“You are so serious today.” She slid the ribbon from his hair. She smoothed it back from his brow then gave a lock a none-too-gentle tug. “You don’t wish to make love to me? Have I lost my appeal already?”
He grinned at the cocky way she said it then plundered her mouth. Pulling down her stays he cupped a perfect, rounded breast, tweaked a rosy nipple, and drew it into his mouth. Then he gave due attention to the other before kissing his way down her body as she writhed and whimpered.
Not only beautiful, she was fascinating. Intriguing. She made him feel alive again. Her deft fingers stroked him through his clothes. “I am impatient for you,cheri.”
Anthony rolled off the bed. His gaze on hers, he flicked the buttons of his pantaloons, kicked them away. If he didn’t know better, he’d think her an experienced lover. “You learn quickly, mademoiselle.”
“But of course, I am French. And you like me too,oui?” she said, with an endearingly smug smile.
He gave a strained laugh. “Then it would be cruel of me to deny us both.” He knelt on the bed and drew off her rose silk wrap, threw it to the floor and worked at the corset laces.
She was breathing fast. “Cut them. There are scissors on the dresser.”
At a few snips of the scissors, she was naked. He stroked her delicious curves down to the vee of golden hair at the base of her stomach. She threw back her head and moaned.
He spread her thighs with his knee and entered her. With a thrust of his hips, her silken sheath closed around him, drawing him in. “Is this as you requested, mademoiselle?”
“Oh,oui.” She murmured a flood of endearments and entreaties as he drove into her. Her fingers moved over his back, butterfly light one minute, sharp the next and sent what remained of his senses reeling. She was an instinctive lover. A fleeting thought of her ever doing this with another man made him grit his teeth, and he thrust harder, as if to claim her as his own. She bit his earlobe and arched her back, lifting her hips to meet him, uttering small mews. He withdrew and spooned her, entering her from behind, stroking the folds of her sex. She climaxed quickly. Then he rolled her over, thrust inside and came with a roar.
They lay back while their breathing slowed, he settled beside her. “Such things you do to me. I am almost too embarrassed to look at you.”
He traced her smile with a finger. Didn’t believe her. He loved that she’d become bold and without shame. “Do you want me to stop doing them?”
“Non.Never.” As if realizing what her words might mean, she turned her head away.
He held her chin, forced her to look at him. “Never?”
She shrugged a slender shoulder. “As long as we are together.”
He would be content with that. For now.
She lay back on the pillows with a contented smile and closed her eyes. He raised his head on an elbow. “I hope to persuade you to stay in England.”
No answer. She slept, her long lashes fluttering.
Anthony stared at the ceiling. He should walk away now before it was too late. Verity still had not answered his question as to why she’d chosen him when she had half the Romeos in London queuing at her door. But somehow, its significance had faded into the shadows. He closed his eyes and tucked her close, her heart beating in rhythm with his. He would deal with whatever fate had in store for him, but not tonight.
