Page 31 of Daring the Forbidden Earl
“Liamtoldyou!” Nora balled her hands into fists. “I’ll box his ears. I knew he wouldn’t be able to hold his tongue.”
With all this talk of tongues, and touches, and lovers, and Johanna telling him what to do, Mark could not wait for tomorrow to come.
Chapter Eighteen
The clock on the mantelpiece chimed eleven o’clock. Johanna heard the seemingly endless strikes and thought her insides might turn to aspic. Mark would be arriving any moment, and she did not know what to do with herself. Her limbs felt suddenly ungainly, like they did not belong to her.
Calm yourself. You have thought about this all night. Do not allow fear to keep you from bringing those dreams into reality.
She exited her bedchamber and walked down the hall, where she paused to check her reflection in the mirror. Mrs. Sawyer had already gone home after finishing her daily duties, yet she still glanced over her shoulder at the kitchen door… just in case.
Promptly, a knock came at the door.
“Who is it?” Johanna called nervously, trying to decide if she ought to let her hair loose or keep it in the bun that was pinned to the back of her head.
A laugh filtered through into the entrance annex. “Why, do you have other callers?” Mark’s voice settled her and increased her nerves in equal measure, the two sensations colliding inside her until she felt as though she might faint.
“Just a moment,” she said, deciding to let her hair loose. Grasping at the pins, she slid them out of her hair and set them on the side table. Her flaxen locks tumbled down past her shoulders in romantic waves, framing her blushing face.
“You would bolster the anticipation?” Mark said seductively from the other side of the door. The words made Johanna’s abdomen tighten and her heart race, as she crossed to open the door to him.
Taking a steadying breath, she turned the handle and opened the door wide. He stood there, leaning against the jamb, looking so ruggedly handsome and appealing that she almost grasped him by his lapels and yanked him inside her apartments. She would have done, had she not feared some inquisitive neighbor might be watching.
I do hope they did not hear his alluring murmur…
She had not yet forgotten that she might have a scandal on her hands if anyone were to discover her lost letter. Though perhaps she had decided not to care too much, since she had allowed Mark to visit her here. Inviting a lone gentleman into her apartments under cover of darkness was not what a fearful woman would have done.
“Are we suitably alone?” Mark stepped into the entrance annex, as Johanna hurriedly closed the door.
She nodded, pressing her back flat to the wooden surface. “Were you seen?”
“If I was, I do not care.”
He covered the short distance between them and lifted his hands to cup her face, while his head tilted downward to press his lips to hers. She gasped in surprise as his body pressed against hers, flattening her back further against the door until she could feel every ridge. He caught her gasp in his kiss, as her hands slid up his firm chest until they looped around his neck.
Driven by intoxicating desire, she pulled his head closer, urging his body to leave no gap between them. Their mouths engaged in a frenzied, ravenous devouring, their lips meeting with an intense pressure. Yet it was not painful in the physical sense—only painful in the sense that she could not kiss him harder.
“Johanna…” he panted in between kisses, letting his fingertips trail down her throat where they danced across her bosom.
She bucked against him as his hand grasped her plump breast, massaging it to the rhythm of their impassioned kiss. And already, beneath the fabric of his trousers, she could feel the hardened length of his desire pressing against the slight swell of her stomach. Her fingertips longed to slide down and feel it more intimately, but some lingering sense of social propriety held her back.
“I believe… you have something… for me,” she gasped, arching her neck back so she could feel his mouth upon her throat. If it had not been for him, she would never have known that she could find such pleasure in having her neck kissed.
He chuckled. “I believe I do.” His hand smoothed over the rise of her buttocks, and pushed them forward, so she could fully feel the length of his manhood against her.
“Mark…” Her eyes closed as bliss spread through her, inviting a slickness to dampen her undergarments. She wanted him. Desperately.
Make him wait… That is what Nora instructed. Keep him waiting.
Heeding her friend’s words of wisdom, she slid her hand under his lapel until her fingertips touched paper. Before he could stop her, she whipped the stolen letter out and broke away from his embrace. She could not give into him yet, no matter how much she wanted to.
He looked at her as she backed away. “Ah… so that is what you wanted?”
“You said there were things you wished me to read, and I would have my education before I get carried away.” She touched the back of her cool hand to her cheeks. “If you would oblige me?”
He grinned, evidently not too disappointed. “Of course.”
Turning around, she sauntered toward her bedchamber. With every step, she fought the urge to glance back to see if he was following. Like Orpheus and Eurydice in reverse, she had to trust that he would come after her. If she looked back, perhaps the spell would be broken.
