Page 18 of Her Duke at Midnight
“Yes?” Cecily’s throat had gone dry, her voice husky.
“Because when I heard the first knock on my door, I’d hoped it was you.” He bent his head.
Cecily arched up, her lips trembling. She longed to feel his mouth on hers.
But he didn’t kiss her. He nuzzled his nose against her cheek, the edge of her ear, the tender skin of her neck.
“So sweet.”
Cecily stilled. “I don’t wish to be sweet.” Sweet, innocent, docile—she wasn’t that Cecily anymore.
“What do you want to be, my lady?” His fingertips moved against her nape, stroking with just enough pressure to make her toes curl and her body hum with need.
“I want to be pleasured.”
Never before that moment had Adam thought of Cecily, Countess of Bissenden, as dangerous, and yet he felt certain of it now. Because he sensed himself leaning into her, getting dizzy on the feel of her soft skin against his fingertips, tantalized by the floral notes lingering on her neck and behind her ear.
He knew what she was asking. Other women had asked for the same.
But Cecily was different. He’d told her the truth. He did sense passion in her, but also the innocence she did not wish to be reminded of too. Bennett had said she’d only been married a few years and to a dreadful man. Pleasure was something he suspected she’d had very little of, and hecouldgive her that much.
It was the only thing he could give her.
Adam reached down and took her hand. He lifted her fingers to his mouth, kissing each, flicking his tongue out to take one fingertip between his lips.
She gasped as if shocked, and he stilled.
“Nothing will happen without your express permission, Cecily. Nothing will occur between us that you don’t want.”
She offered a nod and then glanced at the bed.
“Shall I remove my nightgown?”
“Let us take our time. First, I want to know what you want.” Adam reached up to run his fingers across the ribbon at the neck of her gown.
She swallowed hard and looked momentarily confused. “A kiss?” Her answer emerged as a question.
Adam smiled down at her. “Where? Show me.”
Cecily swept one fingertip across her lips.
“Oh yes.” He bent his head and kissed her cheek, the tip of her nose, the curve of her chin.
She pushed against his chest. “You’re teasing me.”
“Anticipation makes everything better.” He liked to take lovemaking slowly, to savor every moment, to draw out pleasure, and instinct told him that Cecily was worth all the time he could give her.
“You mean seduction?” Without waiting for his answer, she untied the ribbon she’d used to pull back her hair. Then she wrapped the length of satin around her hand and stroked her fingers through her long auburn waves.
Adam realized she didn’t merely wish for seduction, she wanted to seduce too.
“Kiss me here,” she told him firmly, then lifted her hand to stroke her lips. “And here.” The line she drew traced across the base of her throat, where he’d been aching to taste her from the moment they met. “And here.” She drew her finger down the cleft between her breasts, pressing the fabric of her nightgown taut, letting him see the tight peaks of her arousal.
He kept his eyes locked on hers and bent his head to stroke his tongue over the seam of her lips. She opened as he’d hoped, and he deepened the kiss, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her soft curves flush against his body.
She followed his lead, tasting him with her tongue as he’d tasted her. But it was the sounds she made that Adam thought might be his undoing. Little moans of delight. Tiny gasps of surprise.
Had no one ever kissed this luscious woman properly?
