Page 310 of From Rakes to Riches

Would you let me fuck you, Mercy Goode?

He said nothing about caring or cuddling.

Staying.

He would fuck her and then... What? Thank her promptly and dress?

Even sitting, he towered like some Roman god, skin like honey poured over steel.

And frozen with an aghast expression on his face.

“Not that I’m expecting you to stay,” she rushed on in one breath, attempting to appear nonchalant. “I am aware that such liaisons are conducted without much ceremony or expectation, and I wanted you to be comfortable knowing that you’ll get none from me. We shall...do what it is we’re here to do and take what—several minutes at least? Though I’ve heard it can be as brief as?—”

He’d covered his mouth with his hand, but he couldn’t hide the shake in his shoulders or the creases of mirth at the corner of his eyes.

“You’re laughing,” she accused, incensed. “Is this funny to you?”

“Don’t be irate with me,mon chaton. I scoff only at the idea of a brief encounter between us.”

She knew she looked churlish, but she was trying to decide whether she believed him or not.

His eyes became pools of liquid desire. “With you I intend to take my time. I will make it last until the tolling of the bells warn of the dawn.”

Her thighs quivered. “Oh. Well...I’ll admit that I prefer that. It seems silly for you to come all this way if you’re only going to take all of a few minutes.”

“The home I share with Gabriel is not so far.” He gestured to the west. “But I would have dragged myself through Siberia in winter to be here tonight.”

At this, she smiled, feeling uncharacteristically shy by his unabashed appreciation of her.

“I’m glad,” she murmured. “That we desire each other with equal fervor.”

Oh,nowwhat had she said that was funny?

“Darling,” he managed over his mirth. “If you wanted me like I wanted you, we’d be on our second time by now.”

“Oh. Well...” Not to be outdone in the surprise seduction, she dropped her sheets and let them pool in a white cloud at her waist.

The laughter died with a groan in his throat.

He didn’t just look at her. He consumed the sight of her with an ardent fervor.

“You are stunning, Mercy,” he marveled. “Exceptional. You never cease to astonish me.”

“What do I do that is so surprising?” she wondered aloud.

“Most women would at least make modest, maidenly protestations. Force me to coax them to reveal themselves to me.”

“Most women are trained to act like simpering fools,” she scoffed. “Is that what you want from me?” She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, enjoying that he watched how her breasts lifted with the gesture. “Oh, do allow me a moment to swoon here in virginal protestation so I might feel less guilty forsuccumbing to the seduction of this large and dangerous rogue who is intent upon ravishing my pure and virtuous person. I am an innocent, harmless girl caught in his dastardly web?—”

His unexpected touch at her throat seized her breath there.

Her heart skipped a beat, then two, paralyzed as his strong fingers trailed to the back of her neck, pressing deeper against the tight, quivering muscles there.

“In my experience, women are generally arousing or amusing, I’m delighted that you are both.”

“I amuse you?”

“You transfix me, Mercy. You captivate me.”

---