Page 51 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
Harriet’s warm touch pulled him away from his thoughts, and though his skepticism was heavy, Daniel came closer to her.
“He propositioned you on the wherry,” Daniel said rhetorically. “I suspected he had planned something, which was why I wanted to be there with you.”
“I know,” Harriet said as she came closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you for wanting to protect me, but I can stand up for myself.”
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Daniel rested his chin on her temple, “I know you can, and I’m glad you can defend yourself, but I wish you wouldn’t have to, every time.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she murmured in her chest, “It was either grow strong and defend myself, or be subjugated and fade away into nothing.”
Her candor drew out a mix of tenderness and relief from Daniel. “Thank you for rejecting Dawson.” He had meant to ask why she had rejected Dawson, but he was fearful to hear the answer.
“Tis the strangest thing,” Harriet said in a dreamy tone. “Once, I believed it to be the only thing I wanted to fulfill my wicked thoughts but now…there’s no desire for him.”
But what after we break the engagement? Will you then?
An unexpected boom sounded overhead, dragging their attention upward as a series of fizzles and whistles of fireworks lit the sky. The blue flames of the Bengal lights washed over Harriet’s amazed face and her lips, open by surprise, taunted him.
“Isn’t it marvelous, Daniel?”
Without moving his eyes from her face, he replied, “Utterly gorgeous.”
Harriet aimed a questioning glance at him, but was stopped from looking back at the display. The more he looked at her, the more desire began to eat at his chest and eat away at the agony he had first felt.
With a muted groan, Daniel easily slid a hand in her hair, the soft force of his grip angled Harriet’s face up for a kiss. Without hesitation, her lips parted beneath his, and then explored her mouth where Daniel felt he belonged. A tiny moan escaped her and Daniel reached up to guide her arms up and around his neck. His hand dropped to her waist and he pressed her tight to him, feeling the lush swell of her breasts on his chest.
As the kiss deepened, he thoroughly explored her mouth, while his body began to react to her lithe form pressed against his. He knew Harriet had to feel his reaction as his tongue plunged deeper and deeper.
It was so idyllic that for a moment it felt as Harriet washis; totally, entirely, utterly his—but he knew it could only be for a short time. God—she fit so perfect in his arms, so precisely on his chest, like a missing puzzle piece that slotted right in the gaping holes of his heart.
The erotic breathy little sounds that escaped her flew to his groin and his hands skimmed up the supine curve of her spine. Pulling away to let her breathe, Harriet instead tipped her head to the side with an implicit invitation, one he took and kissed the side of her soft neck.
Her fingers speared through his hair, “What if someone comes?” she asked. “We’d be in the scandal pages by dawn.”
“Again,” he murmured against her skin, “ ‘tis Vauxhall, Sweetheart, scandal is a part of its nature.”
She tipped her head back and he saw desire glimmering in her eyes. He moved his hands to her hips then to her pert bottom. “How wicked do you want to be, Harriet?”
“Frightfully wicked, why?”
His fingers traced over her jaw, “Because if you want to be wicked, this is the place for it. Tell me, what is the last session of sin and debauchery that you’ve read?”
Thinking about the sensual scene, and feeling fire start to spark in her blood, Harriet replied, “It’s terribly wicked. You’ll be shocked and scandalized.”
He leaned into her ear, “Tell me.”
“He led Lady Angelica to an ancient oak, its branches waving in the silent breeze, lifted my arms above my head to tie my wrists to the lowest branch,”Harriet quoted one of her favorite passages breathlessly.“Lord Lucifer slid between her legs, hiking her slender appendages to his waist. He slid his hands up from her slender ankles, to her thighs, his touch as soft-as-spider legs but burning her skin like fire.”
Kissing down her neck, Daniel said, “Keep going.”
Struggling to remember the next passage under the distraction of Daniel’s kisses, she managed to bring up the words,“When his fingers touched her quim, he chuckled darkly as her eyes rolled back into her head. In one stroke, his fingers entered her and his mouth descended on her breast, taking her sensitive nipple into his mouth and sucking greedily upon it through her bodice. ‘Do not cry out,’ Lord Lucifer ordered, ‘or our wicked game is done.’”
“How many times did you read that passage to memorize it?” he inquired.
Laughing breathily, Harriet replied, “Too many times to count.”
“Hm,” Daniel said, “seems simple enough, but we will have to improvise.”
“What?” Harriet exclaimed. “Do you dare perform such acts here?”
