gaze. How could she ever tell him? How could she confess to the utter sordidness of her past and the horrific price she’d had to pay?
Perhaps she didn’t have to. It was her past, fixed in her soul like a fossil—but there was no need for Alexander to know the full truth. She would never agree to marry him. Perhaps they would be lovers for a time, but their relationship would not extend beyond that. She owed him nothing except the loyalty due any lover.
At least this time, she knew the terms.
“I’ve done this before.” Her murmur was almost inaudible, even to her own ears.
“I know.”
Lydia jerked her gaze to his. “You do?”
He nodded, his features expressionless as he continued to watch her.
“H-how do you know?”
“No woman responds so swiftly to a man’s touch, to passion, without having experienced it before.”
A sting of tears blurred Lydia’s vision for an instant.
It’s not merely a man’s touch, she wanted to cry out. Not a nameless passion. It’s you. You, you, you.
Alexander stepped closer, catching her arms in his hands as he pulled her away from the fire. “Much as I wish to see you go up in flames, I’d rather it be in the metaphorical sense. And by my hand rather than an errant spark.”
Her skin grew hot. Alexander slipped his hand beneath her chin and drew her head up. He frowned, brushing a stray tear from her cheek.
“I’m really not so horrible.”
“I never thought you were. Quite the opposite, in fact.” Lydia managed a smile as she brought her hand up to his coarse-whiskered jaw. She moved her thumb across his mouth, tracing its shape, feeling the slightly dry ridges of his lips. His breath on her fingers.
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
His eyes darkened. Sliding a hand around the back of her neck, he pulled her to him, his mouth hovering over hers for a breathless instant before he closed the distance. Lydia shut her eyes and sank into the feel of him, parting her lips as he swept her mouth with his tongue.
Flowers of heat bloomed deep inside her, dispelling the last threads of cold. She could never be cold in Alexander’s arms. She would never feel a bitter chill, not even from the depths of her own soul—not while wrapped in his all-encompassing warmth.
He angled her head, his tongue sliding across hers, his teeth gently biting down on her lower lip. Lust sparked and caught. She spread her hands over his shirt, feeling the hard ridges of his chest through the linen, his heart pounding against her palm.
He stroked his hands down her back to her buttocks, cupping them and lifting her against him. The bulge in his trousers pushed against her thigh, eliciting a renewed firestorm of arousal. Lydia squirmed, her breath coming faster and faster as she slid her lips across his cheek to his ear. She moaned. Alexander muttered something into her hair, his fingers kneading and parting her bottom so that she was splayed against his hard thigh.
Lydia gasped, her hips moving involuntarily as she strove to release the tension beginning to wind through her lower body. She pressed down, pushed forward and back, her fingers tightening on his shoulders. Alexander urged her movements with the grip of his fingers before he gave a hoarse laugh and eased them apart.
“Sweet Lydia, you’ll be the death of me.” His voice was uneven, edged with roughness. “A fate I’d gladly suffer a thousand times over.”
He turned her around to unfasten her petticoat, letting it fall to the floor. Lydia’s body surged with desire, her nipples tightening painfully against her corset.
“Help me take it off,” she whispered in a husky entreaty, her hands tugging ineffectually at the front. “Oh, please, Alexander, take it off.”
He fumbled with the laces, his big fingers clumsy as he sought to unfasten the expert ties. After a few muttered oaths, he finally yanked at the laces to loosen them, then turned her again to unhook the front.
Lydia moaned, her body vibrating with relief as Alexander tossed the garment aside. He stared at her breasts beneath her chemise, the heavy weight freed from confinement, her nipples pressing against the thin fabric.
A hard shudder racked Lydia’s body when he reached out to fondle her, rubbing his hot palms over her breasts, sliding his fingers into the damp creases below.
She breathed, her chest filling with air, pushing her breasts against Alexander’s adept hands. A restless churning started in the pit of her belly, making her press her