Page 26 of Daring the Forbidden Earl
“Mark!” she yelped, as he braced one hand against the bed and lifted himself to his feet, with her still clinging to him.
Grinning against her mouth, he lay her down upon the bed until they were tangled up in one another, kissing as though they were running out of time. Meanwhile, Johanna’s hands explored his bare skin, her fingernails raking down his rippling back until he groaned against her throat, trailing searing kisses down to her bosom.
“Tell me what you read in that other letter,” she gasped, her body trembling.
His deft fingers tugged at her housecoat cord, freeing her from the fabric constraints. “I am showing you,” he growled throatily, as he pulled the housecoat off her.
He sat up for a moment, smiling down at the shape of her silhouette beneath her nightgown. His hands followed the hunger in his eyes, his palms sliding up the slight rise of her stomach, until they reached her pert, full breasts. He lowered himself back down, and carefully unlaced the ribbons at her collar. Edging the flimsy cotton to one side, he sought out her proud nipple, and closed his mouth around it.
“Oh…” Johanna’s hips bucked involuntarily as he sucked upon her nipple, eliciting sparks of pure ecstasy that shivered through her in bristling wave after wave. “Oh my… Oh… Mark.”
His kisses trailed back up her throat and she felt the weight of his delicious body pressing down on her, while the hem of her nightgown rode up to the middle of her thighs. Between them, she became aware of a hardness protruding from beneath Mark’s trousers. Of course, she knew what it was. She was not a virgin, and yet, she had never truly wanted to feel a manhood inside her… until now.
I should stop… I should stop him.But… I cannot. I do not want to.
However, it seemed fate was destined to do what she could not. For, at that moment, she heard the sound of the front door opening, and the faint call of Mrs. Sawyer’s voice, echoing down the hall.
“Mrs. Carlton, I’m here. I’ll be making breakfast, so tell me when you want it,” she said.
Johanna froze and lifted a finger to her lips, as Mark’s face cracked into an amused smile.
I want it now, Mrs. Sawyer! But now, thanks to you, I cannot.
Chapter Fifteen
“How long do you think I will have to hide away in here?” Mark whispered, bathing in the soft, romantic light of Johanna’s bedchamber. The housekeeper was singing to herself somewhere in the apartments, and Johanna seemed to be deciding what she ought to do about their unusual situation. Though it was not so unusual for him.
She shot him an exasperated look. “You must be silent!”
“I have escaped from many a chamber before,” he told her, with a mischievous grin. “Perhaps, I might climb out of the window and leap from roof to roof like a feral tomcat.”
She tried not to feel jealous of his casual confession, as her eyebrows raised in alarm. “You will do no such thing!”
“A jest, dear Johanna.” The endearment slipped between his lips so naturally, that he almost did not realize what he had said.
“I am dear to you?” She canted her head, elongating the slender neck that his lips had ravished what felt like a second ago. A smirk lifted the corner of her plump, kiss-swollen mouth. “I thought you detested me?”
He shuffled closer to her and tucked a strand of mussed blonde hair behind her ear. “I was mistaken, in part.”
It is my uncle that I hated… And I wish I did not have to think of him, or how his hands might have touched you.
His stomach churned as he fought to push away images of his uncle pawing at Johanna and bringing her pain and misery where Mark had just brought her pleasure and euphoric sighs. He did not want that wretched man ruining this moment for him, in any capacity.
“Only in part?” Her gaze lowered coquettishly. “So, there is another part of you that does still hold resentment toward me?”
He drew his hand back, feeling the familiar discomfort prickling through him. Whenever she was close to him, he could forget the heartbreak and rejection of his younger years. When she looked at him with those enchanting eyes, he could set aside visions of his wretched uncle. But reality seemed intent on giving him a swift kick, just as he was forgetting.
“It is complicated,” he mumbled.
Johanna rested her hand upon his thigh. “Then explain it to me. You called your uncle evil—did he do something to you? You cannot expect me to guess your complaint with him. I am no clairvoyant.”
Mark got up and grasped his shirt, covering up his bare chest. The smell of stale beer and the filth of the warehouse stung his nostrils, making his stomach heave slightly. But he preferred to endure the olfactory discomfort over revealing his painful past to Johanna. A potent desire for one another did not undo the fact that, for many years, they had been on different sides of a very particular, emotional battleground.
“If I remain, I will be late for an appointment with my physician,” he announced, though they both knew there was no such meeting.
Johanna pushed herself off the bed and tied the housecoat cord back around her waist. “Give me a moment. I will dismiss Mrs. Sawyer on an errand, so you may leave.” There was a cool note in her voice that saddened Mark. “Are you terribly unwell?”
“I have trouble sleeping,” he replied, giving more away than he had intended to.
