The Duke Heist (The Wild Wynchesters #1) - Erica Ridley Page 0,74

want?”

“Lying with you is what I’ve wanted to do ever since you made me those bonnets.” She dragged her lower lip against the scratchy edge of his jaw. “I realized it was what I was going to do the moment you said ‘Not betrothed.’”

He caught her lip between his teeth, gently, then licked where he had nibbled.

“In that case, I should have mentioned it sooner.” He pressed openmouthed kisses down the side of her throat, tasting her, supping there at the base. “I’ve wanted you since you made me put in an appearance at the Blankets for Babes charity tea with the wrong kind of blanket.”

“I didn’t make you do anything,” she protested, dipping her head to allow him more access. “A certain know-all decided to go off half-cocked without asking any questions.”

But her insides warmed at the knowledge that he had been thinking of her even then, try as he might not to. She was not the one he needed, but she was definitely the one he wanted.

The feeling was mutual.

She knew better than to become romantically entangled with a cull. But along the way, he had stopped being a mark and started being Lawrence. The man whose seductive kisses and romantic murmurs melted her knees and who somehow kept a straight face when Tommy’s “Great-Aunt Wynchester” was at her most outrageous. He did all of that for Chloe.

Her pulse rushed faster. Although she had not coupled with anyone before, her life had been far from sheltered. She knew what to expect and was glad it would be with Lawrence.

This was the memory she wanted to look back on when she remembered her first time. One perfect night. A fantasy come to life, before reality came to snatch it all away. This was their moment.

Chloe reached for him with eager hands. She could not divest him of his clothing until she got rid of his coat.

The buttons slipped free in a blur. “Aren’t you hot under all these fashionable layers?”

“My entire body heats at the mention of your name,” he growled, and reached for her. “The sight of you makes my trousers too tight.”

She grinned and pushed his tailcoat off his shoulders.

“Poor darling.” She ran a finger down his chest. Finally she could undo his waistcoat. “How terrible it must be to suffer inside such binding breeches! We must get you out of them at once.”

He allowed his waistcoat to fall to the floor, but he did not let her reach for his waistband. Instead, he caught her wrists in his hands and pressed a kiss to each pulse point. Her blood ran faster, carrying the kiss to every secret place she hoped he’d find.

He dropped her wrists and sank between her knees to the carpet to begin untying her half boots. She could see only the top of his head. As he loosened each lace, he buried his face beneath her skirts to kiss the top of her thigh or the inside of her knee. She felt each touch of his tongue on her flesh all the way to her core.

She was boneless by the time he slipped the boots from her feet, her limbs trembling with anticipation. They were going to make love. She was about to feel him inside of her.

But he did not immediately rise to cover her body with his. He stayed on his knees between her parted legs. Slowly he slid the pads of his thumbs beneath the hem of her skirts to skim the thin silk of her stockings.

“I’ve been told,” he said, his voice deep and gravelly, his gaze burning, “that I look at you as though I’d like to eat you.”

It sounded wicked and wonderful. She swallowed hard. “Is that what you want?”

“Trust me.” His arrogant smile had never looked so arousing. “It’s what you want.”

He ducked his head to where her stocking covered her calf. As he slid her hem higher, he feathered little kisses first to one sensitive patch of skin, then the other. He made thrilling dark promises with his mouth and tongue as he exposed her inch by inch.

When her hem reached her hips, she gasped—not at the sudden contact with the library’s cool air, but at the heat from his mouth as he kissed the secret spot between her legs where only she had touched before. It had never felt like this. Wanton and overwhelming.

Her eyes fluttered shut, blocking out everything but the sensation of his talented tongue, teasing her and tasting her. Pressure built