Page 66 of Ravishing Camille

“And an octopus.”

“Lots of legs.” He mused about what he’d like to do with hers.

She snorted. “I thought you said you were going to meet your partners. A business meeting, hmm?”

“I put it off.”

“A problem?” she asked, seduction in every syllable.

“Yes. But I can deal with them. It’s us I am concerned with.”

She glanced about as if she’d spy the problem out there in the world. “Nothing wrong there.”

He examined her with narrowed lids. “But there is.”

“What?”

“I want you without all your pretty finery.” He reached out to flick the butterfly sleeve of her morning dress. “I envision you only in your skin.”

She shivered, the smile on her face one Salome must have used. “I do hope I’m flawless.”

His guts churned with his need of her. “You are.”

“I want to equal you,” she whispered.

He couldn’t help himself. He caught her chin to brush his mouth on hers. “I’m busy searching for a good place for us to go.”

Her pink lips parted. Her eyes met his in erotic longing. “Do hurry.”

“I’m trying.”

“Good,” she said, licked her lower lip and ground her pretty bottom into her chair. “Because you are a terrible actor.”

He ground his teeth. “I’m going to pay you back for this.”

“You’d better!”

* * *

The next day, the two of them took the family’s large landau and escorted Rand and Corinne to the Left Bank and the Catacombs.

The skulls were piled floor to ceiling. The explanation by the docent at the entrance was that this was the burial ground for plague victims of centuries gone by. But Rand was quick to grieve over the many who had died in the Terror.

“Our aunts and uncles,” he said with wild eyes and the ghoulish delights that only an eight-year-old boy can find in gruesome bits of lore.

The dampness and gloom was not improved by the odd breezes that wafted through the tunnels and blew out the lamp that Pierce held.

But Pierce’s arm around her waist did inspire a laugh.

His lips on the back of her neck had her nipples hardening.

But when she sneezed, he grew alarmed.

“Take this,” he told her as the flames inside her flickered. “Let me give you my coat.”

“No, no. Let’s just collect them and leave.”

He was ready with an offer they could not refuse. “Hot chocolate and cakes!”