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Her emphasis on the word had been deliberate, and she saw his eyes flick to her lips and then back to her face.

For a moment, she savored her victory, but all too suddenly, her lips went dry, and her tongue darted out automatically to moisten them. Clearly, that had been the wrong thing to do, as his eyes traced the movement, darkening as they did so.

Her breath caught in her chest, and she was unable to look away from his eyes as she remembered what had happened the last time they had darkened in such a way.

They had been blissfully alone then, and they were alone now, but they were likely to be caught at any time if someone chose to stray this far into the maze.

If not, maybe he would have pulled her into his arms the way her body was begging him to, and he would have ravished her now-stinging lips with his, and perhaps she would taste the punch on his tongue the way she had tasted the alcohol on his tongue that night.

Her body warmed as her heart pounded rapidly in her chest, sending hot blood to her most intimate regions. She felt her nipples stiffen beneath her bodice. The friction made her nearly frantic.

She wanted him to touch her again. To rid her of this incessant craving he had ignited in her since that night. She could tell he wanted her, too. She noticed the tension in his posture and how tightly his hands were clenched into fists at his sides.

If she touched him now, he would lose all restraint. She so desperately wanted to see him come undone as he had before. To see him lose all sense of reason in such a dangerous place.

The thought thrilled her, and she took a step closer to him, watching his nostrils flare as his breathing became labored.

He was right that this kind of power was dangerous, and knowing now that she had such power over him delighted her. She wondered briefly if Lottie Barnes had had such power over him.

CHAPTER 13

“Isee you do not require further instruction on this aspect,” he said suddenly, breaking the tension.

It was as though someone had sliced a hot knife through butter. The feeling was thoroughly unpleasant and had him picking at his collar to ease the irritation crawling up his skin.

Her face reflected what he felt, but he tamped it down, remembering how she had almost made him forget where they were.

He had awakened her feminine power, and now that she was aware of it, it would not be safe for him to be around her as often, especially if they were alone.

“Excuse me?” she asked, blinking.

“You have exceeded my expectations so quickly,” Richard said with a smile. “I guess the student has become a master.”

Yet, she watched him with a confused look that had him smiling. He knew she hadn’t yet recovered from the abrupt way he stifled the desire that had been flaring between them.

He hadn’t recovered either, but if he hadn’t put a stop to it, he was sure he would have taken her right there and then, and from what he had seen, the damned woman would not have minded at all.

“That was a jest,” he told her. “You are supposed to laugh even if the joke isn’t funny.”

“Why?”

“Our egos are such fragile things that they need constant stroking to sustain them,” he explained.

“Oh!” she answered, scrunching up her nose before attempting to laugh. “Are they trulythatsmall that they require constantstroking? Couldn’t you find fulfillment in yourselves?”

He tried to ignore the desire that shot through him when her perfect lips formed the word ‘stroking.’ His mind was flooded with images of a different kind of ‘stroking’ involving her small hands and his hardening member.

He cleared his throat, pushing the images out of his mind. He really should not be thinking about her in such a way.

“I will say something again, and I expect you to laugh when I do,” he instructed.

She nodded and turned serious, a frown on her face.

She looked like a petulant child. He wondered if that was how she looked as a child when she was at her lessons. He imagined her small face and round green eyes and smiled. She must have been a very pretty child.

“I still do not think this is a venture I should undertake,” she said.

“Why not? Every other woman does it.”