Page 36 of A Lady of Means
The exquisite contact of her hand snaking beneath his shirt pulled a groan from him.He arced into her touch, her hand traveling the taut planes of his torso, her body writhing against his own.
He swore.He leaned to take one of her breasts into his mouth.The attention his mouth gave to her breast and nipple in a rhythm with the strokes she gave him through his breeches.Her tight fingers making him sigh around the orb in his mouth.He could feel her spasm around him as he worked her other breast, his teeth lightly grazing over the bud like some sort of wild berry.
He was the instrument of her unmooring.Oh, but she was his too.Working him so artfully and deftly he could feel how close he was to release.And then there was the sight of her.Her pupils blown wide, her back arched, her bottom lip between her teeth.She’d given up part of her power over to him, but he’d given up all of his.
But slowly, he found it again.He licked his way up her neck and pulled her mouth into his possession.While she was distracted, he pulled up her bodice, tightened the strap on her shoulder, and brought her hand to his hair.
She pulled back to look at him.“I told you, Moria.I want you, but not like this.”
“You are…a terrible tease.”She gave the thick tendrils of his dark hair and affectionate tug he felt echo through his whole body, but mostly his cock.
“Me?”he laughed, pointing a finger at his chest.“Your hand was…”
“Occupied with something quite large and hard?”
He kissed her, his laugh echoing into her mouth, small, staccato kisses punctuated by roaming hands and sighs.
“When I make you come,” he said, grasping her face to whisper the words into her ear.“You will come with my ring on your finger.”
She pulled back to look at him, the words he wanted that she couldn’t say, wouldn’t say, reflected in her eyes.There was an awe in the way she looked at him, in her fingers trailing over the lines and planes of his face.
“We shall see about that, won’t we?”
Devyn leaned to kiss the small, feminine hand at his jaw.“It’s a promise.”
When Devyn walked her home, all he could think about was how necessary she had become while there were six blocks and a whole world between them.
ChapterFifteen
The most surprisingbetrothal this season: a hasty love match between the Earl of D and a mousy, flutist spinster.Maggie?Maisie?Assuredly, the widows and opera singers are mourning their loss.
-Scandalous Lives of Londonscandal sheet
* * *
The followingmorning Moria languidly laid in bed past the ninth hour and missed breakfast altogether until Miss Kelley and Olivia entered with a tray.
“For me?”Moria said, sitting up in surprise.Her plait fell down her back and the blankets fell around her.
Olivia set the tray down on a table by the window, then dove onto the bed next to Moria and pulled her into an embrace.Moria tucked Olivia around her the way her mother used to when they were young.How she’d give anything to lie in her mother’s bed once again with all three of her sisters and dream about theone days andmaybe some days andnot yets.She’d redo the days in between in a way her mother might be prouder of, that she herself might be prouder of.
Olivia’s blonde head was on her shoulder and her arms tightened about Moria.Moria thought suddenly of the daughter she’d almost had, but how could she ever tell Olivia that?So, she planted a kiss atop her head, and pulled back, under the pretense of stretching and getting ready to dress.Olivia tugged on Moria’s long braid.
“Not like you to have a lie-in past seven am.Anything you want to tell me?”
Moria only sighed and took the hot tea with a slice of lemon that Miss Kelley offered on a saucer.
“Being so popular is tiring.”
“Well, you must make haste, calling hours start soon and His Grace’s sister told me he intended to call today to see you off before you leave for the country.”
Moria’s eyes widened and she set down her teacup and saucer and ran to the mirror.Did she look like a woman who’d come close to being ravished by a different man the night before?Olivia came to stand behind her.Miss Kelley, who had already gone to the wardrobe, laid a dress out on the bed for Moria to change into.It was the two colors of an orchid.Like the flowers he’d sent.
Moria ran her fingers over the lines beneath her eyes.“I think I’ll need to borrow some of your…cosmetics today, Libby.”
Olivia smiled and disappeared.
By the time calling hours came around, Olivia and Miss Kelley had Moria more than presentable and all were seated seemingly unbothered and peacefully reading or sewing in the sitting room when the Duke was announced.Moria barely heard any of the words or pleasantries that were exchanged between any of them, including (especially) Jasper, until the tea tray was brought around, and the piquant smell of cinnamon spice buns broke her from her torpor.They smelled like the back of Devyn’s neck.She sunk her teeth into one, imagining it tasted the same as Devyn must.
