One woman could be enough if it were her in his bed. Tonight. Every night. The lust was pounding in his blood as he gestured to the front door where a footman waited with her cloak. “I’m to escort you home.”
“You? Alone?” She frowned. “Is that proper?”
Of course not. Especially since he was thinking of all the things to do to her in a closed carriage. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
She smiled at him and shook her head. “I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway.” She lowered her voice and giggled. “I’m not a respectable woman.”
He smiled as she drew on her cloak, hearing her laughter echo in his thoughts. “How much champagne did you drink?”
“None. I was too busy dancing. Every set, every waltz, every moment, just like you promised.”
He had. And she had. And now he wanted her alone in his carriage, so they could do so much more. “This way,” he said as he held out his arm.
She willingly took it, and for all that she claimed her feet hurt, she was half dancing down the walk to his waiting carriage.
“This was the best night of my life,” she breathed. “Thank you for this. I know it wasn’t meant as a treat for me, but I loved it.”
“Of course, it was meant as a treat,” he said. “Do you think I wait until nearly three of the clock for everyone? It was for you,” he said against her ear. Then he helped her inside the dark carriage. He sat beside her and repeated it. “It was all for you.”
He heard her gasp as the door shut behind him. He felt her leg tremble slightly against his as his coachman clucked to the horses. And then he felt her breath, high and tight, as she whispered into the dark.
“My lord?”
“Call me Elliott.”
“I can’t! That wouldn’t be—”
“Just now. Here while we’re alone.”
Silence.
“Elliot.”
Never had his name sounded sweeter.
“I want to kiss you,” he said to the darkness. “If I promise not to touch anything more than your face, will you allow it?”
He heard her breath catch, and then he heard her soft exhale.
“Do you promise?”
Did he? Could he kiss her lips and not touch her breasts, her thighs, her sweet honey?
“Yes,” he said. “Unless you ask for more.”
She gasped at his tease, and he was quick to reassure her.
“You are in control, Amber. Tonight is for anything you want.” But the devil in him made him push her a bit more. “In fact, I give you leave to touch me any way you wish.”
“I won’t,” she said. “I don’t know how.”
That was a declaration of innocence if ever he’d heard one. She might work nightly in an infamous gaming den, but she was still pure. That made him want her even more.
“One kiss then,” he said. He reached out to caress her cheek and stroke his thumb down the long column of her neck.
“Or two,” she whispered. “I might like two.”
He grinned. “Two, then.”
Then he took so much more.
