Page 50 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
He was everything Clarissa had dreamed he would be.Taut.Warm.Neither too plump nor too scrawny.Perfect beneath her hands.
Speaking of things that were taut, a rather prominent bulge in the front of Rupert’s trousers was pressing against her hip.She felt inordinately pleased that he was just as affected by her as she was by him.
Rupert was gasping for breath.“Claire!DearGod, I—”
She grabbed his head with both hands and pulled his lips down to hers.He made a strangled sound, but it wasn’t of protest.
Clarissa listened with half an ear as the footsteps on the carpet paused, then slowly retreated toward the door.At least, she thought they were retreating toward the door.It was hard to concentrate as Rupert was now kissing her in earnest.
He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, then took advantage of her gasp, swooping his tongue inside her mouth.Clarissa understood in an instant why women were so desperate to lure this man into their beds.If he could make her head swim and her pulse throb with just a kiss, she trembled to think how much he could make her feel withmorethan a kiss.It was a good thing she was already lying down because otherwise, she would have melted into a puddle right there on the carpet.
There was a muffled thump as the uninvited visitor pulled the sticky door shut behind them.
Breathing hard, Rupert lifted his head and scanned the room.“It’s all right.Whoever that was, they’re gone.”He gave a nervous laugh.“I see what you did there.That was clever.Very clever.”He raked a shaking hand through his golden hair.“I’m sure you’ll be wanting me to get off—”
He grunted in surprise as Clarissa pulled him back down on top of her.
He landed with his face in the couch cushions, meaning all Clarissa had access to was his ear.Some mad impulse had her wrapping her lips around its lobe and gently biting down.She was rewarded with a shudder that went through his entire body where it rested atop hers.She had never been in anything resembling an intimate embrace with a man before.She would’ve thought his weight would be too much, but it feltdelicioushaving Rupert on top of her.
He groaned.“Claire, what are you doing?You hate me, remember?”
She flicked her tongue over a spot below his ear and was rewarded with another shudder.“I don’t hate you.”
He lifted his head, and his expression was adorably befuddled.“I’m fairly certain that you do.”
She brushed a kiss across his lips.“I was mistaken.You, Rupert Dupree, are not at all what I was expecting.”
He went still, with one hand coming up to frame her face.There was a poignant quality to his expression that made her chest feel tight.“And you, Clarissa Weatherby, areexactlywhat I was expecting.”
Clarissa didn’t have much time to parse that, because Rupert began kissing her again.They were the sort of hot, open-mouthed kisses that made her head loll back and her thighs fall open.He settled between them eagerly, the bulge tenting the falls of his trousers perfectly aligned with her core.Clarissa wasn’t sure why, but it made her want to squirm.
He started pressing hot kisses down her neck.His hands were a heady combination of eager and reverent as he traced the outline of her body through her dressing gown.Clarissa gasped in his mouth as he brushed her nipple, and when his hands went to the ties of her wrapper, she didn’t even think of stopping him.
Her own trembling fingers were struggling with the buttons of his coat, opening it up and peeling it off his shoulders, all while never breaking contact with his mouth.As soon as his arms sprang free, she hurled the coat over the back of the sofa and began yanking at his cravat.
Rupert already had Clarissa out of her dressing gown.He leaned back and made an appreciative sound at the sight of her in her snow-white night rail.It was flannel, not translucent linen, in a nod to the chilly December weather.But judging by the way Rupert was looking at her, you would’ve thought it was a seductive scrap of silk.
Clarissa pushed up on one elbow, pulling his waistcoat off and sending it to join his jacket in a heap on the floor.Still, he stared at her in silence.“What?”she asked.
His voice was rich with feeling as he said, “Let me pleasure you, Claire.Just this once.Oh, please, say you’ll let me!”
She couldn’t hold in her smile as she gave a magnanimous wave of her hand.“If you insist.”
Rupert didn’t seem to notice her irony.Leaning forward, he kissed her tenderly this time.For a woman who had never felt treasured, who had spent the last two years specifically feeling like the biggest laughingstock in all of England, it was heady stuff.When his fingers went to the ribbon tie at the neck of her nightgown, she didn’t feel the slightest trepidation, much to her surprise.Sharing this intimacy with Rupert felt like the most natural thing in the world.
The ribbon gave way, and Rupert pushed the nightgown open to Clarissa’s waist.She had been dressed for bed and wore nothing beneath it.He froze, his eyes transfixed on the newly revealed expanse of bare skin.
Clarissa knew she had a bosom that could be described as middling.But judging by Rupert’s expression, he did not regard it as the humdrum sort of affair it truly was.You would’ve been forgiven for assuming she was some sort of curvaceous courtesan.
“Claire,” he whispered, cupping a breast, his voice as reverent as his touch.
She shuddered at the feel of his warm hands, a delicious contrast in the cold room.Or maybe it was his thumb, swirling over her nipple, that had her shaking like a leaf.She must’ve touched herself there a million times to wash and get dressed, yet it felt entirely different when it wasRupert’shand caressing her there…
He began trailing kisses down her neck, pausing to linger over her collarbone.Clarissa’s breath was coming fast now.As his lips pressed against the upper swell of her breast, Clarissa threaded her fingers into Rupert’s hair, hoping he would kiss her on the nipple that was peaked in the cold night air.
He did not disappoint her, and her body jolted when his tongue swirled around her.He tormented her right breast in the best possible way, then switched to the left side.Clarissa found that her hands had wandered down his torso of their own accord, pulling his shirt from the waistband of his trousers and slipping inside to discover the warm skin of his abdomen.
Rupert sat up, tugging the shirt off.Clarissa stared at him, curious.He wasn’t heavily built, but his arms and stomach were beautifully sculpted with muscles.Feeling shy, she reached out to touch one of the circles on his stomach.He groaned, then tugged her into his arms.
