess. Of licking her, sinking his tongue inside her. Tasting her.
The animal within wanted that now. But he was not certain he could go slowly. A leisurely seduction would not be possible. The raging erection in his trousers was demanding to be freed. He was almost delirious with lust.
So delirious, he missed his aim. Instead of guiding her to the piano bench, he guided her into the keys. The dissonant sound produced by her skirts brushing against the ivory echoed through the chamber, momentarily breaking the thrall in which she held him.
He tore his mouth from hers, his breathing harsh. Her back was to the piano, and her eyes were hooded, almost drowsy. The vibrant blue hit him. The obsidian discs of her pupils were wide. She looked as if she had been drugged. Her lips were full and dark, puffy from his kisses. Her breathing was as ragged as his.
He had never wanted her more.
“I will not accept five thousand pounds,” she told him.
He was so startled by the husky sound of her voice, it took him a moment to focus upon what she had said. They were back to his ill-advised offer of money in exchange for bedding her.
She was turning down his proposition once more. As she should.
Disappointment lanced him, and yet, her persistent refusal buoyed his spirits.
“Please forgive me for the insult I paid you,” he said, thinking again of her stinging slap, the outrage on her countenance.
Either she was playing the grandest role of her life, or she was being honest with him. As honest as she had been yesterday at luncheon when she had revealed some of the details of her past with him.
“No money,” she repeated. “I will not be bought.”
“Of course not,” he agreed, reluctant to loosen his hold on her and allow her to slip from his embrace.
He liked having her in his arms.
“I will give myself to you freely if and when I choose.” Her gaze searched his. “But I still intend to hold you to the wager. You have three more days to attempt to defeat me and fail.”
She was certain of herself, especially after the kisses they had just shared. After he had almost ravished her on the piano bench. After she had turned to flame in his arms.
He would have said as much had not a rapping at the door intruded. Felix released Johanna and stepped away from her, putting some much-needed distance between them once more. Needed for his sanity, anyway.
“Enter,” he called, wondering why the devil his butler would dare disrupt their tête-à-tête.
But when the door swung open and he saw the servant’s expression, he feared he knew. He braced himself, anticipating the worst.
“There has been an explosion at Halford House, Your Grace,” said the butler. “I have received word the Fire Brigade has been sent to douse the flames.”
Everything inside him shriveled, and an incapacitating rush of fear walloped him.
He could only think of one thing.
“Verity,” he ground out. “Is she safe?”
“She had not yet been found when word was sent, Your Grace.”
Dear God.His daughter. He could not lose her. Would not lose her. He had to go, to find her, to make certain she was safe. She was all he could think about, fear lashing his heart so tightly he could scarcely breathe.
“Carriage?” he clipped.
“It is being readied,” the butler reassured him. “It will be here within moments.”
