She whimpered into his mouth, her fingers digging into his shoulders.He wanted to consume her.Drown in her and her kiss and have her never let him go.He wanted to do all the things he’d always told himself he’d never imagined: her stretched out beneath him, her fingers tangled in his hair, and her soft curves cushioning his body.
He licked into her mouth and groaned as her taste exploded on his tongue.She tasted tart and sweet, of the tea they had both drunk and the coconut cake he loved.She was all his favourite flavours and he wanted more.Needed more.
Splaying his hand over her back, he pulled her closer, her breasts flattening against his chest, and he cursed the fabric keeping the heat of her skin from him.His palm ached to feel the smooth flesh of her back, to trace the delicate line of her spine.But she was allowing him this, she was allowing him her mouth, and he kissed her as if she were his, as if he had always wanted her to be his, and perhaps, in this moment, she was.
With a gasp, she tore her mouth from his.Heavy-lidded eyes locked with his, her mouth lush and reddened, swollen from their kiss.Need shot through him, his cock heavy and throbbing.Christ.He had made her look like that.
Bending her head, she kissed him again.
This time, she dove into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his.They kissed and kissed and kissed, and she made noises at the back of throat that drove him wild, little whimpers and moans.Flame licked down his spine and spread through his blood.He sucked her lower lip before catching it with his teeth, biting her and then soothing her with his tongue, his hands sliding up her back to draw her closer.He never wanted to let her go, he wanted to stay here always, her mouth ravishing his as her confidence grew, as her tongue licked at him in imitation of his, as her fingernails raked through his hair, holding him in place as she ravaged him.
But they couldn’t kiss forever.It had to end and when it did, he had no idea how long they had been locked together.She remained in his arms, her eyes closed and a smile curving her kiss-swollen lips.Fierce pride roared through him, and passiveness made him tighten his arms around her.The mouthhehad made look like that with the kiss she had given him.The one she had asked for.Because she wanted someone else.
Reality punched his chest.Bloody hell, what was he doing?El had asked him to help, not salivate over her like a rabid animal.“I do not think you need worry about your ability to deliver a kiss that devastates.”
Her lashes fluttered and passion-dark eyes captured his.“Are you devastated, Benedict?”she asked huskily.
He was.Christ, he bloody was.He needed to be away from her.Now.
Untangling himself, he took a step away and then to be on the safe side, he took another.“Lord Malvern will not be disappointed, that is certain.I do not believe you require further instruction, but if you wish it, of course we can conduct further practice.”
The dazed expression fled and she straightened, smoothing her gown over her stomach.“Yes, of course.Thank you, Benedict.”
“No need to thank me,” he said, hating that she had lost that delicious softness but he did not trust himself.Not now.“Perhaps we should leave it there for today, El.Do you agree?”
Dismay cut into her expression.“Will you not stay for tea?I can ring for a fresh pot.”
“Alas, I cannot.I am due at Colgrove House.We are dining with the children this evening.”
“Oh.Well of course you must go,” she said.“I’ll see you at the Worthington ball, yes?Or perhaps at St James Park?I meet Victoria to promenade tomorrow.”
“Yes.Perhaps.”He offered her a bow, and before she had risen from her curtsey, he strode from the room.From her.
Far enough down the hall to ensure she did not follow, he stopped.Bloody hell.It had been only a kiss.She had not ruined him.
He rubbed a hand over his mouth.He swore he could still taste her.
Exhaling, he dropped his hand.Nothing had changed between them.They were friends, he and she, and a kiss—her first and his best—would not change that.She wished the Earl of Malvern as her lover, and he had no business thinking of her as anything but his friend.That kiss had been a means to an end, and now she had what she sought.Malvern would not be her first kiss, but the earl would get her other firsts.
Lead coiled in his belly.
Straightening, he strode through the house.Ultimately, it had meant nothing, not to either of them, and it had changed nothing.He was helping her attract someone else as her lover.This had been nothing but a means to an end.It had meant nothing.
And maybe, if he repeated that enough times, he might even believe it.
Chapter Seven
Smallfeetthundereddownthe corridor before the door to Benedict’s dressing room burst open.“Uncle Benedict!”Gregory shouted and charged straight at him.
Using the momentum of the small body barrelling into him, Benedict caught his nephew and swung him upside down.Gregory dissolved into giggles, twisting and contorting his body in a futile—and false—effort to free himself.
Behind them, his valet sighed.“Your coat, my lord.”
“It will be fine, Matthews,” he said, dangling his squealing nephew by one leg.
“Do it more, Uncle Benedict!”Gregory shrieked.Benedict obliged, shifting his grip to his other leg.
His valet sighed again, and then again when first Maria and then Edward followed their brother into Benedict’s rooms.
