“Etta,” he said softly, and she jolted as she brought her focus back on him. “What do you want to feel like?”
She stared at him, not understanding the question. “I…what do you mean?”
He moved toward her. “I’m going to touch you. How I touch you will make you feel things. If you tell me what you want to feel, I can best give you that.”
“How I want to feel?” she repeated in confusion, trying to picture how Tunbridge had touched her all those years ago. She doubted he’d ever thought once about what she felt when he did.
Theo’s brow wrinkled, almost like he was a little concerned that she so obviously didn’t understand his meaning. Was this what everyone did and she was just a little fool for not knowing?
He traced a fingertip along her jawline and she shivered at the sensation of his touch. God, how could he do that with something so simple?
“You could want to feel safe,” he whispered as he turned her around so her back was to him. She felt the softness of his breath against the nape of her neck and leaned against his chest with a shiver. He rumbled a little, deep in his chest when she did so and the room felt like it had begun to spin.
“Or perhaps you want to feel devoured,” he continued, and unfastened one of the buttons along the back of her dress. “Overpowered. Dominated so that you can surrender.”
She heard a moan escape her lips at that thought, but she couldn’t make herself speak.
“You might want to be teased,” he continued, and unfastened another button, then another. “A little erotic torture where you’re begging for release.”
“Theo,” she whispered.
“Or maybe you want to be worshipped,” he said unbuttoning the last two fastenings at the back of her dress. His hands slid beneath the fabric, gliding along her ribcage through her silky chemise beneath. “Like you’re the only woman in the world.”
She looked over her shoulder at him and nodded. “That. I want that. I want to feel desired unlike any woman you’ve ever been with. Even if I know that’s a lie. Make me believe it.”
He held her gaze for what felt like an eternity and then he nodded. He turned her to face him again and slowly slid his fingers into her hair. He tilted her head gently, lifting her mouth toward his, and then he kissed her.
There was something different about this kiss. She felt it the moment his lips met hers. Perhaps because they’d already gone so far, or because they’d discussed such intimate things…or perhaps it was because there would be no more running or hiding or avoiding what was about to come. He kissed her and it was a claiming, a coming home. A connection that made her knees shake.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured against her lips as he drew her gown down off her shoulders and around her waist. He hooked his thumbs beneath the fabric and pushed over her hips so that the silk pooled at her feet. This left her in only her chemise. He had torn her drawers off earlier and the edge of the chemise barely skimmed her thighs. She felt revealed, exposed.
Even more so when he stepped back and looked at her in the flickering firelight. “God, so beautiful. You’ve always been so beautiful and I—” He cut himself off, and this time he almost sounded pained. “It will be easy to worship you—youshouldbe worshipped.”
He reached out a hand and settled it on her shoulder, fingers playing with the thin strap of her chemise. The brush of his fingertips against her bare skin was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. It made her feel alive and tingly and needy. She whimpered softly without even meaning to.
That sound made his dark blue eyes go wide and his smile grew wicked. But he didn’t say anything, he just stepped up to her, closing the slender distance between them. He wrapped an arm around her waist, but he didn’t hold her. Instead he gripped the fabric of her chemise into a fist against her back. It forced the hem of the garment to lift, exposing her further.
But he wasn’t looking at her body, he was staring into her eyes. And there it was, the exact feeling she had asked for a few moments before. He was so entirely focused on her, shedidfeel like the only woman in the world. Like he valued her above everything else. It was so bewitching. She wanted to sink into it, but also knew she needed to recall this was a game.
“How long has it been since you were naked with a man?” he whispered, cupping her cheek, stroking his fingers across her lips gently.
Her breath was so ragged she almost couldn’t speak. “Since before Tunbridge’s death.” She saw his brow wrinkle, but then the confusion was gone. He was seductive and sure again.
“Then I’m honored to be the first in a long time.” He slid a finger beneath the chemise strap. “May I?”
She nodded, though she wasn’t actually certain she was ready to be perceived in such a vulnerable way. But that was why she’d chosen Theo, wasn’t it? That was why she trusted him with this moment. So she surrendered to it, surrendered to him, and knew deep in her soul that what happened next was going to be magnificent.
CHAPTER7
Theo had been with a great many women, just as Etta had accused him of earlier in the night. He liked sex, he liked giving and receiving pleasure. He never let the needs of his body get tangled up in the feelings of his heart, and everyone left satisfied.
But right now, as he lowered Etta’s chemise strap, his hands shook. That was no act to show her that she was worshipped—it was his true reaction to touching her, to knowing what she was about to share with him. That was a heady thing and his head spun with it.
He leaned in, breathing in the scent of her. A musky vanilla that had been haunting him for far longer than the last few days of sudden and irrevocable desire. He could lose himself in it.
She made a soft sound as she turned her face toward his. Their lips were almost touching but he didn’t push for another kiss. Instead, he slowly drew the strap down her arm until it bowed at her elbow. Then he did the same with the other and let the fabric fall over her breasts.
He looked at her and caught his breath. She was so very lovely exposed like this. Her breasts were not too heavy for her slender frame and her nipples were a dark rose. He left her chemise caught around her ribcage and stroked the back of his hand back up and over her right breast to cup its weight in his hand. He stroked a thumb over her already hard nipple and she dipped her head back with a hiss.
