I laugh and tip my face to his. Tension ratchets higher. I cup his cheek and bring his lips to meet mine. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“I’m not being nice, Elsie. I am not a nice man.”
Confusion bumps rudely into the moment, but he slides his hand higher, rolling my aching breast through all that fabric, and claims my lips again in a scorching kiss.
I strain to meet him, wanting more. Cool air skims up my calves. I squirm as he inches my skirt higher. A molten pulse between my legs erases any lingering resistance.
“You’re beingverynice to me right now.” My words come out in a breathless purr that I don’t recognize as my own voice. I sound like the kind of woman who would be worthy of wearing this gown. Brazen. Seductive. Confident.
The kind of woman who makes strangers fall in love with her without needing a magic potion and assistance from a witch.
Not me, Elinor Scinder, the last daughter of a defunct noble house.
Blunt fingers skim past the hem of my skirt and up my thighs. Alex trails open-mouth kisses down my throat, each one hotter and wetter than the last. His tongue on my skin feels indescribably filthy and amazingly good at the same time. I’ve been touch-starved for so long that I’m drowning in the physical contact.
When he presses into the gap between my thighs, I moan. He drags his hand upward in mimicry of penetration, though he’s barely reached the tops of my stockings. My body clenches around a hollow ache low in my belly.
A hard ridge digs into my bottom. I shift impatiently. Alex grunts.
“Keep moving like that, and this will be over before I’ve had a chance to enjoy you,” he says in a rough voice that prompts another delicious pulse of anticipation. Wetness drenches my most secret place. I wriggle again.
“Minx,” he chides with a nip to my earlobe.
“Don’t stop now,” I whine.
Slowly, torturously, he brings his hand higher in the gap between my thighs. Unbidden, my hips tip upward, seeking pleasure I know only he could give me.
“Fuuuck,” he exhales when he reaches the last barrier, the thin layer of silk over my sex. His jutting cock twitches against my hip.
“Please,” I whisper. He captures my lips in a hard kiss, invading with his tongue at the same moment he shoves aside my panties. Still not enough. He drags his fingertips through my wet folds.
“Tell me what you want from me, Elsie.”
The cursed man gently circles my tight nub. Not nearly enough. I wiggle my hips but it’s no use. He won’t give me what I need.
I’ve never felt like this before. I might die if I don’t have him inside me. Right now. Dimly, I’m aware that time is passing. I don’t have much longer.
“Inside,” I whisper. “I want you inside me.”
He stills.
“Forward, for a girl who’s never been kissed.”
I swallow, hard. If I tell him the truth, he won’t desire me anymore. I’ll be devastated if he shoves me away in disgust. I can’t let him think he’s deflowering me, though. I only wanted one night to experience everything I’ve been denied. I’m not trying to trap him into marriage.
He doesn’t know my true name. As long as we’re not caught in this forbidden place, no one will ever know what we’ve done. Not even Tremaine. This will be my secret to hold close for warmth every night in my cold bed.
“I’m not a virgin,” I force myself to say. “It’s all right, you can do…that. I’m not innocent.”
For a terrifying moment, Alex goes still.
“Not a virgin, yet you’ve never been kissed.”
“Forget I said that.”
He erupts beneath me, rising despite my weight pinning him to the huge chair, and flips me onto the red cushion.
“I don’t like the sound of what you’re describing. Either you’re lying, little princess, or a man did something to you.”
