Page 141 of Dukes for Dessert

“Brannock. You met him on the Devil’s Dirge. Now, I am not commanding you, but I’m beseeching. Go to my car. Just as a precaution.”

He was asking. Not ordering. Had a man ever done that before?

He softly caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. They were too rough to belong to an earl, abrading her soft skin enough to lift goosepimples all over her body.

And yet, his eyes were so gentle. So sincere.

With a lithe motion of a sailor, he swung down to the platform, skipping the steps altogether. “I shan’t let you down, Veronica,” he vowed before surging toward the line of coaches at the end of the vast concourse.

Veronica…

She’d corrected him before. And wanted to again, as he shouldered his way through the crowd.

Because her heart did a little extra beat each time he said her name.

8

Sebastian broke into a run as the train chugged into motion.

He bounded around travelers and leapt over porters and their carts of attaché cases. Never having been an apt French student, he only recognized the curse words hurled in his direction and summarily ignored them.

If anyone stood in between him and the raven-haired woman on the platform of his car, their fate was a fault all their own.

Veronica stood clinging to the rail, her eyes owlish with fear as her lips moved in encouragement.

Had she no faith? He would get to her. He would not leave her to face the aftermath of this adventure alone.

Besides, he’d a promise to collect on.

He might have leapt onto one of the cars next to him, but he wanted to reach her. To grip the hand she stretched out, and have no one in between him and the lush bed on the other side of the door.

Spurred by that thought, his legs churned faster beneath him, and his heart pounded in his chest, feeding his body the speed and stamina to leap into her arms right as the platform fell away.

She made a soft squeal of shock as he hauled her into his arms, tugged at the latch to the door, and swept her inside. Throwing the lock, he shut out the East Parisian winter, the Wellers, and the anything that might bring her to her senses before he could get his tongue between her thighs.

The locomotive accelerated beneath them, but Sebastian’s own engine was already purring and thrumming, anticipating a rhythm of his own.

He could feel it in her, as well. A pulse of expectancy, the gnawing of primitive hunger awakened.

She’d been given a satisfying appetizer…a mere taste of what he could do.

And now she was ravenous for the meal.

Except he was the one with the watering mouth. He was the diner and she the feast. And now that he’d done a bit of sprinting, he’d worked up an even greater appetite and warmed up his body to perform.

Trying not to dwell on how perfectly she fit in his arms, he lowered his head to claim a kiss, and was stopped by her fingertips against his lips.

“You saw them pull away?” she asked, anxiety overshadowing the excitement dilating her lovely eyes.

“And turn the corner,” he said against her fingertips before gently nibbling on them. “There’s no way Weller or anyone else would know where they’ve gone.”

She went lax with relief in his arms, her fingers dropping away from his mouth.

Thus liberated, he took her lips in a searing kiss as he carried her to the lavish coverlet of burgundy velvet embroidered with gold. He draped her across the foot of the bed, her skirts a river of golden silk over a sea of the most luxurious wine. The tableau was so appealing Sebastian stood for a moment to take it all in, seriously questioning for the first time how much self-discipline he’d be able to maintain.

Her sumptuous body, constricted by so many buttons and contraptions to conform an unnatural shape, called to his fingers to unravel the fashion she hid behind. She could craft that image for the world, and it was a lovely picture, indeed. But he wanted her unbound and undone. Exposed to his gaze alone, her beauty unfettered and undeniable.

He wanted it with such violent fervor, he forced himself to stand still. To remind himself of her fragility, of her permissions and her desires. Her past and her fears.