There was no way he could see the truths she hid under her masque, and in the next moment forget he’d ever seen them. He wanted to crawl inside her, see everything, all she hid, and all she was—to touch every part of her with his hands and his mouth until she couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been there.
Hewasn’twell, and he didn’t give a damn.
“Haven’t you ever been in love, Lady Emma?”
“No.” She laughed, but it was a broken, forlorn sound, without joy. “The devotion Lord Lovell and Lady Flora feel, their happiness in each other seems…very faraway from me.”
“How can it be that a lady with a face like yours, a lady of such charm and allure, has never stolen a gentleman’s heart?”
“How? It’s the easiest thing in the world, Lord Lymington.” Lady Emma’s gaze had returned to the loose rose petals in her hand, but when she looked up at him, they slipped through her fingers and fluttered to the ground. “Desire isn’t love.”
Something swelled inside Samuel’s chest then—confusion, yes, and desire, too, but there was something else, something deeper and wild, an uncontrollable longing he was helpless to resist. There was no explanation for it, no reason why it should beshewho moved him, when others had failed.
It justwas.
Samuel hadn’t brought her here to kiss her, but he didn’t think of that—he didn’t think of anything at all. He simply brushed his fingers across the soft skin of her cheek, turning her toward him. When she didn’t move away, he cradled her face in his hands, leaned toward her, and here, in this place with fragrant roses dripping in lush petals from the arbor above them, he brought his lipsdown on hers.
His mouth was as soft as a whisper, the touch of his lips careful at first, as gentle and tentative as his fingers against her skin. It wasn’t until she parted her lips for him and the sweet taste of her flooded through him that Samuel understood the enormity of the riskhe was taking.
By then, it was already too late.
By then her taste—vanilla, smooth and smoky at once, like the finest whiskey—was rushing through his veins with wild abandon. Then he was taking her mouth over and over again, his gentle kisses growing desperate.
He’d known she’d be delicious, addictive, butthis…he’d never known a kiss could steal your reason, could make you dizzy with want. He traced his tongue over her bottom lip. She gasped, and the soft, surprised sound went straight to his cock, shattering his control.
“Emma.” Samuel sank his hands into her hair, groaning as one pale, silky lock came loose from its pins and tickled the back of his hand, a shockingly sweet caress. “Touch me.”
He caught her hands in shaking fingers and twined them around his neck, and a tiny sigh fell from her lips as she sifted through the hair at the back of his neck with her fingers.
“So soft,” she whispered,as if stunned.
Dear God. He’d never felt anything as tempting as her kiss, never tasted anything sweeter than her mouth. He traced her bottom lip, his tongue eager, and a soft, choked whimper caught in her throat. He thought she’d pull away from him then—hoped she would—that one of them would put an end to this madness—but instead she urged him closer, her fingers tightening in his hair.
“Emma, let me…”Let me touch you.
Samuel dragged his palm down her neck, over that impossibly soft skin, his lips following the trail of goosebumps left in the wake of hisstroking hand.
Emma’s breath caught, and her head fell back as she bared her neck to him. Samuel touched his fingertip to the hollow of her throat, and felt her pulse fluttering madly there. Her scent was stronger here, over her pulse point, and Samuel found himself inhaling, hungry for more of that vanilla-scented skin. “So sweet, Emma.”
Her fingers closed around his wrist, and she raised his hand to her lips and kissedhis fingertip.
Samuel gazed down at their hands, mesmerized by the sight of her gloved fingers holding his wrist, her hand so small next to his, and a wave of tenderness swept over him, leaving him shaking in its wake.
It wasright, somehow, kissing her, perfect, in a way it never had been before, and Samuel couldn’t resist the pull between them—didn’t want to resist it.
“Emma.” He cupped her face gently in his palms, and then he was kissing her everywhere, her lips and her neck, the secret place behind her ear, so impossibly soft, her pulse quickening under his tongue, the arch of her cheekbone, flushed with passion, and her full, red lips, now swollen from hisardent kisses.
Her warm breath drifted over his lips, and dear God, her soft sighs, the scent of her all over him, drowning him, drove him mad. He gathered the loose locks of her hair into his hands and pressed them to his lips. He nuzzled her temple, trailed a chain of kisses from her throat to the delicious arch of her neck.
I have tostop, have to—
But she was panting for him, her fingers tangled in his hair, tugging, and he couldn’t stop, couldn’t make himself release her. “Samuel, please.”
Samuel’s hands flexed, his fingers itching to loosen her gown until inches of bare, creamy skin were revealed, to pluck the rest of the pins from her hair so the heavy locks tumbled over her shoulders and he might sink his hands into it, stilling her for his mouth. He burned to slide his fingers under her skirts and up the outside of her thigh, and his cock thickened, pressing insistently against the tight confines of his falls.
“My lord.” Her small, gloved hand landed on his chest. “Samuel.”
Samuel allowed himself one final kiss, just the briefest brush of his lips over hers before he pulled away with a low groan, setting her away from him before he could kiss her again, before he couldn’t stop. Releasing her was torture, a severing, as if he’d lost a piece of himself once she was no longer in his arms.
