Page 62 of A Caribbean Heiress in Paris
She harrumphed, pink lips pursed. He had to fight the urge to take that mouth and apply himself to demonstrating which woman it was that plagued his thoughts from the moment he rose until sleep took him.
The letter that arrived had been from Apollo, of course. Evan had asked that he look into Luz Alana’s mysterious trustee. It turned out Percy Childers was a scoundrel with a dreadful reputation who had acquired an alarming amount of gambling debts. There was even a rumor the man might’ve been involved in his own father’s death. He would not worry her with any of that. His men would find this Childers and impress upon him that he was not to toy with the wife of the Earl of Darnick.
He’d sent his brother a note thanking him for the information and requesting they change the plan to confront their father at the ball. He asked if they could return to their initial plan to do it at the duke’s club. If Luz Alana wanted to attend the ball, he would take her, but he worried that her presence there might give his father the wrong idea of her involvement in the scheme. He would not betray the promise he made Apollo, but he would not put Luz Alana at risk either.
“Why am I here, Evan?” Her face crumpled, and she turned away from him, walking over to a gilt console table and leaning her hands on it.
“I asked that we marry in Edinburgh,” she said, still facing away from him. “But you’ve brought me here only to leave me on my own. I don’t belong here, Evan.”
That statement pained him the most. It did not matter what he’d told his sisters or Murdoch. He’d brought Luz Alana to Braeburn because this was the one place in the world he felt at peace, and he’d wanted the memory of her here with him.
“I’m sorry I left you alone,” he told her as he closed the distance between them. She scoffed, but when he stood behind her, his front flanking her back, she didn’t move away. He placed his hand over hers, twining their fingers together, searching for a connection. “I don’t want to quarrel.”
He wanted to give her something sweet to remember from this thing that would end terribly for them both.
“Well, I do,” she said, but when he turned her toward him, she acquiesced. With a finger he tipped her chin up, and that brown gaze was full of yearning.
He wasn’t strong enough to not take what she was offering either.
“I think we could both think of a better way to spend our wedding night,” he suggested as desire surged through him.
“Dinner is ready. What will the servants think?” she said feebly as he gathered her in his arms, fed up with words and pained silences.
“Sod dinner,” he said with a grunt, making her laugh, then gasp, when he picked her up and sat her on the table.
“These gratuitous displays of strength are beneath you,” she grumbled, cheeks flushed with a very appealing pink. Just like that, the mood had turned playful, seductive.
“I think you like it.” He leaned in to place a tame kiss at the base of her throat. Her breath hitched a little, making her chest heave.
“Ithink you’re an imperious ass.” She delivered the insult with a cheeky smile kicking up her lips. Lust roared in him like a bonfire, with crackling, sparking flames.
Evan had never thought himself a romantic, and he certainly was not parsimonious when it came to lovers. If a woman wanted his company and he shared the sentiment, he was more than glad to indulge as long as the arrangement suited them both.Monogamyhad not been a part of his vocabulary for years, not to mentioncommitmentorpermanency. Even with Charlotte he’d never been possessive, but something feral gnawed at him when he leaned back to admire his bride.
She was...luminous. Fierce and fragile all at once, a complicated woman. One that he desperately wished he could deserve.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he whispered as she watched him through half-lidded eyes, leaning back on her hands so that her breasts pushed out invitingly. He had to lean in but a few inches and he could capture some of that lush flesh between his teeth. His mouth watered, cock already hardening in his trousers.
The plunge of her dress gave him just enough of a glimpse of her breasts to make his mouth run dry. Then he remembered.
“I left you a gift,” he said as she tightened her legs around his waist, bringing him closer.
She nodded primly, then pressed her lips right to his ear.
“I’m wearing it.”
He breathed through the impulse to tear the dress to tatters. He never knew,never knewhe could burn with desire like this. That the mere thought of something he’d bought for her against her skin would turn him wild with lust.Luz Alana Sinclair-Heith.He didn’t dare say it out loud, in case he startled her with an ownership that did not belong to him.
But he could think it.
“How do I take this off?” he asked, well aware that deciphering the sophisticated and bewildering engineering of women’s fashions was beyond him in that moment.
She only smiled, pressing those bountiful breasts to his chest.
“Undo the ribbon in the back,” she instructed, and he did so with alacrity, pulling on the sides until he could push down the bodice. His breath caught and his vision swam for a moment when he finally peeled away enough layers.
Mine.
“Do you like it?” he asked, voice rough as he moved to cup her breasts in his hands.
