The innkeeper moved ahead of them, guiding them through a main hall and toward a set of stairs. “I can well imagine, madam. But our beds are comfortable and our food is perfection. A good night’s sleep will put you to rights.”
Marianne glanced at Alexander. He had already promised she would have no sleep tonight. Right now she didn’t want sleep. She wanted to…touch him. She didn’t know how to do that or what would actually happen once she did, but the desire pulsed in her regardless.
Mr. Carlisle took them to the end of a long hallway and pushed open the door at the end. “Here we are. Our best rooms.”
Alexander motioned Marianne in first and she gasped. It was a lovely room, big and open, with a fire burning brightly. There was a table by the window, already set for supper, though food had not yet been delivered. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, and the innkeeper bustled forward to open it. “The bedroom,” he explained. “And through it to the dressing room, where the—”
“Yes,” Alexander cut him off. “Thank you.”
The man nodded and looked from one of them to the other. “Well, I’ll leave you now. Food will be delivered into the main sitting room shortly and the other…item…will be taken care of in an hour or so?”
“Two,” Alexander said, his stare focusing on Marianne. There was a smoky heat to it, one that curled her toes in her stockings and made her thighs clench against her will.
“Two,” the man repeated, and then hustled for the door. “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
Mr. Carlisle shut the door as he exited, and Marianne started at the quiet click that indicated she was now alone with Alexander. In a chamber they would share. In a chamber where she would surrender her virginity to him.
He moved toward her, and she couldn’t help but tense as he closed the distance with only three long steps. He came to a sudden stop. “I’m not going to jump on you,” he said.
Her breath hitched and she stared up at him, mesmerized by the intensity of his face, the beauty and the imperfection of it. She wanted this man, propriety be damned.
His eyes narrowed. “Unless that’s what you want,” he whispered, moving even closer. His body heat surrounded her and she could hardly breathe at all now. He sucked up all the space and air between them with his presence. “Is that what you want?”
She swallowed, struggling to find words. It was odd, since she often babbled, especially when she was nervous. But right now she could hardly breathe. Finally, she merely bobbed her head once. His expression grew harder, more focused and purposeful, and he reached out to trace a thumb across her lips. She fought the urge to capture it with her mouth, suck it and let him drag his skin across her skin.
He caught her arm and pulled her against him, hard, tight, and then he lowered his mouth with exquisite slowness. She lifted into him, eager for his kiss, eager for him in general, and when he brushed his mouth across hers, she let out a ragged sigh of relief.
What started as gentle spiraled almost immediately into a hungry claiming of her mouth, and she lost herself in the incessant drive of his tongue and the heated grip of his hands on her arms. She recognized that he was pushing her backward, into the bedchamber, and she didn’t resist. The bedchamber was exactly where she wanted to be.
He maneuvered them into the room and kicked the door shut behind them as he continued to kiss her and kiss her until her blood boiled and her vision blurred with desire and sensation. If someone had asked her a week ago if she would be here, she would have said no. She would have been aghast at the suggestion. But now that she was, there was nowhere else she’d rather be than in this room, with this man.
This man who had wrapped his arms around her and was now stripping open the buttons along the back of her dress, pulling it free like he had earlier in the carriage. She felt the fabric droop and he pulled away from the kiss to tug the entire contraption down, past her hips to pool on the floor at her feet.
“Step out,” he ordered, his tone low and ragged.
She followed the order—how could she not?—and kicked the dress aside. Her chemise hit just above her knees and she blushed as he looked at her, despite what they’d done in the carriage earlier in the day. She was not accustomed to being viewed with so little on. Would she ever be?
He was still for what felt like an eternity and then reached out again, catching her hips with his big hands, drawing her forward to collide with the solid muscle of his body.
“I should not do this,” he whispered, his breath catching as he stared down into her face, just inches from his own. “What little of a gentleman is left of me is telling me to stop. To let you go.”
She caught her breath at the idea that he would free her from their bargain. She supposed she should thrill at that idea, but she didn’t. What he suggested didn’t sound like freedom to her. More like abandonment. Loss.
She pulled from his arms and lifted shaking hands to the straps of her chemise. Drawing a deep breath, she pushed the undergarment away and now stood naked, save her stockings and slippers.
“You and I have a bargain,” she managed to squeak out past dry lips. “Tell me you don’t plan to renege.”
His eyes went wide. “No. I don’t think I could even if I tried. Not anymore.”
She folded her hands before her, heat flooding her from head to toe. “I-I don’t know what to do.”
“Take off the rest,” he suggested.
She nodded, turning away slightly. She toed off her slippers and rolled her stockings down her legs, draping them over the arm of a chair closest to her. When she turned back, she found Alexander still staring at her. She stared right back, for he had removed his jacket, waistcoat and shirt while she focused on her stockings.
She’d never seen a half-naked man before. And her mouth went utterly dry at the sight of this one. He was…granite. Steel. An unmovable object. His was a body of strength, with tanned flesh overlaying what seemed like endless ripples of muscle. He had a peppering of dark hair across his chest, leading in a trail down to his trouser waist.
“Oh my God,” she murmured.
