Why? A question she wanted answered, but also feared knowing. His attentions and the feelings he elicited in her might once again rouse dreams she had long buried and no longer wanted as a part of her future. And it was also nonsensical to entangle any dreams and wants she might have with this man. He was a stranger…a complex one, whom she might never understand. Maryann must never delude herself as to his reasons for warning her.
And despite knowing that…inside she felt warmed…
Cherished.
A sob at her foolishness hitched in her throat. Her heart would not listen. The shadow shifted, and with a sense of shock, she realized he had knelt. His gloveless hand encircled her ankles and started to slide her gown up her shins, exposing her stocking-clad legs.
“Rothbury!” she gasped, her entire body trembling. “Yes!”
“Nicolas,” came his dark murmur. “Let me hear it on your lips.”
“Nicholas,” she said on a husky whisper, aware that her dress was now above her knees.
She felt when he leaned in, and his lips unerringly found the soft spot of her inner thigh not covered by her stockings and garters.
A shameful, wanton curiosity burned hot and frightful in her veins.
This is not what I meant when I said to be wicked and take what we want. Because Maryann did not desire a lover…
Did she?
His tongue as it stroked over her skin was a searing lash of heat. The feel of his mouth on such a vulnerable place set her heart into a frenetic gallop, her awareness of him heightening to a physically painful degree. How remarkable her skin could be this sensitized! His tongue lashed against that spot once more, and she made a small helpless sound of need…of desire.
Was that what this was—this flushed sensation stealing over her entire body and settling low in her belly? Her nipples ached, and each breath made the fabric of her gown rasp against them, further agitating the sensation.
She tried to deny the hunger sweeping through her body, fearing the reckless need it inspired, but then he gently sank his teeth into that spot on her thigh, and she whimpered, “Nicolas,” as he sucked at her flesh at first harshly and then tenderly.
When he released her skin, he stroked that spot with his tongue, a glide meant to soothe. All thoughts scattered when he kissed a spot higher on her thighs. It was such a soft caress, yet her lashes fluttered closed, and she savored the hot brand of his lips to her skin.
He kept going up with his kisses.
“Nicolas?” she cried softly.
His mouth left her body, but she could feel him staring at a part of her no one had ever seen. The darkness of the conservatory pressed in on them, cocooning them in intimacy and secrecy to just be. Maryann swore he could see every bit of her in the dark and through her drawers.
He pressed his nose against her and inhaled her womanly scent. Her cheeks burned with alarm and aroused mortification and she was grateful for the dark. The feeling of his teeth against her mons was shockingly, overwhelmingly intense. It was also more. The feeling was evocative, and delicious tremors went down her back.
There was a sharp tug and her drawers parted, exposing her sex to the air. “You’re the devil,” she gasped, her fingers twisting tight in his hair.
“I know,” he murmured. Then he licked against her sex.
She slapped a hand over her mouth to stifled her scream. This…this was indecent. And so, so pleasurable.
He nudged her legs apart wider, then wider still, forcing her legs to accommodate the width of his shoulders. With a sense of aroused alarm, Maryann realized he was lifting one of her legs and draping it over one of his shoulders, the edge of her dancing shoe resting against his back.
Then he licked her again. This time slower. As if he savored her. This time his tongue dragged against her nub, striking it with raw pleasure. Hot flames curled through her and the jolting sensations were so powerful, she quaked.
Maryann sobbed, collapsing against the wall.
“I have you,” he murmured, his voice vibrating against her mons. Then he went back to that nub and licked it again and again and again.
Something awful tightened low in her belly, a sensation Maryann never dreamed a body could be capable of withholding. It did not expand out but contracted, coiling into a tight ball of heat low in her belly and at that bundle of