Winter's Woman (The Wicked Winters #9) - Scarlett Scott Page 0,40

with the force of a storm.

He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, gratitude surging within him. She had bestowed a tremendous gift upon him, and he would never forget this night. Would never forget her, even when she was far from him.

Her eyes opened, finding him, reaching inside him in a way only she could. “Do you think we might try that again sometime soon?”

He kissed down the rest of her thigh, then moved to the other, smiling against her silken skin though a wave of bitterness threatened to kill his desire. “We can do it again now, if you like, love.”

“Now?” Her mouth opened, her tongue peeking out to run over the fullness of her lower lip.

He suppressed a groan at the sight, imagining that pink tongue of hers upon him, swirling over his cockhead. But it was not meant to be. Still, he could give her more pleasure. The sun was not yet risen. The servants would not be moving for another half hour or so. He could take this last opportunity to savor her before he was out of her life forever.

Devil lowered his head and sucked on her pearl once more. “Now,” he murmured against her sodden flesh, before pressing a kiss there and then sucking.

“Mmm,” came her telling response.

It was all he needed.

Evie woke with a smile on her lips to what appeared to be late-morning sun filtering in through the window dressing of the chamber she had been occupying for the last fortnight. She stretched, still feeling deliciously sated and alive in places she had never imagined existed before.

Everything seemed the same.

And yet, everything had changed.

Theo had kissed her…between her legs. Her face burned at the memory of what he had done in those early-morning hours, but so too did the flesh he had pleasured. She was throbbing there, filled with a strange sensation of emptiness and neediness all at once. A desperation to know more. To feel his lips and tongue on her, his finger inside her, again.

Who could have imagined such raw, unadulterated joy existed? That such pleasure was possible? Certainly not her.

He had been so sweet and tender to her. After he had brought her to the heights of bliss three times, he had helped her to dress and guided her back to her chamber just before the servants had begun to roam the halls for the day. The way he had gazed down at her just before he had left her at the door to her chamber made her heart feel as if it had grown twice its size.

The walls he had continually built had been dismantled at last. He had pressed a kiss to her crown, wrapped her in an embrace. For a moment, he had simply held her, pressed tightly to his chest, his warmth and strength surrounding her. She had breathed in deeply of his scent, clinging to him as well.

All too quickly, it had been over.

He had disengaged and left her standing in the hall with trembling limbs and a pounding heart.

The door to her chamber flew open suddenly just then, interrupting her solitude.

But it was the person flying over the threshold that shocked her more than the intrusion. Addy was racing toward her, face a mask of worry. “Evie, how are you feeling, dearest sister? When Devil sent over a note that you were ill, I feared the worst.”

Her lovely twin sister, the dark to her light, swooped down on her as if she were a mama bird, pressing a hand to her forehead. “You do not feel feverish. Mayhap the fever has broken.”

Feverish?

Ill?

Theo had sent over a note?

The lovely sensations that had lingered as she woke were abruptly dashed as she blinked the remnants of slumber from her eyes and frowned at Addy. “Why are you here?”

“Is it a lung infection? An ague?” Her sister frowned right back at her. “Have you been coughing? I have had a poultice made for you to lay on your chest. How long have you been sick? Devil said it was quite dreadful, these last few days. You do not look pale, however. Indeed, you appear quite hale.”

Suspicion colored her sister’s tone by the time she stopped speaking. But the misgiving in Addy’s voice was nothing compared to the doubt that was suddenly threatening to drown Evie.

“I am not ill,” she told her sister. “Not at all. I am perfectly well, as you can see. What nonsense is that which you speak of?”

“Devil’s note suggested it was