Page 79 of Ladies in Hating
But it did. She could not help herself. She shoved her fingers underneath Georgiana’s stockings and mounted a slow, tormenting assault on Georgiana’s inner thigh with her tongue, not quite reaching the place where she knew Georgiana most wanted her mouth.
Georgiana twisted restlessly and managed to gasp, “Is there something else you’re fond of?”
Cat nearly laughed. “Your ladyship,” she whispered into Georgiana’s dark blond curls, “I begin to suspect you’re flirting with me.”
Georgiana’s hips jerked. “It’s taken you”—she paused to suck in a breath—“an awfully long time to notice.”
Cat pressed her palms into Georgiana’s thighs to hold her still and relished the sensations of her—the extraordinary softness of her skin, the taut muscles that flexed beneath. Her heat inches from Cat’s mouth. “My love,” she murmured, “don’t fret. You have all of my attention now.”
Chapter 25
Love no denial found, desire no stay.
—from Georgiana’s private copy ofDON LEON
Georgiana was in search of tooth powder at dawn when a warm, naked body encircled her from behind. She heard herself emit a small squeak of surprise.
Cat breathed a laugh into her ear. “Did I startle you?”
Georgiana turned her head and found Cat’s hair with her mouth. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I woke and you were gone.” Cat tightened her arms and began to tow Georgiana deliberately back to the bed. “It was ghastly. Come back and minister to me in my hour of need.”
The bed was warm, and Georgiana let herself be pulled. They came down in a tumble of limbs and skin, and Cat pressed her face against Georgiana’s neck and breathed in. “What is it that you smell of? I have more than once lain awake pondering the question.”
Georgiana felt a little flush of pleasure, though surely Cat wasonly teasing. “Irises. And geranium and cardamom and ambrette and… oh, some other things I’ve forgotten. It’s a custom scent from Floris. My mother had it made for me before we left Woodcote Hall, and so I try not to use it too often.”
Cat smothered a laugh against her skin. “You are the most expensive thing in this house.”
Georgiana darted a half-embarrassed glance at Cat, who knelt, straddling one of Georgiana’s thighs.
But Cat was grinning. “You’ve ruined me for any other scent, you know. A most diabolical scheme.”
Georgiana let her eyes roam Cat’s sleep-tousled form, all skin and dark hair and wide, irreverent mouth. Just for the pleasure of it, she ran a fingertip along Cat’s bare shoulder, where it was gilded by the morning light. “You look so lovely like this.”
“Without my clothes, do you mean?”
Georgiana laughed aloud. “I hadn’t meant that, no. But I shan’t pretend it isn’t so.”
Cat’s fingers tangled in the chemise that Georgiana had donned when she’d risen in search of the tooth powder. Her mouth coasted along Georgiana’s ear and then down her neck. “I can’t tell you how much it pleases me to make you laugh.”
Georgiana felt a shiver run through her body, and she gave a little reluctant moan as she pulled away. “I would like very much to spend all morning pleasing you. But I have to go home. To see to Bacon.”
Cat loosened her hold on Georgiana’s chemise. “Yes, of course. I understand.” She sat back and wrapped the thin bedsheet around herself. Her lips were tipped up into a smile, familiar and natural on her face. “Maybe next time, you can bring Bacon with you. Pauline and Jem won’t mind. Well, Pauline might, but I can overrule her. Or perhaps”—her grin turned saucy and shy atonce—“perhaps next time I can stay with you at your apartment. I should like to see your nightclothes again.”
“Oh,” Georgiana said. “I—”
She hadn’t imagined that, somehow. She hadn’t expected… anything. She had not allowed herself to picture morning after morning just like this, Cat waking soft and golden in the sun.
She wanted it. She wanted itso much.
Her heart clenched, and so did her hands at her sides. She couldn’t seem to finish her sentence.
Cat’s smile faltered, just a little, then came back wider than ever and, for the first time in Georgiana’s recollection, obviously forced. “Never mind. I should not have said that. You didn’t ask for”—she gestured, a little haphazardly, and her bedsheet slipped—“all of that.”
Georgiana bit her lip and made herself speak. “No. You don’t have to apologize. I—”
“Shall I go with you?” Cat said brightly. “To see to Bacon?”
