“Can’t blame her,” Adam replied as he gazed down at her. Perhaps it was simply the afternoon light from the window or maybe it was from something else, but he thought her face was glowing. “You’re not helping Lady Morganfield plan her garden party?” he asked with an arched brow.
Diana’s eyes rounded, surprised he would know of it. “Oh, I wasn’t invited,” she replied. “Not for the planning, at least. This is only my first year as a countess,” she reminded him with a pained expression. “We are going on Saturday, though. It will be good to see everyone again.” After a pause, she asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?” She lifted a hand to her cheek. “Do I have chalk all over my face?”
Adam didn’t answer. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her quite thoroughly. He’d been about to come up for air when he instead deepened the kiss and groaned before tightening his hold on her.
Then he did break it off, although he didn’t pull his face from hers. “If I never told you before, you are a ‘ten’,” he whispered.
Diana’s eyes rounded before a grin touched her lips. “Why, Adam Comber, what are you about?”
“I’ve absolutely no idea,” he replied. “I just... I had to see you.”
Blinking, Diana pulled away slightly before her gaze went beyond the door to the one directly across the corridor. “How much of me?” she asked, an eyebrow arching suggestively.
It was Adam’s turn to blink. “What did you have in mind?” he asked as his grin matched hers.
Diana didn’t respond, but grabbed one of his hands in hers and pulled him into the bedchamber across the hall.
After he was completely in the room and she had shut the door behind him, he scoffed. “I didn’t know this was a bedchamber,” he said as he glanced around. The velvet drapes were pulled shut, so the room was quite dark.
“It’s the only one on this floor,” Diana replied as she unbuttoned his top coat, not adding that she was fairly sure it had been the late earl’s and his countess’ secret love nest. She turned around and presented her back to him. “Well, besides the nursery.”
For a moment, Adam simply stared at the soft, dark curls on the nape of her neck, at how the rest of her long hair was caught up in a large bun at the back of her head. He lowered his head until his nose could push away the curls and he kissed her.
She gave a start at the tickling sensation and inhaled softly. Reaching behind her, she molded a hand over the hardening ridge behind the top of his pantaloons and squeezed.
The move seemed to awaken him from his stupor, his fingers expertly undoing the fastenings down the back of her gown. When he was finished, she turned and undid his waistcoat buttons, her breaths increasing as she pushed his coats from his shoulders.
Adam might have found her enthusiasm amusing, but his need for her had him matching her moves. He had her stripped of her gown and petticoats even as he was attempting to shed the boots from his feet. “I do hope I’m not keeping you from something important,” he whispered.
“I cannot imagine what that might be,” she replied, pulling the hem of his shirt from his pantaloons. She was about to lift it up when she saw his cravat was still tied. She quickly went to work undoing the knot as he stepped out of his other boot.
“You’re so busy these days,” he replied, turning her around so he could undo the ties of her corset. “Ever since I inherited. It seems as if I only see you at breakfast and dinner.”
Diana turned her head so her chin rested on her shoulder. “There is nothing more important than you,” she whispered.
He pulled her corset over her head, leaving her wearing only a silk chemise, and then watched as she hurried to the bed to turn down the counterpane and blankets and linens.
The sight of her bent over the edge of the bed, her bare bottom outlined in the thin chemise, had his manhood at full attention. He stripped the cravat from around his neck as he made his way to stand behind her and then slid a hand beneath the chemise and up between her thighs, cupping her mound.
She inhaled sharply, her back arching as his other arm moved in front of her body, a hand covering a breast and essentially trapping her in place against the front of his body.
In the past, she sometimes fought his hold on her, wriggled around in his arms so she could capture his manhood in her fist. She didn’t this time, though, allowing the hand between her thighs to rub her until it was coated with her ambrosia and her womanhood had swelled with her desire.
Adam was about to bring her to ecstasy, to a quick and sharp release, but he had the time to do more.
Pulling his hand from between her thighs—he chuckled at her mewl of disappointment—he had her turned around and up on the edge of the bed and his head between her thighs before her head hit the mattress.
“Oh!” she cried out as his tongue flicked her swollen nubbin.
Adam repeated the move, delighting in hearing her pleas and oh’s, in how she squirmed and lifted her knees so her feet hung over his shoulders, a sure sign she was giving up and allowing him whatever he wanted.
If only his back didn’t complain so.
Although he wanted to spend more time teasing her before allowing her release, he knew he wouldn’t be able to straighten up if he didn’t do it now. So he was relieved when her breath caught and her body jerked beneath his hold.
Groaning as he straightened—he might have let out a curse whilst doing so—Adam winced.
“Oh, dear, do come lie on the bed,” Diana encouraged, quickly moving to the far side and turning over so she was on her hands and knees.
