Page 41 of The Secret of Flirting
Desire had her in its grip, and she wanted to explore it. Especially with the only man who’d ever heated her blood.
Now his mouth was inside her gown, closing over her nipple, licking it through her flimsy chemise, then sucking it hard and making her gasp from sheer pleasure.
No man had ever gone so far with her. Now she had to wonder why she’d resisted such intimacies for so long. What he was doing to her wasmagnificent.
“Even here you smell like lilies,” he murmured against her breast. “Do you sleep in a garden?”
She laughed lightly. “I bathe every day with scented soap. I’m told that’s rather... fastidious for someone from—” She halted just before she said “France.” “From Chanay.”
He glanced up at her with a smirk that said he’d caught her near slip, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead he returned to courting her body with his mouth and teeth and tongue. As she grabbed his head to hold him close, he paused long enough to rasp, “Shall I mark you here, too? I could, you know.”
“Don’t you dare!” she choked out, though the idea of his leaving a love bite where no one could ever see but her shot a perverse thrill through her. “You are... very wicked for a politician... my lord.”
“You bring it out in me.” Eyes alight, he started dragging up her skirts. “I don’t generally try to seduce princesses within hearing of their uncles.”
A sudden knock at the door made both of them freeze.
“Speaking of uncles—” Gregory ground out.
“Oh, God,” she hissed as she slid off the table, “do you think he heard what we were saying?”
Gregory looked amused. “Not throughthatdoor.” He chucked her under the chin with a sigh. “But all the same, we’d best stop this before he storms in.”
As she swiftly set her gown to rights, Gregory strode for the door. He glanced back at her and waited while she smoothed her hair into place and tucked a final few tendrils in.
But even after she nodded to show she was ready, he didn’t open the door. “Weareagreed about your coming to Canterbury Court, aren’t we?” he asked softly.
She stiffened, but nodded again. What choice did she have?
Relief flooded his features. “Good.” Then he swung the door open.
Her great-uncle marched in. He had Lady Ursula with him, who looked decidedly pale. Monique had to wonder if her new friend reallyhadbeen ill earlier, as the count had claimed, or, more likely, had been told the situation. Either way, Lady Ursula appeared as if she might faint.
Meanwhile, the count’s gaze scoured the room, then zeroed in on the table. “Why is your hat on the floor, niece?”
Curse it all. She’d forgotten about her hat.
As she fumbled for a plausible answer, Gregory said blandly, “I knocked it off. I’m afraid I became a bit... impassioned in arguing my case.”
Dear God, the man liked to live dangerously. How could he eventhinkto use that word with her great-uncle?
But the count didn’t seem to care. He circled the room slowly, as if looking for evidence of perfidy. Apparently finding none, he came toward her. “I hope you have convinced him that we cannot go to the country.”
“Perhaps we should consider—” Lady Ursula began.
“Quiet, girl!” the count said. “I will handle this.”
Monique bristled, both at his treatment of the lady-in-waiting and his apparent assumption that she would simply fall in with his plans.
She would not. She must hold her ground, though she would undoubtedly have the devil to pay for it later. Gregory was right—her safety could not be ensured in London with so many people around. And she did not wish to die for Aurore.
Not to mention that Gregory had planted seeds of doubt in her mind regarding her great-uncle, which were sprouting with the count’s continued resistance to Gregory’s plan.
“Actually,” Monique said stoutly, “I agree with his lordship. The country might be safer. And there really is no reason I must stay here for the next few days, is there?”
“Of course there is,” he said coldly. “The Duc de Pontalba is remaining in town, and he is one of the delegates you should sway to your side before the vote takes place, after everyone returns.” He cast Gregory a sly glance. “Unless his lordship is prepared to invitehimto the country as well.”
“That would give the princess an unfair advantage that none of the other possible candidates have,” Gregory said. “They might protest.”
