“Really, Rayne. Solutions aren’t ever discovered by negating suggestions.”
“You’re right.” He sighed harshly.
“I am?”
“We’ll decide when we’re closer. Perhaps I’ll secrete you at an inn nearby.”
“No.”
He lifted his brows. “Perhapsyou can be my footman.”
“Perhaps?”
“You’ll have to learn a thing or two about being a man.”
She snorted.
“Scoff all you like but observe.” He grasped her shoulders and angled them both so their reflection appeared in the beveled looking glass on the table. “Have you ever seen a footman curl his shoulders as you are?”
She was curling her shoulders so her breasts wouldn’t stick out! But she loosened her limbs, widened her stance, and pulled back her shoulders.
He flushed again. “Never mind.” He dropped his hands from her shoulders. “I’m no longer certain I wish to proceed.”
She shrugged. “Very well, then. I’ll proceed alone.”
He blocked her advance toward the door. She bumped up against him and froze. Chest to chest. Thigh to, well, belly…with the male appendage formerly in question as hard as his expression.
“Not swinging,” he murmured.
And, from the hungry, focused look in his eye, human male anatomy hardened for exactly the same reasons as a horse.
His heat torched her blood, spreading all the way from her core to her fingertips.
Oh yes, no question, she was undeniably a female. A male-focused female.Thismale in particular.
Think.
Rayne wanted her. Bodily, at least.
She hadn’t beenfullyconvinced before. But the pressure against her stomach left no doubt about his interest. Thick, pulsing interest he wasn’t bothering to hide.
Instead, he stood perfectly still, as if her awareness of his desire were a challenge—You’ll turn back, now, won’t you, kitten?
Wrong.She couldn’t leave, especially now, with their yet-unacknowledged connection flaring between them.
Lady Julia Stanley never backed down from a rational challenge.
Only wasanyof this rational? On the other hand, when had she ever ceded to logic where Rayne was concerned? What mattered was keeping her wits.Here. Now.
She leaned into him, embracing all things feminine. “What aboutthis?” She meant the heat between them, the fire that needed no tinder. “What’s your rule about this, Rayne?”
His gaze bore into hers, penetrating. Then he focused on her lips. Everything in the room disappeared…everything except him.
“If you’re talking about my hard cock.” His icy eyes darkened into moonlit pools. “The rule is, we ignorethis…for both our sakes.”
She should pull away.Absolutely. But cock was such a delicious new word—andhard cock, practically savory.
So, instead, she entwined her fingers in his beard and then stroked upward, following the hard line of his jaw to his ear. She took the lobe between her thumb and forefinger and rubbed.
