of her nipples hardening beneath his fingers through the fabric made him ache to explore more.
He pulled back. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to take advan—”
She cut off the words with her lips. That was when he knew he was in trouble. Because randy devil that he was, he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her sumptuous mouth again.
Chapter Nineteen
Beatrice was in heaven. Dear Lord, but His Grace knew how to kiss. Grey knocked her right back on her heels with the sensuous plunges of his tongue, the sweeping strokes of his hands, and even the heady scent of cologne in his hair. Her body quaked from the surfeit of so many pleasures at once.
Still, what was she doing, tempting a man who could lead her only to ruin? Why, he’d thought her capable of murder!
Yet she wanted him. Needed him. Wished to climb all over him, to find out what he felt like beneath his clothes. To have him inside her.
And not just his fingers, like this afternoon. No, she wanted him entirely, filling her up until the past was no more. It might be only temporary, but for tonight she wanted to know how it felt to be desired for who she was, by a man whom she actually desired in return.
She tugged at his coat until he shrugged it off, and in return he stripped off her wrapper and tossed it over a nearby chair. Now she wore only her nightdress, and she didn’t even care.
“You realize this is madness. Pure insanity,” he said even as he worked loose the buttons of her nightdress. Perhaps he didn’t care either.
“Is it?” When he spread hot kisses down inside the opened placket, she nearly fainted from the anticipation of what he meant to do. “Feels perfectly sane to me.”
With a heartfelt groan, he seized one breast in his mouth, and she melted. He teased and nibbled, licked and sucked. Lord, she was on fire. Her nipple ached from the decadent enjoyment she’d barely sampled before. She clutched his head close, praying for more, and he answered her prayers by treating her other breast to the same wonderful treatment.
He clapped his large hands around her hips and began to caress her curves as if trying to memorize every one. All the while his mouth plundered her breasts like a ravisher of old.
Except she didn’t feel ravished. She felt worshipped.
“You taste like honey,” he murmured, “like the angel you are.” To her vast annoyance, he drew back to gaze into her eyes. “Which is one more reason I should stop. You deserve better.”
“Stop saying that!” The words frustrated her. “I don’t care what I deserve, who I deserve.” She unbuttoned his waistcoat, and though he cursed under his breath, she didn’t stop until she had it undone. “Every time you touch some part of me that my depraved uncle tried to sully with his words, you dim the memory. When you caress me, I no longer feel dirty; when you kiss me, I no longer remember his slobbering mouth on my lips. You have no idea what a gift that is.”
She lifted her gaze. “I have no idea what the future will bring for me—if I’ll ever find a husband or be with a man who makes me . . . yearn and soar as you do.” Fisting her hands in his waistcoat, she said, “So I want my first time to be with you.”
Though an unholy fire leapt in his face, he didn’t return to what he’d been doing. “Sweetheart—”
“No!” She dragged his waistcoat off. “Don’t say whatever you mean to—about how I should keep my virtue intact or whatever rot true gentlemen are schooled to tell a respectable female like me.” She tossed his waistcoat aside. “Do you desire me?”
She held her breath, half afraid to hear the answer, but his face showed it all. “You know that I do.” As if to prove it, he tightened his grip on her hips.
“Then take me to bed.”
“You will come to regret it.”
“I won’t.” She gazed at him uneasily. “But will you?”
His eyes turned a molten blue-green. “How could I? You’re giving me everything I want and asking nothing in return. Unfortunately, the consequences aren’t the same for a man as they are for a woman.” He caught her head in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “What if you have a child?”
“I thought one could prevent such things.”
That seemed to surprise him. “You did, did you?” He slid his