Page 77 of Ladies in Hating
Cat pulled back. “Are you all right? Did I horrify you?”
“No! No.” Georgiana wrapped her fingers in the folds of Cat’s skirts, bunching the gray fabric in her fist. “It’s only—here you are dressed again, while I’m down to my shift.”
“I don’t see any sort of problem in that,” Cat said vehemently. And then she paused, looking at Georgiana’s uncertain face. “Do you? Tell me, Georgie. Is something wrong?”
“I’m—I want—” Georgiana hesitated. In the flickering candlelight, her eyes looked like a storm.
Cat rubbed her palm along Georgiana’s thigh, cautious and soothing, and tried to find the right words. “You can tell me. I shan’t think less of you, no matter what it is that’s in your mind.” She ran her thumb across Georgiana’s knee, warm through the silk of her stocking. “I promise you, heart of my heart, there is nothing shameful between us. You could not wish for anything that I would not want to give you.”
Georgiana swallowed, a quick bob of her long ivory throat.
And how had Cat ever thought Georgiana cold? All her emotions were transparent in her face: in the tremble of her lower lip, the tiny muscle that flexed in her jaw as she tried to find the words.
“I had never done this before,” she said finally. “Before the inn. And I want—” She broke off and wrapped her fingers around Cat’s wrist. “I want to watch you. I should like to know that I am bringing you pleasure, and I want you to tell me when I’m doing it right.”
Cat felt a hot flush rise along her skin at Georgiana’s words. Not just because of the image they engendered—though that was as vivid in her mind as if Georgiana had handed her an engraving—but because Georgiana had spoken of her desires at all.
Georgianatrustedher. Georgiana felt safe beneath Cat’s hands.
That knowledge was desperately erotic. Cat felt her breath quicken as she looked at Georgiana, lithe and strong and extravagantly beautiful, there upon her desk.
“Come,” she said, and took Georgiana’s fingers in her own.
She led Georgiana across the room—it wasn’t far—and positioned her in front of the narrow looking glass that leaned against the wall.
“What—”
“Hold a moment,” Cat said. “You’ll see.”
And then, hastily, she divested herself of her garments while Georgiana watched in stupefaction.
When she was down to nothing but her stockings, she paused and turned to Georgiana. “These too?”
Georgiana’s gaze was hot, and she had to moisten her lips before she spoke. “You can”—her voice wobbled—“leave those on.”
Cat couldn’t help herself. She grinned.
Looking a trifle dizzied, Georgiana smiled back.
Cat moved then to stand between Georgiana and the mirror, her back to Georgiana’s front. She met Georgiana’s gaze in the glass and then brought Georgiana’s hand to her belly, wrapping Georgiana’s arm around her body. “There,” she murmured. “Now you may watch.”
She kept her eyes on Georgiana’s face as Georgiana’s gaze trailed down their reflection in the mirror. Her expression was ravenous—almostwondering,as she took in the sight of them together in theglass. Very slowly, she brought her other hand up to trail across Cat’s stomach and then the very tip of one breast.
Cat let loose a single shuddering breath.
“Do you like that?” Georgiana whispered. Her finger made a slow circle around Cat’s nipple.
“Yes.”
Georgiana’s thumb tormented the tip of Cat’s breast, and her other hand settled against Cat’s hip bone, tugging their bodies together. “And this?”
“Very much.” Her voice was low, breathy—she scarcely recognized it.
Georgiana’s mouth pressed hungrily to the side of Cat’s neck, and her fingers slid across Cat’s belly, not quite dipping down between her legs. “And what if I touch you in a way that you do not like?”
Cat twisted against her, trying to bring Georgiana’s fingers closer to where she ached. “I don’t—think that very likely.”
Georgiana slid her fingers down to the ribbon that held up Cat’s stocking. Cat’s thighs were plump; the ribbon dug, just a bit, into her flesh, and Georgiana slid one finger under the taut band.
