Understanding dawned across her features almost instantly. “Victor,” she whispered in scandalized disbelief.
He only arched a brow lazily. “Pleasure yourself for me.”
Charlotte nearly choked on air itself. “That is utterly scandalous.”
“Mm,” he agreed easily. “Likely.”
Her cheeks turned beautifully pink as she stared at him. “And you claim that will distract you from your carriage misery?”
“Entirely.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You are impossible.”
Victor watched the way she bit lightly against her lower lip while considering him.
Good God, even this small nervous habit affects me far more than it should.
“No one can see us?” she asked hesitantly.
Victor’s pulse jumped unexpectedly at the question. “No one.”
Charlotte looked briefly horrified with herself for even considering it. Then, very slowly, she shifted slightly on the velvet seat. Victor’s body immediately tightened in anticipation.
“Only because I pity you,” she muttered.
Victor nearly smiled at the obvious excuse. Charlotte carefully lifted her skirts just enough to reveal the soft line of her stocking-clad calf and the curve of her thigh above it. His breath caught instantly.
Her gloved hand moved uncertainly at first, stroking lightly over the exposed skin.
Sweet Christ.
Victor felt heat slam through him so quickly it bordered on painful. Charlotte glanced up through lowered lashes, clearly shy and emboldened all at once. The look nearly undid him entirely.
“Like this?” she asked softly.
Victor’s throat tightened. “Yes,” he said roughly.
She continued slowly, her fingers gliding up her thigh and to her center. Her confidence grew while the carriage rocked gently around them.
Victor could not tear his gaze away. Her skin looked impossibly soft beneath the pale silk stocking, and the innocent uncertainty upon her face somehow made the entire thing infinitely more intimate.
“You are staring very hard,” Charlotte whispered.
“You are torturing me,” he replied honestly.
“You asked to be tortured,” Charlotte whispered.
A tiny smile tugged at her lips then, coy and pleased.
Victor felt something sharp twist low in his stomach at the sight of it. He had known desire countless times before. Lust was familiar. Physical hunger was easy.
But this?
This consuming ache that settled beneath his ribs whenever Charlotte looked at him like that felt dangerously unfamiliar.
She shifted again, her fingers sliding over her. She began to moan as she threw her head back.
Victor snapped.
