“I do. The world would be a better place if there were more gentlemen in it who treated women as ladies.”
She lifted her hands to his shoulders. “Now you sound like a prude, which I know quite well you are not.”
“Not around you anyway.” When she looked stricken, he added hastily, “And it has naught to do with some secret ‘harlotry’ in your makeup. It has far more to do with the fact that I can’t resist you. I’ve fought hard to do so for the past several months, and all it did was make me want you more.”
She cast him a sad smile. “That’s why you have this mad idea that you must marry me to save me from Lionel. Because your rules as a gentleman dictate that it’s the only way you can make love to me. But it’s not. You don’t have to worry about deflowering me, about ‘ruining’ me. Youwantme, don’t you?”
Bloody hell, the very idea of having her destroyed his resistance. “Gwyn—”
She placed a finger to his lips. “The only way to satisfy that need is to take me to bed. Here. Now.” She looked behind him. “And, conveniently, there’s already a bed in this room. How clever of you to arrange matters that way.”
“Gwyn—”
“You can have me, Joshua, now that you know I am not the chaste innocent you assumed. So assuage your desire for me, and see how you feel once that’s done. It’s the only way I will take seriously any proposal of marriage from you.”
“I don’t want you sacrificing yourself in some bizarre attempt to prove me a scoundrel, Gwyn. Just because Malet abandoned you after bedding you doesn’t mean I would. Not to mention—”
He caught himself before he could point out that she might find herself enceinte as a result. As long as shewantedto marry him, her finding herself with child would work in his favor by convincing her to do what she already wanted. And the thought of her, heavy with his child, made him even more eager to have her in his bed.
She was staring at him. “Not to mention what?”
“Never mind. Of course, if you happen to desire me—”
“Did you think I waspretendingto desire you last night? Because surely you could tell I was not.”
He groaned. She had a point. And if she desired him, that was an entirely different matter. “You are no harlot,” he rasped. “But you’re definitely a seductress, a siren, an irresistible and enchanting—”
She kissed him. So sweetly. So erotically.
Damn it all to hell. He wanted her, and she wanted him. And if, in the process of taking her to bed, he proved to her he trulydidwish to marry her, that would be all the better.
Chapter Eighteen
When he drew back to tug her mobcap off her head, Gwyn began to untie his cravat. She knew Joshua meant well. He truly thought he didn’t care about what she’d done with Lionel. But he did, of course.
She didn’t wish for Joshua to commit to some fruitlessly noble act that might result in an unhappy marriage when he merely wanted her in his bed. Besides, she wanted him inherbed, too. By following her desires and his, she’d assuage his burning need once and for all, while also having a chance to . . . to find out what swiving was like with the only man she’d cared for in the past ten years.
So she drew off his cravat and gave herself up to his next highly enticing kiss. He’d already taught her that he was very good at kisses. Particularly the sort that went beyond her ken—like the ones he’d lavished on her inner thighs and privates last night.
Just the thought ofthosekisses made her pulse do a mad dance.
As if he could read her mind—he seemed to do that alot—he dragged his mouth from hers to murmur, “You said there was a bed in this room.”
Her blood caught fire. “There is.” Taking him by the hand, she drew him to the four-poster bed with its curtains drawn.
She pulled open the curtains, relieved that the bed had linens on it. She didn’t fancy having her first—possibly heronly—time with Joshua take place on a bare mattress.
Then she felt Joshua unfastening her gown. Why, Lionel hadn’t even bothered to undress her—he’d just thrown up her skirts and gone right to it.
But Joshua . . . well! He neither hurried things himself nor rushedheralong.And his slow motions gave her body time to prepare, time to hunger for him. Not that she needed it. She was already more than eager to have him.
He spread open the back of her gown and undid the ties of her stays to loosen them. Then he kissed along the nape of her neck.
GoodLord.The faint scrape of his evening beard against her skin wassodelicious. Who could have known that a mere kiss there would make her wish to tear off her clothes and throw herself into his arms?
“Are you sure your mother won’t come looking for you?” he asked.
“I told her I didn’t feel well.” When he nipped her earlobe, she gasped. “That . . . that I was going to lie down . . . so I would feel better in time to . . . go to the opera tonight. And I told . . . my maid not to . . . bother me.”
