Page 57

Chapter

TWENTY-NINE

Life really was too short not to live it to the fullest.

Lottie knew that her relationship with Guy might not last longer than the next two days, but she had decided that she would rather make the most of that time than ponder the inevitable consequences.

She poured everything into the kiss, pinning him against her bedchamber door as she turned the key in the lock, not caring one whit that she was being shameless. Guy didn’t seem to mind either as he was all over her, moaning into her mouth as his hands explored her back and bottom.

“There is nothing under this robe, is there?” His voice rasped as he nipped at her ear, his breathing choppy and his body eager.

She arched her neck to give his mouth better access to it, her own voice thick with desire too. “There seemed little point in keeping my clothes on when I knew you were going to take them off.”

“Oh, Lottie…” His sigh was hot and heavy against her skin. “You are killing me.”

“That was my plan.” She supposed propriety dictated that she shouldn’t be quite so brazen and shameless, but she was enjoying it.

Her nerves, as she had paced her bedchamber waiting for him and wondering if giving him everything was prudent, had dissolved the second his eyes had devoured her in her doorway as he stuttered inanities.

Watching him swallow.

Watching him flounder.

Watching him want.

There was something empowering about unmanning a man who usually kept all his feelings locked so securely inside. But unapproachable, stiff, and reserved Guy was nowhere to be seen now. Instead, what stood before her was a man who was putty in her hands. Hers to do what she wanted with.

And at this precise moment, she wanted it all.

“Consider it a birthday gift.” She raked her fingers through his too-neat hair as she kissed him because she preferred him all windswept. “Would you like to unwrap it?”

Apparently, she really was going to bare herself to him—right now. Without snuffing out the candle as she had planned to do as she had paced, and wondering if this was the right way to tempt him.

“God, yes.” His fingers instantly went to her belt and fumbled with the knot. Lottie loved that. Loved that she undid him so—but still left him to struggle with ties because she was enjoying the anticipation.

As the knot gave, the edges of the robe parted in the gentle dip between her breasts and he stepped back a little to take it all in.

Tracing the pad of his index finger from her collarbone down to her navel, so slowly it made her shudder.

She watched his eyes dip lower to the triangle of curls, and then he smoothed the flat of his hand down to cup them.

“Are you trying to seduce me, Miss Travers?”

“I am.” She leaned to brush her lips over his. “Is it working?”

“I was all yours at ‘shut up.’” His fingers traced the same path back up her body.

“That’s a lie—you’ve tormented me since you knocked me off my horse.

Every minute of every day.” They slipped beneath the fabric to caress the tops of her arms. A part of her body which she had never realized could render her boneless if touched, and yet now it did.

“You have no idea how many times I have imagined you naked.” His lips whispered over hers, barely touching, and yet she still felt it everywhere.

“Or how humbled I am to finally find out.” He stepped back again as he slowly edged the robe from her shoulders until gravity caught it and it puddled around her feet.

His sharp intake of breath was its own reward and the subsequent sigh a benediction. “I knew you would be beautiful but—” Something different was swirling in his eyes alongside the desire. Wonder. Awe. Affection. “You are perfection.”

As if she was something fragile and precious, he traced her flesh with just the pad of one finger. Her neck and shoulder. Her arm. The indent of her waist and the curve of her hip. Then finally the outer edge of one breast in gentle rounds until it was circling her nipple.

Lottie moaned, she couldn’t help it, and tilted slightly to shift his touch to the straining tip, but he pulled it away. Then, with a wolfish smile she had never seen before, bent to take the whole thing in his mouth.

“Oh… Guy…” She gripped his head and arched against his tongue, every nerve ending she possessed dancing as it swirled around. Shuddering each time he gently nipped the sensitive bud at the end because each nip and flick caused ripples of need to pool between her legs.

He twisted to shift their positions so that her back was now against her bedchamber door, and plundered her mouth while his hands continued to torture her breasts in a kiss so carnal she quite forgot where or who she was.

As they came up for air, she became aware of the buttons of his waistcoat pressing into her flesh and realized that he was still fully dressed. She pushed his coat from his shoulders, started on the buttons of his waistcoat, but they eluded her touch because he was on his knees, kissing her belly.

Then lower.

And lower.

Lottie cried out as his tongue dipped between the folds of her sex and found that secret, shameless knot of nerve endings.

Then, in one oddly lucid moment, realizing that anyone passing the door might hear her come undone, bit the back of her hand as he looped one of her legs over his shoulder.

Her other hand groping for the doorframe for support as his tongue did its magical swirl again and she completely lost her wits.

She was so ready, her climax was almost instantaneous, slamming into her with such force, the walls of her body pulsed and contracted for an eternity before she emerged from the stupor.

Only to find Guy, still fully clothed and on his knees, smiling up at her from between her thighs like the cat who got the cream.

“What took you so long?” He chuckled as he mirrored her words of just minutes ago.

“Sorry… I…” Should she be embarrassed for coming so fast?

Guy surged to his feet before she could finish that sentence and seared her mouth with a kiss that tasted of her. “I’m not. I intend for that to be the first of many.”

As he kissed her, he lifted one of her legs and then the other so that she had to hook them both around his waist as he carried her to the bed. Then he gently lowered her onto the mattress, only to stare down at her. His gaze darkened with desire but his expression was a little uncertain.

“Would you like me to join you?”

That he felt compelled to ask, to await her invitation, touched her.

“I can hardly seduce you otherwise, Guy, can I?” She twisted on her knees to reach for his hand and tugged him nearer.

“Any more than I can seduce you with you all buttoned up.” She sat back on her heels, her gaze raking the length of him.

“So are you going to take your clothes off, or am I?”

“You are.” His wolfish smile returned with a vengeance as he waited, passive, for her to take the lead again.

Their kiss was a leisurely exploration as she made short work of his waistcoat. He was beside her as she tugged his shirt out of his waistband, and he lifted his arms so she could pull it off. Their mouths parting for just a second while she tugged it over his head.

Then she took several moments to admire his chest. To explore its contours and its hollows.

Enjoying the way his nipples puckered as she gently grazed the backs of her fingernails over them, and the crisp feel of the dark dusting of hair that narrowed in an intriguing line down his abdomen and through his navel.

Needing to feel his skin next to hers, she shuffled onto his lap, nestling her hips against the bulge in his breeches while she looped her arms around his neck. They both sighed as she flattened her breasts against his body, falling back on the mattress together and landing with her on top.

Instinctively she straddled him, her arms and hair forming an intimate cage around their faces as they kissed some more.

The bulge in his breeches strained against her body as she gently rotated her hips to tease him.

Except it teased her just as much and her body ached with need to have him inside her.

Guy, the wretch, was content to remain on his back simply kissing her even though his sawing, ragged breath told her that he wanted more too. But he was waiting for her, the noble wretch, and wasn’t going to take their lovemaking to the next level unless she instigated it.

Instinct told her to unbutton his falls, which she did with clumsy, eager fingers.

As she tugged the garment from his hips, the bulge sprang free in all its glory, and she had a brief moment of panic if everything would fit.

Swiftly followed by the overwhelming urge to make it fit regardless.

Because she ached so much. Yearned so much.

For him.

Suddenly in a hurry, she stripped his breeches from his legs as he toed off his boots, then straddled him again. Sitting on his thighs so that she could scrutinize his erection properly.

His eyes locked with hers as she touched him, closing slightly as she explored his length.

His penis was warm and smooth, and yet seemed to have a core of steel as it twitched in her hand.

She found a bead of moisture at the tip and rubbed it away with gentle circling movements that made his hips buck off the bed. Fascinating…

“Do you like that?”

“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth.

“How about this?” She wrapped her fist around him and lightly squeezed, and he nodded.

“What about this?” She bent to kiss him as he had kissed her and he growled as he grabbed her and flipped her over on the mattress.

“If you do that then…” He groaned and kissed her. “It’s been a while, Lottie, and I’m so close already I might explode… and I want to be inside you when I do.”

And even though his body strained against hers, he still hesitated. Still waited for her permission to take what was already his. “I want you inside me too.” She widened her legs and tilted her hips in blatant invitation, and he sighed her name. Then in one swift movement pushed himself inside.

She made a little squeak and her eyes widened more in panic than pleasure and Guy froze. “Did I hurt you?”

“No… I just need a moment to get used to you. I’ve never…”

“What do you mean, you’ve never…” Guilt swamped him. Guilt because it hadn’t even occurred to him. He’d never had a virgin before and assumed that it would be obvious. “Oh, Lottie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t feel any sort of…” Bloody hell, what was the polite word for it? “Barrier.”

“I ride horses a lot. Astride. Very fast. I’m not surprised it’s not there.”

They were both breathless. His damn body was still straining.

So much it took every bit of his willpower not to move.

“I assumed because you…” Guy closed his eyes, feeling awful.

So what if she knew how to kiss or how her body worked?

It was no excuse. “I shouldn’t have made assumptions.

Again. I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me? ”

“Because…” Her body softened beneath him as she hooked her calves around his. Her lovely eyes so trusting. “You might have decided to be all noble and wouldn’t be here with me now.”

Guy gently eased his body out, almost all the way, and then slowly slid it all the way back in. “Yes, I would…” He copied the action and pushed deeper, enjoyed the way her eyes widened with pleasure this time. “I’d have just used a little more finesse.”

She smiled as she kissed him, her soft sighs music to his ears as she became more and more accustomed to his intrusion, his restraint agony.

Sheer agony but in the best possible way.

If it killed him, he was content to go like this.

Her legs and arms wrapped around him, her perfect body awakening to a wholly new form of pleasure beneath his, and his cock hugged by the tight, slick walls of her body as he moved within her.

Both humbled and overwhelmed that she had never granted this honor to anyone else.

He wanted to tell her that he loved her. That he was hopelessly, completely, head over heels gone. But those words wouldn’t come because the usual blasted fear held them back and her eyes were heavy with desire again, her body quickening and arching and ready for more.

He used that as an excuse to not say what his heart begged him to.

Then her hands raked down his back and grabbed his buttocks, pulling him closer, and the weak walls of his restraint began to crumble bit by bit.

But it was her lovely legs that finished him off.

And how she tilted her hips so that she could hook them around him and there went his last rational thought.

From then, like their steeplechase this morning, it was all about speed and haste and competitiveness.

And, as usual, they were too well matched.

Almost.

Because the moment Guy felt the first tremors begin in her body, he was done for.

The pressure in his groin reached a breaking point, white lights blinded him, and he called her name in gratitude over and over as he spilled inside her.

Then hugged her close as she tumbled into ecstasy right behind him, thanking his lucky stars that he had finally found the one.