His mouth curved in a beautiful smile. “What do you think it is?”
She willingly tumbled over the precipice which she had been perched on so precariously. “It must be the beginning of love, and I dare hope it is also the middle and the end.”
“You speak your thoughts so boldly. Is there nothing you are afraid of?”
“I am afraid of years from now looking back on my life and feeling the keenest of regret that I had not lived. Of never feeling again the way I feel with you.”
Cherished.
“You are my future.” He said it so softly, Maryann wasn’t certain she had heard correctly.
He leaned with space between them and kissed her. It was the briefest touch of lips to hers, but there they were, firm and supple against her mouth. She lifted her fingers to touch his cheek, astonished her hand trembled with the force of emotions working through her.
Nicolas drew back and shrugged from his waistcoat and jacket, letting them fall to the carpet.
“If you want to, and only if you want to, take off your clothes.”
Oh God. The awareness of exactly what he now meant by “taking her” sent such sensations tearing through her heart, they were frightening and exquisite all at once.
Maryann untied the tapes to her cloak and shrugged it from her shoulders. Then she turned around and closed her eyes when he methodically unbuttoned her dress. His movements were so slow, as if he savored removing her clothes. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her nape and smell the wild flavor of rain and fire. After the last of her garments fell to the floor in a soft swish, he removed the pins holding her heavy tresses together. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders, down to her back, and his soft exhalation of satisfaction had delight coursing through her.
The silence felt thick, charged.
Maryann almost fainted when a finger ran over her back and down to the arch of her derriere. There his touch lingered before his hand fell from her buttock. Her entire body was blushing.
When she faced him again, her lips parted, and her eyes widened. Her chest went so tight, she could scarcely breathe. The marquess was stark and beautifully naked and completely distracted her from the awareness that she stood only in stockings and garters, with her hair tunneling down to her waist in a riot of curls and damp tendrils.
He watched her with an unreadable intensity that sucked all the air from her lungs, and Maryann lowered her gaze and blushed fiercely. His eyes devoured every dip and hollow of her body.
And she swallowed the cry rising in her throat when his body reacted. The statues in the museums had lied, and she had to remember to tell her friends. His manhood hung long and heavy between his brawny thighs, which were carved with such strength, he could have been one of those sculptors. His thighs and calves were thick and powerful, stomach and buttocks lean and delineated with muscle.
The very awareness that she was being so wicked with him had a familiar ache settling low in her stomach. I have fallen in love with you, she wanted to say, but to her shock, her mouth would not part. Maryann was never one to shy away from speaking her opinions, but at this moment she felt ridiculously vulnerable and timid.
As if he sensed the emotions rioting inside her, he came closer and pressed a kiss to her forehead. It asked for trust, and it also reassured her.
He moved away and held out his hands. And even in that action, he gave her a choice. Her marquess did not ruthlessly seduce her, using her untapped passion to assault her senses. Should she step back, he would not pressure her.
Maryann smiled tremulously up at him. To take his hand was to be forever altered, yet she reached for him.
He dragged her up against him, one hand curving to the swell of her hips and lifting so she wrapped her legs around his hips.
“I fear when I am through with you, all your sensibilities will be forever devastated,” he murmured, his voice rich with hunger and arousal.
She touched his mouth with trembling fingers. “I want to be so very wicked with you.”
Nicolas took her mouth in a kiss of violent tenderness that shook her. Then he ravished her lips with passionate kisses. Their tongues tangled wildly, and a long, low moan broke from her lips.