Her fingers stroked lower, and she pressed the pad of her index finger into the dimple in his chin. “Here. Or maybe that’s more for me.”
He opened his eyes, gazed at her flushed face, her parted lips. “It’s for both of us.”
She dragged her fingertips down the length of his throat, slowly, torturing him with the light caress. “Here.”
This time Finn couldn’t hold back his soft moan. “Yes.”
She hesitated when she reached his cravat, as if unsure what to do, and he knew they should stop, that he should send her away before this went any farther, but he couldn’t bear to give up her sweet caresses and the innocent wonder on her face as she touched him.
He took both her hands in his and brought them up to the knot in his cravat. “Take it off.”
He didn’t move while her fingers worked on the knot, or when she loosened it at last, reached up, and pressed her warm hands on either side of his neck.
“Here,” she whispered.
Finn let his head fall back, offering her his throat again. His lips opened on a guttural moan when she took his offer, and traced her fingers over his throat. She slid her hands under the opening of his shirt to caress his collarbones, then let them dip lower to stroke his chest.
“Yes. God, yes.”
He wanted her mouth,her beautiful pink mouth, hot and open, moving over every inch of his skin, biting at him, sucking and licking—
“Here.” Her warm hands slid lower on his chest, moved over his belly, then lower still to the waistband of his breeches, and he was so hard for her, and her hands were so close, and he wanted her hands on him everywhere, more than he’d ever wanted anything, but if she touched his erection he’d lose control, and he wouldn’t be able to stop…
He took her wrists in gentle fingers and moved them away from his body. “No, sweet.”
“But…” Her gaze darted down to where his cock was straining against his breeches. “I thought…don’t gentlemen liked to be touched there, too?”
A half-laugh, half-groan tore from his throat. “Yes. Too much.”
“Oh.” Her brows drew together, and he couldn’t help but kiss her then, softly, just the lightest touch of his mouth against her warm lips. Her body melted into his and her breath caught, but Finn didn’t let himself taste her deeply, because if he did, there was no way he’d leave her alone tonight, and that would make him no better than Wrexley.
“It’s late. I should let you go to bed.” He dragged his thumb across her lower lip one last time and then forced himself to back away, but he couldn’t keep from turning at the door to catch one last glimpse of her.
She was leaning against the bookshelf, watching him, one hand clutching the book to her chest, the fingers of the other pressed against her mouth.
Chapter Sixteen
As soon as Iris slid her foot into the stirrup and swung herself onto his back, she knew she’d been right about Chaos. She might have been wrong about everything else, but when she laid her hand on the horse’s sinewy neck, she felt as if she’d come home.
“Very pretty, Miss Somerset. I don’t know of any lady in London who is as skilled in the saddle, and your seat puts half the gentlemen of thetonto shame.”
Iris turned and blinked at Lord Wrexley, who cantered along beside her on his gray stallion. She’d nearly forgotten he was there.
“Thank you, my lord,” she called back with a quick smile, but she turned away from him to discourage more conversation. She only had time for one gentleman this morning, and it wasn’t Lord Wrexley, or Lord Huntington.
It was Chaos.
Lord Huntington, of course, had no intention of allowing her to banish him from her thoughts. Just when she managed to forget him for a brief moment, he’d sneak past her defenses and batter his way back in. It was his hazel eyes that caused her the most trouble—his eyes, and those sensuous lips, and that delicious little—
No! For pity’s sake, not the dimple again.
She didn’t want to think about her former betrothed, or her future betrothed, or indeed about any gentleman at all this morning, so she’d simply have to ride harder and faster to dislodge Lord Huntington.
She tightened her knees and leaned forward in the saddle, just the tiniest shift of her body, but Chaos stretched his neck forward and lengthened his gait in response, as if he knew before she did what she wanted and had only been waiting for her to realize it and issue the command.
Oh, it was glorious to be running wild again, riding toward the glow of pale orange light just emerging over the horizon. It was early enough the dew was still fresh on the grass. The rising sun illuminated each tiny droplet of water, and it felt to Iris as if she were riding through a field of glittering diamonds.
She laughed aloud at the fanciful thought and lifted her face to the wind. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d ridden like this, with the rolling hills flying by her in a blur of spring green, on a horse who was so attuned to every twitch of her muscles his body was like an extension of her own. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this, so filled with joy she thought her heart would burst out of her chest.
