hands. His skin’s scent, mingling with starch and the faintest hints of some spicy male fragrance, filled her head and made her dizzy and wanting . . . more. She pressed closer.
He tipped her head back and kissed her full on the lips once more, and the kiss dragged her deep and deeper still, until she was in a place where there was no one but him. She rubbed herself against him, as though she could burrow into him.
He made a sound, a low growl, and picked her up and carried her to the sofa. He pulled off her coat and waistcoat. He drew off the mangled neckcloth and threw everything carelessly onto the carpet. Her breath came faster, and heat danced over her skin, while something else, a feeling whose name she didn’t know, tugged at her inwardly and made her ache, everywhere, it seemed, but not in pain. This was a different kind of ache, a powerful current that pulled her, and one she didn’t want to fight.
He kissed her, and she sank back against the sofa cushions, drinking him in, as though the kiss could soothe whatever it was—a pulsing need for more. And more. Awareness shrank to this: the man surrounding her, holding her, kissing her, and the current pulling her toward something further, something felt but distant, indescribable.
She grasped his shoulders and moved her hand up over his braces to the neckcloth, and pulled it apart, as heedlessly as he’d destroyed hers. She slid her hand along the column of his throat and down over the opening of the shirt, caressing skin lightly dusted with silky, pale gold hair.
She moved her hands downward along his shirt, over his big chest, hard and smooth and warm. Her finger grazed his nipples, and he gasped, but he didn’t push her away, and she let her hands stray farther down, over rippling muscles and hard belly and lower still . . .
His hand closed over hers. “I don’t think—no—yes.” Then he drew her hand down over his groin. Under her palm, beneath the flap of his trousers, his breeding organ swelled and throbbed.
She caught her breath. She knew what this was. She was neither ignorant nor oblivious. She’d seen dogs, horses, and other creatures in the act of coupling. She’d seen salacious prints. She marveled, all the same.
“This is the first time you’ve done that,” he said thickly. “I pray it’s not the last. But let’s . . . savor the moment.” He gave a short, choked laugh.
“Oh, Lucius.”
“We truly need to get married,” he said. “Soon.”
“Yes.”
He took her hand away and kissed her again, a long, deep, dark kiss that sent her swirling into the whirlpool again.
“We must save something for the wedding night,” he said when at last they remembered to breathe. “But in the meantime, I should like to lead you into temptation. Because I’m hopelessly debauched, as you know.”
“Yes.” She was aching all over, squirming. She wanted to be closer. Needed to be closer. She tried to pull him down over her, but he braced himself on his elbows.
“I should like to be debauched,” she whispered. “Truly, I should.”
“I cannot tell you how much I look forward to that.”
“Now?”
He drew in a deep breath and let it out again. “Let’s take this in steps, yes? Let’s begin as all good stories begin, with the prologue. Let’s say you know nothing.”
“True enough.” She comprehended the principles. She understood, in theory. She had no experience. She’d never even kissed another man in that way. She’d never wanted to.
“Being untutored,” he said, “you lie there, in all your seductive innocence, while I have my wicked way with you.”
Her pulse escalated and her breath came fast. “Yes.”
“I wish you would not keep putting me off in this way, my girl. You’ll force me to use my wiles upon you.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “For heaven’s sake, Lucius. Do something before I do something—and you know it’ll be awkward at best. I have no expertise in these matters.”
Another choked laugh. “Did I not tell you to lie there?”
“I do not care for your dictatorial manner— Oh, sweet mother of Hercules.” He was kissing her breast and his tongue flicked over her nipple, under its useless shield of linen. Then he was suckling her, and she felt the tug in the pit of her stomach then all the way to her curling toes.
She dragged her fingers through his hair, destroying whatever artfully careless arrangement his valet had made. He caressed with his