Her fingers found purchase in the knot of his cravat. “How do you suppose you’re at my mercy when you are the one who has decided my future for me?”
“I haven’t decided it.” He kissed her cheek, the corner of her lips. His wicked hands had captured fistfuls of her gown and petticoats and he was steadily lifting her hems higher, fingertips grazing her knees. “Your future is yours to choose. But be warned, darling. I will make every attempt to persuade you until you capitulate and admit that you want me every bit as much as I desire you.”
“Desire has never been in question.” Her skirts pooled around her on the table, and he caressed the outsides of her thighs. She had to pause to gather up her thoughts, which had dispersed like a flock of startled birds the moment his touch reached her bare skin above the garters holding her stockings in place. Oh, what had she meant to say? Surely there had been more. A protest. Something coherent.
But then he kissed her again, stealing her breath and her ability to think both. His caresses swept up and down her thighs, gentle and slow and mesmerizing. The ache deep inside her intensified. Her legs parted, and he stepped into the vee she had created, and suddenly there was no barrier between them. He guided her thighs around his waist and pressed the thick ridge of his cock into her center. She hooked her ankles together and quite shamelessly writhed against him.
His lips left hers again to string a path of kisses along her jaw. “You desire me, then?” he asked.
How could he wonder? Perhaps he just wanted to hear her admission. His hand found her breast, his thumb stroking over her nipple. And oh, how good it felt, sending a bolt of pure need to her core. Her fault for not wearing stays again this evening, but she hadn’t been in the mood, and this simple gown hadn’t required them. Her fault for giving in to his kisses.
He knew how to make her melt with scarcely any effort.
He rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger when she didn’t answer, then lightly pinched.
“Oh,” she said involuntarily, liking it far too much. His breath fanned hot over her ear, and his tongue traced the rim, making her shiver. “You know I do, you ruthless rogue.”
“I’myourruthless rogue, darling,” he murmured into her ear. “Say yes. Tell me you’ll be my wife.”
There were many reasons why she should not. Later, she would recall them, she was sure of it.
“Why?” she managed. “Why are you so determined to marry me?”
His fingers dug into her hips, pulling her even more snugly flush against him, so that her bottom was almost falling off the edge of the table. Only his body kept her from falling.
“Because.” He tugged her earlobe with his teeth and then lightly nibbled on her jaw before lifting his head. His gaze was stormy and dark, almost obsidian in the flickering flow of the chandelier overhead. “I want to be inside you, buried deep in your sweet, wet cunny, and I cannot do that until we are wed.”
His words sent a sizzle of pure, wicked fire through her. At the moment, all things seemed possible.
“You could do it now,” she suggested, for yearning was eating her up from within. She wanted to be one with him more than she wanted her next breath. “We needn’t be married first.”
Or ever, for that matter. She may not be nearly as worldly as he was, but congress between a man and woman was far more grounded in the scientific than the spiritual. It was a matter of two bodies joining, nothing else required.
“O wicked ward, what have you been reading in all those books of yours?” He shook his head slowly, his expression oddly tender. “Marriage is most definitely needed. As your guardian, I am meant to protect you. As it turns out, the man you need protection from the most is myself, because I cannot resist you. You’re wayward and wild and you rebel against me at every turn. You leave your books everywhere and drive me to distraction. You’re intelligent and far too stubborn, and I find I cannot fathom my life without you in it.” He paused, a rakish grin kicking up the corner of his lips. “And yes, I want to bed you more than I want to see tomorrow’s sun rise. But that won’t happen unless you are my duchess. Even I possess enough tattered shreds of honor to recognize that.”
His words left her feeling…oh, she didn’t know how to describe it. Strangely flushed. Vibrantly warm. Inside her brewed a curious mix of longing and emotion. Lust and fondness. Her anger with him was fading. How could he be so endearing when he was also so infuriating?
“I don’t leave my books everywhere,” she denied, rather than address the rest of what he’d said, for her whirling mind had yet to make sense of it all.
He raised a brow. “I found one on the library divan this morning, and another tucked into a pillow on the drawing room chaise longue.”
She had been too distraught to read. If she hadn’t been, surely she would have noticed their absences. Hmm, perhaps shedidleave her books strewn about. She often had to recall where she’d last been reading and go on an impromptu investigation of Hunt House’s many vast chambers.
“Are you holding them for ransom?” she asked rather than acknowledging that he knew her so well.
Apparently, better than she knew herself, in some instances. And that was a most vexing realization indeed.
“An excellent idea.” He smiled again, and it was a different sort of smile, one that reached the depths of his eyes. “Thank you for the suggestion.”
“I wasn’t suggesting it, and you know it.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll not blackmail you into marrying me. I hope to convince you in other ways.”
“I know which ways you mean. I can feel one of them now.” She flushed at her own boldness, her reference to the thick ridge of him pressed deliciously—and frustratingly—against where she longed for him most. Their scandalous embrace meant that she could feel all of him.
“Naughty minx.” He kissed her slowly, deeply, ravenously, their tongues tangling.
Kissed her until her breathing was ragged and she was grasping handfuls of his cravat and shirt and he was all she could think of. Kissed her and kissed her until he tore his mouth from hers, leaving her head spinning.
