Page 14 of One Jewel-tide Scandal (Singular Sensation #10.5)
“I’m not sure, but I’m willing to find out.” Oh, he smelled so good. That scent of the grass before a storm, that clean scent continued to tease her nose. And for the moment, he was waiting for her to make some sort of decision. “Alexander?”
“Yes?”
“May I kiss you?”
“God, yes. Please do.”
The enthusiasm in his response provoked a smile from her as she stroked her fingers along his cheek. The bare resurgence of his stubble was a pleasing contrast against her skin. As her heart pounded, she closed the final few inches and kissed his lips.
A shuddering sigh escaped him, but he made no other sound. Nor did he move. Instead, he waited and watched her, letting her decide.
And she unexpectedly lost a piece of her heart to him in that moment.
The fact that he gave her the lead in this meant so much.
While smoothing the hair back from his brow, she explored every inch of his lips.
How she’d missed being this close to a man!
He was heavenly, both hard and soft at the same time, and the faint taste of brandy he’d indulged in not long before clung to his mouth.
Eventually, she pulled a bit away but continued to peer at him while her heart trembled as if on the verge of flight. Need turned her blood molten. “That was…”
“Far too short.” Alexander slipped his palms up her arms then the sides of her neck until he finally cupped her face between his hands.
When she sighed from the romance of that gesture, he kissed her back with more finesse and vigor than she’d given him.
When he finished, he said, “I could easily get used to kissing you.”
She smiled. “Should I let you up?”
Mischief and wicked promise sparkled in his eyes. “You could unless you would like to continue kissing me.”
“There’s nothing I’d rather do at the moment.” It was refreshing to be honest with this man. Most of the time, she hadn’t voiced her opinions when it came to what happened—or didn’t happen—in the bedroom with Stuart, for he couldn’t help his affliction.
“Good.” His whole body tensed as he wrapped his arms tight around her. Then he flipped them both over and pressed her into the crushed velvet sofa with his weight on top of her. “Because I haven’t had nearly enough.”
A tiny sigh was her only verbal agreement, and as he claimed her lips, Charlotte gave herself over to the experience.
With her fingers buried in the hair at his nape—which was a tad longer than current fashion demanded—she kissed him back.
He was an intelligent man, for he teased the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue.
How utterly delicious and erotic! That sensual touch sent a shiver down her spine, for Stuart had enjoyed kissing too, and it had been one of her favorite ways to pass the time.
But with Alexander? Good heavens, it was as if every nerve ending she had lit from his touch.
She gasped from the wonder of it, and when he slid that organ into her mouth to tangle with hers, she was lost in the wild sensations crashing over her.
For the first time in a long while, she forgot her grief and her wish to hide from life.
She held him in her arms and fully enjoyed their embrace.
When he shifted slightly, the insistent bulge of his arousal pressed into her thigh.
What would coupling with this man be like?
Would it be different and more arousing than it had been with her husband?
Such wicked thoughts, Charlotte.
The heat filling her body was bigger than the desire she had for him.
There was a brief sensation of falling, but he held her closer as if he knew or at least felt it too and wished to shield her from a crash.
In his arms she finally knew peace and protection…
and fantastic desire—what she should have had in her marriage all those years ago.
And she wanted it to continue, but he wasn’t hers, and he’d said nothing about wishing to have a woman in his life. To say nothing of the fact that his stay here wasn’t permanent.
Some of her ardor faded. She pulled away enough to break those long, drugging kisses she’d adored to peer upward into his eyes. “We should stop this before the butler or a maid finds us.”
He didn’t move. “Is that what you want, my lady?” The tone of his voice said he didn’t want that either.
“No.” Charlotte frowned.
“What is it that you do want?” As he spoke, he slid a hand down her side to hold her hip, pulling her ever closer. “Tell me, and I will strive to do exactly that.” His lips brushed hers with every word.
The snap and crackle of the fire coupled with the rapid beat of her heart and the press of his body against hers all work to hasten her undoing. Everything hinged on this moment—everything.
She glanced her fingertips along the side of his face, slid her fingers into his hair, and then brought his head to hers, kissing him with abandon.
When she shifted slightly and looped her arms about his shoulders, Alexander moved his hand from her hip to her breast. The kiss took on a life of its own, and soon soft sighs and moans came from them both.
Oh, she wanted this man, in so many ways, but perhaps she wasn’t ready to make herself that vulnerable.
When he wrenched away merely to press a line of feather weighted kisses beneath her jaw, Charlotte sighed.
She fumbled with his cravat in an effort to uncover more of his skin, except Alexander wasn’t finished teasing.
He kissed and licked her chest, following the lace at her bodice, and all the thoughts in her head flew away.
“Alex…”
“Bid me nay, Charlotte, and I will stop immediately.”
For the next several seconds, she hovered between fear and excitement, then she gave him a nod. He kissed her again then rubbed the pad of his thumb over her nipple, back and forth, until that sensitive tip hardened. A gasp escaped her, and involuntarily, she arched her back.
“Please, don’t stop,” she whispered in a barely audible voice.
Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she wondered where the cat and beagle had got off to, then she didn’t care, for he slowly, gently, inevitably encouraged the bodice of her gown downward until the nipple he’d just worried was bared, and her breast popped free of the garment.
“So beautiful.” His warmth as he took that mound of flesh in his hand transported her to another place, but when he took her nipple into his mouth, rubbed his tongue over the tip, Charlotte nearly lost her mind.
“Oh!” How was it that a simple touch, a fleeting but intimate caress could make her feel so different, open such worlds for her where there previously had been nothing?
Suddenly, she wanted his hands on other parts of her person, she wanted them both naked and in a proper bed, she wanted—
The loud crash of porcelain echoed into the silence. Alexandar sprang off her body and then left the sofa.
“What the hell?” He looked about the room with confusion in his expression.
With a gasp, Charlotte scrambled quickly into a sitting position as she tugged her bodice back into place. “What is it?”
“It seems that the reason why Charlie and Cleo were far too silent is that they were working at the same purpose, and that was to knock the vase from that table over there.” He strode across the room heedless of the bulge at the front of his breeches then bent to retrieve a couple of larger pieces of a shattered vase.
The porcelain used to be an exquisite creation from the Ming Dynasty, and one of Stuart’s most prized possessions. “A pity, that.”
She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. “Where are the criminals?”
“I have no idea. Probably fled the scene at the sound of the crash.”
“And the flowers?” She’d ordered the bouquet of roses and lilies from a hot house shortly before the storm had blown through.
“Unless we find them a new home, they’re done for.”
And just like that, the moment had been broken. Would they recapture it? She had no idea. “Perhaps it’s for the best. I didn’t want my brother-in-law to take possession of that, but I certainly didn’t want it.”
“I’ll call for the butler and ask him to find us a replacement…
if he isn’t already on his way after hearing the crash.
” Slowly, he came toward her sofa. Once there, he extended a hand, and she slid her fingers into his palm, but when he hauled her into a standing position, he merely stared at her.
Shock and stupefaction fought for dominance over his face, but it was the dark unnamed emotion lurking deep in the depths of his eyes that held her breathless.
Had he been affected by that brief interlude as well.
“Thank you for the liberties taken tonight. I will dream often of that.”
Heat slapped at her cheeks. “Do stop, Tattingham, but I appreciate that.” And she could almost guarantee she wouldn’t sleep much tonight because she would constantly be thinking about that kiss that had grown out of hand.
What am I to do now?