“Some of them,” she said. “But yes, I’ve seen a great many families that were very much in name only. I do appreciate that mine is close. I couldn’t imagine my life without my sisters and aunt. And even Silas, who has been such a welcome addition.”
They rode together in quiet for a moment and then he seemed to recall something. His face brightened in the dim light coming from the street lamps rushing by outside. “I’d almost forgotten. I got you a gift today and brought it just in case I was able coax you into my carriage.”
“No coaxing required, I assure you,” she said. “But I do like gifts.”
He reached behind himself to something that had become wedged in the seat. When he drew it out she recognized the shape of a book, wrapped in brown paper that looked like it had the stamp for Mattigan’s on its surface.
“Oh, a book!” she asked, grasping it.
“Yes, I thought you might not have this one yet. It’s all the rage, apparently, and difficult to find.”
She unwrapped the paper and caught her breath as she read the title in the dimness. “The Well of Saint Laurents.” Her mouth dropped open. “Kressley’s latest! Itisimpossible to find. How did you manage it?”
“I’m averygood customer at Mattigan’s,” he admitted. “I hope I’ll have a chance to read it when you’re finished. Or perhaps we’ll read it together.”
She stared at the book again and was surprised that tears had begun to sting her eyes. “It’s astounding to me that you like to read a gothic romance. Harry…Southwater, he always made fun of me for it. If I was too engulfed in a book, he’d even threaten to take it.Burn them all, he once said to me. He pretended he was teasing and that’s how I excused it…but deep down I knew he meant it. He was always so jealous of anything that took my time when he demanded it.”
She watched Vaughn’s expression, which had been soft with delight at her excitement, turn harder. His nostrils flared. “Poxy fuck,” he muttered. “Christ, I hate that I didn’t see what a bastard he was. How he could treat you like that when you are so lovely and sweet and everything perfect is astounding to me.”
She blinked at the compliments that seemed to flow from him with an ease. And better still, they felt genuine. Like this man, this remarkable man, could truly see her as something perfect. Something worth protecting and not just in the way that courtesans labeled the gentlemen they took to their beds. Most ofthemdid very little protecting.
“You can’t be real,” she murmured even as she touched his face and proved to herself that hewasreal and here and putting his arms around her as the carriage slowed and turned into the drive of his home.
“Oh, I’m very much real,” he said softly. “Come upstairs and I’ll prove it, over and over if need be.”
CHAPTER15
Vaughn couldn’t say how and refused to place why, but it felt like something had shifted between himself and Evelina as he guided her into his chamber, his mouth on hers, her hands gripping his lapels. There was still a heated desperation between them, of course, the kind that came with an irresistible drive to be together immediately.
But there was also something more genuine beneath that drive. He knew what pleasures they would share. He knew how to make her arch and moan and whimper his name, as well as all she could do to elicit the same response from him. He looked forward to all of that. But he also looked forward to how she would smile when they teased together as they made love. Or how her fingers would lightly touch him afterward while they talked. Or how she would fling a leg over his while she slept, like she was still claiming him even when she wasn’t fully aware of her actions.
“Are you just going to stare at me, Vaughn, or do something about that?” She motioned toward the erection making itself very plain against the fall front of his trousers.
He chuckled as he let his hand stroke over it. “I’d like to do both.”
She arched a brow, playful and powerful all at once. “I see. The gentleman wants to watchandplay. I can do that.”
She stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed him, driving the deepness of the kiss, sucking his tongue until he moaned against her. She lightly nipped his lower lip as she dragged her mouth lower, over his chin, down his neck until her lips met his cravat. Then over his still-clothed body. Lower and lower as she dropped to her knees and then looked up at him, the perfect combination of sweetness and spice as she unfastened his fall front and freed his very hard cock.
“Shit,” he grunted, dropping his hands to her hair and tangling them in the locks like he had when he kissed her in the carriage. He loved the silky feel of them around his fingers and the way she let out a shaky breath when he touched her.
She looked up at him, all delectable sensuality in those gorgeous brown eyes, and then she took him firmly in hand and stroked her cheek against his cock. He braced so his knees wouldn’t give out and watched the show she put on of teasing him. She nuzzled his length, teased him against her lips, even darted out her tongue to give him the lightest swipe.
“It’s a very nice cock, Vaughn,” she purred, her voice low and seductive. “And I’m an expert.”
She proved that statement by taking him into her mouth, as deeply as she could, and swirling her tongue around him.
It was just one caress and he nearly blacked out from the pleasure of it. He groaned because he couldn’t stop himself and tried to focus on watching her as she delved into sucking him to oblivion.
She was perfect, just as she always was when it came to passion. She paid attention, adjusting when he reacted, and the result was blinding, powerful pleasure that was unlike anything he’d ever known.
And it wasn’t just the heat of her or the suction of her mouth, it wasn’t just the way she used that talented tongue or worked with her hand the length she couldn’t take. No, it was the image of her on her knees, looking up at him, in a position of submission, but with all the power in the world.
She had been slow at first, but as the pleasure built in him, she began to work faster, pumping her mouth over him in time to his flexing hips. He moaned as the pleasure streaked, building to something so powerful he almost feared the moment when the dam broke and he lost control.
He wanted that, of course. He wanted to lose himself in this woman’s remarkable body, in her focused presence and attention. But he also wanted to feel her shuddering around him when he did. He wanted not just his own pleasure, but to feel hers, as well.
So just as he hit the edge of no return, he caught her under her arms and dragged her back up to her feet. “Oh no,” he murmured as he kissed her. “I want more than just that.”
