Page 19 of The Butler's Forbidden Fancy
He tried again.
Then the door opened wide.
“I need to talk to you,” he whispered and without invitation, stepped inside.
She smiled at him, sweetly, innocently. He narrowed his gaze.No. Why innocently?Was she playing his affections? But she was clearly not expecting him…orwas she?She wore a muslin nightgown, diaphanous too. Nearly…Jesus wept!Transparent. She had also let down her glorious riot of red hair so that it curled and danced around her shoulders. Even a long tendril curved around the point of one voluptuous breast.
Ahem. So…something wicked this way comes for you, Octo.
“What’s amiss, Octo?” She stood close before him as if…as if she had no reason to let him in or to talk to him.
Wily woman.
He pushed her door shut behind him. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I’m about to go to bed. I’m tired, Octo. Why are you here?”
“You don’t know why?”
She mashed her pretty lips together. “Do I read your mind?”
“Ha!” He crossed his arms and drew himself up to peer down at her. He could quell her independent streak withhauteur. He knew how. From his perch atop his rectitude, he looked upon her so dainty and vulnerable. “You were always able to read my mind.”
She shrugged. A hand to her throat, she seemed to emphasize the luscious rounded globe of one breast. “Not now.”
He grabbed that hand at her throat. “You toy with me.”
“Me?” she scoffed. “Impossible!”
He took her other wrist and hauled her against him. Christ rolling in His Grave. Why had he done that? She was soft and firm. He was tormented and very, very hard.
He shook his head. She did not torture him any the less. “What’s wrong with you that you sang like that?”
She squirmed like the girl she’d once been when he’d caught her in a game. But she was not exactly squirming now as…undulating against him. Minx.
“Stop that.” He jerked her against him. That had been a bad idea. Now he just wanted her against him without the damn scrap of muslin.
“Why?’ she seemed to croon. “You like me here. I like you against me like this. Don’t lie.”
“I’m…”
She arched a brow. “You’ve never lied to me. Don’t start now.”
“Where’s your maid?”
“You don’tknow?” She was a damn challenge. “Didn’t you check all servants in their beds?”
“Yes. No. I didn’t seeher.”
“Perhaps she has a rendezvous?” Eliza tossed her head, her halo of hair flying this way and that in defiance of him.
He frowned at her. “You don’t object?”
Her green gaze felt like a lightening strike. “No. How could I when I want one myself. Andviola!Here you are!”
He could not help himself. He circled his arms around her and pulled her flush to every muscle in his chest and his stomach and his thighs.
“You see?” She teased him with a pretty smile. “You like it here with me. Our rendezvous. Happy Christmas, darling.”
