Page 51 of Miss Dramatic
He gathered her close. “Nor in Crosspatch. Nor even when passing through London. No opportunity at all, not since I was with you.”
In the meager light of the lantern, they smiled at each other, and Gavin saw how he should go on. Slowly, carefully, joyfully, as if it were their first time, because in a sense, it was.
Kisses blended into caresses, until Rose straddled him and tossed her chemise in the direction of the door. That occasioned another shared smile, more tender and wicked than the previous version.
“Such bounty,” Gavin murmured, levering up to worship her breasts with his mouth and hands. “Such exquisite, beautiful, lovely…” Lines from the sonnets drifted through his mind.I in thy abundance am sufficed, And by a part of all thy glory live.
Then, even the Bard, with all his skill and insight, was insufficient to the moment.
Rose crouched over Gavin, her breasts brushing his chest in a manner doubtless intended to drive him mad.
“Another time, sir, we can tarry over the preliminaries,” she said, “but just at this moment…”
“Right. Another time, soon. For now, let us seize the night and seize each other.” He shifted his hips, and Rose went still.
“Seize away.” She braced her hands on his shoulders. “Though slowly, please.”
He tried to oblige her, but as soon as he’d gained the first inch, Rose shuddered.
“Damn you, Gavin DeWitt. That feels…” The shuddering went on, even as Gavin held still.
“Marvelous?” he whispered, his control threatening to unravel. “Astounding? Fabulous?”
“Hush, you beast.” She hung over him, panting, then began to move. “I’ve missed you.”
She had always known exactly how toplyhim. “Missed the pleasure?”
“Not only the pleasure. The pleasure is part of it. I’ve… missed…you.”
One moment, he was a man in possession of some self-restraint, a generally capable lover intent on pleasing his lady before indulging his own needs. The next instant, his will was obliterated by welling delight. He thrashed and bucked like the beast she’d named him and endured an unbearable intensity of sensation, even as he lunged for more.
Withdrawing in the name of honor had never been such a near and difficult thing.
By the time he’d subsided onto his back—and Rose had stopped laughing—he was winded, ebullient, and wrung out.
“Need a nap?” she whispered. “I certainly might, because I am not finished with you, Gavin. I need at least the rest of the night to settle my humors.”
I need you.His first instinct was to keep the words to himself. So was his second and his third. And yet… He was an aspiring suitor, and if Rose was to send him packing, he wanted to know his fate now, rather than after another night of unfathomable bliss.
“What I need,” he said slowly, “is the truth, and your trust, and some courage.”
She levered up, brushed his hair back, and rummaged under the pillows for the handkerchief he always tucked in such a location.
“You also need some tidying up.” She dismounted, tended to him and to herself, and tossed the linen aside. “What are you going on about, Gavin? I am not at my best at the moment—some handsome bounder has stolen my wits—but neither have I any engagement more pressing than a restorative nap.”
She was back on her dignity, despite not wearing a stitch.
“Let me hold you,” Gavin said. “Please. I need to ask you a difficult question, and yet, I am loath to vex you.”
Rose lay on her side, facing him, and allowed him to draw her near, tucking her nose into the crook of his shoulder. “You do vex me, Gavin. I’m all at sixes and sevens. I thought I had put the past aside and could manage a fresh start, but I’ve missed you so, and you aren’t the dashing blade I’ve tried to paint you, or not merely that, and…”
“I know. We cannot build a new foundation without first clearing away some rubble. So tell me, Rose. When we became lovers up north, why did you leave me that money?”
She lifted her head and, as the lantern began to gutter, fixed him with a frown. “What money? I never left you any money. That was the problem, or so I thought.”
She wasn’t angry. Her words bore caution, hurt, and not a little bewilderment, almost as if…
“Tell me what happened,” he said, shifting over her. “Leave nothing out. Spare no one, least of all me, and take your time.”
