He laughed again, then bowed slightly. “As you wish, my lady.”
He moved to the settee and she slid off the bed, padding around to stand before the fire as he sat down and pulled off his boots. Then he stood and unfastened his trousers, met her eyes and pushed them from his hips to land in a pile at his feet.
She shivered seeing the whole of him naked. Somehow she’d thought that would stop moving her once she’d seen it the first time. But he still made her tremble. He still made her weak and wet and ready without doing much more than simply existing in her world.
After this was over, she would still know he existed. She had no doubt that knowledge would haunt her, as would memories of these stolen moments in his arms.
She shrugged off the thought and waved him toward the settee with one hand. “Slouch.”
He shook his head as he sat down on the velvety cushions and then splayed out there, slouched as ordered, legs the perfect perch for her, arms rested on the back of the settee as he watched her.
“Now what?” he asked, his voice low and rough with a desire that matched her own.
“Now you’re mine,” she murmured, and slid over to him. She eased over his lap, aligning her still-wet sex to his hard cock. She gripped his shoulders as she glided down over him, taking him fully inside of her inch by wonderful inch. When she was filled to the brim, she rested her forehead on his with a trembling sigh.
“God, what you do to me,” he moaned on her throat, licking there gently, sucking until she shivered and flexed over him almost against her own will. Even when she was over him, he still directed her. That puppet on his string.
So she broke the string and began to ride him. She moved hard and fast, grinding down over him to stimulate herself, drawing almost fully away so she could receive the full benefit of her body.
He grunted, his neck straining as he cupped her backside and rocked her harder. She tilted her head and kissed him, everything lost focus, nothing mattered but this. And she rode and rode, pleasure arcing and spreading and warming and teasing through her whole body.
His breath was rough, he moaned her name with pleasure and she loved it. Loved that he was just as lost as she was. Loved that there was only one way to be found and that was when the pleasure overflowed.
Hers was just about ready to do that. Again the pressure built between her legs, hot and heavy and insistent. She needed release, she burned for it. She burned for him and only him now and forever. That thought scarred her entire being just as the pleasure took over and she jerked against him with a cry he caught with his tongue.
His fingers dug into her hips and she pressed hard against him, grinding her flesh to his body as she came and came and came until she felt like there was nothing left of her. She was a shell, stripped clean by their joining, weak and limp in his arms.
He picked her up then, holding her legs around his waist, keeping their bodies joined as he took her back to the bed. He leaned her against the edge, his hands clenching into fists in the coverlet on either side of her hips.
And then he took her hard and fast. Her still-twitching body rushed back to life, the orgasm rekindled by the passion of his claiming. She scratched his back with her nails as she tried to maintain purchase, her thighs clenched around his hips tightly.
He let out a cry in the quiet and then he withdrew, his hot seed pumping between them as he sank his head into the crook of her shoulder, teeth scraping her skin, sweat mingling.
And for the moment, there was nothing else but this.
Selina had no idea how long they’d been lying together in her bed. Too long, certainly, but none of it mattered anymore. If anyone was looking for them, they could keep looking. She wanted nothing more than to be in Derrick’s arms, her head on his chest, listening to the beautiful sound of his heartbeat as it thudded beneath her ear.
His fingers threaded through her hair, smoothing over her scalp, dancing over her shoulders. It was perfect. Too perfect. Too close.
But for once in her life, she didn’t feel like running.
“I need to ask you a question,” he said, his voice rough in the quiet.
She tensed in his arms. A question. Great God, could it bethequestion? The one other women tittered and cooed and squealed over? The question she had always avoided in her lovers because none of them had ever meant more to her than a bit of fun?
Was it possible Derrick Huntington was about to ask her a question that would change her life? What would she say? How could she answer at all, knowing that she was nothing more than a lie?
“Selina?”
She lifted her head and looked at him, struggling to keep her expression passive as she nodded. “Yes, sorry. What is it?”
He looked nervous, and that madeherall the more nervous. Great God, he reallywasgoing to ask herthequestion. Right here in this perfect moment in her bed.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Why was your glove in Lady Winford’s chamber?”
Over the years, Selina had developed the talent to keep her reaction from her face. Being too honest, too open, in her expression was a very dangerous thing for a woman like her. Perhaps for a woman in general, given the power men held over their sex. She was proud of how she’d developed the ability to keep all emotion at bay and confuse anyone who tried to read her.
But in this moment, she couldn’t use that skill. Her jaw dropped open and her eyes went wide even though she didn’t want them to do so. She pushed away from Derrick’s chest and sat up, tugging covers with her so that she wouldn’t be physically revealed as much as she was emotionally revealed.
