“No,” she said, shaking her head as her eyes searched his. She did not know what she was seeking. “I like the way you feel.”
Far, far too much.
He caressed her cheek with his thumb, his expression almost boyish. “And I like the way you feel.”
The more time she spent with him, the more impossible it became for her to believe he was the man she had once thought him. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it, feeling emotions she did not want to feel.
“Stop torturing your beautiful mouth,” he said, kissing her swiftly before withdrawing from her and rolling away.
He thought her mouth was beautiful? She lay there, pressing a tentative touch to her lips, wondering just what manner of man her husband truly was.
Chapter Sixteen
I cannot wait to marry my next victim, dear reader. Poor, naïve, innocent Miss V. I will take great enjoyment in debauching her…
~fromConfessions of a Sinful Earl
He was aruthless savage.
He had torn Callie’s night rail to shreds and slammed into her, riding her without thought and care. Because she had felt so bloody good, all tight, slick heat. Because she had touched his cock and then licked his seed from her thumb.
Because she was an erotic siren sent from the fiery depths of hell to torment him.
And because he possessed no restraint, no control at all when it came to her. Decker was right. He needed to exercise greater caution when it came to her. But how the devil was he to do that when he could not think straight in her presence?
Sin ran a hand over his jaw and tried to stop fantasizing about throwing his wife over his shoulder and hauling her from his study. There were a great deal of tasks awaiting him. His wife had plans to hire new servants, refurbish his pathetic excuse for a townhome, and Lord knew what else.
The only new hire he planned to concern himself with was a replacement nursemaid for his mother. A better nursemaid. One who did not get into the laudanum with alarming frequency. But that was his affair and not a worry with which he would encumber his wife. His mother’s condition was too delicate to burden her with the addition of a new face. She still thought Celeste was alive, when she had moments of lucidity.
Mama would never understand that he had a new wife now.
A new wife who was currently seated opposite him, clutching a book and pen in her dainty hands, making notes in her flowery script. At least he knew what she had been doing yesterday in his absence. The perplexing woman had made a list.
“What is left?” he asked her now. “You hardly need my approval for household changes. Hire as many domestics as you like. Hang all the pictures you wish. Tear down the wall coverings. Replace the Axminster.”
“The piano needs to be tuned,” she said without looking up.
Hell.She had been in the music room?
“Have it tuned, then.” He paused. “Do you play?”
She glanced up, her expression startled. “Of course.”
“I would like to hear you play, after the old monstrosity is in proper working order again,” he said.
A smile curved her lush lips. “I would like that.”
If she kept looking at him that way, he was going to ravish her right here on his study desk.
“Excellent.” He cleared his throat, feeling foolish and overwhelmed with lust all at once. He needed to put some distance between them. With haste. “Was that all you wished to discuss, then? I do have some other matters requiring my attention today.”
Her expression fell, and he felt like an arse.
“Oh, of course. Forgive me, my lord.” She turned her attention back to her list. “There is just one more thing. Your butler, Langdon.”
Ah. Good old Langdon.
“What of him?” he asked.
