Page 67 of To Pleasure a Prince
It was the most glorious kiss of her life, so powerful she would have swooned if she’d been the swooning sort. She threw her arms about his neck and gave herself up to the intoxicating pleasure.
She’d won at last. She wasn’t surewhatshe’d won—after this, she could no more return to holding him at arm’s length than she could stop breathing. But she didn’t care about that. Marcus was kissing her with all the passion and fervor that made her feel alive, and nothing else mattered.
After endless moments of his mouth consuming hers and his hands roaming freely over her waist and hips, he tore his lips from hers. “Are you happy now?” he growled as he scattered feverish kisses over her cheeks and chin and throat.
“Because I proved that you still want me?” She arched her neck to give him better access. “Yes, deliriously happy.”
He sucked hard on her neck. “Haughty witch. Impudent siren.” Lifting his mouth to her ear, he nipped the lobe. “You couldn’t rest until you reduced me to the same slobbering lapdog state as all your other suitors.”
“If this is you being a lapdog, I shudder to think how you would be as a mastiff. I assure you, I have never allowed any slobbering lapdog suitors to carry me off in their carriages alone.”
He drew back to stare at her solemnly. “If you stay here with me much longer, you’ll be ruined.”
“I know.”
“Don’t you care?”
The strange thing was, she didn’t. Not right now. “No.”
“You’ve won your wager, you know. You don’t have to keep at your charitable project now.”
She jerked back. “You arenota project,” she cried, wounded to the heart. “And if you could still think I see you that way, I want nothing to do with you!”
She tried to scramble free of him, but he wouldn’t let her. “Too late for that,” he murmured in her ear, a hint of amusement in his tone. “Now that I’ve carried you off, dearling, I fully intend to take advantage of the situation.”
His use of the endearment mollified her. So did the idea of his taking advantage of her. Still, color rose in her cheeks when he very deliberately began to unfasten the ties of her bodice. “You…you mean to ruin me in truth?”
“No.” He tugged her bodice down so he could untie her filmy chemise. “But if you’ll remember, I told you earlier I would expect a reward for my gentlemanly efforts.” Opening the neck of her chemise, he bared one of her breasts to his ravening gaze. “And I intend to take it now.”
Before she could even protest, he was easing her back over his arm so he could seize her breast with his mouth. Heaven help her, it was just like the last time…utterly…sweetly…delicious.
As her eyes slid shut and her hands clutched at his arms, his mouth seduced her breast, teasing her nipple until it hardened into an aching knot that only the swaths of his hot tongue could soothe.
Then he turned his sinful attentions to her other breast, caressing it with his mouth so expertly that he soon had her arching up against his mouth, wanting more, needing more.
That was probably why she didn’t notice his free hand sliding her gown up her legs until he had it midthigh, and his fingers brushed her drawers.
“Marcus?” she whispered. “Do you really think you should—”
“Yes,” he dragged his mouth from her breast to rasp. “If you don’t let me touch you, dearling, I’ll go mad.”
“AndI’llgo mad if you touch me there,” she said tartly, struggling to sit up.
“I certainly hope so.” He smiled down at her, shifting her so that she was half-sitting, half-lying across his lap. His hand—his devilishly clever hand—continued its scandalous exploration until it found the slit in her drawers. “I want to drive you as insane as you’ve driven me for the past week.”
She should protest. Instead, she waited impatiently to see how he intended to do that. Parting the linen with his fingers, he combed through her curls until he found a sensitive bit of hidden flesh. When he pressed his thumb to it in a most outrageous caress, she nearly hit the roof of his carriage.
So that was how he meant to do it…oh, Lord. He stroked it again, and she jumped. “Sweet heaven!”
“Not yet,” he said, eyes gleaming with humor. “But I promise it will be.”
He was as good as his word. While still mercilessly rubbing and teasing that one tender spot until she writhed against his thumb in search of more, he slid a finger lower to part her delicate folds, then slip inside her.
Her eyes widened at the shock of such a sinful intimacy. But even as she dug her fingernails into his coat and prepared to protest, his finger withdrew. Only to thrust inside her again. And again. And again, in firm, silken strokes that drove all the breath right out of her.
She’d heard enough about lovemaking to know how it worked, but she’d never heard aboutthis.Having his finger inside her was perfectly appalling. She wanted it never to end.
Her eyes slid shut so she could focus on that treacherously wicked hand of his, doing amazing things to her, making her twist and turn and yearn for more…
