Page 38 of Dukes for Dessert

The smile vanished. “I don’t like being without you, either.”

David stopped, his body going cold then hot. “Dear God, don’t give me hope. Don’t let me.”

“I can’t help it.” Sophie’s eyes were sad. “It is the truth.”

David’s breath choked him. He longed to push her back into the hill and let them seek peace in each other, no matter that her uncle and Eleanor and the irritating Gaspar lurked above, probably looking for them by now.

He wanted Sophie with intensity, wanted to peel her sensible clothes from her and lick her body, to gaze at every astonishing inch of her, to touch her. He pictured her ripping the suit she so disliked from him, and then exploring, stroking, the two of them bringing each other to life.

A sparkle in her eyes told him she wanted it too.

David slid on top of her, and she wrapped him in eager arms. They met in another kiss, this one frenzied, their veneer of politeness falling away. They were man and woman, needing, yearning, and on David’s part, loving.

Sophie was a part of him he hadn’t realized wasn’t there. Her simply being in the world completed him.

She sought his mouth, and David let her in, needing her heady taste, the spice that was Sophie. Her lips were softness itself, her tongue brushing against his as the kiss turned harder.

David slid his hand between them, wishing they weren’t wearing so many damned clothes. He cupped her breast, moving his thumb across her nipple, which tightened even through her corset.

Sophie made a noise of desire. She slid her firm hand to the back of his neck, tugging him closer.

Her kisses, full of passion, weren’t practiced. Her stupid husband hadn’t taught her, David realized, had ignored her needs. Sophie would never say so, but her inexperienced caresses told David more than words. She was a woman of fire, but that fire had never been allowed to flare.

David caressed her breast, slowly, not wanting to scare her away. She looked up at him in languor, no fear at all. She wanted, she needed. She welcomed.

Their mouths met again, softly at first, then with more fervor. David nibbled her lip, his body on fire.

He rapidly considered places they could go, out of the wind and damp, to be alone, finish this. His mind fixed on nothing, wanting to be in the here and now, with Sophie.

Her mouth tasted like the finest wine and the deepest need. When she twined her foot around his leg, the warmth of her skirts enveloping him, he thought he’d die.

Shouts sounded above them, and David heard his name. Sophie gasped, their mouths clashing as she fought to sit up.

David quickly rolled from her and to his feet, reaching for Sophie to help her stand. He brushed at her clothes covered with grass, and felt her hands on him doing the same. They started to laugh, stifling it as they frantically batted away grass and mud.

Eleanor appeared over the crest of the hill. “Ah, there you are, my dears.”

Sophie bent and retrieved David’s now ruined and flattened cap. “David’s hat blew away,” she said quickly. “We were chasing it.”

Eleanor only gazed at them, knowing damn well what they’d been doing hidden away from the others.

“I agree,” she said in a loud voice. “The view is especially fetching. But now it’s time for luncheon.”

David held out a hand to assist Sophie up the hill. She touched his fingers as she ran lightly past him, Eleanor watching them come, wisdom in her eyes.

Sophie was never sure how she managed the next days. David was always near, and she could barely breathe around him.

He’d touched something in her, sparking it to life. She’d never felt anything like it before, and realized now that she’d never loved Laurie. As David had so perceptively observed, she’d been only attracted to Laurie, as he could make himself agreeable when he wished.

She understood that Laurie had flattered her and been at his most gentlemanly around her so she’d marry him. Once he’d run through her money and it was clear she hadn’t conceived his child, he’d been finished with her. Sophie might have been any woman, of any name, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Laurie had no interest in her for herself.

David did. Sophie told herself to be careful, that she’d been cruelly deceived by Laurie, but this didn’t feel the same.

David had no reason to woo her. She was legally still married, and she had no more dowry, no family connections, and no popularity that would help him. He had an estate, wealth, many friends, and seemed unconcerned about his bachelor state. He could have any mistress he wanted, and had apparently taken famous ones in the past.

What he saw in Sophie Tierney, a nonentity with a scandal in her life, she had no idea. But when David smiled at her, his eyes held need and warmth, caring.

Being with you hurts me, and being without you is even worse.

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