Roman withdrew his hand from her breeches as she scrambled off him and threw herself into the opposite seat. She quickly re-buttoned her fall, and Roman tossed her hat over.
She caught it easily just before the door opened. Her gaze caught his, smoldering with her lingering desire. Roman’s body thrummed as he ached for her.
He stared at her with dark promise, wishing they’d had a much longer journey in the coach. He lifted his hand and licked the finger of his glove, tasting her on the kidskin. Her eyes narrowed at him just before he climbed down from the coach.
Roman thanked the coachman before walking toward the house. He heard Ellis moving behind him. Graham opened the door, and Roman stepped into the entrance hall. He inclined his head at the butler and said he was going upstairs for the evening.
Moving into the staircase hall, Roman slowed, dallying whilst he waited for Ellis. She approached him with a guarded look, and Roman feared they would not continue what they’d started in the coach. They’d had several conversations about why they should not engage in this sort of familiarity.
Familiarity?
That word didn’t remotely come close to the primal, explosive connection firing between them.
Ellis came abreast of him at the base of the staircase, and he held his breath. “Come to my room,” she whispered. “When you can.”
“Soon,” he promised.
She gave him a sultry stare, and he assumed her momentary wariness came from wondering if he would want to continue. He most certainly did. In fact, he feared he would expire if they did not.
But they would. As soon as he could dispatch his valet and ensure the servants would not disturb them.
Then, he and Ellis would see this attraction to its natural and thrilling end.
Roman paced in his chamber after dismissing Graham for the evening. The butler also served as his valet because Roman found he didn’t need to pay two salaries when he had such a small household. If anyone knew that he, a marquess, didn’t have a dedicated valet, they would surely think him a failure, or at least incredibly strange.
It was after eleven, but Roman wasn’t sure all the servants had retired. The footman was typically the last one awake, but Roman had clearly informed Graham that he didn’t require anything further.
Why was he so bloody nervous?
He realized his tension had little to do with whether his retainers were still knocking around and more to do with the fact that he hadn’t been with a woman since his wife, and she’d died over two years ago. Furthermore, they hadn’t shared a bed for several months before her death, because she’d found reasons to deny him. In fact, Roman had spent that time sleeping in the chamber Ellis now occupied.
When he thought of her in the bed he once slept in, his body heated again. Not that it had fully cooled since they’d left the coach.
It occurred to Roman that he hadn’t ever wanted Clarissa this desperately. Perhaps because when he thought back, he could see that she hadn’t ever been interested in sharing his bed.
Bloody hell, he did not want to think about Clarissa right now.
Roman strode to the door and, opening it, stepped into the narrow hall that adjoined the larger staircase hall via an archway. He would not go that far, however. The door to Ellis’s chamber was to the left.
Before he could take a step, he froze. Because Patience, the maid, was just exiting that doorway. She carried a basin and toweling.
His heart thumped as he waited motionless to see if she would notice him. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to as she moved toward the archway. Roman slunk backward over the threshold of his chamber just as Patience paused and turned. Did she see that his door was open?
He held his breath until she departed. He closed the door and pressed his head against the wood as he closed his eyes and filled his lungs. This was madness. He ought to go to bed. Alone.
Except his body was still hard and eager, his mind full of Ellis and how badly he wanted to touch her sex with his bare hand. Perhaps if he just waited a little while longer…
He resumed pacing.
A few minutes later, or perhaps much longer since he wasn’t actually tracking the time, he heard a light rap on the door from the bathing chamber. Roman crossed to it in two giant steps and threw it open.
Ellis stood just over the threshold. Her face was spectacularly bare, and he drank in her beauty. Her blonde hair was plaited and tied with a light blue ribbon. The plait hung over her shoulder, the curled end grazing her breast.
She wore a light dressing gown that left no doubt as to her true gender. Her curves were easily discernible, and Roman wondered how she was ever able to accomplish hiding herself in the men’s costumes.
“You take my breath away,” he whispered.
She gave him a tentative look. “May I come in?”
