But she did not move.
Good.
He did not want her to go. Not yet.
“There are things we should do and things we should not do in this life,” he said. “Theshould notsare often far more enjoyable than theshoulds.”
The shadows danced around them, bringing a heady sense of intimacy and anticipation. He did not recall when he had last slowly seduced a woman. Perhaps it was the brandy or the lack of a ridiculously ornamented gown or the fact that Lady Isolde would soon be his wife and they were standing together, alone, in the home he had once considered the only place he truly belonged. Until Horatio had robbed him of it.
Curse his brother to the devil where he belonged.
Zachary did not trouble himself with the reason. He wanted Izzy here with him, he was too tired for sleep, and he was beginning to find himself randy.
Ah, hell.
Suddenly, the reason for his insomnia became apparent.
He had not bedded a woman in a long, blasted time. Not since well before the Greymoor ball. Little wonder he was slavering over Lady Isolde’s hand like a lovesick swain.Christ, he was pathetic.
“I came to look for something to read,” Lady Isolde said, sounding deliciously breathless.
That and the flush in her cheeks told him she was not unaffected. Her hair was long, almost down to her waist, not curly but with a wave to it that seemed natural rather than having been achieved by whatever coiffure her lady’s maid had coaxed it into earlier.
He still held her hand in his, so he gave it a gentle squeeze. “Are you suggesting you would prefer reading a boring old book to kissing your betrothed?”
She licked her lips, and that pink tongue darting over her full mouth was enough to make him bite back a groan. “You…you want to kiss me again?”
“And again,” he admitted shamelessly. “And again. Not just on your lovely lips, either.”
Her inky brows rose. “Where else?”
She had asked, the minx.
He approved, but he was also enjoying this unexpected game. Seduction was his favorite diversion. Aside from fucking. Perhaps more than fucking, depending upon the lady in question. With Izzy, every moment filled him with a heightened awareness he had not felt in…
Not since he had been younger and far more innocent than he was now. Far less jaded and cynical, his heart whole.
He kissed Izzy’s knuckles. “Here.”
“Oh.”
Was that disappointment he heard in his voice?
He could do better.
He kissed her inner wrist. “And here.”
“Yes.”
Zachary looped his other arm around her waist, pulling her nearer as he settled his lips on the creamy skin of her throat. “Here as well.”
She swallowed hard, the reverberations absorbed by his lips. “Very good.”
He kissed her jaw, and she pleased him by tilting her head back in invitation. Another surge of desire pulsed to life, hot and heavy. His head was suddenly filled with thoughts of fucking her here, on the carpets before the dimly smoldering hearth. Why not? She was going to be his wife soon enough.
She smelled so good, and the feeling of her in his arms, all those heavenly curves melded to his body in all the right ways, was more intoxicating than any amount of Horatio’s prized brandy he could spitefully consume.
He kissed his way to her ear. “Here.”
