“On the contrary, darling.” His gaze darkened, settling on her mouth. He brushed their lower lips together in a half kiss that was deliciously erotic. “I can prove to you that you are the finest dessert there is. All you have to do is allow me to show you.”
His breath was hot, falling on her mouth like a kiss. His promise was hotter still. “Are you suggesting we should abandon our game and our bath?”
He nipped her next. “Suggesting, yes. We can both claim victory this way.”
She liked that, but the misgiving that had been steadily pricking her conscience ever since his grandmother’s visit chose to return at the moment, needling her once more. “You seemed serious earlier when you arrived. Is anything amiss?”
She had not told Tom about the call the Duchess of Arrington had paid upon her. And indeed, she was not certain she would.
They had less than a fortnight of pleasure remaining. What did anything else matter? If he truly needed to marry soon to make his ailing grandfather content, she would have nothing to do with it.
“When I am here with you, nothing is amiss at all,” he said, before kissing her slowly and sweetly.
It was not an answer, but his lips were robbing her of the ability to think. And anyway, she knew the feeling all too well. Tom banished the ghosts of her past. He kept the demons at bay. He brought her to life once more.
The kiss was dark and deep and potent, drugging her. Part of Hyacinth found it impossible to believe such passion was possible. That a man could be as tender and gentle a lover as Tom was, that a gentleman would touch her as if she were precious, that he cared about her pleasure, her thoughts, about her.
He was so different from Southwick. Different in every way.
Fortune’s wheel had given her a good turn when she had chosen to lease the home next door to his, and again when he had saved Lady. What would she do without him?
In less than a sennight, she would have to confront that painful reality.
But not now. Not yet.
And so, she kissed him harder, kissed him with all the frantic yearning burning within her. She wanted him so much. Too much. But she would worry about that later. For now, she had Tom all to herself.
His tongue plundered her mouth, dueling with hers.
Abruptly, he tipped back his head, severing the kiss once again. His eyes were dark upon her lips, the obsidian pupils wide, showing her how much he wanted her. Beneath her bottom, his cock was long and thick and tempting. She wondered what he would do if she aligned herself to him and slid him inside her.
He rubbed his thumb over her nipple. Kissed her chin, her cheek, her ear. “If we do not stop, I’m going to take you in this tub, and we are going to leave a hell of a mess for Brandon’s servants to clean up.”
An answering pulse of need between her legs had her rising from the tub. Warm water sluiced down her body in rivulets. Not long ago, she would have been far too ashamed to stand before a man completely nude. But Tom had seen, touched, and tasted every part of her, it seemed. The old shame Southwick had instilled in her had gradually fallen away.
But when she would have stepped from the tub, Tom’s hands clasped her hips, holding her still. She glanced back at him.
“You said we would make a mess if we remained in the tub,” she pointed out over the thud of her madly racing heart.
“Mmm.” His touch moved from her hips, his knowing fingers sliding over her rump, kneading gently as he went. “But now that I have you before me, rising from the water like Venus, I find myself reluctant to leave the tub.”
He punctuated his statement with a kiss on her lower back.
Gooseflesh broke on her skin. “Tom.”
“Was that a protest or a plea?” he asked, continuing to massage her, pressing a kiss to the base of her spine now.
Her lips parted, the heat of her own breath traveling over them somehow heightening her awareness. Her nipples were hard beads, begging for attention. The wetness between her legs had nothing to do with the bath and everything to do with the man at her back.