Page 60 of A Courtesan Countess Worth the Scandal
He immediately turned his face away, feeling ashamed. Of course, he had seen the female form in all its naked beauty before, but those delights had been tainted by the betrayals that came afterward. Now, to find himself stirred by the possible sight of hardened nipples… he did not know whether to call it progress or lunacy.
“You can leave us,” Nora instructed the maid, who had been curling the “bride’s” hair with a fire-heated contraption. The maid sketched a curtsy, before hurrying out of the room. With her gone, Nora’s eyes turned sad. “Where have you been hiding?”
“Hiding?” Liam replied, flustered. “I have not been hiding. I have had a great deal to contend with since my return, especially as my Aunt and Uncle have not yet come back.”
Nora smiled, but it did not reach those sad eyes. “Don’t lie to me, Liam. I know you’ve been avoiding me.” She paused. “I try to speak with you of an evening, and you pretend Carlton is calling to you. I ask the servants where you are, and they tell me they don’t know, though I know they do.”
“I… did not think you would want to see me again, after I behaved so terribly,” he admitted, realizing he would only make matters more awkward if he continued to make excuses. “I thought it best that I give you and your family time and space to settle into life here, without intruding in a way you would not like.”
Nora clicked her tongue. “Shouldn’t I be the one to decide if I want your company or not?”
“You mean… you were not angry with me?” Liam stared at her in confusion. He had been so certain that his advances were not wanted, and that she would loathe him for trying to kiss her. And yet, she looked more crestfallen than cross.
Nora beckoned for him to come closer. “No, I was not angry. If I’d been angry, you’d be wearing a shiner the size of my fist.” A small, genuine smile curved up the corners of her reddened lips. “I nodded when you asked if you could kiss me. Do you think I’d have done that if I wanted you to run away and ignore me for a fortnight?”
“I… suppose not.” He walked the last few paces toward her. “Tell me, have I acted foolishly again?”
She chuckled. “You have, but in a different way. Sometimes, I wonder if you might be too chivalrous for your own good.” Her eyes sparkled with irreverence as they met his. “I don’t permit any men to kiss me, Liam. You are the… first.” She hesitated on the last word, in a way that he did not understand. Was he not the first? After his own marriage, he would not have judged her if he was not.
“I am a prize dolt,” he said thickly. “I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping my distance.”
Nora’s forehead crinkled slightly. “As have I, but… I don’t want to keep my distance from you anymore. I’ve tried, and I keep coming back to our kiss. I keep thinking of all the ways in which you’re different. I keep… wishingthingswere different.”
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged sadly. “I wish I wasn’t what I am, and we’d met in some other place. I wish there was some kind of… hope for us. It’s stupid, I know, but being here, away from London, there’s this sense of possibility that wasn’t there before. Or maybe I’m just hoping there is.”
Instinctively, his hands moved to her face and his body followed, until her back was pressed up against the wall. He did not know why he did it, but he was helpless to stop himself. Ever since he had left this bedchamber the last time, he had wished he had stayed a while longer, to see if she would return his kiss. To hear that she had desired it as much as he had made him furious with himself, to have lost so much time.
“May I?” he whispered, his heart racing as her lips parted slightly.
She smiled. “You won’t run off this time?”
“I will not,” he promised.
“Then… you may,” she urged.
He hesitated, just for a second. “Before I do kiss you, there is something I have to tell—” She silenced him before he could finish his sentence, her arms looping about his neck, her fingertips running through his hair, pulling his head closer to hers.
Overwhelmed by his ardor for her, he gave up on what he had been about to stay and grazed his lips against hers. As their mouths touched, fireworks exploded in his chest, sending pulses of pleasure through his veins until he felt as though his whole body were ablaze. Even in his limited experience, he had never responded like this to a kiss.
As one arm wrapped around her waist, he braced his other hand against the wall, pressing her to him until there was not even the slightest sliver of a gap between their bodies. All the while, their mouths moved in a slow, passionate rhythm, following the silent music that only their desire could hear.
He smiled against her lips as her tongue explored his mouth, prompting his to do the same, until they were dancing together in a way that would have made high society shriek at the fervent spectacle. And, as they drew apart for just a moment, it made it all the more exquisite when he caught her mouth with his once again. As though he had been ravenous for years, and only she knew how to sate his hunger.
In truth, he could have stayed there all day, lost in her kiss and her embrace, forgoing the ball all together. But, as her fingertips tugged gently at his hair, and the heat rose through his body, he became aware of another sound, footsteps in the corridor outside, heading for Nora’s chambers.
With a gasp, he broke away from her and hurried to smooth down his hair, while she fanned herself with her hand to reduce the flush in her cheeks. And not a moment too soon for, just then, Mrs. Black walked into the room, accompanied by Carlton and Denninson.
* * *
In the stilted silence that followed, one could have heard a pin drop. Nora did her best to steady her rapid breathing, though there was not much to be done about the warmth in her cheeks.
That was… unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome.
When it came to Liam, all of the walls and barriers she had built around herself seemed to come tumbling down. There was no fear when he held her in his arms, and no panic when his lips pressed to hers, just a sense of pure elation and a desire to continue. And, even now, the lingering sensation of his kiss warmed her in a way that no man’s touch had ever done, applying a soothing salve to all of the cracks and scars her heart had received over the years.
“What’s the occasion?” Nora leaped into her usual performance of wit and humor, in the hopes it might distract the newcomers from the guilt upon her face and Liam’s. “I didn’t realize my bedchambers were so sought after. Is the ball to be held in this very room, and you’re all here to inform me of the inconvenience?”
