The Bareknuckle Groom - Holly Bush Page 0,17

supposedly made,” he whispered and laid his palm on her cheek, his thumb a hair’s breadth from the corner of that remarkable mouth of hers, those wide, soft lips that he dreamt about. He leaned his head closer yet, staring at her mouth. “The comment that you were mine and others should stay away from the woman that James Thompson had . . . claimed.”

Her shoulders and breasts rose and fell with her sharp breath. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”

He did not know what she was agreeing to, but she didn’t move to stop him when he closed the distance between them. He touched her lips lightly with his own, the contact sending a sharp pulse to his groin. He moved his hand to palm her chin, tilting her face just a bit and controlling what he thought was undoubtedly her first kiss. He ran his tongue across her lips, opening his mouth slowly as she opened hers. She shivered, her eyes closing in a languorous wafting of lashes. He touched his tongue to hers and felt her sharp intake of breath. He swept his tongue around the edge of her mouth and then deeper as he stepped closer to her, bringing her breasts against his chest and her lower stomach in contact with his cock, hard and ready.

She was a captivating mix of innocence and burning sexuality. And then she touched her tongue to the chip on his front tooth, a reminder to keep his hands up in the ring, and he jerked his hips toward hers, pinning her to the door and letting loose a deep growl. Her hands trailed up to his chest, and he caught both wrists, as slender and fragile as he’d imagined, in his free hand, slowly raising them until her arms were above her head against the door behind her. Her breasts were pressed against his chest tightly as he plundered her willing mouth.

It was the most erotic thing that had ever happened to him.

He stepped away from her, letting her wrists go, her arms falling slowly to her sides. She was staring at him, both of them breathing hard. She touched her mouth with shaking fingers. She must have felt it as much as he, he thought, that sense that certain things had irrevocably changed. And then she glanced down his body until her eyes landed where his trousers tented. She raised her gaze and lifted one pale brow.

He had an otherworldly feeling that the earth under his feet had shifted, that whatever he thought his future may or may not be had been tossed to the sky to land at her feet.

The voices in the hallway drew him from his mental ramblings, focusing again on what may happen if they were caught together, especially as she looked as if she’d just been thoroughly kissed and he had a raging cock-stand that would be difficult to hide. He reached past her and slowly turned the lock on the door. They both stared at the knob as the voices drew closer.

Good Lord! What had she done? If they were found out, she did not know what would happen, and she could hear Edith’s voice among others coming from the hall. The knob turned, and she heard the voices begin to move away from the door. She took a slow breath. She looked up at him, ready to ask him what they should do next, when he put his finger to his lips and shook his head. They waited in silence, neither moving an inch, for more than ten minutes according to the clock ticking on the mantel.

He reached for the door and gently turned the lock above the knob. He waited another minute or more and then motioned her to stand behind him. She did as he bid and watched him crack the door enough for him to peer out. He reached behind his back and felt for her hand, securing it in his. He opened the door wide, and she followed him into the hallway.

“Go back to the party. I’ll slip down the servants’ stairs,” he said quietly.

“What have you two been doing behind a locked door?”

They both jumped and turned to Aunt Louisa’s voice.

“Oh, you gave me a fright, Aunt!”

“Do not cross me, Lucinda,” she said and took a look at James. “Mr. Thompson. You would be wise to heed my advice, which is to stay as far away from my niece as possible. Her father is wealthy, powerful, and determined. You