The Postilion (The Masqueraders #2) - S.M. LaViolette Page 0,46
irresistible. Benna had had no choice in the matter.
Unlike Benna, he had cleaned himself after the day’s exertions, even going so far as to shave again for dinner. His angular jaw and firm chin had looked smooth and soft and her hands had itched to touch him.
When he’d looked up from treating her cut hand, his face had been so close that she had seen the fine lines etched into his pale skin. Tiny striations from squinting against the sun, or frowning in deep thought, or simply earned by living.
Added to all that had been the fact that his beautiful eyes had been creased in sympathy—for her, for her pain—and, well …
Not even the fear of rejection could exercise any control over her actions.
Besides, she’d believed that he was going to give her the sack. Why not kiss him before he tossed her out?
His lips, which she’d stared at so often that she could have drawn them from memory, were right there, only inches away.
And so Benna had taken what she wanted and damn the consequences.
For a moment, she had thought he might kiss her back.
But then he’d pulled away and stood, removing himself from her reach, as if he feared she might grab him again.
The thought had definitely crossed her mind.
Benna was scarcely a virginal miss, but never had she grabbed a man and kissed him.
While she was mortified by her behavior—and his reaction—she wasn’t that mortified.
No, what mortified her more was the knowledge that she would grab him and do the same thing all over again if another opportunity presented itself.
Chapter Thirteen
Brighton
1815
Two Years Ago
“Ben?”
Benna jolted upright in her bed. “Is he here?” she demanded, her eyes darting around in the darkness.
“Shhh, Ben—everything is fine.” Geoffrey’s voice was soothing. “There is nobody here but me. I didn’t mean to startle you.” The bed beside her moved as Geoff sat on the mattress.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, her heart still pounding. The only light in her small, windowless servant’s room came from the candle he must have left on the hallway table. She could hardly see more than his shadow in the near darkness.
“Nothing is wrong.”
Benna frowned; his voice sounded … different. Softer.
Geoff stood and she heard the soft susurration of silk sliding to the floor.
“What—”
“Oh, hush,” he chided, this time lifting the blanket before slipping in beside her.
Benna’s pulse, which had already been elevated from fear thundered in her ears. And her body, cool under the thin bedding only a moment before, was suddenly sweaty.
“What do you want, Geoff?”
She felt the ghostly touch of a hand in the darkness and then Geoffrey’s fingers slid around her neck and his mouth descended over hers.
For the briefest of moments, Benna kissed him back.
Then she stiffened, outraged at his audacity; did he just think he could come to her whenever there was nobody else?
She was even more outraged by her body’s traitorous response to the smallest touch from him.
He chuckled softly against her unyielding mouth and body, trailing soft, teasing kisses over her lips, down her chin, and then hovering over her pulse at the base of her throat.
“You try to act as if you’re unaffected by me,” he murmured, his hands sliding down her sides until they reached the bottom of the man’s nightshirt she slept in, “but your body betrays you.” He lifted the hem. “Rise up a bit, so that I might take this off,” he ordered, in between kissing the fine material covering her already hard nipples.
“No,” she said, pushing him away.
But not very hard.
“Just let me touch you—give you pleasure with my lips, tongue, and fingers. I don’t need to put my cock inside you to make you come.” His instincts for prey were well-honed and Benna hesitated as his words acted on both her mind and body.
He wanted to put his mouth on her sex?
Benna had walked in on Geoff and his lovers enough to know that human mouths were useful in several ways she’d never imagined. But she had not had a lover’s mouth on her own body.
She wanted to experience the feeling. Fiercely.
He’s not your lover; he’s a manipulative, horny, selfish beast. Boot him out of bed. Now.
Geoff’s hands tugged on her nightgown. “Lift up, Ben. I’ll make you scream with pleasure, I promise.”
Benna was on the verge of giving in when she suddenly saw herself—as if from a distance.
She was the Duchess of Wake, for pity’s sake! She’d been cheated out of her house, home, and position by a scheming degenerate male relative.