His tone was teasing. She knew him well enough by now to understand that he was speaking of a certain portion of his anatomy.
Nando was being so silly that she couldn’t help but to laugh, some of the tension easing from her. His lightheartedness was, as ever, infectious.
“Your feet?” she pretended to guess.
“My cock.” His head dipped toward hers. “Naturally, I would be more than happy to offer proof.”
“What manner of proof?” she dared to ask, enjoying their banter, their proximity, this chance to flirt with each other and no need to worry over being caught in an indelicate position alone together.
How freeing it was.
No more icy Miss Brett.
Now, she was someone else. Not the girl she’d been a lifetime ago, but certainly not the prim spinster who had grimly led her charges across the dance floors of theton.
He took her hand in his and brought it to the fall of his trousers. “Will this suffice?”
Good heavens.He was indeed large. And long. And distinctly hard.
She had felt him against her before, but this was different. He molded her fingers around his length, granting her a liberty that both shocked and titillated her.
Feeling bold, she met his gaze, falling into the astounding sea-blue. “I’m not certain I am convinced just yet.”
His lips twitched. “A closer inspection, then.”
She explored him tentatively, growing accustomed to the feeling of him, so big, so bold, curious about how best to please him. The more she stroked him, the more her own desire heightened.
“Ye gods, Eleanora.” He lowered his forehead to hers, his breath falling hotly over her lips. “I need you now.”
Her pulse quickened.
“Whatever shall the servants think?”
He kissed her swiftly and then raised his head, nimble fingers undoing the retied knot of his cravat. “That I am besotted with my wife and intend to shag her silly for the rest of the day.” He pulled the neckcloth free and tossed it to the floor. “And they would be correct.”
Nando wasdisrobing. And whilst she had seen the glory of his bare chest before, she had never seen his entire form. Eleanora couldn’t look away from the sight of the potently masculine prince undressing before her. Not just the prince, she reminded herself, but herhusband. How was it possible? It seemed a dream from which she would wake up.
Just one week ago, she couldn’t have imagined the turn her life would take. That she would go from being a spinster chaperone hired to guide unmarried ladies through polite society to being this beautiful man’s wife.
She swallowed as he shrugged out of his coat and moved to the buttons on his waistcoat. “It’s highly improper, surely.”
He chuckled. “The best things in life always are.”
How she wished she were so carefree. Perhaps she could be, in time. Her role as Miss Brett, chaperone to London’s innocent misses, had become so ingrained that she wasn’t even certain who she had been before. The reckless girl who had wholeheartedly embraced the gaiety of her mother’s scandalous circle had long since faded into a dreary version of her former self.
“You’re frowning.” The buttons of his crisp, white shirt were undone at his throat now, a slice of sun-bronzed skin visible. “I can see your clever mind at work, fretting over propriety. Stop thinking at once. You are meant only to feel.”
Nando held her face in his hands and kissed her again, slowly, sweetly. How easy it was to forget everything else when his lips claimed hers. She surrendered easily to his expert mouth, to his tongue, and—good heavens—even his teeth as he caught her lower lip in a gentle nip that sent a bolt of liquid heat rushing between her thighs. Despite the pleasure he had given her in the carriage, she already wanted him again.
Oh yes, he had her feeling. Feeling far, far too much.
His lips left hers to nuzzle her ear. “This moment is all I’ve been longing for.”
It occurred to her suddenly that he was a practiced seducer and she was woefully inexpert. The tip of his tongue traced the whorl of her ear, eliciting a shiver from her.
“What if it proves a disappointment?”
“Not a chance.” He kissed her throat, her jaw, found his way back to her lips and kissed her until she was breathless again.
