“Admit it, you little baggage. You wanted me,” he gritted out.
She refused to give him the satisfaction. “You could have beenanyman.”
A dark flame leapt in his eyes as he leaned over her. “So you would have allowed any man’s tongue between your lips? Any man’s hand down your bodice? You’d ride any man’s thigh and pant in his ear?”
“You… you’re no gentleman.” Not the strongest riposte, but it was difficult to think when she could scarcely breathe. His nearness made her feel lightheaded. More than a little crazed. Clinging to her last vestiges of rationality, she shot back, “Only a troglodyte would say such things.”
“Troglodyte? Impressive word.” His eyes glinted like raw ore. “But can you spell it?”
That does it.
Black lines exploded across her vision. Her hand raised to slap him.
He caught her wrist. Her other hand automatically came up, but he caught that one too. Before she knew what was happening, he’d driven her backward, her spine pressing up against the end of a bookshelf. He caged her, pinning her hands above her head with one big hand. Bosom heaving, staring into his dark impassioned eyes, she felt…anticipation.
“By Jove, you drive me mad, woman,” he growled.
Her heart hammered in her ears. “Not as mad as you drive me.”
Pure masculine triumph flashed in his eyes.
“Then let’s go to Bedlam together,” he rasped.
His mouth slammed onto hers.
~~~
All thoughts of honor and duty were washed away by a flood of red—anger and desire so intertwined that there was no hope of separating them. Together, they lashed at him, whipping him into an animal frenzy. Control slipped from his grip, replaced by the burning, driving need to tame and claim the recalcitrant goddess in his arms.
He ravaged her soft lips, shuddering when they parted on a breathy moan. When she licked his invading tongue, he felt that lush swipe all the way down in his groin. His balls swelled, his engorged cockhead butting against his trousers.
Her sweet, hot flavor wiped reason from his brain. He was driven by one imperative.
Make her mine.
He released her wrists, growling with satisfaction when her fingers speared his hair, pulled him closer. He loosened the tie of her wrapper, his palms roaming over her night rail. Cupping one sweetly rounded breast, he found the stiff peak, working it between finger and thumb, swallowing her sensual little gasp. He dragged up the voluminous fabric of her shift, bunching it between them.
His hand closed around one sleek, soft thigh and moved upward.Goddamn—yes.She was drenched for him, her plump petals soaked with dew.
“Wh-what are you doing?” She looked dazed. “You can’t, shouldn’t…ohh, by Golly…”
He stroked her leisurely. “Shouldn’t what? Touch your pearl? Tickle it like this—or like this?”
She whimpered; her thighs clamped with erotic insistence around his hand.
“Work yourself against me,” he said thickly. “There you go, lass. Exactly so.”
Eyes glazed, she wriggled against his hand, her bottom lip caught beneath her teeth. Her wanton innocence undid him: no woman had ever responded to him with such unschooled passion, such pure feminine desire.
His cock had risen fully, the blunt dome nudging past his waistband. He spurted a little as he petted her, diddling her pearl, coating it with her own cream. Maddened by her moans, he went lower, delving deep into her slick folds. As his thumb rocked over her nubbin of pleasure, his middle finger circled her quivering hole.
“Do you feel empty here?” he rasped. “Does this little mouth wish to be fed?”
Her hips lifted, her eyes passionate and needy. “Carlisle,please…”
His name on her lips and her breathless plea—a siren’s song.
Triumph blasting through him, he nudged his finger deeper, groaning at the exquisite restriction. Her shiver coursed through him, his cock straining desperately toward the virginal paradise flowering around his digit. Mindful of the snug fit, he touched her carefully, raging lust tempered by tenderness he’d never felt with any woman before. He plunged and withdrew in measured increments, shuddering when she finally took him to the knuckle.
