The Perfect Arrangement (The Not So Saintly Sisters #4) - Annabelle Anders Page 0,29

his glass.

“I cannot help but believe my demise would be easier on my wife if we abstain from…emotional intimacy. I don’t want to hurt you.”

His words deflated her.

“And yet,” he continued. “As there are disadvantages to both, I am not averse to...” He cleared his throat, that foot of his bouncing even faster now. “…the second approach.” He took another long swallow from his glass. “Do you have a preference?”

Lillian did not have to think about it. “The second approach, initially. If problems arise from doing so, at any time, we could revert to the more… detached method.” She lifted her glass and swallowed nearly half of its contents. “As long as you are amenable?”

She met his gaze from beneath her eyelashes. Because she found him very attractive. And oddly enough, this conversation was doing odd things to her breathing.

“I am.” He finished his glass and placed it on the low table set before them. But then he turned all of his attention back to her, placing his arm along the back of the seat, his fingers playing with a few strands of her hair.

When his thumb brushed along her jaw, a shiver ran through her.

“Are you finally going to kiss me?”

“Better late than never.” He smiled and leaned toward her. She had read about the different types of kisses. The Romans had named them. A chaste kiss upon the cheek was named the osculum. The basium was more intimate, lips upon lips. And the third kind, the savium, was an oral representation of the act of lovemaking.

His lips didn’t settle on hers right away, though, as she expected. Hot breath warmed her neck. “I’ve been dying to kiss you here.” Her breaths became short and shallow, hitching when those bumblebees she’d harbored all afternoon took flight.

“So soft.” He skimmed his mouth up her neck to her jaw. “You smell so good.”

She licked her lips. “Thank you.”

He’d barely touched her, and yet already her heart felt as though it was going to explode inside her chest. Was it possible he felt the same?

“Have you done this often, then? Do you have a good deal of experience?” She knew that most titled men had mistresses, and if they didn’t have mistresses, they found release with women in brothels. With Christian, she had no idea what to expect.

“Not often.” His lips trailed to just below her earlobe, along the edge of her jaw. “Some.”

Oh, but that was no answer at all. Lillian tipped her head to the side so he could continue his sensual onslaught unimpeded. “As in weekly?” she persisted. “Would you say you’ve done this hundreds of times? More?”

Somehow, she felt the effects of the vibration of his chuckle in her very core. She pressed her thighs together.

“My experience,” the heat of his mouth dragged toward her lips, “has come in spurts. Less than one hundred. But more than once.” He teased the edge of her lips. “And what of you, wife?””

And then his tongue slid along the seam of her mouth.

She gave him intimate access to her mouth, allowing him to explore behind her teeth and mingling the taste of the champagne they’d both drank.

“I have been kissed,” she somehow managed an answer just before he bit down softly on her lower lip. “But I have not done the other.”

He emitted a low growl and reclaimed her mouth.

She arched toward him when his hand settled on her waist. The warmth of his palm penetrated the fabric of her dressing gown and night rail.

“Do you wish to eat first, Lillian?” He seemed quite intent upon their current activity, but if he required sustenance, she did not wish to deprive him.

“I don’t mind.” His mouth abandoned her lips to journey down the length of her throat again. Lillian was all but horizontal on the loveseat now, his weight pressing her into the cushions. “Unless you are hungry?” Lillian closed her eyes, giving herself over to his experience.

He paused and drew away momentarily. She blinked her eyes open to stare into his smiling ones. “You are not hungry?”

She shook her head, in a daze. But then another question plagued her. “You will keep your spectacles on… during…?”

“I’d rather not.” His cobalt eyes teased her. “My sight isn’t so impaired that I cannot see you from this distance.”

Lillian took it upon herself to grasp the metal arms and slide them off of his face. “You can still see me, then?” She held them close to her own eyes and tried to view him