A wicked emotion struck through his eyes. “Sweet Evelina, are you asking me to seduce you?”
“No,” her face went cheery red. “I certainly did not saythat.”
His voice lowered to a seductive timbre. “Given our attraction to one another, I have no objections to that.”
“I—I should go and retrieve whatever sense of self-respect I have left—” She surged to get up, but Dorian leaned forward first and grasped her arm, stopping her mad rush and reeling her back to him.
Her head flashed to him, and with a second tug, he had her on his lap. Her legs folded against the hard rack of his thighs.
“Seduction, hmm?” he murmured. “An intriguing proposition. Usually, I’d avoid an inexperienced virgin such as yourself like the plague, but this might help us.”
Framing her face with both hands, he swept his thumb over her cheekbones. Hesitancy was rife in her eyes, but soon it vanished as a bolt of steel took its place. One thing he could say for Evelina; she was no shrinking violet.
He brushed his lips against the plush and pliant set of hers, causing her to yield in a submissive way that made his heart and manhood pound with desire.
Cradling her delicate jaw between his palms, he feasted on the sweetness of her surrender… the surrender that only a woman with her strength and spirit could give. The tender embrace vanished in a breath.
Tilting her head back, he deepened the kiss and swept his tongue through her warm cavern, plundering her mouth, eking out a needy moan from her that burned through him like a fever.
He coaxed her tongue out to play, twisting and twirling, as if they were spinning on a dance floor. She followed his lead to perfection, their flesh gliding and twining in a slick, hot dance that made his trousers grow tight.
He ended the kiss for self-preservation. Her lips were swollen, her eyes glazed with need, and a primitive part of him wanted to scoop her up, carry her to bed, and have his wicked way with her.
He was hard… from a damned kiss.
But he wasn’t a troglodyte… not that way, anyway. “Sweetheart… are you sure you solely asked because you wanted to perfect our ruse?”
“What other motive would I have to ask?”
“I think after our kiss last night, you grew curious and wanted to replicate it,” he teased. “You wanted another kiss.”
“N-no—” She scrambled off his lap, and he instantly missed the feel of her soft skin under his palms. “I certainly did not.”
“Evelina,” her name halted her at the doorway. When she spun, he asked, “How long do you think it will take me to disabuse youof the notion that you find me not only attractive, but that I have an effect on you?”
She straightened. “Of course you do. You aggravate me to madness!”
Throwing his head back, he belted out a laugh. “I’ll accept that half admission. One day, I’ll seduce you enough to get the other half.”
Yanking at the knob that led to her rooms, Ellie replied, “You’ll never get that from me.”
Reposing on the loveseat, he grinned. “Do you care to make that a wager?”
The door slammed behind her.
After a fruitless night of tossing and turning, Ellie woke with the troubling realization that Dorian had gotten under her skin. What she couldn’t comprehend was Dorian showing up in her dreams as well, his golden eyes dancing with wicked glee.
Did shewanthim to seduce her? Did shewanthis drugging kisses?
Apparently so, as she’d dreamed of his hands, his mouth, his daring eyes, and the pleasure he’d eked from kissing her. A partof her cracked on the realization that, yes… she did want his wicked looks, his dry drawl, and his masterful lips roaming over hers.
And that bothered her to distraction.
She had left the room to the adjoint room, and after knocking on Dorian’s door, realized he was gone.
“That bounder…” she huffed.
Spinning around, she tightened the robe and headed back to her rooms, when a slip of white caught her eye. Turning, she approached the sideboard and moved the paper from the elephant figurine.
