Page 65 of Teach a Rogue New Tricks
“Didn’t you say you wanted to run wild?” he asked, low and dark and light all at the same time.
Her heart galloped, and her palms warmed with sweat. It must feel similar to climbing to the very top of a house to balance on a gable. Or perhaps Nora felt similarly when she shot at a target while riding a horse—breathless exhilaration. No gable or horse tricks would steal her breath and leave her yearning for more. Only he did that to her. Her eyes found the stage, and her heart stopped.
She knew.
She would not run from this man, this night. She had determined to live her own life by her own desires, and in that very moment, desire and Cass could not be separated. They twisted together like strands of smoke, obscuring her vision, clouding every sense.
She stood and walked toward the exit, stopping at Sarah’s seat. “I must find the women’s retiring room. It’s urgent.”
Sarah nodded without taking her eyes from the stage.
As Ada opened the door, she looked toward Cass.
He rose, prowled after her. In the hallway, he stepped beside her and closed the door softly. “I don’t think they saw me leave. Or enter. You’d think none of them had ever seen a play before.”
“Papa has, but Sarah has never been. She may be engrossed by the play, but Papa is likely engrossed by her. He likes, he says, to experience her experiencing new things. Nora likely saw you come in, but”—Ada shrugged—“she owes me a secret or two.”
Cass’s eyes warmed, intensified. “Shall we do something secretive?”
Her stomach fluttered, and she strode away from him down the hall.
His footsteps echoed in the hallway, and then he paced by her side.
She swallowed, then smiled up at him for a moment, a half moment really. “Yes. My… is it hot in here?”
“Only in the air between us, love.”
She hurried down the stairs.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m not exactly sure.”
But he kept pace with her, a shadow she could not peel away. Not that she wanted to.
His large hand stole into hers. “Follow me. I know my way around this old place.” He tugged her toward the back of the atrium and right toward a wall. He pushed on it, and it gave way—a door. He pulled them through it into a darkened hallway.
“Where are we?” her voice sounded small in the narrow, unlit corridor.
“It’s a hidden passage to the backstage area, to dressing rooms and such.” His free hand took hers, and he tangled their fingers together. “Secretive enough for you?”
In the dark, with his heat so close to her, his inky blue eyes bored into hers, and she found the courage to give voice to her most basic desire. “I want to kiss you senseless.”
His hands moved to her waist, and he tugged her until her belly pushed against his own, taut and hard with muscle. He lowered his lips until they hovered a breath above hers. “Do so. I’m all yours, Ada Cavendish.” He peered down at her, waiting.
To go slow? Or to attack all at once? Her body decided for her, and she moved in a flash, her arms winding around his neck as she went up on tiptoe, crashing her lips to his. She licked the seam of his lips as he had done to her in the alley at Astley’s, and he parted. So quick, so sweet, and she continued the tangle they’d begun then.
He must have felt the urgency that ran through her because he wrenched her sleeve down until her shoulder and breast were exposed. The cool air washed over her hot skin, and then he ripped his mouth from her and lowered it to her bared skin, leaving searing impressions, branding her.
She moaned.
In a lightning flash, he found her lips again, and the kiss came hard, almost punishing. She knifed her fingers through the hair at the back of his skull and pulled him to her, trying to press every inch of her squirming body against his.
“God, Ada.” He ripped space between them and paced away, shoving his fingers through his hair. When he returned, he’d not yet quieted his almost frantic breathing. He eyed her with a feral gleam. “New gown?”
“Ye-es,” she replied between her own heavy breaths.
“It’s perfection. We’d better not mess it up.” The feral gleam turned wicked, calculated. He dropped to his knees and raised her skirts. “Be steady now, love.”
