Page 41 of In Compromise with the Earl
He’d dreamed of her in his bed, his lips roaming over her bare shoulders, sucking kisses on her neck, taking her nipples into his mouth and slipping down her body to where he could use his lips and tongue to do wicked, erotic, unspeakable things between her thighs for the long night.
He was a hard as steel beneath his smallclothes and his self-control not to pleasure himself at the thought of her was on the verge of cracking.No…I’ll not seduce her. I am not ruled by my damn body as if I was an untried boy.
A sharp hiss escaped him as he imagined sinking into the tight heat of her, but he battled the surges of fire and lust and strange emotions twisting inside his chest. What did he feel for Aphrodite, besides confusion and desire? Was there affection; yes, sympathy, yes, care, a little—jealousy?
The thought of the obsessive Duke laying a hand on Aphrodite and his fist clenched on his bed. He might be muddled about Aphrodite, but he felt strangled at the thought of the damned Duke taking possession of her—but what could he do?
Aggravated, he slipped out of bed and even with desire thrumming through his veins, he grabbed a robe and went to the bathing chamber. Splashing water on his face, he braced his palms on the porcelain bowl and wondered anew, what to do with this precarious situation he was in.
The subtle scrape of his door had his head darting up and he hurried to the chamber, stopping in his tracks. The moonlight from the window turned the thin, white robe Aphrodite wore into silver gauze. Her hair, unbound, tumbled over her shoulders in disarray, the result of possible tossing and turning. For a moment, he doubted his eyes, but when she turned and laid those bright orbs on him, he asked, “What the deuce are you doing here?”
She bit her lip and bolted the door behind her. “I think I have found a way to get Jameson off my back once and for all.”
“You should not be here,” he stressed, grabbing her hand and moving to the door. “You must leave.”
“No, not yet,” she pulled away. “We must talk. I think the solution I’ve come up with will work.”
His jaw worked while his mind raced and finally, with a nod, he dropped her hand, went to his bed and yanked a blanket from it. He draped it over her shoulder. “Temptation, thy name is Aphrodite in silk nothings.”
She blushed and held the blanket tight. “I think if we form a fake courtship, we can get Jameson of my back and Lady Pandora off yours.”
“Lady Fairchild has given up on me,” he shrugged. “Clearly, she thinks I am a lost cause. She might be right.”
“No,” Aphrodite said. “You’re perfect in all the ways that count, she just doesn’t see what is clear to me. You are a diamond in the rough.”
Rubbing his eyes, Oswald asked, “And how long would this fake courtship last?”
“A few months, I suppose,” Aphrodite suggested. “Enough to pose a united front for a while and then we have an amicable separation.”
“And how would that remove the Duke from your life? Wouldn’t he come for you again?” Oswald asked. “And that leaves me in the marriage market again.”
“I’d thought after we broke the courtship, people would take a wide berth and give us some time,” she said. “The only other option is to have a scandal.”
His brows darted up. “A scandal?”
She nodded. “It doesn’t have to be a known for a fact, maybe a rumor—”
“A rumor does not stop one from being unweddable,” Oswald shook his head. “I’m a cuckold, that is more than enough for me, but for you, you would have to be ruined or caughtin flagrante delicto.”
She sighed. “I clearly have not thought this through.”
Sympathetically, Oswald cupped her face. “It’s all right, something will work out.”
With his rough hand beneath her chin, he tilted her face up, and maybe it was Aphrodite’s imagination, but his eyes darkened. One arm curled around her while he tilted her head back a little more.
“You know, late night visits from a lady are nothing but temptation.” He dipped and pressed a soft kiss to her ear. “Are you not afraid I’ll ravish you, Aphrodite?”
She felt the sudden hammering of her heart, and the erratic flickering of her pulse in her neck, inches away from where he was nipping on a tender bit of flesh. A soft gasp slipped from her.
“Perhaps I wouldn’t mind if you do ravish me,” came her breathless reply.
He lightly grazed her cheek with his lips and came to her mouth, dipped his head, and kissed her with plundering passion. Aphrodite tipped onto her toes, pressed herself against him and twined her fingers through his hair.
There was force pulling her to Oswald and it was as if her body had a will of its own as she let him gather her in his arms. One of his rough hands threaded into the mass of her hair, and he anchored her firmly to his body as he thoroughly explored the recesses of her mouth.
The pull was insistent and as she rested on his chest, she arched into him, her tongue tangling wildly with his. An unknown, dark, heady desire slid through her veins, rendering her blood thick like honey, and she trembled under its intensity.
His palms slid under her bottom and with ease, lifted her to rest her on the bed. Covering her body with his, she felt sweetly trapped, and she responded to his kiss with greedy sighs.
