Page 19 of One Night with a Prince
To her chagrin, her pulse leaped in response. “For pity’s sake, go see to your horses or something. We can finish this without you. Go on, go away and leave us in peace.”
“And let you dress yourself like a nun? I think not.”
His nonchalant assumption that this masquerade gave him the right to tell her what to wear frustrated her.
“I should warn you, just because I let you get away with these outrageous flirtations in public doesn’tGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlmean I’ll allow them in private. Furthermore,” she lied, “I shall elaborate on your abominable treatment of me in my written report to His Highness. And when your father hears—”
“What did you say?” He’d gone abruptly still, his eyes turning gray as a sudden tempest. Too late, she remembered that he had good reason to dislike his father. “I-I said I will make a report to—”
“No, you called His Highness my ‘father.’ ” He advanced up the dais’s steps swiftly, trapping her atop it. “If you’re to play my mistress, Lady Haversham, there are some things you should know about me. For one, His Highness is not my father.”
She blinked. “But I thought—”
“He did sire me, yes, no matter what the bloody arse claimed to the world. But there’s a vast difference between producing seed and being a father. Only one person raised me, and she’s the only one who counts. That fool at Carlton House had nothing to do with it, so I don’t give a bloody damn what you tell him.”
Backing her against the wall, he scowled down at her. “And one more thing—I don’t take kindly to threats. I respond by doing exactly what I’ve been warned not to do. And if you think my flirtations were outrageous before—”
Taking her off guard, he caught her chin in a firm grip and brought his mouth down on hers. The kiss was hard. Commanding. And very, very thorough. With provoking insolence, he sealed his mouth to hers as if he had every right to do so. But when he tried making the kiss more intimate, she wrenched her mouth from his.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, fighting to ignore the silly pounding of her heart and the deplorable quiver in the pit of her belly.
His smoldering gaze seared her wherever it settled. “I’m kissing my pretend mistress.”
“Stop it.” She cast a furtive glance to the door. “The servants might see us.”
“Good. Servants are notorious gossips, so let’s put on a good show for them.” Then he kissed her again. Except that this time he succeeded in invading her mouth with his tongue, erotically, possessively. And she didn’t stop him, blast it.
Worse yet, she liked it. She tried not to compare his slow, drugging kisses to Philip’s sloppy, eager ones, but it was hard to ignore the difference. Her husband’s kisses had always been a brief prelude to a quick tumble. Byrne’s kiss was an end in itself, hot, heady, and intoxicating. He fed on her mouth as if he’d been waiting half his life to taste it. The sensation made her dizzy. His hand skimmed down her throat, and she waited, on the edge of disappointment, for him to grab her breast and squeeze it roughly the way Philip always had.
Instead, Byrne curved his hand around the side of her neck, caressing her throat with his thumb, up and down, back and forth, to mimic the heated plunges of his tongue between her lips.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlOh, heavenly day. He drove the very air from her lungs, which might explain why her knees were going weak and her head growing faint. With leisurely care, he thrust, probed, caressed…made love to her mouth.
But only her mouth. How very intriguing.
Though he’d settled his other hand on her waist, he merely stroked her ribs with it. He didn’t paw her breasts or cup her between the legs or squeeze her bottom, all of which Philip would have done within seconds after starting to kiss her.
And Byrne’s peculiar restraint was having the oddest effect on her. She felt restless and unsatisfied. She found herselfwanting his hand on her breast. Lord help her—what kind of a wanton was she? She tore her lips from his, seeking breath and…respite? Relief from the liquid heat he fed with each newer, bolder thrust into her mouth? “That’s enough,” she somehow managed to whisper. “You’ve made your point.”
His breath warmed her cheek. “My point?”
He turned to nibbling her ear, and oh, what that did to her. She thought she would come out of her skin. She could barely think, much less answer. “That if I threaten you, you’ll feel free to…take…certain liberties.”
“Ah.That point.” He tugged on her earlobe with his teeth, then pressed an openmouthed kiss to her neck.
“So you can…stop now. I got your point.”
“And I got yours—that you don’t mind my taking certain liberties.”
The truth of it didn’t make it any less insulting. She jerked back. “I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” His smugly masculine smile roused her ire, especially when he followed it with a sweeping, proprietary caress of his hand from her ribs to her hip. “I dare say if I took you to bed right now, you wouldn’t protest.”
His arrogant assumption drove her over the edge. Reaching down, she grabbed his privates and squeezed, just enough to warn him. “I don’t take kindly to threats either, you randy Irishman. We made a bargain. You agreed to the terms, which didn’t include kissing or anything else. So if you try that again—”
“You’ll what? Maim me?” His voice held nothing but sarcasm. She blinked. Most men retreated when faced with serious bodily harm. But of course Byrne wasn’t most men, as evidenced by his erection, growing harder and thicker and heavier in her hand by the moment. Nor did his angular features show even an ounce of concern for his precarious position.
He actually leaned closer, shoving his…thinginto her hand. “Go ahead. I dare you.” His eyes were steelyGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlbright as he lowered his voice to a menacing whisper. “See how far you get.”
Her mouth went dry. Dear Lord, what now?
