“But I always like to know I would have a chance to win.”
He laughed again and caught her up in his arms and hugged her tightly to his chest. Their lips met again and again, open mouths with tongues darting, playing, and teasing and closed with gasps, moans, and swallowing long deep breaths of pleasure. He had no idea how long they kissed. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want it to end.
Yet all the endless kisses and touches made Hawk desperate for more of her. His body kept telling him to rush to end this aching, craving need that possessed him, but his heart and mind reminded him to take it slow and relish every sensation.
Carefully, he pushed her sleeves off her shoulders, down her gloved arms, and then worked her gown and chemise past the top of her corset, exposing her breasts, arousing him even more. He slowly moved his hand over one breastand then the other, taking his time to feel her firm softness before taking their full weight in his hands.
Loretta sucked in a deep, loud breath and he savored it. His body throbbed and ached. He kissed her all the harder, thrusting his tongue deeper into her mouth time and time again before moving to kiss her shoulders, her neck, and her chest until he could no longer deny himself. Hawk bent his head lower and pulled her nipple into his mouth. She sighed contentedly, letting him know she’d wanted this intimacy with him as much as he’d wanted it with her. His tongue circled her nipple, bathed it, and then gently drew it more fully into his mouth.
He groaned as if being tortured, for surely he was when she threw her head back and lifted her chest to him. She cupped his head to her bosom with her arms, surrendering to him. It was all glory for him—and for her, too, he knew when he felt her body tremble.
“Yes, yes,” she whispered on a soft moan of passion that thrilled him to his very soul.
“Does that please you?” he asked when he took the time to move to her other breast, wanting to moisten it, pull the taut bud into his mouth and feel it swell and harden as tight as the other.
“Immensely. More than I could have ever imagined.”
A flood of bundled new and exciting feelings that he’d never felt swept through him and burned as hot as oil on fire. Hawk skimmed his hand down her waist and then down the plane of her hip over to her stomach and to the firm roundness of her buttocks; he cupped them and lifted her against his hardness. With a gentle shove, he pinned her to the wall and pressed his lower body against her.
When she arched her hips toward him, Hawk threw his head back in pleasure. The tempo of her breathing turned choppy. His muscles contracted in the sweet pain of lovingher so thoroughly. He gulped in a ragged breath. Her body teased him and offered no mercy for his desperate need to take her.
Over and over he pressed against her. With his desire for her at a fevered pitch he kissed her passionately, feeling like a thirsty man in need of fresh, cool water. He shuddered a moan of satisfying pleasure as her hips joined his gentle thrusts against her.
She moaned softly in pleasure, too, and trembled beneath his touch. Hawk smiled against her lips. Loretta wanted this union between them as much as he did. She was eager and receptive to his desire for her, and that aroused him all the more. He hadn’t planned they’d go this far this soon but knew from her response to him they both wanted this coming together of their bodies and souls.
With impatience to make her his, he gathered her long, flowing skirts and found her thigh. It was delicious as hell to touch her warm skin. His fingers and hands explored her soft flesh before he lifted her leg and rested it around his hip. His hands moved to the center of her womanhood, cupping the warmth of her there.
She gasped softly.
He groaned as his body pulsed rapidly. A spiraling heat of desire swirled and seared deep in his loins.
“I know I shouldn’t want to seduce you like this, Loretta. You deserve better but God help me, I want you right now. I don’t want to wait.”
Suddenly, after breathing out those few untimely words, he felt Loretta’s instant withdrawal. Her hands stilled. Her body relaxed. Her labored breathing slowed.
Damnation.
Of all the things he’d said, could have said, why was it those few words that penetrated her senses and stopped the flow of unbridled passion in her?
He wasn’t satisfied.
She wasn’t.
He still wanted her and knew she wanted him, too. He waited a moment to be sure, but there was no going back for her. And though it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, he respected her wish. He lowered her leg, dropped her skirts, turned her loose, and stepped back.
Her chest still heaved as she pulled her gown up to her shoulders and over her breasts. His body still burned stiff, hard, and tight.
She swallowed before saying, “Aren’t there enough women in London for you to pursue?”
If she’d hoped to give him a verbal slap, she’d accomplished it with great strength. The words stung, for surely he’d never felt for any other woman what he felt for Loretta right now. Yet Hawk shook it off and said, “Plenty.”
But none that he wanted.
“Then, perhaps, it’s that you’ve already been through all of them.”
“Most, I’d say.”
“So you will be all right with not adding me to that number tonight.”
