Page 51 of Affair

“There is no need.” Slowly, deliberately, she peeled the linen shirt off his shoulders and dropped it on the carpet. She could see the pale, rough patches of ruined skin scattered across his right shoulder. She closed her eyes against the pain she knew he must have experienced.

“Charlotte—”

“You cannot possibly think that the sight of your injuries would offend me. The only thing that matters is that your wounds have healed.”

Very gently she touched one of the acid marks on his shoulder. Then she stood on tiptoe and kissed it. Baxter shuddered. She moved her lips up along his throat to his mouth.

“Charlotte.”His arms tightened fiercely around her.

For a moment there was nothing detached or remote about the embrace. She sensed the banked fires that burned within him. There was a raw, aching sensuality in his kiss that threatened to overwhelm her.

She gave herself up to the conflagration with an exultant rush of excitement.

He fitted his hands to her waist, lifted her off her feet, and kissed her breast.

She gasped when she felt his teeth on her nipple. “Baxter.” She clutched at him with a strange sense of desperation.

He carried her toward the sofa. A moment later the room spun on its axis. And then Charlotte felt the cushions beneath her. The skirts of her gown fluttered around her thighs.

Before she could reorient herself, Baxter came down on top of her. He was heavy. Thrillingly so. The weight of his body crushed her deep into the velvet sofa. She could feel the fabric of his breeches against her bare skin above her gartered stockings.

And she could also feel the thickened weight of his aroused manhood. She sucked in her breath.

He raised his head and looked down into her eyes. “I want you.”

She stared into the glowing crucible of his gaze and was lost in the spell of desire that swirled around them.

Surely it was impossible for any man, even one with a will as strong as Baxter’s, to look at a woman with such raging need and still remain a dispassionate experimenter.

She threaded her fingers through his hair and did not bother to conceal her sense of wonder. “I have never known any emotion that was as strong as this.”

“I’m glad.” He kissed her deeply, hungrily.

She felt his hand glide down her leg and slide beneath the skirts of her gown. He curved his fingers around her calf.

She sank her nails into the rigid muscles of his back and shoulders.

He groaned. His hand moved up the inside of her thigh and then he was pressing against the damp, throbbing place between her legs. He dipped one finger into her, pushing gently to force his way past the small, tight muscles.

She shivered in reaction to the exotic invasion. “Please.” She twisted restlessly, seeking something more. “Do not stop.”

He withdrew his finger very slowly and then eased it back into her. At the same time his thumb moved higher, skimming lightly over the firm little nub at the top of her sex.

“Baxter.” She could not think. She was awash in sensation. She clung to him, silently demanding an end to the exquisite torment yet unable to pull away.“Baxter.”

He bent his head to her breast. His finger moved inside her. Instead of pushing deeper into the passage, he pressed upward. Again and again he repeated the caress.

A great tension built within her. She had never known such a coiling, restless, clenching need. She knew intuitively that the sensation could not continue to build. There had to be some release from the ever-mounting pressure.

She clutched at Baxter’s shoulders.

Therehadto be a release.

She would surely shatter if something did not give. This relentless, driving force could not go on forever.

Without warning she came undone in a series of deep, convulsive shudders.

“Baxter.”

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