Page 49 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
“No,” she said quickly. “Please. It’s disorderly but I’d rather be in the midst of disorder than feel nothing at all.”
He looked down at her. Hardly a few inches separated their bodies, and he was so close he could see the flutter of her pulse in her neck and feel her breath on his face. Her eyes were wide, pupils nearly swallowing the forest hues of iris, while rosy color stained her cheeks. The atmosphere in the alcove was close, humid, and thick with awareness. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips.
Desire hit him so acutely he nearly buckled from its force. Centuries of wanting her built up to this one moment, with the rest of the world disappearing to leave only Kieran and Celeste in this small space, carved specifically to fit just them.
You can’t do this, he reminded himself. But he didn’t move away, even when the quarrelsome people in the hallway had gone.
“Is that what you’re feeling?” he asked lowly, his gaze fastened on her mouth. “Disordered?”
“In the best possible way,” she whispered. “You’ve given me so much, yet there’s one thing I haven’t yet experienced.”
“What’s that?” He felt his own voice vibrating deep within him.
She slicked her tongue over her lips again, and he fought to keep from groaning. “I’ve never been seduced.”
He squeezed his eyes shut as a shudder of longing moved through him. “Never?”
“When would I?” she asked huskily. “Good girlslead frustratingly chaste lives. Not like rakes.” She looked up through the fringe of her lashes.
“Which I am.” He chuckled, though there wasn’t much humor in it, not when he ached with this hunger for her. Each moment in her presence only sharpened his appetite, and even when they weren’t together, he still craved her. More poems about her filled his notebooks, his thoughts, his body. “What you’re asking of me—how can I give you what you want when we both know you’re destined for someone else?”
“The things I do with my body aremychoice.” Her eyes flashed. “This time as Salome, it’s taught me that. Not long from now, Iwon’tbe in command of myself, but for now... for now I am. And I want to be seduced. I wantyouto seduce me.”
“It’s a terrible idea.”
Hurt flashed across her countenance, and she turned her face to the side. “Because you don’t want me.”
“Because,” he said, gently using his fingertips so she looked at him once more, “I trulywantto seduce you. And the only things I ever want are unwise.”
A touch, a taste, and he’d need more. That was certain.
“We can be unwise together.” When he was still and silent, she offered tentatively, “Perhaps you don’t have to actually do it. You could simplytellme what you’d do to seduce me. But if you truly don’t want to, we can leave this alcove and pretend that the desire between us doesn’t exist.”
Could he? The thought of walking away, of never yielding even just a fraction to this powerful yearning hollowed him out. Emptiness without her flooded him. Ahead of him lay a lifetime deprived of her company, her smiles, her energy.
Was it selfish of him to do this? Very possibly. But at this moment, in this place, with her looking at him with such authentic, honest desire, he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.
She would never be his. Yet for now, for now he could give them what they both craved.
Chapter 12
Kieran’s eyes darkened. Surrounded by the kohl, they became as fathomless as the midnight sky. Celeste stared into their depths, entranced. Her whole body was aflame as her youthful infatuation with a rake bloomed into a woman’s need for this man. In all his complexity, she craved him.
“Oh, I want to, love,” he said in a low rumble. “Shall I show you?”
“Please. Please show me.” Her head was light as his words encircled her.
He raised one thick brow. There was a long, fraught pause. She feared he might have some last-moment change of heart, but then he planted his palms against the wall, bracketing her with his arms.
His gaze was hot and intent on her, and she felt it like a physical caress. “IfI were to seduce you, do you know what I’d start with first?”
“A kiss?” she asked hopefully.
“That’s the destination,” he rumbled, “but there’s a whole journey before that. No, the first thing I’ddo is tell you how utterly obsessed I am with your neck.”
“M-My neck.” She became acutely conscious of that part of her body, and couldn’t stop herself from resting her fingertips against the fluttering hollow of her throat.
He groaned. “All I want to do is bite that gorgeous neck of yours. I want to nip at it, sink my teeth into it. Lick it and taste you. My hands burn because they want to wrap around your throat and hold you still as I pleasure you.”
