an entire month, Jago?”
“Mmm-hmm.” He drew her close for a long, languorous kiss.
Benna slid her arms around his body and allowed her hands to roam freely, amused by the series of grunts and purrs her beloved made as she explored him.
Just when Benna began to think she might escape the ordeal she’d been dreading for five and a half months Jago released her and pulled away. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you are trying to distract me?”
“Maybe.”
“Oh come, I spilled out my endless story almost upon arrival. But we were interrupted before you had a chance to tell me about the rest of your adventures.”
Benna had given the matter of her past a great deal of thought and had come to the unpleasant conclusion that she would have to tell him about Tom and Diggle.
And also about Willy Karp.
Benna had poured the entire story out once already, to Parker, who’d demanded to know everything about the last six years. Parker had not looked at her any differently after what he’d learned.
“I will see to retrieving your penny knife,” was all Parker had said when she was finished.
But then Parker was her solicitor, not her lover.
Jago was a doctor—it was his sworn duty to save lives. This might be the last evening she spent with him if he could not forgive her for being a murderer, twice over.
Benna swallowed; it felt like there was a rock lodged in her throat. She had to have him one last time before the dreadful truth was known.
She had to.
“I’ll tell you about everything,” she blurted, lifting her shaking hands to his neatly, but not fancily, tied neckcloth. “But first I want to strip you naked and sate my wicked appetite with your body.”
His lips parted in surprise and his pupils ballooned. “As Your Grace commands.”
One moment Benna was removing his neckcloth, the next she was facing the wall.
He seized her wrists in a gentle but unbreakable grasp and raised them above her head. “I’m afraid I’m too impatient to allow myself to be stripped just now. Later—after I’ve given you what you need—I will have you undress and bathe me.” He bit her neck and then added in a rough voice, “you will wait on me hand and foot.”
Benna’s sex clenched fiercely and she bit her lip, but not before an animal grunt slipped out.
“Ah, I can see you like that thought.” He kissed the place he’d just bitten and nuzzled her ear before nipping the lobe. “Does it make you wet to imagine serving me—tending to my every need?”
She shoved her hips back at him, earning an evil chuckle.
“I’ll take that as a yes. But for right now, hands flat on the wall, darling,” he whispered, the words hot against her skin as he thrust his shoe between her slippers and kicked her feet apart. “Spread for me like a good duchess.”
Blood thundered in her ears at his hungry tone and demanding words.
“I pleasured myself shamelessly this past week thinking about what we would do tonight,” he said in a conversational tone, grinding his erection against her bottom while kissing and nibbling her neck
“Only this past week?” she taunted in a breathy voice.
He laughed. “All right, I might have been abusing myself a bit longer than that.”
She shivered at the thought of him stroking himself to thoughts of her.
“You like that, don’t you? Imagining me suffering and yearning for you, touching myself to those well-worn memories of our only night together.”
Cool air drifted across her legs and a warm firm hand slid over her hip and then push between her thighs.
Instead of stroking her core, he only teased her lower lips, his touch maddeningly elusive. “Have you missed me, Benna?”
“I’ve missed you.”
He pushed a finger up her, not stopping until his knuckles were pressed against her sensitive flesh. “Mmmm—you’re so tight.”
“Jago, please,” she groaned, spreading wider and canting her hips to give him better access.
He pumped her slowly and deeply, easing a second finger beside the first. “Tell me this isn’t another dream, Benna—that I’ll wake up alone in my bed again tomorrow morning. Tell me you’re real.”
Benna let her head fall back, exposing her throat to his hungry mouth. “I’m real, Jago. And I need you inside me.”
He caressed her aching bud with his thumb and she whimpered and thrust back at him.
“So eager for me, aren’t you?” He worked her harder, deeper, relentlessly circling her core. “Shall I make you come on my hand, Benna?” he demanded, his