Redeeming the Reclusive Earl - Virginia Heath Page 0,97

But she knew he needed to be half-mad before he fully forgot his scars and gave himself completely to her as she intended to give herself to him.

She kissed him again and lost herself in it, revelling in the feel of his hands on her naked skin. Max was lost, too. So lost he hadn’t noticed she had unbuttoned his waistcoat until she pushed it from his shoulders. Beneath her palms she could feel his heart beating, and it sped up when she began to untuck his shirt.

‘It looks like Africa... The scar...’ His voice was awkward again. Self-conscious.

‘Useful, then—for a sailor. If you ever happen to be going that way.’

‘I suppose.’ He smiled and shook his head. ‘Sometimes you say the damnedest things.’

‘I’m odd, remember. What do you expect?’

‘Always the unexpected with you.’ He lifted his arms and allowed her to drag the soft linen over his head, then held his breath.

As did she.

She wasn’t entirely sure what she had expected to see—but it wasn’t this. The muscles across his shoulders and in his arms were beautifully defined, like a Roman statue, but carved out of flesh instead of marble. The light dusting of dark hair across his chest narrowed to an arrow which bisected his navel and disappeared beneath the waistband of his breeches. Breeches which did little now to disguise the impressive bulge beneath them.

Because she couldn’t help herself, she ran her palms over his skin, feeling those distracting muscles bunch and tense beneath her touch, only because he was awaiting her judgement. She allowed her eyes to focus on the scar. It was one continuous mass which started on his left cheek, down that side of his neck and bloomed over his shoulder before petering out towards the bottom of his ribs. She trailed her fingertips across it. It felt different from the rest of him. Tighter and textured, but not unpleasant. ‘Is this the part where I am supposed to recoil in horror?’

He nodded. ‘Hideous, isn’t it?’

‘I never ever believed I would have something in common with Nelson, but I don’t see hideous. I see the bravery it took to get them and the determination it took not to allow them to kill you like the doctors assumed.’ She traced the outline with the pad of one finger. ‘And it is shaped like Africa, which is fortuitous.’

‘How so?’

She allowed the finger to follow the intriguing arrow of hair down his abdomen to the first button on his falls before smiling up at him saucily. ‘Because I’ve always found maps fascinating, but have to confess I find what’s under here more fascinating. I’ve never seen a real naked man in the flesh.’

‘Then allow me to be your first.’ Confident, flirty Max was back with a vengeance. ‘Although I must also insist I am your last.’ His hands made short work of the buttons.

‘What if we have sons?’

‘They don’t count...’ Then he cupped her cheek and gazed deeply into her eyes. ‘And while we are on the subject of children, would you like me to be careful tonight?’

Her womb seemed to sigh inside her. ‘I would prefer you to be careless... Outrageously careless.’

‘Even if it means you might have to marry me straight away?’

‘Especially if it means I have to marry you straight away. There are only two things in this world I’ve always wanted—and apparently only you have to power to grant them both.’

‘Marriage?’

‘Love—although I had convinced myself that was never on the cards before I met you. And a family. A place where an oddity like me always belongs. I actually hate being lonely, Max.’ She watched his expression cloud with sympathy and understanding.

‘That was the real reason you were marrying Rupert, wasn’t it? You wanted to belong.’

‘He wanted an heir and I wanted all the things other women—normal women—take for granted. Because I am still a woman regardless of my big brain.’

‘That, madam, I am well aware of.’ His eyes raked her naked body, the blatant appreciation in them making her skin tingle. ‘And for the record, I’ve always been aware of