Page 24

But she had never been the best at taking orders from anyone, and she continued wriggling rightthere, her leg moving against his arousal.

“Keep provoking me, little cat, and your little falsehood just might come true.”

She stopped squirming then, her body going unnaturally still as she stared up at him. Her lips were parted as if begging him to taste them.

“You would like that, would you not?” he murmured. “My lips on yours… my hands all over your body, touching you. Takinglibertieswith your person, as you put it…” he trailed off, knowing that her mind was doing a far better job of conjuring those sensual images.

Then, he heard it—that sharp intake of breath followed by a soft, barely audible whimper.

Hudson smiled in triumph.

She should push him away.

But Scarlett had become a mass of want and heat the moment his lips touched her cheek and then trailed down to her jaw and neck, leaving a molten path that made her core clench and ache.

Oh, how sheached.

She wantedmore. More of his hands on her body, taking liberties he should not. Touching her in places she dared not name. Kissing her where she ached and begged to be scalded by the wickedness of his mouth.

Against her thin chemise, her nipples had hardened to sensitive points as she felt his thumb sweep past one. Even with the thick blankets between them, she could feel it. Feelhim. Hard. Heavy with arousal against her leg.

“I could have you spreading yourself before me like a feast,” he told her softly. “I know you do not like taking orders from anyone, but you will take them fromme, My Lady—and more.”

The sheer arrogance, the dark promise in those words…

Scarlett was lost. Awash in a sea of need.

“Your Grace…” she whimpered as her world tilted crazily on its axis, anchored only by the heat of his mouth on her neck. The feel of his hands toying with her breasts.

Nobody had ever touched her like this before. She had never wanted anyone to. Not like this.

“Hudson,” he corrected her, his lips gliding over her sensitive skin. “I will have you screaming my name so that there will be no doubt as to who is pleasuring you, Lady Scarlett.”

Oh, he waswicked. And she loved every bit of it!

“I am nothing like the man in your fantasies, My Lady,” he growled, nipping her skin. “I will not be gentle. But I can assure you that I will be very, very,verythorough…”

Saints above, she wanted him to be thorough, indeed! In fact, she would like nothing more than to be most thoroughly ravished.

If she was going to be ruined, then she could not have chosen someone better to do the ruining.

“I shall have you bent over my table, my chair,anywhere—your legs spread wide open for me as you beg me for release.” He paused, and she felt her core clenching in anticipation. “My fingers will know your tight, wet heat. My tongue. My cock.”

She bit her lower lip to keep a moan from spilling out as his thumb made another pass over the stiff peak of her breast through the blankets. She could feel his erection pressing insistently against her leg. Hot. Hard. Magnificent.

She should be frightened. She should grab her mama the first chance she got and run and never, ever think of the Duke of Wolverton again.

But…

Her fingers found purchase on the muscles of his broad shoulders as she arched most indecently into him. And to think there wereblanketsbetween them. She grew faint at the thought of her bare skin pressing into his. She wanted those infernal blankets off.Now.

“What if…” She licked her lips. “What if I want those things, too?”

And she did. Heaven help her depraved, little heart, but she truly did. She wanted all of him. Whatever he could give her. Whatever he would do to her.

All the debauched, little things that made her weak and wild with desire at the same time.

All of it.