Page 55 of Just About a Rake


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“Well, I’m feeling quite fragile at the moment.”

He sent his hallmark brow lift. “Oh, come now, don’t look so sad.”

She averted her gaze with a small—very small—tilt of her lips. “You should stay away from me, Dare.”

“Because of some headlines?”

“Because I shall reduce your infamous reputation to that of a spectacle. Every eye in London will be trained on us after this.”

He took a seat next to her. “It seems a bit more than that is behind your absence. I know I might not look it, but I have been known to have an excellent ear. You can tell me anything. I’m also good at keeping secrets.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.”

That ever-present smile of his broadened, drawing another beat of her heart into disarray, and lifted the corners of her own lips just a bit. What was it about Dare that made Leonora want to prod and tease? Want to throw caution to the southwest wind?

“I have something that might make you feel better.”

“Oh?” How intriguing.

He leaned closer, so close that Leonora was afraid that he might hear the skip of her heartbeat. “It’s not something I can tell you.”

“Then what?” Leonora didn’t have to ask, but the question left her lips anyway.

“I shall have to show you.”

“Well, are you going to keep me in suspense? If it’s something you have to ask permission for—” His lips cut her off mid-sentence.

Leonora froze as his mouth brushed over hers provocatively. She stared at him, blinking when his eyes opened to stare back.

“Close your eyes,” he murmured against her.

“Should I?” Oh, Lord, her heart.

“That’s how you kiss. With eyes closed.”

Her lashes fluttered. “But then I can’t see you.”

“Do you want to see me or do you want to feel me?”

Feel. “See.” Both.

His lips stretched into a grin, and Leonora’s mouth followed as if feeling him smiling against her lips was the most contagious thing in the world.

“Fine, I’ll close my eyes.”

“And open your mouth.”

She laughed, but complied, since a kiss with Dare... she hadn’t realized how much she wanted it before this very moment.

When the kiss came, it wasn’t anything that Leonora had ever expected. She felt every brush, every stroke of his tongue. She didn’t know how to kiss a man back—she’d never been kissed. But Dare had been right about closing her eyes. And about opening her mouth. But if Dare was a good instructor, he was an even better kisser.

He effortlessly guided her into a foreign dance.

And she felt everything.

Not just the kiss, but every little hair that rose across her skin as well as the shiver that skittered down her spine and raced straight to the tips of her fingers and down to her toes.

There was nothing she could do but feel.