A feeling that he’d kept carefully banked breached his defenses.
Still, he must resist. “You don’t.”
She reached out and picked up his hand where it rested on the keyboard and placed it at the curve of her waist. Where it had rested earlier today. “I understand more than you think, my lord.”
“Valentina,” he rasped. “I’m only a man.”
“AndIam only a woman.”
He shook his head. “Youare temptation personified.”
“And don’t you want to pluck me?”
Had she truly spoken those words withthatmeaning running below them?
The intention in her eyes saidyes.
Though he shouldn’t…
Though he would surely regret it on the morrow…
He would pluck her since she’d asked.
Chapter Ten
The words spilling from Valentina’s mouth… She didn’t understand why she needed so badly to speak them.
They would lead her down the path to ruin, if she wasn’t careful. Except…
She was too far gone down that particular path to be careful.
From the moment she’d opened her eyes to find Archie beside her bed, metamorphosed from her dream, she’d understood the inevitability of this moment.
The hand at her waist instinctively tightened. Strong and capable, those fingers of his. And when he tugged, she swayed forward, placing her hand on top of his, the feel of his bare skin beneath hers enough to send a flame of heat through her. She guided him up, so together, they pulled back a panel of her night-rail.
She shrugged one shoulder then the other, and the garment loosed and fell to a silken puddle on the floor, leaving her clad in naught but a flimsy chemise.
His pupils flared, pushing his irises into thin blue rings.Desire.Her body pulsed with it.
He cupped the back of her head, pulling her down so her lips were separated from his by the scantest sliver of air. “It’s not too late to turn back,” he spoke into that slender space, his lips brushing against hers, tempting her.
“Oh, but it is,” she said, pushing forward, at last, claiming his mouth with hers. Her head went light and her knees weak. His hands slid down the length of her body. She groaned when he slipped his tongue inside her mouth, leading her more fully into the carnality of the moment.
The Lord Archer she knew in the daylight was all lightness and air.
But this Lord Archer… His presence possessed a solid physicality capable of plumbing depths.
And, oh, how she wanted her depths plumbed.
The dark intention within his eyes promised he could.
His mouth found her neck, and a moan escaped her as his fingers trailed beneath her chemise, and before she knew what he was about, he’d pulled back and had it over her head, flung away.
He went utterly still as he took in her naked form. “Valentina,” fell from his mouth, “what a body you have.”
To see her effect on him, it touched a place of deep feminine power.
“May I touch you?” he asked.
