Show her that as much as she enjoyed trouncing the ton and scooping up her winnings, he could offer her so much more.
Together, they could gather up all the naughty secrets of the rich and powerful until they held all the cards, literally and figuratively.
Starling just had to get Helen Montrose to see the possibilities.
CHAPTER TEN
Helen awokein the dim light pre-dawn light, to the sound of footsteps padding towards her bed.
Despite the late night and her exhaustion from the excitement of the evening, she had always been a light sleeper.
She lay still under the blankets, trying to keep her breath slow and even as a figure came to stand beside her bed.
“Helen,” came that smooth, coaxing voice, and at once she knew the Captain had stolen into her rooms.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered, scandalised, drawing the covers up to her breast as the maddening man moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
He leaned down, his unshaven whiskers grazing her cheek as his mouth hovered beside her ear.
“You promised me one night, did you not? It is not yet dawn.”
Helen sighed, but even she had to admit he was technically correct.
“Have you decided what to claim as your prize?” he asked, nipping her earlobe teasingly.
Immediately her blood started to sing, her traitorous flesh already warming at the memory of their risky tryst in the portrait hall.
“I thought you had requested a rematch?” she managed to whisper around the desire clawing its way up her throat.
“Ah, yes. I am glad you recall granting me my wish,” he replied, nipping her earlobe playfully as he rose and stalked to the door of her room, the sound of the key turning in the lock making her press her thighs together in excitement.
Why had she not done something like this sooner?
It was… unnerving, how much she wanted him. Even though it had been mere hours since he had first taken her.
Starling returned to her side, clambering onto the bed and pulling steadily on the covers until they slipped from her fingers, falling to the floor in a whoosh.
He wore nothing but a loosely buttoned shirt and a pair of light lawn breeches, his broad, smooth chest exposed to her greedy eyes as he bowed over her.
Helen could see his face now, the light shining slightly brighter through the curtains. Starling looked as hungry as a wild beast, his eyes roving over her form as her nipples hardened into tight peaks beneath her shift under his inspection.
“Christ, look at you,” he murmured, reaching out to tease his fingers over one nipple, making her arch on the sheets, then dipping his head to nuzzle his face against her belly, dragging his nose down over her navel and unerringly to the place between her thighs that burned with want for him.
Starling breathed deep against her mound, his nose nudging the nub hidden in her folds as he smothered himself between her shaking thighs.
With a groan he dragged himself free, his hands already skimming up her legs, urging them to open for him as he settled his shoulders between them.
Helen knew what was coming, of course, he intended to torment her as she had done to him, but the shock of his hot, hungry tongue lashing its way through her core still had hergasping for air, her throat tight with the cry of amazement she desperately tried to hold back.
“You taste exquisite,” he breathed against her heated flesh, kissing his way across her inner thighs before diving back into her heat, exploring every inch of her with that wicked tongue as his fingers dug into her skin, holding her still for him as she thrashed and moaned on the bed.
Helen was lost, overcome. Her hands somehow found their way into the short, silky strands of his hair as she arched like a bow under the onslaught.
Starling growled possessively as she dragged her nails over his scalp, pressing closer, spearing his tongue into the well of her opening as his fingers spread her wide, then licking his way up to the bud of her pleasure and latching onto it with his lips, sucking lightly, then deeper, his tongue fluttering over the sensitive flesh in a way that made bright shards of light explode behind her eyelids.
A euphoria she had never felt before rushed from her core and out through her limbs, her entire body quaking as the pleasure built towards an impossible height, her body tensing for the fall that would surely destroy her.
Suddenly, his mouth left her, and Helen bucked on the sheets with a cry of dismay.
