“How could I?” she replied, her breath catching. “Although, there are, perhaps,somethings that I would change.”
A low growl rumbled in the back of his throat, a groan of torment. “Stop that.”
“Stop what?” She blinked, her face the very picture of innocence.
“Stop tempting me,” he replied, as they reached the carriage door.
He was having enough trouble holding himself back without her saying such teasing things.
“Adrian, I would not know how to tempt you, even if I tried,” she insisted, though her sly half-smile suggested otherwise.
He opened the carriage door, and as she stepped up, he caught her around the waist and pulled her against him; her back to his chest. The side of the doorway blocked his action from anyone who might be spying, but he could not enter that carriage unless she knew what she was doing to him. Rather, what he wanted to do to her.
“Just your presence is a temptation,” he whispered, close to her ear. “When I am near you, I cannot help it: I want to taste my name on your lips as you cry out in pleasure; I want to taste the desire between your thighs, and know that I am the cause; I want to ease my fingers inside you, since I cannot take you fully, since I cannot cross that line. But I will imagine it all the same, no matter how it torments me.”
Valerie gasped, a rousing sound that spurred him on toward the edge of madness.
You have already crossed that line,a stern voice chided in his mind, prompting him to release his grip on her.You will be lucky if she does not ask to leave at once.
But as Valerie stepped further into the carriage and sat down, she turned a sultry gaze back toward him, her voice breathy as she said, “I would not mind that.” She paused, her bosom rising and falling heavily. “No, I do not think I would mind that at all.”
As Adrian’s mind thrummed with possibility, his desire soaring to feverish heights, he entered the carriage and called up to the driver to set off. At the snap of the reins, he closed the door behind him, sealing the world off from what he was about to do in this private, protected little bubble.
When did I get so bold? What has he done to me?
Valerie struggled to breathe evenly as Adrian sat down opposite, wondering if her brazenness had somehow displeased him. It had not sounded like he wished to put distance between them, yet there he was, as far as it was possible to be inside such a small space.
“You have vexed me since the moment you arrived,” he said, as he began to shuffle off his greatcoat. “I knew when I first set eyes on you that you would be trouble.”
Valerie cleared her dry throat. “Well, I did not exactly prove that I could follow rules. I was asked to stay in one place, and I did not.”
“But you will obey me now,” he replied: it was not a question.
Wide-eyed as he slowly removed his tailcoat, Valerie nodded without thinking. Powerful muscle strained the seams of his shirt, the buttons of his waistcoat begging to be relieved of their duty.
She watched, transfixed, as he slowly untied his cravat and undid the top buttons of his shirt to reveal a triangle of bare skin. A slight nick of a scar slanted across his collarbone, her lips suddenly compelled by the desire to kiss that old wound.
With that longing in her mind, she moved along the squabs, needing to be nearer to him.
“No,” he commanded, his dusky blue eyes flashing a warning. “Stayexactlywhere you are.”
She stopped immediately, her hands gripping the edge of the squabs as a delicious frustration bristled through her. The frisson of anticipation. Indeed, she was beginning to learn that there was a beauty in not knowing what might happen next.
Although, hehadalready told her what he wanted to do to her, so she could not pretend she was entirely unaware of what she had invited.
Her breaths became soft gasps as she sat there, watching him undo the buttons of his waistcoat. How she wished thatshewas the one undressing him, but she had a feeling that that was the point, stirring her up into a glorious madness bynotletting her touch.
But she could look, andwaslooking, her gaze wandering downward to the part of him that remained a mystery. His tight, Brummel-style trousers left almost nothing to the imagination, her stomach tightening with desire as she noted the astonishing bulge of his arousal.
How can I have such an effect on him? Indeed, how can it be that he has such an effect onme?All she had to do was observe him removing a few garments, and she was panting as if she were back on the chaise-longue in the library with his tongue between her thighs.
Just then, he pushed off from his side of the squabs and sank to his knees in front of her. His hands braced on either side of her, those beautiful blue eyes searching her face for a moment, as if to be certain this was what she wanted.
“I mean to kiss you now,” he said in a sultry voice. “Then, I mean to pleasure you until you cannot help but scream my name, and I do not care who hears.”
He leaned forward, so tall that even kneeling, he had to bend his head a little. She met his slow, sensual kiss with a sigh that seemed to shake her entire body, as if it had finally been given what it had craved, certain of satisfaction.
She reached for him, meaning to hold his face as she kissed him. As she did, he caught her by the wrists and raised her arms above her head, pressing her hands back against the carriage wall. The movement brought him closer, his kiss hotter and hungrier as he leaned into her, denying her the gratification of being able to touch him.
