Page 133 of Ten Lords for the Holidays

“That blush. I made a bet with myself that I’d manage to procure at least one this evening.”

Holly’s eyes widened, and she was sure her blush deepened.

“It’s horrid,” she blurted, lifting her hands to cover her heated cheeks.

“It’s charming,” he answered, reaching out and pulling her hands from her face.

Holly expected him to drop them right away, but he didn’t.

And she knew that she should pull herself from his grasp, but she didn’t.

She simply stood and waited, though she knew not what she waited for.

It just felt as though she were on the verge ofsomething.Something amazing, and terrifying, and wrong but perfectly, wonderfully right.

Holly fleetingly thought of Grandmama and all the rules about the proper way for a young lady to behave.

Biting her lip as she was wont to do in nerve wracking situations, she thought of her insistence to Grandmama that this part was futile, that though she might be turning twenty-one, she had no desire to fall in love.

She thought of her determination that this time of year be one of sorrow and grief, and nothing else.

And then, when Lord Stockton’s lips descended and captured her own, she thought of nothing at all.

* * *

For months after Celia had left, Evan had wondered at the state of her mind.

He was no monk.

He’d enjoyed bedding his fair share of women and knew as well as the next red-blooded male the pleasures of the flesh.

To throw away an entire life, to choose poverty and obscurity, had seemed like nothing more than madness to him.

Yet, the second his lips touched Lady Holly’s, he thought he might understand.

For nothing could have prepared him for the sudden, fierce, and unstoppable tidal wave of need that crashed over him.

And it stole all of his breath, and all of his sanity.

Nothing,nothinghad ever felt like this.

He hadn’t meant to lose control. Hell, he hadn’t meant to kiss her. Not until she’d bitten her lip in the way that had slowly driven him mad all morning. Not until he’d felt as though he needed to taste her more than he needed to draw breath.

But his body seemed to have a mind of its own and since coherent thought had become an impossibility, he gave up trying and just let himself feel.

Letting go of her hands, Evan reached up and clasped her face, tilting her head, his lips becoming more urgent against her own.

He moved her backwards until she was leaning against a stone pillar, giving him the opportunity to step forward and press his body against hers.

She gasped at the contact, and Evan took full advantage, plunging his tongue inside her mouth to dance with her own.

He fleetingly wondered if he was going too fast, overwhelming her with his passion.

But before he could drag himself back under control, her arms reached up and snaked around his neck, and she pressed herself even closer.

He felt his jacket slip from her shoulders, but there was no way she could be cold. Not with the heat of the fire raging between them.

Running his hands down her back, he gripped her and pulled her toward the evidence of his desire.

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