He had made certain to never be alone with her since those disastrous lessons. Her lady’s maid had been playing the chaperone, keeping them both out of further trouble. Now she was here, where he had spent every night stroking his cock to thoughts of her.
Shite, damn, fuck.
All the curses in the world were not sufficient to adequately express the way he felt this moment.
“Anything you have to say to me would be best spoken before your lady’s maid,” he rasped, hating the huskiness in his voice, giving him away.
A river of lust was flowing through him. Threatening to carry him away.
“I want to resume our lessons,” said the cursed woman.
The lust river turned into an ocean. He was drowning.
Devil closed his eyes and counted to ten. But when he opened them, she was still standing in his chamber, her brown-gold eyes fastened upon him, her face unutterably lovely.
Wearing a night rail.
And that was when he noticed her nipples were hard. Tempting, stiff buds calling to him from beneath that linen.
He jerked his gaze back up to her eyes, where it was far safer to look. “No.”
The persistent wench did not flinch. “Why not?”
“Get out of my chamber.”
If he was going to have to toss her over his shoulder to bodily remove her, he would. She could not bloody well remain standing here, with her nipples taunting him. He was not fashioned of stone, although he had no intention of bedding her.
“Mr. Winter,” she began.
“No,” he interrupted, not interested in hearing anything else she had to say.
“Theo,” she tried again.
She had not just called him Theo, damn her. No one called him that.
“Devil.” He was moving forward now, propelled by his ire and his increasingly waning ability to restrain himself.
Her eyes widened, but she did not retreat. Instead, the impossible woman remained where she was, bare feet firmly planted on Devereaux Winter’s expensive Aubusson.
Even her dainty feet were alluring, curse her. Devil had never noticed a woman’s feet, for God’s sake.
She smiled. “I prefer Theo.”
So did he when she said it in her sweet voice.Hell.That smile of hers did indecent things to him. He reached her, folded his considerable height in half, and settled his shoulder into the softness of her belly as he wrapped his arm around her legs. There. He straightened, and she was light as a bird, slung over him.
“Mr. Winter!” she shrieked.
Too loudly, by God.
He swatted her rump. “Quiet or you’ll bring the house down upon us.”
“That stung, you brute.”
A brute, was he? Good. Mayhap if she thought ill of him, she would do a better job of keeping her distance.
Devil turned on his heel and retraced his steps, saying nothing.
“Put me down! I want to speak with you. Why are you carting me out of your chamber? Theo! Mr. Winter!”
