He looked at her and she smiled even as she whispered through clenched teeth. “Kiss me. Now. Kiss me.”
His eyes widened, but he glanced toward the other couple for a brief second before he cupped Evelina’s cheek and slowly his lips descended to hers.
Their first kiss had been brief and impulsive. There hadn’t been much time to analyze it or feel anything from it. But this…thiswas something else. His lips brushed hers, gentle, even somewhat hesitant. They were soft, firm, fuller than one might have expected. His fingers bent a little against her jawline and the pressure of his mouth increased, became more real. She found herself resting her hand against his chest to steady herself as all her thoughts faded and she was left with just…this.
This kiss. This man. This moment. It was public, far too public. It was meant to upset, not to soothe, and yet somehow it did just that. She felt calmer with his mouth touching hers, and she also couldn’t deny the sizzling heat of awareness that rushed through her whole body as he drew back, his green eyes dilated and stunned.
She was a little dizzy as he lowered his hand from her. “Well,” she said softly. “That was lovely.”
He laughed roughly and only then did he glance up. She looked, as well, and saw that Southwater and Lady Blackburn were gone. She had to imagine they’d seen the embrace. Certainly the gawking crowd would be sure to give them both the details if they hadn’t stayed for the entire exchange.
Vaughn’s hand moved to the small of her back and he guided her through the crowd and out where the carriages were coming. It was a crush, but soon enough their vehicle arrived and he helped her up into it. They settled into place across from each other and after they began to move, he merely stared at her in the dimness.
“Did I offend you with my demand?” she asked when he didn’t speak or move for what felt like a lifetime.
He shook his head. “Not at all.”
He was silent once more and she shifted. “Because there’s a tension now. One I hope won’t spoil things between us.”
He swallowed and then he let out his breath in a shaky sigh. “I suppose I must be honest about what I was thinking. I simply realized that both times we’ve kissed,you’vebeen the one to run it all.”
“Oh,” she said. Was he getting bigger? That wasn’t possible, but as they spoke he seemed to fill the space more.
He shifted to the front of his seat a little and draped his elbows over his knees. It was a casual pose, really, but it felt anything but in that charged moment where he seemed to pin her with nothing but a focused stare.
“And it makes me wonder what would happen if I just…” He hesitated a fraction, his gaze breaking from hers, then returning with no less intensity. “What would happen ifIkissed you. Not because you pulled me in or ordered me to do so with such a fire in your stare that you could not be denied.”
“I didn’t have fire in my stare,” she interrupted, feeling her cheeks heat. God, she was a courtesan and yet this man made her blush over and over.
“Oh, you did. Impossible to refuse you when you take charge like that.” He was teasing, but she didn’t feel light. Or at least not entirely. There was just too much tension between them to do so.
“So are you saying you want to…to kiss me?Reallykiss me?” she asked.
He nodded slowly. “I…I do.”
CHAPTER9
Evelina could have said no. This was outside the barriers of their false arrangement. No one was watching—if they kissed now it would be real.
But she didn’t want to say no. She wanted, as she looked at this handsome man, to be kissed by him in a way that wasn’t for anyone but her.
She crooked her finger and he made a rumble deep in his chest that felt like it ricocheted through every nerve in her body. Slowly, he leaned across the space between them, pressing one hand into the cushion beside her thigh and the other against the wall near her shoulder.
She was caged in as she looked up at him, his body heat swirling around her and the clean, woodsy scent of him filling her senses. Slowly he leaned in, his mouth hovering above hers for a moment before he met her lips and kissed her.
Oh yes, this was different, even from the first moment there was no denying it. There was no distraction, no negative emotion clouding the moment. All there was was the pressure of his lips on hers, the feel of him as she lifted a hand to his shoulder and gripped him like she could keep herself from being washed away on delicious sensation.
But she could have tied herself to a tree and it wouldn’t have stopped that from happening. This kiss was a wave and she was being pulled out to sea.
The pressure of his mouth increased and then he gently probed her lips with the tip of his tongue. She opened without hesitation and he delved inside. With that, the tenor of the kiss changed again. He made that delicious rumble in his chest again and now the hand he gripped against the wall behind her moved to sweep around her back and tug her against his chest.
The passion spiraled, lifting ever higher as tongues crashed and hands gripped. It was all unrestrained passion and reckless abandon and her body felt like it was being lit aflame with every passing moment.
The carriage began to slow as it took the turn onto Evelina’s drive. Only then did Vaughn back away, returning to his carriage seat where they stared at each other for a moment as charged as the unexpected kiss had been.
If she asked him to come inside, she had no doubt he would say yes. That he would go upstairs to her bedroom and make love to her until they were both dizzy from pleasure. But she couldn’t seem to make the words form, not when her mind was reeling so entirely.
As if he read those thoughts, he cleared his throat. “Do you think we should renegotiate our terms?”
