Page 38 of Lord Ramsey's Red-Headed Ruin
She put a kiss to his cheek. “You are no rogue to me.”
“I wanted to be a perfect gentleman. What we have done here tonight shatters that façade like the glass it was. I would not have you scorn me later for this.”
She put her hand to his jaw. “Ram, never will I criticize you for this. I am many things, dear man, but I am no coy girl who changes her views of her lovers with the change in the wind.”
“I did not mean you are—”
“I know you didn’t. You wish only to quell your fear. I didn’t take you easily. You are only my second lover.”
He sank his nails into the skin of her arms. “My darling woman, I want you however you wish to come to me.”
For lust.She gave him a watery smile, admitting that she came to him for the same reason. Of that, she was not proud. “I am grateful.” He would take her for what she gave. To seek more would not serve him well—and he knew it. What he did notknow was that her desire for him held so much more than mere wanting. And that yearning grew tonight with each moment.
She shook her head, running out the budding idea that if she could leave France, she could love him, need him, and aspire to years of blissful peace with him.
She held her breath, hoping that he was so instinctive that he could imbibe that in his touch. As he crawled up from the foot of the bed to hover over her, she panicked. But his warmth spread through her like fire. She ran her open palms over his sculpted chest and sighed. Against her hip, she felt his renewed interest in loving her. “You are the most marvelous creature.”Selfless and honorable.
At such praise, he laughed. Humility, she’d learned, was one of his assets.
She drew him down to cover her. The thrill of his skin to hers was exquisite torture.
He supported himself on his elbows as he dropped kisses to her cheek, her throat, and the hollow between her breasts. He cupped each breast and laved one nipple to ripe, aching torment, then took the other to do the same. “I cannot stop. I must taste each inch of you.”
She squirmed, alive beneath his homage. Her arms around his back, she arched up against him and sought to encompass all his strength and ardor. But she failed. They were boundless. She had welcomed his dedication to her cause, lived to learn each day how potent his promise to her safety was. But here with him, undressed, uncovered to her in so many ways, he became more than the guardian of her body, but the steward of her serenity—and of her joy.
She undulated with fulfillment. He left no part of her untouched, un-treasured. Her ribs, her hips, her inner thighs. His lips were swift to capture her, his mouth generous anddemanding. And at her core, he opened her with reverent fingers and found the part of her that yearned for all of him.
He was deliberate and maddeningly attentive. He licked and sucked her until she vibrated with need for his possession and her fingers dug into the muscles of his back.
She moaned. As if her mewls gave him incentive, he parted her heavy folds with his fingers and gave her lush swaths of his tongue. She melted and, mindless, spread her legs wider.
With two fingers, he plumbed her wet depths and dipped inside her with his talented tongue. He was thorough, torrid, sweet or soft. She was gone from this world until he rose, took her fingers, and put them to him to let her guide him. As he slid inside, the delirium turned to heaven.
He paused. His kiss to her lips was a blessing. When he began to move inside her, her head lolled upon the pillows. Lost again somehow in this newest rapture he created, she followed him. Release came, swift, flashing, and hard. He remained for long minutes, their union full of pulsing, pounding aftershocks.
Languid, she lifted her hand to run her fingers through his hair.
He smiled, euphoria in his twinkling eyes.
This was what she had needed to complete her trust in him. He was a careful and unselfish lover, just as he was a careful and generous man.
“One problem,” she said, and raised a finger, a grin on her face.
His head came up. Appalled and curious, he stared at her. “What?”
“I still have my stockings on.”
He slid a hot hand down her thigh to her calf and stuck his finger in the ribboned garter. “Give me two minutes, sweetheart, and you’ll never want a stitch of clothing again.”
Chapter Ten
Beginning with theirfond farewells to the Boyer family the next morning, their journey to Sedan was a jolly affair. Amber and Ram climbed into the coach he had rented in the town earlier. Alone there, not minutes away from Charleville, he chuckled as she joined him on the opposite seat.
“You’re too far away, sir.” He caught both her hands as they explored the buttons of his frock coat. That she wished to seduce him revealed a new level of trust in him. Joy twinkled in her dark-brown eyes as she put her hands to his cravat. “I get to disrobe you for a change.”
He had not allowed her any of that service at night during their time together. Her hands upon him during the day in the normal ways of married couples had been enough temptation. Too much, in fact.
Now, she took her sweet time of it. Untying, unwinding, laughing as she went. Dropping his cravat to the seat. Unbuttoning his frock coat and waistcoat, smoothing her hands over his shoulders and pulling his shirt over his head.
