She did, and her instincts had been right…she shouldn’t have. The man looked positively blissful, eyes closed, lips curved in a sensual smile, and so handsome it was sinful. He wasn’t asleep. He was just enjoying her touch…Oh God! It came on her in waves, the heat, the weakness, a tempest set loose inside her. Her hands fell away from him. He caught them so quickly she gasped. And slowly he returned them, not to his temples, but to his cheeks.
She was cupping his cheeks, and staring into his eyes, piercing eyes, hot green, mesmerizing green. And then it happened, lips to lips, his to hers, covering, opening, flaming hot. She was sucked into the vortex, sinking, a whirlpool of sensation taking her deeper and deeper.
How much time passed she’d never know, but gradually Georgina became aware of what was happening. James Malory was kissing her with all the passion a man could put into a kiss, and she was kissing him back as if her very life depended on it. It felt as if it did, but it felt right. Her nausea had returned worse than ever before, but it felt wonderful now, and right, too. Right? No, something wasn’t right. He was kissing her…No, he was kissing Georgie!
She went hot, then cold with shock. She pushed away from him frantically, but he held her fast. She only managed to break the kiss, but that was enough.
“Captain! Stop! Are you mad? Let me—”
“Shut up, you darling girl. I can’t play this game anymore.”
“What game? Youaremad! No, wait…!”
She was drawn over him, then under him, his weight pinning her down in the soft bed. For a moment she couldn’t think again. The familiar nausea, not so familiar now, much too pleasant now, was spreading. And then it clicked.You darling girl?
“You know!” she gasped, shoving his shoulders back so she could see his face and accuse him properly. “You’ve known all along, haven’t you?”
James was in the throes of the most powerful lust he had ever experienced in his life. But he still wasn’t so far gone that he was going to make the mistake of ’fessing up to that one, not when it looked as if what promised to be a prime temper was gathering steam.
“I wish to bloody hell I had known,” he growled low as he shoved the vest off her shoulders. “And I’ll have an accounting from you later, you may depend upon it.”
“Then how…? Oh!”
She clung to him as his mouth seared her neck to her ear. When his tongue swirled about her earlobe, she shivered deliciously.
“They’re not pointy at all, you little liar.”
She heard his deep chuckle and felt an urge to smile in answer, and that surprised her. She should be apprehensive over her unmasking, but with his mouth on her, she wasn’t. She should be stopping what he was doing, but with his mouth on her, she couldn’t. She hadn’t an ounce of strength or will to even try.
She did hold her breath when a single tug took away her cap and stocking both, spilling the dark mass of her hair out on the pillow and unmasking her in truth. The apprehension she felt now, however, was wholly female in nature, in hoping he wouldn’t be disappointed with what he saw. And he was most thorough in his examination, and very still as he looked her over. When his green eyes finally met hers, they were blazing with intensity again.
“I ought to thrash you for hiding all this from me.”
The words didn’t frighten her. The way he was looking at her belied any serious intent toward thrashing. On the contrary. The meaning behind the words sent a pleasant thrill right down to her toes. The voracious kiss that followed sent the thrill rushing everywhere else.
It was quite some time before she could breathe again. Who needed to breathe? She didn’t. And she still wasn’t doing it right, was gasping really as those experienced lips moved around her face and neck. When her shirt was removed with such subtle finesse, she barely noticed. But she did notice the teeth at her breast bindings that started a tear his hands quickly ripped apart.
She hadn’t been expecting that, but then everything that was happening was so far out of her experience, there was no hope of anticipating anything. Somewhere in the muddle of her mind was the thought that disrobing her was a consequence of her deceit, that he was doing it only to make absolutely sure there would be no more surprises for him. Then why all the kisses? But she couldn’t hold on to that thought, not when he was staring at her breasts.
“Now this was a crime, love, what you did to these poor beauties.”
The man could make her blush with a look, but his words…It was a wonder her skin tone wasn’t permanently pink. It was a wonder, too, that she had any thoughts left, for no sooner had he made the remark than his tongue was tracing the red lines and grooves left from the bindings. And his hands, they had each covered a breast and were gently massaging, soothing, as if he were merely trying to offer commiseration for their long imprisonment. She would have done the same thing had she removed the tight bindings herself, so she didn’t even think to suggest he not do that. And then his hand plumped up one breast to offer to his mouth, and she had no more thoughts for a while, just feelings.
Unlike Georgina’s, all of James’s faculties were working perfectly. They just weren’t very manageable. But then it wasn’t necessary to concentrate as he would with any other seduction, not with the darling girl cooperating so enthusiastically. In fact, he had to wonder who was seducing whom. Not that it made the least bit of difference at this point.
By God, she was exquisite, much more than he had supposed. The delicate features he had come to know were incredibly enhanced by the wealth of dark hair now framing her small face. And even in all his imaginings, he hadn’t guessed how luscious her little body would be. There had been no indication that her breasts would be so bountiful, her waist so narrow. But he’d known all along that the cute little derriere that had so intrigued him in that tavern would be perfect in shape and resiliency, and he wasn’t disappointed. He kissed each cheek as he bared it, and promised himself he’d devote more time to that adorable area later, but right now…
Georgina wasn’t ignorant of lovemaking. She’d overheard her brothers too many times discussing such things in plain and sometimes crude terms not to have gathered a general idea about how it was done. But she hadn’t associated that with what was happening to her—until now, when she felt his body with all of hers, skin to skin, heat feeding heat.
She didn’t even wonder how or when he’d finished her disrobing. She realized she was now as naked as he, but she was feeling too many other things to be embarrassed. He was on top of her, pressing her down, surrounding her in a purely dominant way. Vaguely she thought she ought to be crushed, brick wall that he was, but she wasn’t, not at all. His large hands were holding her face while he kissed her and kissed her, slowly, tenderly, then with scorching intensity. His tongue delved, tasted her, let her know the taste of him.
She didn’t want any of this to stop, what he was doing, what she was feeling, and yet…shouldn’t she stop it, at least make an effort to? To succumb knowingly, and she was reasonably certain now where this was leading, was to agree and accept. But did she? Really and truly?
How could she know for sure when she could barely put two thoughts together? Set her ten feet away from him, no, make that twenty, and she’d know. But right now, she liked the fact that there wasn’t even an inch separating them. Oh, God, she must have succumbed already. She just didn’t know it. No! She had to make an effort to be sure, for the sake of the conscience that was going to ask “What happened?” tomorrow.
“Captain?” she got out between kisses.
“Hmmm?”
