And over the naked woman lying beneath.
“What in the devil are you doing here?” His heart pounded. He wished he could say it was from anger.
Amanda propped herself up on her elbows, the sheet sliding down to drape over her breasts. The white silk clung to her nipples like a drowning sailor to a lifeline. Her dark hair lay in loose curls over her shoulders and spilled to the pillow below. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “I’ve come here to seduce you.”
Chapter Five
Amanda held her breath. If Julius refused her once more, she … well, she wasn’t certain what she’d do other than scamper back to her room and hide under her pillow. A woman could only take so much rejection.
Her letter writing campaign to members of the House of Lords had given her some confidence. She thought her words actually held a touch of eloquence. She could speak up, perhaps actually be listened to by one or more of the gentlemen.
She’d rediscovered her voice.
So, she’d decided to ask again for what she wanted.
Julius stood over her, his cravat loose around his neck, his chest rising and falling beneath his dark waistcoat. He pressed his full lips into a hard line. “Vixen, you push too far for your own good. A man can only take so much tempting.”
“That’s what I was hoping.” With a deep breath for courage, she pushed up to her hands, letting the buttery-soft silk sheet slip to her waist. The cool air nipped at her breasts, and the peaks hardened.
Julius cursed, loudly and creatively. But his gaze never left her chest. Stretching out a hand, he ran a finger from her collarbone down over the tip of her breast and circled her nipple. His caress was feather-soft, but its impact hit her like a hammer. Her body shuddered, her back instinctively arching into him.
“So pretty.” He sat on the bed, the mattress sinking beneath him. “Your nipples look like berries in the moonlight.” Leaning forward, his breath whispered over her skin. “Do you taste as good as you look, Amanda?”
She had no words. Excitement and nerves gripped her in equal measure. But she needed this, needed to know she wasn’t damaged beyond repair. She pushed the nerves aside and reached for his face. Rubbing her thumb along the scar on his cheek, she pulled him close.
Needing no further invitation, Julius took what she offered. His hot mouth closed around her breast. Amanda’s head dropped back and she stared at the tester above. His mouth on her skin was indescribable. He cupped her other breast in his hand. With his thumb and forefinger, he rolled her nipple, sending fire straight to her core.
Arms weak, she sank back onto the bed, and Julius followed her down. His teeth scored her nipple before he lapped at the slight ache. Each stroke of his tongue, every caress of his hand, clouded her mind. Thought drifted away. Only sensation existed.
“God, this isn’t right,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t”—he nibbled on the soft skin on the underside of her breast—“be doing this.” Thankfully, his words seemed to be hollow as he didn’t cease his attentions. But she gripped his shoulders and held him close to make sure he didn’t leave off. Digging her fingers into the fine wool of his coat, one thought became clear.
Julius wore entirely too many clothes.
She shoved at his lapels, pushing his coat over his shoulders. He shrugged out of it and whipped off his cravat. Thumbing the buttons of his waistcoat through their holes, he shed that garment in record time. His shirt easily slid over his head. Julius stood, the light matting of hair across his chest just visible in the dim light. She reached for the buttons on his pantaloons, but he moved to the end of the bed and tied back the bed’s curtains.
“No, leave them down.”
He hesitated. “You sleep enclosed?”
She nodded.
“Even though you were trapped in a five-by-ten cell for nearly a year?” Confusion laced his voice. Confusion and concern.
“It …” She didn’t know how to express the need she felt to be cocooned. The security she found when she was sealed off from the rest of the world. “It makes me feel safe.”
She grew chilled as she waited for his response and she tugged at the sheet, raising it higher.
Grabbing the other end of the sheet, he pulled it back down to her waist. “You can’t cover up what you’ve offered so prettily.” He sat beside her on the bed. “I want to understand. You like to be closed up?”
“I need it,” she whispered. And she did. If she was allowed into the great wide world, what would the consequences be? Would she control herself? Would she hurt someone, or get hurt herself? Just thinking about all the space thatoutsideentailed made her short for breath.
He laid a comforting hand on her knee and stroked up and down the sheet covering her leg. “But …” He cleared his throat. “You were in the dark for so long. No fresh air. No freedom. Why?”
How could she explain to him what she didn’t understand herself? She’d made friends with the dark long ago. In her cell, she’d known that the outside world could no longer hurt her. And she wouldn’t be allowed to hurt anyone else. She’d been freer in prison than she had been the first twenty-three years of her life.
Staring at his hand on her leg, she lifted one shoulder. “I like to be enclosed. I can’t explain it.”
He squeezed her thigh. “All right. Explanations can come later.” Rising, he stepped to the end of the bed and released one of the curtains. “A compromise. We’ll leave the drapes facing the door closed, but I want to be able to look out the window.”
