Page 12 of Too Wicked for Heaven

Amusement danced across his handsome features. “Not at all. I think you’re very good.” He tugged at her nipple with his teeth, then closed his eyes. “Ah, yes, very good indeed.”

Before she could retort, he began to draw on her breast more roughly than before, making her cling to him. Her head fell back and she closed her eyes with a moan.

What heaven he was creating with his mouth! Now she knew how he’d gained his reputation and why “many a woman” would “grace his bed.” He knew how to make a woman quiver and tremble and ache in places where she’d never ached before. And she couldn’t bear to stop him.

She hardly noticed when he moved his hand down to the hem of her skirts, then inched them up until her thighs were exposed. But when he slid his hand between her legs to cup her most secret place and rub it with the heel of his palm, her eyes shot open. What he was doing was outrageous. Scandalous!

She loved it.

Oh, I really should make him stop.

Yet she didn’t, even when his fingers parted her thatch of hair and stroked a tight little nub there, sending fire shooting through her veins. She squirmed against his hand, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he fondled her more and more boldly.

But when his finger delved inside her, she stiffened. The intimacy of it, the shock of the caress jolted her out of acquiescence.

This wasn’t right. No matter how good it felt, she mustn’t let him touch her like this. Not if she wanted to keep her virtue.

“Nev?” She closed her fingers around his wrist to force it back from her.

He let her pull his hand away, but lifted his head from her breast, eyes blazing. “Yes?”

“I-I think we should stop this now.”

For a moment, she didn’t know if he’d understood. There was a wild light in his face, and his breath was coming hard as a stallion’s after a race.

“I said⁠—”

“I heard you.”

She swallowed at the hard note in his voice. “Then ... then could you please get off of me?”

He closed his eyes, as if seeking for mastery over his actions. Then he bit out, “Yes. Of course.”

With a great shuddering breath, he rolled off to lie beside her on the floor. Blindly he stared up at the ceiling, his jaw rigid.

She felt bereft, shut off from him and his thoughts … and the wonderful enticements of his caresses. But she squelched her regret, tugging her bodice back into place and jerking down her skirts. It didn’t matter how pleasurable he’d made her feel or how angry he was now. If she gave in tonight, she’d hate herself on the morrow.

Still, she felt guilty for letting him touch her so intimately, then making him end it. Turning onto her side, she stared over at him. “I’m sorry.”

His words were clipped. “You’ve nothing to feel sorry about.”

“But I shouldn’t have let you⁠—”

“There’s one thing you should learn right now, Althea.” He shifted to face her. Desire flared briefly in his eyes as he let his gaze trail over her prone form. Then he seemed to master it, and with it, his anger.

When he continued, his voice was lower, huskier. “Never apologize to a man for giving him an inch. In the first place, any man is happy to have that inch. In the second place, if you apologize for giving an inch, the man will use your apology to take a mile. You are perfectly in your rights to stop a man from taking your virtue. At any point.”

She couldn’t believe he was giving her such candid advice. As he’d no doubt intended, his words made her smile. “Even you?”

“Especially me.” He gave a mock scowl. “Though you can’t expect me to like it.”

Thinking of how he’d just warned her away from himself, she burst into laughter. “You know what, Lord Foxworth?”

“What?”

“You are a complete hypocrite.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Oh?”