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“I need a taste.”

He moved down her body, and she opened her legs wider, too excited to be embarrassed, her mind no longer her own.

“That’s my good girl.”

He lowered his head and planted a kiss on her inner thigh, which sent a shudder from her head to the tips of her toes. She curled her hands around the edge of the table.

“Relax,” he urged. “Let it wash over you, my sweet. You deserve every ounce of pleasure.”

She put her hands on his shoulders, gasping. He licked her then, and she did not fight the pleasure that rippled through her. His tongue slid up and down her slick folds before circling her sensitive nub, sucking on it while his finger pumped in and out of her.

“You taste so sweet,” he groaned, quickening his pace. “It’s like you were made just for me. I knew it the moment I saw you in that room. It is as if everything brought me to this moment. Brought me to you.”

Laura felt the pleasure swell in her core before it unfurled through her in waves, making her cry out.

A low sound escaped Nathaniel, something between relief and disbelief. Then his mouth found hers, slow and deliberate this time, no panic or nightmare or midnight urgency behind it, only the accumulated weight of weeks of wanting finally allowed to speak for itself.

Laura dug her nails into his shoulders, kissing him back with everything she had been foolishly trying not to feel since the lake.

Eventually, he drew back, breathless, and pressed his forehead against hers, his hand still cradling her face as though he couldn’t quite bring himself to let her go.

“Laura.” Her name came out rough. “Tell me to stop, if you want me to. I will stop. I mean it.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” she said, and felt a tremor run through him. “I only want you to be certain. I don’t want to be an obligation to you, Nathaniel. Not tonight. Not ever again.”

“You are the farthest thing from an obligation.” His thumb traced her cheekbone. “You are the first thing I have wanted for myself in years. I want you, Laura. Not the wife the auction gave me, but you. All of you.”

She kissed him again, and this time there was no hesitation, no panic. Only the warm, steady touch of a man who had finally let her in.

His hand slid down her side as his mouth moved to her jaw and trailed down her neck when a knock sounded at the door.

They both froze.

“Did you hear that?” Nathaniel asked.

“What? What is it?” Laura exhaled as they both snapped back to attention.

CHAPTER 18

The knock came again, soft, almost hesitant. Not the quick, brisk rap of a servant.

Nathaniel exhaled through his nose. Laura felt the change in him instantly, felt the alertness replace the lust.

“Laura? Are you there?” The sweet, little voice, even muffled through the door, was unmistakable.

Laura sat up so fast that her forehead nearly hit Nathaniel’s nose. He straightened and dragged a hand down his face.

As though he could scrub away the last several minutes and become a man capable of rational thought.

She bit her lip, holding back a laugh.

“It’s only Iris,” she said, her cheeks warm.

“Of course it’s Iris.” Nathaniel let out a rough laugh that sounded more like disbelief than humor.

“Yes, sweetheart. Give me a moment,” Laura called out.

Nathaniel straightened and quickly helped her redress as best he could, then threw his own shirt back on.