“Nothing,” he whispered, almost like she had said it out loud. “We don’t have to use them, unless that’s your desire.”
“I wouldn’t know how to begin,” she admitted.
“Perhaps next time I’ll teach you,” he drawled, and then he stepped toward her in three long strides. “But for now I just want this.”
He cupped the back of her head as he wrapped one arm around her waist. Once more she found her body molded to his, and she whimpered with pleasure as he dropped his mouth to capture hers. He tasted faintly of scotch, of mint, of something more potent that made her legs shake. As she gasped, his tongue pressed past her lips and he filled her senses completely as he explored her in the most shocking way.
But she didn’t pull away. Foreign and odd as this was, it was also electric. She felt the currents of it flow through her entire body and she clenched her fists against his chest as she lifted on her tiptoes to get just a little closer.
He drew back and stared down at her, his expression as dazed as her own felt. How that could be true, she had no idea. Certainly this man was far more experienced than she was. And yet he struggled for breath just as she did.
“I am going to tell you exactly what I want to do to you,” he growled, his voice impossibly rough now. “I’m going to give you every detail, so that you’ll know exactly what you are agreeing to.”
She blinked up at him and then nodded, for it was all she could think to do.
“I’m going to strip you out of that gown,” he promised. “With my teeth if need be. And I’m going to lick you. I want to taste you until you shudder beneath me and give me everything.”
Her breath was nonexistent now, so she nodded again.
“And then I’m going to roll you over on that bed and I’m going to fuck you until you scream. Until you beg me. Until you are spent. I’m not going to be gentle. Right now I can’t be gentle, because I want to forget something and you are already helping me do that by touching me. But if that isn’t what you want, then please tell me no.”
Her lips parted. Although she didn’t understand half of what this wicked stranger had described to her, every word seemed to throb through her bloodstream. Her nipples felt impossibly hard beneath her gown and her thighs clenched against the wonderful tingles that had begun between her legs.
More than that, though, more than the words that shocked her and the desire they inspired, she felt something else. He said he wanted to forget. She understood that. She wanted to forget, too. Forget this horrible bargain of her father’s, forget the rage these stolen moments would cause later. Forget that she was likely throwing away any hope she had of the future she’d always dreamed of. Expected. Wanted.
She would have tonight. That hadn’t felt like a gift when she hatched this plan. It did now.
“Please answer me,” he whispered.
She licked her lips and he made a low sound in his throat. A rumble that made her sex flex. “I want everything you have described,” she admitted. “I came here for everything you want to do. Please be the one to give that to me.”
His pupils dilated and the corner of his mouth tilted in the most wicked smile she’d ever seen. Then he caught the front of her gown and tugged, somehow popping loose her buttons without rending them free. She gasped as he pulled the fabric open and revealed that she was wearing nothing beneath. The gown she wore didn’t allow for undergarments without lines, and so she’d chosen it because the dress had always made her feel wicked.
Now he sucked air through his teeth as he pushed the dress down away from her arms, let it bunch around her hips. He stared at her, at her naked breasts, and then his gaze flitted to her stare.
“Oh yes, this is going to be fun.”
She believed him despite how terrified she was. This man looked like fun. And danger. And a great many things she’d been taught to avoid all her life, a great many things she would avoid from now on.
But tonight she was the confident lady come to the Donville Masquerade for a lover. She was going to surrender to that.
She hooked her fingers into the dress and shoved, pushing it over the swell of her hips and letting it pool at her feet. She was naked. She’d never been naked with a man. She shook as he looked at her from head to toe. Then he smiled and reached out to place his hand on her bare shoulder.
“Like silk,” he murmured as he slid his hand down over her collarbone and then across her chest, her breast. He cupped the heavy weight of her, stroked his thumb over her nipple, and she jerked at the sensation she was not expecting.
It…tingled. God, but it tingled. It felt like…someone had set her on fire and she wanted to burn. The sensations flooded her senses, and she let out a low sigh that seemed to hang in the air between them.
“Get on the bed,” he ordered, his voice harsh, hard, undeniable.
She glanced at it. That big bed. She’d never shared anything like it with a man. With another person. Once she climbed into place, that would be it. This would happen.
Did she really want it?
She looked at him, shoving her hands behind her back so he wouldn’t see that they were shaking. He held her gaze evenly. “Unless you changed your mind.”
“I-I haven’t,” she said, much more swiftly than she’d meant to. The idea of him walking away seemed almost painful now. Unbearable. Her desire was stronger than her fear.
“Then get on the bed,” he repeated.
