Page 87 of Ladies in Hating
Oh God, she hadn’t meant to say that. She had hoped to paper over the great depth of hunger inside her—for affection, for reassurance. For love. Her cheeks went hotter.
But Cat did not seem to mind. “I adore you,” she said again, and then her tongue traced the curve of Georgiana’s ear, and Georgiana felt her lower belly tighten. “I am mad for you.” Her breath tickled Georgiana’s ear, and her right hand came up to cupGeorgiana’s breast. Her thumb passed lightly across Georgiana’s nipple. “I should like very much to worship at your altar.”
“Let me—blow out the candle,” Georgiana said hoarsely, and Cat laughed again, like an invitation to joy.
Georgiana moved across the room and doused the small flame. Selina had offered up a whole closet full of necessities for her friends—a spare set of clothing, a folding military-style cot to sleep upon, a toothbrush—but Cat did not give Georgiana time to seek out any of it. Instead, when the room was dark, Cat urged her to the armchair in front of the hearth. It was banked, but still warm, a slow, radiant heat that curled along Georgiana’s cheeks, the tips of her fingers.
“Sit down,” Cat murmured. “Let me do this for you.”
Georgiana sat. Cat knelt between her thighs, and Georgiana felt almost fevered, hot-cold tingles running up and down her skin.
“You needn’t,” she managed. “I can—”
“Let me,” Cat said again, and then, slowly, she slid her hand from Georgiana’s ankle up and up and up. Her thumb worked its way around to the sensitive place behind Georgiana’s knee, and Georgiana’s thighs went loose, her legs falling wider and then squeezing around Cat’s shoulders as desire reverberated through her body. Cat between her thighs—ah God, the sight was wicked and heavenly, and she heard a whimper at the back of her own throat.
Deftly, Cat peeled off Georgiana’s boots and stockings, and then she shoved Georgiana’s skirts above her knees. “There is,” she murmured, “one thing you can do for me.”
“Anything,” Georgiana managed. Cat’s thumb had returned to the sensitive inside of her knee, and she was stroking lightly—so lightly, almost a whisper. Georgiana’s hips jerked. It wasnotsensible,how Cat’s featherlight touch should send quick hot throbs of desire to her sex. And yet—
She twisted, just a little, trying to urge Cat’s hand farther up.
“Talk,” Cat said.
“What?”
Cat looked up, then, and Georgiana felt half out of her head, drunk on the sight of Cat’s face. Her lips tipped up on one side and the shadows seemed deeper where they curved around her body. The heat of her mouth was palpable, here, in the dark.
“Talk. Say anything you like, so long as you keep talking.” She pressed her mouth to the bare skin of Georgiana’s upper thigh, and Georgiana’s hips rocked, helpless and wanting.
“You want me to—babble?” Her voice came out thready.
“Yes.” Cat licked the crease of her pelvis, and Georgiana made a sound that had only a passing acquaintance with speech. “It arouses me.” Cat lifted her dark lashes and looked Georgiana in the eye, even as her fingers trailed up to tease and torment. “That lovely voice of yours. And the way I make you fall apart.”
“I—” Georgiana gasped. “I—”
Oh God, Cat’s movements were quick and clever, and it was so hard to think clearly. Her body thrummed with need. But the notion that she could please Cat—that she could make Cat flushed and wanting through her words alone—was a potent lure. A desire that bordered on necessity.
She tried again. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Cat’s mouth had almost reached the place where Georgiana wanted her most, but at that, she hesitated. Her gaze flicked up to Georgiana. “That was not quite what I expected.”
“You’re lovely,” Georgiana said. “Perfect.” Her hips twitched beneath the sudden rush of Cat’s breath, and she could not quiteforce back the moan that slipped through her lips. “I think constantly about the way your mouth moves when you smile. And when you do—what you are doing now.”
Cat’s careful focus returned. Her tongue passed slowly and deliberately over Georgiana’s clitoris and then back again.
But when Georgiana stopped talking, Cat stopped too. Her eyes flicked up to Georgiana’s face.
So Georgiana went on, panting a little. “You are so clever. I love your books. You made me laugh even when I did not know it was you. You’re—kind and—and—” Her mind felt fractured. Words slipped away, borne off on a tide of deepening pleasure.
But Cat paused again. When she looked up this time, Georgiana could see that her color was high. Her breath came quickly, her breasts straining the top of her frock. “I like that,” she said unsteadily. “All of it.”
A new thrill raced through Georgiana’s body.Yes.She was not alone in this. Their desire was shared, was wrought higher and higher by their mutual pleasure.
“I want you naked again,” she managed, and Cat’s mouth pressed back down, hotter than the warmth from the fire. Georgiana groaned a little, and tried to recall how to speak. “I want to feel you. I want your legs around my waist. I—oh—God, Catriona—I want you to come like that.”
Her climax was bearing down upon her. She felt drawn up tight, her nipples bright sensitive points where they brushed her frock. The tiny flicks of Cat’s tongue multiplied inside her, each one drawing her muscles tighter, her body closer and closer to the edge.
But Cat was aroused as well. Georgiana could tell it, even in the dark. Cat’s hips shifted as she squeezed her legs together, and her fingers on Georgiana’s thigh worked restlessly, flexing and releasing.
