His hands stilled on her back. “I burned them.”
She had not expectedthatreply.
She tipped her head back to search his expression, finding his countenance wry. “Youburnedyour curtains, Roland?”
He winced. “I will admit, it was not one of my finer moments. After I saw you at Mrs. Hastings’ ball, I found myself here in the library, getting sotted, burning all the poetry volumes which contained references to love. When those had run out, I turned to the curtains.”
She had hurt him. And badly. How she hated the reminder of the manner in which she had needlessly torn them apart. The manner in which she had allowed George’s lies to persuade her that the best man she had ever known was a scoundrel when in fact the opposite was true.
“I am so very sorry for—”
He held a finger to her lips. “Stop. I am not sorry. We found each other in the way we were meant to. Now, I have you and Char-char and Puppy, and I am the most fortunate man in the bloody world.”
I do not deserve him,she thought.
She kissed the digit pressed against her mouth. He removed it, and then claimed her lips in a long, thorough kiss that left the both of them breathless. The way he gazed down at her, such naked love on his face, made longing blossom inside her, like a bud tightly furled for too long.
“No more of the past,” he said. “No more of its hold on us.”
“No more,” she agreed, her lips tingling, body aching, heart overflowing.
“Now then.” A wicked grin curved his sensual lips. “I think I have just the thing to keep you pleasantly distracted before I must go.”
Oh.She knew that look on his face.
More warmth bloomed. “You do? Perhaps you ought to enlighten me.”
“I have precisely ten minutes to make you come.”
She swallowed. The need between her legs was acute. And the rest of her? She was positively aflame. “What do you have in mind?”
He took her hand in his. “Follow me, and I will be more than happy to show you.”
Their fingers laced, and Roland led her to a chair by the cold hearth, urging her to seat herself there. She settled on the edge, her pulse leaping. What could he possibly have in mind?
“Here?” she asked, scandalized.
“Where else?” His dark gaze burned into hers with unabashed carnal intent. “Traveling to another chamber shall only cost us precious time.”
“Excellent point. However, this room is hardly private.”
He sank to his knees before her, her beloved man, his raven hair gleaming in the light filtering through the windows. “The door is closed.”
“Someone could open it,” she pointed out as his hands slipped beneath her hems to find her ankles.
“At their peril.” He caressed her through the silk of her stockings.
A small sigh of appreciation fled Pippa. She would never grow tired of his touch. “Surely it is out of the ordinary for a duke and duchess to make use of the library in such fashion.”
His grin deepened as his fingers skimmed over her calves, spreading more fire in their wake. “It should have occurred to you by now that we are no ordinary duke and duchess, Sunshine.”
Well, he was not wrong about that, was he?
His caresses traveled over her knees next, guiding them apart. Surely he did not intend to do what she thought he was going to do?
“That is not what I meant, and you know it,” she said, breathless as he stroked down her calves, gently massaging as he worked to her ankles once more.
“Are you going to keep arguing, love, or are you going to lift your skirts so I can lick you until you spend?” he asked, his velvet baritone and naughty words making wetness pool between her thighs where she was already throbbing for him.
