Page 22 of The Rake and the Muse
“But,” she started again, “I am uncertain why it bothers you so. You have been with many womenand will surely do so again once we both depart at the conclusion of the house party.”
He closed the distance between them and cupped her face with his hands, then pulled her lips against his. Sweeping his tongue in her mouth, he kissed her as if he were fighting for the air he needed to breathe. He broke their kiss and placed hungry kisses along her jaw and neck.
“Theo,” she moaned.
He stopped what he was doing and caught her gaze. They stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments. It was the most intense, charged moment of her life. She wanted him desperately, but she also knew at that moment that she had fallen in love with him. She thought she might have read love in his expression, but it was most likely the weight of his desire. He owned every piece of her heart, and even if it made her the most foolish woman in England, she wanted him.
Being with him even once would be better than never having him at all.
“I want you,” she whispered, still capturing his eyes with hers.
He opened his mouth as if he would say something and then closed it again. He swallowed hard, and she thought his eyes might have become glassy, but it was probably just the candlelight playing tricks on her.
“Are you certain?” he finally asked.
She nodded.
“You must say the words.” He clasped her hands in his.
She squeezed his hands. “I am certain that I want you, Lord Theodore Camden, in every way.” She had never spoken truer words.
Juliet knew she would marry him, if he asked, and have his children. Build a full, loving, passionate life with him. His was the face she wanted to see every day, the one she wanted to share in her excitement when she finished a painting, to ride their estates together, and cling to each other at night. She allowed herself to admit that she wanted it all, even if she was uncertain about admitting such a revelation to him.
She’d never thought she could want or trust a man as much as she did him, even if it was fast and she hadn’t known him all that long, but she wanted such a life with him. If that made her mad, then so be it. Her more reasonable mind knew that it was a schoolgirl fantasy. Theo didn’t want any of it other than what she offered him, but he could be hers for a while. And that would have to be enough.
He responded to her words by grasping the side of her night rail and pulling it over her head in a single fluid motion. He began working on the buttons of his shirt,while she released her hair so that it fell freely down her back.
She stepped against him and pushed his shirt off his shoulders once he finished with the last button, letting it fall to the floor. Juliet reached for his falls, but he wrapped his fingers around her wrist to halt her. “Not yet. I need to keep my wits about me.”
Her thighs were already damp, and that she was the one driving him to a similar state only made her want him more. He kicked off his boots and took her lips again. Backing her towards the bed while he kissed her, he ran his hands along her sides and continued until he clasped her arse. He lifted her against him, and she wrapped her arms and legs around him. His bulge was hard, and she undulated against it as best as she could while he held her standing beside the bed.
He broke their kiss and rested his forehead on hers. “You are going to make it impossible for me to go slow for you. You are intoxicating.”
“Don’t hold yourself back. I just want you,” she whispered.
He kissed her again, then laid her across the bed. She came up on her elbows and watched him unbutton his falls and push them to the floor. If she could live the rest of her life staring at him, she would.
Theo crawled onto the bed and hovered over her, his hard cock rubbing against her as if taunting her. He kissed her neck and worked his way to the globes of her breasts. He took one in his hand and massaged it before taking her nipple into his mouth.
“Theo,” she moaned. “I need you.”
He picked his head up and looked at her. “You shall have me, but you deserve to be cherished, and that is exactly what I am going to do.” He lowered his head to her other breast and repeated the same attention to her tightened bud. Her wet heat throbbed, the anticipation almost unbearable. She tried to move against him, hoping part of him might rub against her and sate some of her need.
When that proved not to ease the ache, she attempted to move her hand between them. He captured her wrist just as she clasped his cock. He moved it over her head and pinned it to the bed. Before she could make another attempt with her other hand, he clasped that one, too, and joined it with her other hand. He pinned them together with his left hand.
“Eager, are we?”
“Theo,” she whined.
“I am determined to make this good for you. It is going to hurt a bit your first time, and I want you to be so wet, and hot, and ready that perhapsit will ease the pain.”
She knew she must be soaking the sheets already from how he drove her to distraction. “I am ready.”
“Let me be the judge of that.” He smirked at her. He shifted his right hand down her body, gently squeezing her hip before brushing his fingers between her legs. She arched her back when he did, pulling against where he pinned her wrists. The anticipation made the action feel more intense than it had ever felt before.
He kissed her, massaging her tongue with his, and rubbed her sensitive place in maddeningly slow circles. As he rocked her hips, she felt him smile against her lips. He raised his head to look into her eyes and shifted his hand lower. It was her turn to smirk when he slipped a finger into her heat and his eyes shuttered closed.
“I don’t think you could be any more ready for me,” he groaned. He opened his eyes again to look at her. “Tell me again, you are certain. I can lick you clean right now, and we needn’t go any further.”
