Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,15

the red gown, but she was even more ravishing out of it.

Twenty-four hours of eating properly and being relieved of the constant strain she appeared to have been under seemed to have taken away some of the sharp edges where her bones had been too visible. She was still light and delicate-looking, but even half dressed, she now faced him with an unmistakable dignity.

Benedict’s cock, still hard and aroused, gave an approving throb.

Chloe, once lying on her stomach on the bed, could only feel relief at having been spared the embarrassment of being bare in this way, due to her having been unconscious, when Benedict dressed her wounds the first time.

It was embarrassing for two reasons.

The obvious one being that she was now only half clothed in front of a man who made her heart pound and her body ache.

The second one being that she had these unsightly wounds at all. Ones that had obviously been deliberately inflicted.

She had thought she was going to die that day, Lord Gordon having been filled with a rage such as Chloe had never seen in him before.

Over the following week, racked with pain and burning up with fever when one of the deeper wounds had become red and filled with pus, she had many times wished that she had died.

But the fever finally broke, her wounds, although still unsightly, had begun to heal. They had become even more comfortable after Benedict had cleaned and put salve and dressings upon them yesterday.

The fact Benedict, as he sat on the side of the bed where she lay, was now able to easily remove those dressings, along with his murmurings of approval when he did so, was reassuring.

That he could see her completely bared bottom and the tops of her thighs was less so.

Did bottoms blush?

Probably not, but skin definitely became flushed, and Chloe felt that flush all over her body, from her face down to her toes, and that included her bottom.

That heat deepened when Benedict continued to sit silent and unmoving beside her.

Finally, when Chloe could stand the tension no longer, she turned her head to look at him. He stared back at her with glittering dark eyes. The color was high in his cheeks, his lips moist and his jaw tight, and his hands were clasped into fists as they rested on his thighs.

Chloe swallowed at this visible show of tension on his part. “Benedict—”

“I am a doctor and have taken an oath to heal and protect life, but that has not stopped me from wanting you from the moment I first set eyes on you up on that gallery,” he ground out harshly. “Having you here now, being able to touch you as well as look at you, is tempting me beyond the limits of my control.”

Chloe continued to look at him as she rolled over and then moved up and forward onto her knees, until their torsos were only inches apart but not quite touching. “I have wanted you for the same amount of time.”

Benedict’s gaze moved from her lips to her eyes. “You have?”

“As much as I am able to understand such things, yes,” she acknowledged self-consciously.

A comment which reminded Benedict only too clearly that Chloe was nineteen years old. Too young and innocent for an experienced man of two and thirty. One, moreover, who had no future to offer her.

Besides which, whatever Chloe felt for him could be confused with gratitude for his having removed her from London and the threat of Lord Gordon. Benedict should not, in all conscience, take advantage of such feelings.

Except he was only a man, and his senses were currently filled with the heady perfume of Chloe’s warmth and arousal. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips moist and parted, her eyes warm with invitation. Almost as if removing her gown and baring her bottom to him had aroused her as much as it had him.

Perhaps it had? The aroused nipples pressing against the front of her chemise said it had.

When Benedict looked down between the two of them, it was to see the golden curls that covered Chloe’s mound were fully visible above her unfastened drawers.

Yes, Benedict had learned great restraint and self-control, but for the past week, he had desired to see and touch this woman every one of his waking moments and to the depth of his being.

He gave an inward quiver as the perfume of her arousal caused his cock to become even harder and heavier. She smelled of a mixture