Those dark eyes lifted again, and he slowly set his papers aside and nodded. “Do say it. You have my full attention.”
She swallowed hard. Having this man’s full attention was a rather terrifying idea. Whenever he looked at her, it was like he could see far under the surface. With full attention, it wouldn’t take him long to understand every tiny thing about her while she knew nothing in return.
“Amelia?”
She blinked, realizing she’d been sitting in silence for a far too long. “I’m sorry. I was just wondering if this is how it will always be for me. For us?”
“This?” he repeated. “Riding in a carriage?”
“No.” She glared at him a little. “I mean, this morning was nothing but commotion. Everything was rushed. And it’s been that way from the first moment you declared you would marry me to absolve my father of his debts. There has been upheaval and upset and…and…”
“Chaos,” he finished softly, all the teasing now gone from his face. “Yes, I understand. It must make you wonder about the whims of the man you married, and if I am the kind of person who makes these sorts of quick decisions that throw all into disarray. That would certainly affect you.”
She nodded and tried not to think of her own past, of pains that she had long ago put away, accepted. “Yes.”
He shook his head. “I have always been a measured person. I am careful in what I do and say. The last ten days of my life have been out of character in that way. And perhaps we could have made our trip to Brighthollow tomorrow or the next day to avoid some of the chaos, but in truth I am seeking the same normalcy as you are. The place where I feel most calm, most like myself, is at my home. With my sister. Perhaps I traded chaos for normalcy and it wasn’t fair to you.”
She caught her breath at that…well, it was almost an apology. It was also wrapped in a good deal of candor. If she was learning anything, it was that this man was incredibly honest and forthright. Which was a good quality. The best of qualities.
“Do you think our lives will settle down once we reach your estate?” she asked.
He smiled. “Indeed, I do. They will settle down once we reach our stop at the inn tonight, that is why I sent the servants ahead, including your Theresa, to ready the place for us. So that we can relax and cut through some of the tension that has been a daily part of both our lives lately.”
She gave a small laugh. “I’m not sure I remember what it is like not to feel some anxiety hanging over my head.”
“No?” His tone was soft, but there was a different timber to it now. She lifted her gaze and found his expression had changed. She recognized the desire that had flowed between them last night, and she shivered at that recognition.
“You look like a wolf ready to eat me,” she said, locking gazes with him.
“A very good suggestion on how to make some of that anxiety go away,” he murmured, and dropped to his knees in the space between their carriage seats.
She gasped in surprise, but said nothing, for he caught the back of her head and guided her lips to his. The moment they touched, it was electric. Sensation flowed through her, settling in all the places where he had touched her, but most especially between her legs. That place where she still ached, and yet longed to repeat all the pleasures they had begun the previous night.
What a wanton she’d turned out to be. But Hugh didn’t seem to mind. In fact, if the way he drove his tongue into her mouth was any indication, he approved with all his heart. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the kiss, forgetting everything except for the desire he woke in her.
He made some rough, animal sound deep in his chest, and then he drew his mouth away and stared at her, panting, pupils dilated and expression hard and hungry.
He held that gaze as he slid his hands down the length of her body, touching her breasts, her stomach, her thighs, her calves through her silky gown. Finally he reached the hemline, and she gasped as he began to slide it up. Up and up her body, baring her stocking-clad legs right there in what felt like an almost public space.
He pushed higher, leaving the bulk of the fabric against her stomach. He held her gaze as he pressed a hand on either of her knees and pushed her legs apart. She let him, for she was so heated and needy that she could not have denied him anything. She wore drawers, and he tugged the opening in them wide so that her sex was revealed.
She turned her face, breaking their gaze at last, and shivered. When she peeked back, she found him looking at her body intently. He licked his lips, and she felt a tug of heat at the apex of her thighs. He leaned in, and she realized what he would do just a moment before his tongue swept over her sex.
She arched as he gripped her hips and slid her farther down the carriage seat, opening her even wider with his shoulders before he swept over her with his tongue again. The sensation was like nothing she’d felt before. Not when he touched her, not when he took her. This was…magic. His tongue was magic, and he licked her over and over again, tasting every inch of her flesh and smiling against her when she began to lift her hips in time to his ministrations.
Like the night before, she felt the pleasure and the pressure building, a dam that would strain and then break. As her mewls and gasps grew louder, he began to focus his tongue on the little bundle of nerves just at the top of her slit. He increased the pressure of his tongue bit by bit, and then he began to suck.
She twisted in the carriage seat, fisting her hands against the leather, jamming them into his hair to keep him close, to push him away as the sensation grew sharp as a knife.
Then she was jolted by release. But it wasn’t like the previous night. These were shallow waves of pleasure, but infinitely intense and seemingly never-ending. She jerked against his mouth, her breath gone, her mind gone, everything gone but the wonderful pleasure that filled every part of her until there was nothing left but him and this.
Finally, he released her from the prison of pleasure, pressing one last kiss to her sensitive body, and then lifted his head to look at her. She knew what he saw. A wanton, sprawled across his carriage seat, her legs open, her dress cockeyed, her face flushed, panting like a dog in heat. She should have felt embarrassed by that, but she wasn’t. And he didn’t look shocked and horrified by it either. His smile was wicked as he smoothed her dress down gently, then leaned up and kissed her.
She pulled him in, tasting her pleasure on his tongue, sweet and earthy. He made a dark rumble in the deepest part of his chest as he braced one hand on either side of her head and pushed his tongue deeper into her mouth.
It was obvious what he wanted. She felt it in the hunger of his touch. When he pulled away, it was even more obvious in the outline of his thick erection against his trouser front. But he settled into his seat and smiled at her, making no effort to take or claim.
“Better?” he asked, all the wickedness in the world in that one word.
