Page 49 of An Earl to Remember
“Georgianna?”
“Cold,” she whispered, looking like a lost waif, but so damn lovely and tempting that his teeth ached.
He ventured forward, plucked up the coverlet and pillows, and tossed them on the bed. “You are still unsteady on your feet; let’s get you back to bed.”
“That is not where I want to be.”
Their gazes collided, and though her eyes remained glossy, there was an unspoken need there that viscerally tugged at his chest. Daniel opened his arms, and she stumbled forward and sank into his embrace, as if it was only there she belonged.
“Why are you naked?” she muttered, burrowing her face even more against his chest, then yawning.
Amused, he said, “I always sleep in the nude; there is just something decadent about feeling silk sheets on my arse.”
She giggled, the sweet sound piercing him.
“We have no silk sheets.”
“No…you do not, do you?” he murmured.Yet it is what I am accustomed to sleeping on.
Those delicate fingers skimmed over his chest, the callouses on the tips raking wicked sensations through him. When her fingers clasped around his cock, his damn knees almost buckled.
“This is so thick,” she whispered. “And why is it so hard but smooth?”
Sweet mercy.
Her fingers dropped from him, and another soft snore lifted, and he peered down at the top of her head. Was she truly already asleep? Daniel smiled. It occurred to him then that she found some sort of comfort in his arms, enough where that might be the only place she could rest tonight. Overly indulging in liquor could leave one restless and unmoored. Perhaps she felt this, too, and only in his arms she deemed herself…safe?
His heart started to drum, and he gently shifted and lifted her up, taking her back to her bed. She mumbled irritably and kicked at the sheets, but this time he slipped under the sheets with her, tugging the coverlets around them. Instantly the fight went out of her body, and she rolled into his side, tossing a foot over his hip and perilously close to his cock that responded with alarming swiftness. She draped half of her body over his chest and buried her nose in the hollow of his throat. His wife made a little purr of satisfaction in her throat before her breath rose and fell with her deep, contented sleep.
It is going to be another long, torturous night.
Daniel smiled, wrapping his arms around her, and smiling, for something also inexplicably warned him that it would also be one of the most wonderful.
Chapter Fourteen
Georgianna slowly woke, yawning indelicately behind her palm. Her brain felt foggy, and her head slightly ached. The events of the past evening came rushing back, and she surged into a sitting position, gripping the sheets tightly.I confessed to the earl we are not married!It took considerable effort, but she calmed her heart and looked around her bedroom, unable to dismiss the impression of being wrapped tightly around a muscled, perfectly proportioned body.
Daniel spent the night in my bed.
Georgianna’s entire body burned. Had he…had he made love to her as he wickedly promised? Georgianna closed her eyes and tried to recall the evening with some clarity. Her breath released on a rush of relief upon remembering that she had merely fallen asleep in his arms.
“Oh, Lizzie, I was indeed trying to tell the earl the truth.” Still, relief filled her veins that he had not believed her, for heavens help her, Georgianna was not yet ready to lose him from their life.
She pressed trembling fingers to her mouth, recalling the feel and taste of him. A wanton burst of heat spread from her stomach to her suddenly aching breasts. She would have allowed him to take her to his bed and destroyed all her sensibilities. Her heart stuttered hard, and she dropped her weight back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Who am I when I am with you?
Reckless and intemperate, no longer the sensible, dutiful, and practical girl her parents had raised.
“I am going to make love to you, wife, and…”
Georgianna groaned, closing out the memory of that carnal promise and the hot sensation of want it provoked.
I have lost all of my good senses, and they must be reclaimed.
The earl was not really her husband, and that he admired her should have no bearing in her life. One day he would walk away and never look back—or worse, he might be vengeful enough to demand recompense for having worked about her yard so tirelessly. Yet even knowing this, Georgianna wanted to touch him, kiss him over and over, hold him tight, and never let him go.
She felt caught between such terrible longing…and fear.
