Page 56 of Lady Gambit
She hoped to dream of this perfect moment. To remember the taste of Dorian’s lips and the warmth of his touch. To remember how beautiful it felt to know that someone truly wanted her.
Chapter Twelve
Dorian prided himself on being a professional man. A stickler for rules. Too sensible to fall for a woman’s charms. Too focused to let romantic notions affect his long-term goals. Yet he lost sight of everything when he kissed Delphine.
He should be questioning the landlord, discovering if anyone else had come looking for him in the last few days. But her mouth was so warm and wet he forgot about the case, about his father’s selfish schemes, about what this meant and where it would end.
It was all so confounding.
He would fight a heathen army for her and die with her name on his lips. If Meldrum touched her again, he would string him up from the nearest bough. To hell with the consequences.
But he was too damned weak to drag his mouth from hers.
Too feeble to find the strength to say no.
How could he when she had found the secret door to his heart? Why would he refuse when she was the one person who gave his life meaning?
She broke contact first, her breath coming in ragged pants. She looked up at him, arousal swimming in her bewitching brown eyes. “I love my brothers,” she uttered, “but these moments with you are amongst the happiest of my life.”
She enriched his life in ways he couldn’t explain. “It’s hard to believe we’ve only known each other mere weeks.” He’d spent a lifetime becoming a man who would make any father proud. Now he would ruin an innocent because he was too damn selfish to let her go.
Yet he couldn’t help but feel this was part of a larger plan.
Indeed, there was only one way to appease his conscience and satisfy his desires. A way that would bring Armageddon down upon them both.
Marriage.
His father would disown him. He would seek ways to end the marriage, devious ways that would leave Dorian free to wed Miss Montague. Before that, Aaron Chance would beat him to a pulp. During a private conversation, he had stared Dorian in the eye and warned him what would happen if he dared to touch Delphine.
“I feel like I’ve known you forever.” She pushed a lock of hair from his brow, and he was lost in the tenderness of her touch. “Which is why I sense something is troubling you. Is it the case? Is it your father? Is it something I have done?”
“It’s not you,” he was quick to reassure her. He kissed her once on the lips. How could it be her? She had quickly become the only thing that mattered. “It’s what our families will do if they learn of our secret liaisons.”
Though she smiled, a glimmer of fear crept into her expression. “I know my brothers make vile threats, but I will find a way to appease them.”
“My father will unleash the devil’s wrath on those you love.” He had to let her know what they risked to spend these preciousmoments together. “He will do everything possible to ruin your family.”
Her mocking chuckle said she was confident Aaron Chance would save the day. “It won’t come to that. Too many men are in my brother’s debt. It gives him a power beyond compare. But let’s not think about it until we’ve solved the case. We can address the problem then.”
Solved the case?
He almost scoffed.
Nora Adkins was at large, no doubt running from the fiend who’d tried to kill her to hide the truth. How could they unlock the secrets of Delphine’s past when she had no memory? Who were her parents? Who was blackmailing Lord Meldrum? And did the devious Mrs Haggert have a part to play?
They had files to read.
People to interview.
But in this moment, nothing mattered more than kissing her, touching her, indulging in every erotic pleasure. He was a man, not a blasted saint. A man who’d caught a glimpse of the one thing he’d longed for his whole damn life.
She laid a hand on his chest. The same irresistible impulses drove her, too. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone. I’m tired of feeling trapped by rules and obligations. For once, I want to make my own choices, and I choose you, Dorian.”
She came up on her toes, brushed her mouth over his and coaxed his lips apart. He moved with her, bewitched by their softness, every muscle tightening when her tongue slid sensually over his.
Merciful Lord!
She tasted divine.
