Page 25 of A Lady of Means
He was grateful in that moment, that he hadn’t kissed her that first meeting, or any since.This wasn’t merely a kiss, they hadn’t yet invented words for what this was.She tasted like summer days by a lake, a million little promises leaping off her tongue and finding purchase in his mouth.God, the girl knew how to snog him within an inch of his own demise, but he wanted her to know it wasn’t just slowly fading lust between them.
His heart nearly outpaced his thoughts until he saw her affection for what it was.He pulled back.
“I know what you’re doing.It might work but I’ll keep asking for the same thing until I get it.”
“Which is?”she asked, her lips feather light and so tempting against the curve of his neck, the suggestive press of her body so delicious against him that he grew painfully hard.
She was no innocent, blushing debutante.She was playing games with him when he’d asked for more of her, that was fine.But he was a soldier by trade, and an exceptional chess player, and he could play her games better.
In one swift motion, he turned her.He had her pressed against the wall, holding both of her hands in one of his above her.His groin pressed into the small of her back where it curved to her ripe little arse jutting into his breeches.
The silk of her skin and her dress against him was…holy hell.Her back heaved heatedly against his chest, her breasts where they pressed against the wall made his entire body envious of plaster and wallpaper.He didn’t have to remove her dress to know that she had gorgeous breasts.The exposed skin made him want to see them as much as he wanted to fucking taste them.
He let the slight stubble he’d accumulated since shaving earlier scratch softly against the sensitive skin of her neck as he dragged his mouth up to her ear.His voice was a silken, seductive purr against her as he said, “Everything I want.I’m not playing to win a trophy, Moria,” He licked at the tip of her earlobe and delighted in her shudder and the way she pressed her backside against him.He tightened his hold on her hands.
“Because you are no trophy.You’re the game, you’re the strategy, you’re the victor, the game maker.You’reallof it,” he said against the shell of her ear.
She undulated against him.Fuck.He wanted more.He took his free hand from where it rested at her side and trailed it toward her breast, grazing his thumb over where her nipples would be hiding in that dress.He languidly dragged that hand down to her entrance.His fingers cupped her through her dress.Her little fucking whimper of pleasure scalded his self-control, and one finger circled her entrance.
The scrape of fabric against her skin and another soft moan from her were the only sounds in the room, until he pulled his hand away from where he toyed with her to add, “I’m playing for keeps.”
His entire body shrieked in protest, “you bloody asshole,”as he pulled away from the apex of her and with a sensual drag of his hand down the backs of her arms, he released her and turned her back around to face him.
She had nothing to say, which gave him almost as much satisfaction as having her pressed against his groin.Her arms curled around his neck, and singed him with a searing, elevating kiss.Her teeth nipped at his lips, her fingers scraped through his hair.
The feel of her breasts pushed against his chest and the single undulation of her hips against his own, and his heartbeat was a single repeated syllable: more.More.More.
“Moria,” he panted, tilting his head back against the wallpapered wall as she nipped at the flesh of his neck.He felt the bite everywhere.What was it about this woman that did this to him?
“You want me?”she questioned.
He took her hand and placed it against the hard evidence of his unflagging want.She cupped him so hard through his breeches he had to bite his tongue to keep from crying out.She was toying with him too.
“You have competition, Captain.And I have to go back to the country in a few days.I hope you’re willing to do what it takes to ‘keep’ me.”
And with that, the dratted woman spun on her heels and turned to leave him there panting after her in a dark room at a ball he’d come to solely for her.He was faster, he had her hand in his in a moment.
He tugged her to him, and his mouth found hers like the stars guided a sailors’ course home.She kissed him back with such ferocity, with what felt like her whole body.He groaned into her mouth.
She pulled away again.
This time he let her.He wanted to ask so many more questions and learn all of her until there were no secrets left between them.For now, he had to let her have the upper hand or she’d never fold all her cards.
He pulled her close enough to straighten her dress, to shake and smooth out her skirts, to repin the fallen pieces of her hair, to retie her mask, to pull up her gloves.Every touch was bliss, every touch was misery.He savored each intake of breath or waver of her eyelids like a man headed for the gallows who might never know such contact again.
He planted a chaste kiss on her gloved hand and offered her his arm.He led her outside the darkened room into an empty hallway, where she squeezed his hand once before taking several steps and slipping into the room beyond with calculated grace.
Once, she looked back to him, a triumphant curve of a smile appearing before she turned back to the open doorway and joined arms with two women inside as though she hadn’t just been compromised in her sister’s library.
ChapterTen
If you weren’tat the second most exclusive ball in London last night, I’ll tell you: it was not one but two ladies in a fox mask that stole all hearts on offer.Perhaps…even a Duke’s?
-Scandalous Lives of Londonscandal sheet
* * *
When Moria rejoined the masquerade,it was Carina in a matching fox mask, similar dress, with brown hair instead of Moria’s blonde, that brought her back down to earth.The gratification of feeling Devyn’s lips against her own after so long pining in secret, had almost carried her away.She’d been moments away from letting Devyn take her in her sister’s library.She’d been so close to telling him about Marcus, about his tragic death that had been the loss of a dream and the start of a new one.And about the loss that came after.
