need than he had intended. Heat lanced him, from the inside out.
He was back in the library at Brandon’s ball, unable to control himself or the way the woman in his arms made him feel. He had to have her. Had to be inside her.
No. He had to go slower. To worship her. To show her how glorious she was to him. To show her she was beautiful and passionate and worthy of admiration.
He was at war with himself, part of him needing her with a desperation that was sharp as the edge of a blade, slicing through him. Part of him remembering she had been shackled to a cruel man for Lord knew how many years.
Still, the play of her tongue against his was enough to drive any sane man to the edge of reason. He nipped the lush fullness of her lower lip. Pressed kisses to the corners, to the sweet bow of the upper. He dragged his mouth along her delicate jaw, inhaling deeply the sweet scent of her, exotic and floral.
His hands had a will of their own, traveling over the curves of her waist, molding her body to his. Slower, he warned himself. Take your time. This is a woman to be savored. A woman deserving of wooing.
Her hands were on him as well, flitting over his shoulders, down his chest. Sliding inside his coat. She nuzzled his cheek with hers like a cat searching for a tender touch. She filled him with such competing urges—the need to protect and the need to possess, simultaneously battling for supremacy.
But she made the decision for him, divesting him of his coat. Finding the buttons on his waistcoat. Tugging at his necktie. When her mouth settled on his throat, burning him like a brand, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Hyacinth,” he growled, catching the fleshy lobe of her ear between his teeth and tugging. “I intended to savor you.”
She made him feel like a beast. Like a rutting animal. Like he would die if he was not inside her in the next five minutes. How did she do it? What power did she wield over him?
“What if I want you to make haste?” she whispered.
Bloody hell.
How was he to resist that invitation?
He could not. His hands were once more taking command of his mind. Fingers found pearl buttons, plucked them from moorings. Silk slid to the floor in a heap. She helped him yank his shirt off. All the rest of their layers fell away.
Brandon, bless him, had outfitted the chamber with a massive bed that was covered in scarlet bed linens. Naked, Tom and Hyacinth fell into the bed as one. She grasped his cock as their mouths fused in a series of deep, delicious kisses. Fire tore through him, but he mustered his restraint, quelling the urge to slam inside her.
This time, he was going to cherish her.
Even if it killed him.
He tore his lips from hers, his breathing harsh. “Not yet, darling. I want to make you come first.”
She moved her hips restlessly beneath him, brushing her slick mound over the head of his cock and nearly stealing his ability to think. “I want to come with you inside me.”
He nearly embarrassed himself.
But he was determined. Now that he had her, naked and at his mercy, nothing was going to stop him from lavishing attentions upon every bit of her luscious body. Not even his own inhuman lust.
“Have some patience,” he urged, working his way down.
He rained kisses on the soft skin of her throat. Over the curves of her breasts. When he sucked a nipple into his mouth, her throaty moan spurred him on. He licked and laved, gratified when she writhed and made breathy sounds of desire. Her fingers feathered through his hair, tightening on the strands with a mixture of pleasure and pain. Her nipples were delicious. He could suck them all night long. Tom moved to her other breast, lapping at the peak as well, until she made more of the same approving noises low in her throat.
But there were other parts of her beautiful body he wished to explore.
He kissed down her belly, over the smooth, pale softness. Lingered on a butterfly-shaped birthmark at her waist that entranced him. Went lower still, hands finally caressing her thighs, parting her legs so she was revealed to him.
Wet, pink, and pretty.
She opened for him like a flower.
But when he dipped his head, she tensed beneath him suddenly.
He forced himself to stop,