She traced a finger idly along a dent in the fountain’s rim, feigning nonchalance. “Earlier. In an alcove beneath the grand staircase.”
Dominic didn’t move, although a muscle ticked in his jaw, the only hint of his comprehension. Louisa knew he was experienced, as most men were. A baroness years ago had claimed he wasincomparable. A revelation leaving Louisa nearly in tears when she’d heard it. When she had no reason to cry over the man, then or now.
To toy with a man who could so easily best her was dangerous, yet irresistible, a flaw anyone who knew her would name first.
She leaned closer, her voice a whisper. “I’d like to compare.”
“Compare,” he repeated softly, as though tasting the word.
“If I’m to choose, should that not be a part of the decision?” She drew in a breath, then added with a flash of defiance: “I don’t want to marry anyone who doesn’t make me feel fluttery.”
“Did Harcourt make you feel fluttery?” His tone wasn’t quite cool enough to hide the sharpness running beneath.
She shrugged, losing her nerve in the face of honesty, another of her charming traits. “He,it, was forgettable. As were the others.”
The hand resting next to her on the fountain’s balustrade closed into a fist. “Others.”
“I have been kissed before, Dominic Beckett.” Did he think no one had ever wanted to? “Though it’s not as exciting a story as you and your baroness!”
His head dipped as he reached to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Somehow, I knew she would come up.”
“Don’t you want to kiss me?” She wasn’t sure how to measure yearning in a man as composed as this one. Often, it was a living force, adding noticeable tremors to hands that sought to touch her.
With Dominic, she simply wasn’t sure of anything.
“Dammit,” he whispered before turning to her. Roughly cradling her jaw in both his hands, he tilted her face to his. “Something about this has revived me, sensations I haven’t experienced in ages striking me right beneath my breastbone. Like your skin when it’s numb from the cold coming back to life when you step before a hearthfire. After only our first meeting, I left desirous ofmore. In fact, darling Lou, I want you so improperly that I lie awake thinking, what if I traveled to a duke’s residence and dragged the daughter away with me, that gorgeous mass of ginger hair trailing behind us?”
“A kiss,” she whispered, unable to think past:gorgeous mass of ginger hair trailing behind us…
“It’s more than a kiss running through my head, sweet.” His lids lowered, shielding eyes deepening to the shade of bruised twilight. “I won’t say how I finally get to sleep on those nights, though with your crafty mind, I gather you can guess.”
Her heart skipped at the shockingly intimate admission. Indeed, she knew enough to guess.
His head dipped with a gentle laugh. “Don’t tease me, my lady, because I haven’t tasted desire in months. In forever, I suspect. Gambling was always at the forefront, and now, there would only beyou.” He closed in, his fingers gliding to the nape of her neck. “My oft-intense focus devoted entirely to your pleasure—and my own. Imagine what two incorrigible beasts bent on destruction could do to each other if given the chance.”
Louisa glanced over her shoulder, her hand circling his wrist to keep him captive, though he could break the hold with one tug. “We’re alone, but not for much longer.”
He hesitated, the push and pull, the indecision and—yes, finally—his longing flowing forth for her to see. “The pause is everything,” he said at last. “The second before the delicious spoils.”
She shook her head. “I don’t—”
“That’s fine, because Ido.” His mouth brushed hers, lightly, hunger without claim. “Not in this instance, but I’ve…that is to say, men rush in. Too often only thinking how best to make it happen swiftly, without delay. Deliberation until one cannot deliberate another moment is what makes the result unforgettable. Between every stimulus and response, there’s space to explore, space to choose. As a scientist, this you should know. If you don’t, I’m soveryhappy to teach you.”
Her pulse thudded, her nipples hardening beneath her boned corset. Indeed, what could two incorrigible beasts do if given the chance? “What are you choosing?”
He thumbed her bottom lip, teasing it lower. “You.”
Then he captured her mouth with a fervor that mocked the earl’s feeble attempt.
Chapter Five
Where recklessness tastes likeforever.
The kiss wasa slip up. A blunder. A miscalculation.
It was also a revelation.
Dom’s hand swept to Louisa’s waist, anchoring her against him as he kissed like a man waking from oblivion. He wanted to drown in the fiery silk of her hair, driven by reckless desire he’d buried so deep he thought it gone. He hadn’t planned for the night to end in the taste of berries and champagne, with the only woman he craved parting her lips beneath his, yielding as if she’d been waiting her whole life for him.
