She awaited him eagerly every night. Because she was a fool for him. She had been from that sunlit moment in the thickets between Eastlake Hall and Riverdale Abbey. Perhaps she would always be.
“You were worried for me?” He pressed a hand to his chest. “The cold recesses of my heart are warmed by your womanly concern.”
Clearly, the intervening hours since she had last seen him had not served to improve her husband’s mood.
She compressed her lips. “I thought you didn’t have a heart.”
“Touché.” At last, he rose, stretching to his full, impressive height. “You are correct. That fossil ceased to exist years ago.”
Slowly, inexorably, he moved toward her. There was a dangerousness to his mood. A darkness, too. But she had sought him out of her own accord, and Sybil refused to allow him to chase her now.
She tipped her head back as he reached her, holding his glittering stare. “Or perhaps that is merely a fiction you tell yourself, for I have seen evidence of your heart’s existence many times this last month.”
He caressed her throat above the prim collar of her dressing gown, his fingers slipping to her nape. “What evidence?”
A frisson of awareness skipped down her spine, her nipples pebbling to peaks beneath the layers that kept her from him. She wetted lips that had suddenly gone dry and tried to tamp downthe ache that had already begun to pulse to life between her legs. Sybil hated that she could be so weak for him, that she still desired him so much, when he remained so cold.
“You love your mother and your sister,” she told him, vexed with herself for her breathlessness.
“Is that what you came here to discuss?” he asked, lowering his face to her neck and dragging the tip of his nose along her throat to inhale her scent.
What had she come here to discuss? Her mind was fragmented. She could scarcely think.
She swallowed. “I…”
He kissed the shell of her ear, his breath hot on her, making her shiver. “You?”
Think, Sybil. Think.
“I was concerned about you,” she managed. “As I said.”
He worried the lobe with his teeth. “Or perhaps you were so desperate to have me inside you that you couldn’t wait until I retired to my room.”
Her eyes fluttered closed, her hands still at her sides. She refused to reach for him. To surrender. And yet, she found herself swaying toward him, like a blossom stretching for the sun.
“I assure you that I am capable of waiting,” she forced out, opening her eyes again.
He had taken off his coat and wore his shirtsleeves and waistcoat, his broad shoulders on display for her delectation.
“Are you?” he murmured in her ear, his tongue tracing the whorl with such delicateness that she couldn’t help but shudder with suppressed want. “What if I lifted your skirts right now and touched you? Would your sweet pussy be wet for me, Sybil?”
His wicked words shouldn’t titillate her. He was likely being crude out of cruelty. And yet, she couldn’t control the effect they had on her body.
Shewouldbe wet for him.
In the absence of her drawers beneath her nightgown, she could feel the dampness between her thighs. And if he touched her, he would know her sinful secret. That she desired him despite his callous behavior. That there was no greater bliss than his kiss, his touch.
“You are being vulgar,” she murmured.
“Mmm.” He strung a path of hot kisses along her jaw. “But you like it even if you don’t want to. Your heart may belong elsewhere, but your body is mine, and it betrays you every time I touch you.”
What did he mean about her heart belonging elsewhere? Surely he didn’t think she would rather be back at Eastlake Hall, knowing what he did of her father’s viciousness. It made no sense.
His lips had reached the corner of hers then, and he took them in a deep, carnal kiss that erased the confusion from her mind. She forgot to care about those troubling words and gave herself to him instead, reveling in his mouth. She hadn’t come here to be seduced. But now all the pent-up strain of having to prepare for the ball was gone, and they were alone in a darkened room, and his lips were on hers.
And he was all she wanted.
His other hand clamped on her waist, and he kissed her hungrily, as if he were starved for her. Kissed her with fury and passion, his mouth almost bruising with its intensity. And she kissed him back, finally allowing herself to touch him, settling her hands on his shoulders and clinging to him. She kissed him until her lips ached and she could scarcely catch a breath.
