“Don’t play dumb with me. The rumor is rampant among all of us and Bow Street wouldn’t be investigating if there was nothing to investigate.”
“Fine.” Mark kept his tone calm and steady. “If not you, who do you think killed him?”
The other man scowled. “If I were you, I’d be questioning Lord Hillenbrand. He wanted Lady Arabelle, and from what I’ve been told, was jealous as a cuckqueaned fishwife over losing her.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The minute Nicole walked into the bedchamber before dinner that night, Mark pulled her into his arms and gently pushed her up against the wall next to the door, kissing her neck, her ear, her eyelid. He kicked the door shut, then grabbed her skirts and shoved them up with both hands before fumbling with the fall to his breeches, freeing himself.
Nicole eagerly helped him. This was how she liked it best, she decided. When he seemed as if he couldn’t keep his hands off her, so mad with lust that he had her up against the wall. This was definitely one of her favorite positions.
“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he breathed as he lifted her and slid into her already wet warmth.
“Me too.” She crooned, pressing her head back against the wall, exposing the column of her neck to him. Henibbled down its length, the whole time clutching her hips to guide himself inside her again and again.
“Have you?” he teased, rubbing her nipple with his thumb through the layers of her gown and shift.
“Uh-huh.” She could barely talk. His hips worked against her, grinding into her, making her light-headed.
“What, specifically, were you thinking about?” His voice came in hard pants.
“I was thinking about—” She stopped to moan and he covered her mouth with his.
After the kiss ended he said, “You were saying?”
“I was thinking about your head between my legs,” she admitted, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he held her with both hands under her thighs. She folded her legs around his hips.
“Want to repeat that, do you?” he growled against the side of her mouth.
“Yes,” she hissed.
“Your wish is my command, my lady.”
He walked with her still straddling him over to the bed and laid her down. Then he kneeled in front of the bed and pulled her hips to him. He gave her his most wicked grin before pushing her skirts high enough to expose her and lowering his mouth between her thighs.
Nicole arched up and braced herself on her palms, her fingertips digging into the bedding behind her. Oh, God, the man was good with his mouth. Too good.
He laved at her, licking in precisely the right spot over and over until she fell back on the bed and cried out his name.
He moved up over her then and pushed into her in one slick smooth slide, pausing only to kiss her forehead, hercheeks, her lips. Then he braced his hands on either side of her head and slid in and out of her again and again, his hips keeping up the gentle torture as she moaned for him.
“Wh… what were you thinking about all day?” she asked, sliding her hands up over his muscled shoulders and into his soft, thick hair.
“This.” He slid into her again. “And the maddening sounds you make while I’m doing it.”
She groaned again. She couldn’t help herself.
“I’ve dreamed about the sounds you make when we make love,” he said, changing the angle of his thrusts just enough to send pleasure rolling through her anew.
Nicole caught her breath. Did he have any idea what he’d just said? Had he meant it? He’d dreamed about the sounds she made? Meaning over theyearshe’d dreamed about it?
“Which sounds?” she asked, not trusting herself to ask more than that.
He slid out of her slowly, and paused there, hovering above her.
“No,” she groaned, pulling at his hips, wanting him back.
“That’s one,” he said with a wicked grin.
