“It amused me,” she managed haughtily.
“There’s a certain irony in looking at it alone,” he purred. “Because that particular activity requires more than one person.”
His warm breath tickled her ear, and the musky, delicious scent of him filled her nose. She wanted nothing more than to turn her head and put her mouth on his.
“I’d be more than willing to provide you with the same service, Scarlet.”
Chapter Eighteen
Tess’s heart stuttered at his scandalous suggestion. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
He gave a low laugh at her confusion. “I still can’t help feeling that I owe you a climax.”
She tried to school her unruly pulse. “You can write me a voucher—an IOU to be redeemed at a time and place of my choosing.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that will do. Seeing that print has given me all manner of wicked thoughts.”
His finger traced her ear as he brushed a lock of her hair from her face. Her skin tingled.
“I thought we agreed to wait until our wedding night?” Even to her own ears she sounded flustered, breathless.
“For full consummation, yes. But this doesn’t count.” He pressed a kiss to the outer corner of her eye. “Let me give you a glimpse of how good it’s going to be.”
Tess forced herself to keep looking forward, even as he trailed a teasing line of little kisses across her cheekbone and then lower. She should tell him to stop, but his scent filled her lungs, and her whole body went weak.
He kissed the freckle at the corner of her mouth andshe sucked in a breath, almost shaking with the need to kiss him back.
“I’ve wanted you all evening, Scarlet.”
The carriage wheel hit a rut. Without thought, she reached out to steady herself and accidentally grasped his thigh. His long fingers came up to cup her face, and the world tilted as their lips met in the darkness.
Tess almost groaned in relief. His mouth claimed hers with lazy insistence, and it was exactly how it had been at Careby’s: slow and deep and delicious. She kissed him back, meeting his tongue with her own, loving the bone-melting intensity of it.
God, she could do this for days.
She’d never thought much about kissing, until she’d met this man. Now she wondered how she’d ever gone without.
His low hum of pleasure reverberated through her as his chest pressed hers, pushing her back against the soft velvet cushions. Tess closed her eyes as he kissed his way down her throat. His hands molded her body, shaping her curves, sliding over her ribs and breasts with the perfect amount of pressure.
And then he slid lower, off the seat, onto his knees and between her legs. His clever hands slid to her ankles, and she gasped as he pushed her skirts up over her knees in a flurry of silk and petticoats.
She grabbed the leather strap by the window as the carriage hit another jolt. “What are you doing?”
He sent her a wicked smile. “Exactly what you’ve been thinking about since you looked at that print.”
His warm lips pressed a kiss to the inside of her leg, on the bare skin just above her garter, and Tess let out a strangled gasp. Her free hand settled on his head, her fingers threading through his hair, but whether it was to push him away or pull him closer she wasn’t sure.
His broad shoulders crowded the space between her legs. The cool night air raised goose bumps on her bare skin.
She was wearing the most scandalous pair of drawers, purchased from Madame Lefèvre on Bond Street. The heat of his palms seeped through the silk as he caressed higher, and she gasped again as he caught her hips and pulled her forward until her bottom rested at the edge of the seat.
He pressed a kiss over the silk, high on the inside of her leg, and her blood turned molten as his fingers tightened on her thighs to hold her in place.
“You shouldn’t—!” She tugged ineffectually at his hair. “Not here!”
Her pulse was beating so wildly she was finding it hard to breathe.
“I really should.” The look he sent her was hungry, carnal. “Have none of your other lovers made good use of a carriage? Poor Scarlet. No wonder you came looking for me at Careby’s.”
