Page 18 of The Risk of Rogues
A thrill shot through her, her breath quickening ashisfeathered over her skin, making it come alive. “L-like what?”
“Like showing you just how glorious marriage can be with the right person.”
Uh-oh. She had some idea what he meant by that: seduction. Or something equally exciting and wicked. Something she shouldnot do. She should slap him, unlock the door, and stalk out. Or scream.
Or simply refuse him. Because if she did, he’d probably let her go.
But the truth was, shewantedhim to seduce her at least once, regardless of what became of their “re-courtship.”
How else was she to know what it was like to lie with the man she loved? Because shedidlove him still. She’d never really stopped. And at twenty-seven, she was unlikely to find another man to love. For odd birds like her with odd tastes, such men did not grow on trees.
Still, she must hold firm to her rule that they not go into marriage without a decent plan for the future. She couldn’t wed him until she could trust him fully.
“Well?” he rasped against her cheek. “Yes or no?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Enough thinking.”
Then he covered her mouth with his, and she knew her time for deciding was done.
Hart refused to tell her what he did for Fulkham until he’d secured her, and how better to do that than to consummate the marriage before the wedding? He knew Anne very well, and she wouldn’t give herself to him unless she was already half-inclined to marry him. And if he bedded her, he felt sure he could coax her the rest of the way to the altar.
“Sweetheart, let me at least get a look at what I’ve dreamed about all these years,” he murmured as he turned her about and began to unfasten her gown.
“People will wonder what has become of us,” she said, though she did nothing to stop him.
“Do you care?”
She hesitated only a moment before saying, “No.”
Ah. Shewasthe Anne he’d fallen in love with. “Well, then.”
Her gown dropped to the floor, then her petticoats. He went to untie her laces, but she balked at that, pivoting to face him. “Not my stays. It will take too long to get them back on if anyone tries the door.”
He was about to argue, when he caught sight of the tassel pinned to her corset. His heart leapt. He flicked the tassel. “What’s this?” he asked with a teasing smile.
Her cheeks flamed. “Youknowwhat it is. You gave it to me.”
“And you put it in a very intimate spot, didn’t you?” He touched it, then shifted his fingers to the delectable swells of her breasts. “Dare I hope that it means you’re predisposed to say yes?”
She tilted up her chin. “It means I like pretty things.”
In very intimate spots.Which cheered him enormously. “As do I,” he said, allowing his gaze to trail down her form.
While he drank in the amazing sight of her breasts nearly bursting out of her undergarments, he untied her shift, then pulled her corset cups and the top of her shift down to reveal her naked bosom.
He nearly came in his drawers.
“Good God,” he said hoarsely, filling his hands with the delicious mounds of plump flesh. “You are even more magnificent than I imagined.”
“And you are even more... naughty.” Her eyes closed on a shudder as he thumbed the peach-tinged nipples. “Oh, Hart,yes. Touch me like that...justlike that. You weren’t the only one... who’s been dreaming all these years, you know.”
“Fortunately, sweet Anne, neither of us has to dream anymore.”
He knelt on one knee so he could gain better access to her luscious breasts with his mouth, then began to suck and play with each in turn, exulting in her panting breaths, her hands groping for his shoulders, her head thrown back in enjoyment. Her skin was so supple and smooth, he could dine on it all night.
And speaking of dining...
