Her head fell back. A moan stole from her. She was tingling. Everywhere.
“Tell me to leave you, and I will go,” he murmured.
Impossible.
Him leaving was the last thing she wanted, no matter how wrong this was. How dangerous. Auntie Agatha would never discover them here, but someone else could. Other guests, a servant.
She clutched him to her. “Stay.”
“That was unwise of you, love. Last chance.”
“Do not stop,” she ordered him.
And then she claimed his mouth once more.
If she had to marry to save her sisters, before she did so, she was going to do this for herself. She was going to kiss Blade Winter senseless, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it. She would not surrender her innocence. Felicity did not dare to go that far. However, why not seize what was being offered with both hands?
And with her lips?
Their mouths moved together as if they had each been fashioned for this reckless moment, for this meeting of lips and tongues and teeth. They kissed as if this were the first and the last time. With desperation and awe and an overwhelming sense of urgency.
“Sweet Felicity,” he whispered.
She did not feel sweet. She felt…desperate. But anyway, it mattered not. For she could not manage a single response save a throaty sigh. He felt too good. Kissing Blade Winter was forbidden and wonderful. She never wanted to pull her lips from his. Indeed, she was reasonably convinced she could go without her next breath if it meant she could continue keeping their mouths fused.
He ended the kiss as abruptly as she had begun it, tearing his lips from hers and staring down at her. His bright-blue eyes were brilliant and vivid. His breathing was as ragged as Felicity’s was. Good, then. He was not unaffected.
But why had he stopped kissing her?
“Blade,” she began, only to be silenced by the press of his forefinger to her lips.
“Hush.”
“Hush?” she mumbled against his finger.
“Someone is coming,” he said.
And that was all she needed to hear for her skin to go cold and her heart to plummet. She pushed away from him, mouth dry.Good God, this was how her hopes of securing Esme’s and Cassandra’s futures ended. Destroyed in the false ruins at a country house party by an East End scoundrel whose most recent accomplishment appeared to be wounding the Earl of Penhurst in a duel.
Because he had bedded the man’s wife.
“Remain here,” he ordered her, voice low. “I will meet whomever it is. Do not open the door, whatever you do.”
She nodded, startled he was thinking of propriety. Of her reputation. But then again, one could only suppose he had no wish to cause more trouble for his family. His duel with Penhurst was the reason he was in attendance at Mr. Devereaux Winter and Lady Emilia Winter’s Christmastide party. At least, that was what Lady Aylesford had relayed. The family thought he could do little damage rusticating in the country.
Her kiss-swollen lips and about-to-be-ruined reputation were proof to the contrary.
More fool, she.
Still, Felicity could do nothing but watch as he turned away from her and stalked across the chamber, quitting the room. Voices echoed in the hall beyond the closed door. Masculine, both of them.
She could only pray it was a servant, arriving to tend the fire. Their words did not carry to her; she was left with nothing save the tone of their voices. Nothing seemed amiss. She pressed a hand to her rapidly beating heart, willing it to calm as her eyes frantically cast about the chamber, looking for a place where she might hide herself lest Mr. Winter find himself unable to keep their unexpected guest from entering the chamber and discovering her within.
There was none. Indeed, there was nothing to be done. She had to remain here, hoping he would play the gentleman, that he would protect her honor. That she had not been so recklessly foolish that she could never recover from this tremendous lapse of reason.
Esme and Cassandra, she reminded herself. How dare she have been selfish? How dare she have given in to temptation?
If she escaped from this folly with her reputation intact, it would serve as a stern lesson to her. She was not infallible. She could not afford to spend further time with Blade Winter, alone or accompanied. The man was dangerous to her reputation and virtue both.
