Page 19 of The Lady’s Sweet Revenge (Safely in Scotland #3)

H arlow could hear her heartbeat rushing in her ears and worried she might faint. She’d risked everything to be honest and live her truth in the way he had encouraged her to do. But rather than answer, he only looked at her for so long she considered running from the room.

But eventually she had her answer.

Rather than respond verbally he took a steady breath and leaned down to press his lips to hers.

She’d been kissed before. Her mother placed a kiss to her cheek nearly every night before she went up to her room.

Her father often kissed the top of her head, the touch getting lost in her hair.

Even her brothers had kissed her on occasion, in celebration of a good prank, or when she’d gotten hurt and they hoped to ease the pain away so Harlow wouldn’t tell on them.

She’d seen the way men kissed women they weren’t related to. Once when she was younger, she’d snuck up on Luke with a woman in the mews as he’d been practically devouring her face. She’d thought that rather disgusting and not just because one of the participants had been her brother.

The woman seemed to be enjoying it enough to moan and cling to Luke as if wanting more or wanting him to actually devour her. She hadn’t understood.

But she thought she understood now.

For she wanted more from Reese. Though unsure what more was, she just knew her body…wanted.

The kiss had started with a mere press of his lips to hers.

It shouldn’t have caused her mind and thoughts to swim so.

He moved his lips together, pulled back just the smallest space.

Still so close she doubted a piece of parchment would fit between them, but she felt her body freeze with worry he’d not return.

He did. Repeating the motion from the first touch again and then again. And each time, she became more panicked that that would be the time he wouldn’t return.

And then she’d felt his tongue touch inquisitively along the edge of her bottom lip and while she’d always thought a tongue to be a rather rude body part, she used hers to touch his and it somehow wasn’t rude, but exquisite.

How had she never known her tongue was capable of more than a sharp barb, a taunt, or an apology?

Their tongues started with tender touches and then suddenly his encroached farther into her mouth and she moaned, not unlike that woman in the mews. It was then she realized her hands were clenched in Reese’s shirt and she was unwittingly pulling him toward her.

Part of her felt insanely glad her reaction was similar to another woman’s. Perhaps she was not so different after all. But a second later, she didn’t care if she was the last woman who walked the earth, so long as Reese didn’t stop kissing her.

She pressed her body closer to his and felt something hard and hot against her hip that had not been there when their lips first touched. She wasn’t sure what it was or where it had come from but she pressed closer and earned a gasp from the man she had suddenly become part of.

They shared the same breath; their hearts raced against one another. It was as if they’d somehow joined together. And the thought of joining together with Reese made her lower body throb with some pleasure she’d never encountered before.

That wasn’t true. One night she’d awoken from a dream that a man was touching her between her legs. A shadow with no facial characteristics other than he was a man and he had wanted her.

She’d been frightened initially and then realized she hadn’t been afraid of the unknown gentleman. In fact, she’d closed her eyes hoping she could fall back to sleep and pick up the dream where it had left off.

It hadn’t.

But now… this was no dream.

“Please,” she begged, unsure what exactly she was pleading for. She could only hope Reese knew.

“You asked for a kiss. We must stop, before this turns into far more than a kiss.”

She wanted to ask him for whatever this was, but again she didn’t know what exactly to ask for. So again, she just said “Please” and held tight to his shirt.

He bent close and took her mouth again, as his hand clasped behind her head, in her hair, holding her to him. His other hand was braced against her lower back, holding that throbbing part of her close to that hard part of him that seemed to lurch against her.

“Please touch me,” she asked even though he already was. It just seemed there were other parts of her that needed his touch more than her back and her head. Her nipples had tightened and she wanted him to ease the ache there.

“Harlow,” he whispered against her lips. She didn’t realize how lovely her name sounded when it was spoken so close to her that she could feel the word rather than hear it.

“Yes. Please, Reese. Please.”

“Do you ache?” he asked as if he’d heard her thoughts. “Here?”

His hand had moved across her stomach and she thought he would touch her breasts, but instead his fingers caressed down between her legs.

“Yes,” she answered though she was beginning to ache everywhere.

“I will ease the ache, but I can do no more.”

She didn’t understand what he was saying, but still she answered with, “Yes.”

Like a brusque wind, he swept her up and sat her on the settee guiding her to her back as he kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck and then the swell of her bosom cresting her gown.

She repeated the word “yes” more than was likely necessary, but it seemed the only word she remembered with the exception of his name.

Another swift movement later, he was crouched below and her gown had been tugged up. She thought she should cover herself, for this was surely not right, but before that consideration had the chance to hold purchase in her hazy mind, he was touching her in the exact spot she’d wanted him to touch.

She wondered if she’d somehow told him for how else would he know, but then she didn’t care for he was kissing her there at the same place he was touching. The two different types of touch caused her to lurch up before pressing closer so he could continue.

She thought she heard a smug chuckle, but didn’t care about that either. Nothing mattered but his touching her and not stopping.

With each caress of his tongue and each press of his finger inside her body, she seemed to float higher and higher.

Her fingers were clenched in his hair as she tried desperately to catch her breath and then he pressed his tongue harder against a single spot and everything stilled a moment before it burst.

Wave after wave of pleasure so great it was nearly painful crashed around her as her chest heaved and her vision clouded over.

She felt him say something, but she couldn’t hear past the rush of her pulse in her ears for some time. And then she felt his breath on her throat, as he placed kisses along her jaw and then her lips. He tasted different, and she realized he must taste like her.

She had been teetering on the edge of exhaustion, but these kisses stirred her anew. She’d not known such pleasure existed. And now she didn’t know how she would survive without it.

*

After bringing Harlow to climax once, he should have stopped. Hell, he should have stopped before he’d even kissed her, but as he could not go back now, the only path was forward and he selfishly wanted to watch her when she took her pleasure this time.

The way she’d grasped tightly to his hair spoke of a passionate woman. He could have guessed as much as Harlow was passionate about other things. Most recently her desire to seek revenge on the man who had hurt her.

Reese could only hope this new situation wouldn’t leave her wanting to seek retribution from him as well. He was way beyond the lines of propriety. Being alone together as long as they had was enough to see him married, but this…

He felt the familiar concerns swirling. He should offer for her again, for he’d well and truly ruined her now. It wasn’t a matter of circumstance any longer, but a claiming.

Yet, he knew if he asked she would reject him again. For she wanted to choose the man she spent her life with and she wanted a proposal brought about by desire not obligation.

What he wouldn’t be able to convince her of was that he truly desired her. Not just this physical sense—though he ached to be inside her body and take her completely—but he desired her in other more important ways. Ways he’d not known he could want a woman.

He wanted these evenings spent curled up together in a cozy room reading to each other and talking about any and every topic that flitted through their minds.

But he’d not ask now. He’d wait until the time was right. Until she could not deny his reasons. Until he was certain she would say yes.

For now, however, he would see her sated so she would know he could satisfy her. His kisses had brought her back to the edge.

She was panting and her green eyes seemed ablaze with lust as he teased her slick folds with his fingertips. It was incredibly powerful, knowing he was the only person who had touched her in this way. Unless…

“Have you ever touched yourself in this way?” he asked quietly.

Her eyes drowsy with desire widened and she shook her head. He could have guessed as much. She wouldn’t have known she could, and even then might not have.

Taking her hand in his, he brought her palm to his lips. He kissed softly before teasing his tongue across one of the creases. Then he bit the fleshy part just enough to cause a gasp of surprise.

“I feel like every place on my body is tingling and alive in a way it never has been before.”

“Let me show you,” he said as he guided her hand down under her skirts. He wished he could remove her clothes entirely but he’d not put her in a state of dishabille that would cause his staff to question.

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“When you know you have the power to create these feelings on your own, you’ll not need to be so hasty in selecting a man to give them to you,” he explained.

She nodded.

He whispered his instructions and she followed each one until she was writhing on his settee, close to orgasm once again. Her quiet whimpers excited him and he pressed his palm against his cock, hoping to ease the pressure.

“Please,” she begged as she’d done once before. Christ, how he loved to hear her beg for him. But she didn’t stop with just his name and the quest for more as she had the first time. “Please, Reese. I want to know what it is that a man and a woman do when their bodies come together. Please.”

He shook his head. This time the word please had wrecked him. He wanted to give in. Needed it. But he couldn’t.

He moved back and shook his head.

“I can’t, Harlow. Not like this. Not when kissing and touching has taken to flames.

I’ll not pretend to tell you what you should or shouldn’t want.

You’re a woman grown and I’ll not disrespect ye by thinking I know better.

But you need to be clear-headed to make such a decision. Not swept away by lust.”

She blinked at him as if coming out of a haze. She opened her mouth and he feared she was going to beg him again and it would be their undoing. But whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

They broke apart and he had her sitting up with her skirts properly at her ankles in a second’s time. Her hair, was not any messier than it had been all day.

Only her dazed expression and kiss-swollen lips gave away what they’d been doing and he could do nothing to fix either.

“Yes?” he said with a voice that was much too harsh.

Finch opened the door and peeked just inside.

“Your mother has arrived, my lord.”

“Ah. Thank you, Finch.” And thank God almighty for such an interruption. “Take her to my study, I will be there momentarily.”

When his butler withdrew from the doorway, Reese took yet another step back from Harlow.

“I will go greet my mother and bring her to you in the drawing room for introductions.”

“But I am a mess,” she said looking down at her body.

“You may feel as such, as if everything has changed, but I assure you, you look the same. Well, nearly.” He brushed a finger over her bottom lip. “You are somehow more beautiful than you were.”

She blinked and shook her head. “I’ve no need for your flirting. Go see your mother as I shake away the cobwebs from my brain.”

He chuckled and with a nod, he quit the room as quickly as he was able without running.

His mother had come not a minute too soon.