For a moment, he thought she might back away. Refuse them both this madness. But then she shook her head, almost as if she were as lost as he was, and leaned up into his chest. Her lips brushed his, and he ground out a curse as he cupped her backside and lifted her against him.
She made a garbled sound of pleasure as he turned around and backed her toward the desk. He set her up on the edge and slid his hands into her soft hair while he ground his mouth against her. She returned the passion of the kiss, the fever, arching into him again and again, teasing him with the drag of her body on his.
He was frantic as he shoved the skirt of her dress up her long legs, shifting so she could unfasten his trousers at the same time. His cock came free and she stroked him while their tongues tangled, warred, and he slid her forward on the desk so he could angle himself against her. The hot slide of her sex welcomed him, and their mouths parted as both of them let out a low groan.
This was madness, but it was a beautiful kind of madness. She was heat and slickness andhome. He didn’t want her to be home. He didn’t want to need her. Yet he did, like he needed breath or food or water.
And he had her now so he took her, gripping her hips to thrust into her again and again. She lifted to meet him, mewling out pleasure as her fingers dug into his shoulders and her head tilted back in surrender.
He dropped his mouth to her exposed throat, sucking there. His thrusts increased and he loved how her pulse jumped beneath his lips and her grinding quickened until she stiffened, her body pulsing with release around him. He thrust through it, reveling in her soft cries, the grip of her fluttering body, the out-of-control way she jerked against him. His cock felt full and heavy, his balls tightened, and then he came with her, pumping hot into her as he moaned out her name.
For a long time they stayed that way, bodies intertwined on the edge of his desk, a desk he’d never look at again without remembering this heated and unexpected joining.
At last, she slid away, his body coming free from hers. He tucked himself back into place as she smoothed her skirts around her hips. Then she surprised him by reaching out her hand to him.
He stared at the offering and then looked up into her face in confusion.
She smiled. “Come upstairs, Colin. Come to bed with me.”
He swallowed at the easy way she offered that temptation. At the way he wanted so much to take it.
“It isn’t even supper time,” he said softly.
She shrugged. “I don’t care. And I don’t think you do either. Come upstairs with me. If I’m going to play your wife, I want to be your wife. And I think you want that, too.”
He hesitated, but then he found himself reaching out to the hand she offered, folding his fingers around hers, letting her guide him from the room. Up the stairs. Into his chamber. Into his bed.
And with every step, he tried desperately to remind himself that all he could give this woman was his body. Tried and failed.
Chapter Five
Jane rolled over and smiled to find Colin still lying beside her, facing her. His dark eyes were open and she was sucked into the depths of them. She was here, truly here, in his bed, after all the months they’d been separated. And while she couldn’t read all of his intentions in his guarded expression, she could see the remnants of the desire that had been pulsing between them since her arrival in his home.
“Good morning,” she murmured, reaching out to trace his shoulder with her fingertips.
He didn’t pull away, but caught his breath at the touch. She could see his struggle, his war between wanting her and the contempt he still insisted on having. The contempt she didn’t understand.
“Good morning,” he answered, his tone slightly stiff and formal for a man who had made love to her long into the night, bringing her pleasure again and again, almost with the focus of a man possessed.
He pushed off the bed, giving her a grand view of his muscular backside before he found his trousers and covered himself.
“What are your plans for the day?” she asked, sitting up and not bothering to cover herself, for he had seen all of her and more. He sent a side glance her way and swallowed hard.
“I-I’m to meet with a few men about this…project,” he said, turning away.
She tilted her head. “Yes, the project that you work best on before supper. Still don’t want to tell me what it is that fills your mind so completely?”
He cleared his throat. “I can’t imagine you truly care what I do in my duties in the House of Lords, Jane.”
“Can’t you?” she repeated. “You think I’m so cotton-headed that I cannot understand politics?”
He faced her, lips pursed. “We may have been apart a long time, Jane but I know you aren’t foolish. I have always…always admired your intellect.”
She lifted her brows. “A compliment, my lord, and you didn’t even combust from giving it. Well, I will take it, for a sharp mind has always had more value to me than a pretty face.”
“And here you are with both,” he muttered.
She blushed at the second compliment, given just as reluctantly. But she was determined to build on them nonetheless. “Then tell me of your project. I am very interested.”
