Page 41 of To Pleasure a Prince

She went willingly, tantalized by the idea of his dreaming about her. When he continued fondling her breast, she choked out, “What sort of dreams?”

He caressed her other breast, wringing a long sigh from her lips. “Last night I dreamed I heard you singing. I went through Castlemaine following that siren’s voice of yours and found you in my dungeon. All your talk of chaining women in it must have brought that on. Because despite what the gossips say, I only go in my dungeon when I’m in too foul a mood to be around people, and I need to vent my temper.”

“Was I…chained?”

“No. But I was. After I entered.”

“So what wasIdoing there?”

“You don’t want to know.”

The growled whisper only made her breath quicken. “I do.”

“You were sitting with a harp cradled between your legs. And you were naked from head to toe, with only the harp to shield you.”

She gasped at the shockingly provocative image that leaped into her mind.

“The second I entered, chains wrapped themselves around my wrists, jerking me back, keeping me from touching you,” he went on in a guttural voice. “I stood there helpless, envying that damned harp for getting to lie between your thighs and brush the very places I wanted to touch…like your breasts…” He slid his hand inside her bodice to caress her bare flesh. “Your silky breasts.”

When he plucked at her nipple as if it were a harp string, pleasure resonated through her. He played her deftly, soothing and provoking her by turns. She groaned as his fondling grew bolder, more outrageous, but she could not bring herself to stop him. Sweet heaven, was this what it was like to have a man touch you intimately? This was what she’d be giving up if she never married?

“I wanted to stroke your belly…” Slipping his free hand down, he splayed his fingers over her abdomen, then dragged them lower and lower until—“And this.” He cupped her between the legs, right on the spot where she felt suddenly tight and tender. “God, how I wanted to touch this.”

Oh…dear…Lord. He rubbed her hard down there, and she nearly leaped out of her skin. His caress made her thrum with unfamiliar desires. She laid her cheek against his shoulder, not even trying to stop him from touching her. Even though it was the most scandalous thing anyone had ever done to her.

And the most exquisite.

When his stroking made her moan, he rasped, “You like that, do you?”

“I…I don’t know…”

“I can feel that you like it.” His voice grew gruff. “But only because you don’t have to look at me. Only because you can imagine it’s someone else—”

“Never.” She twisted around to face him. “I’ve never allowed any man these liberties, I assure you.”

“No?” His eyes gleamed in the darkness as he drew her close, his other hand cupping her breast deliberately through her bodice.

“No.” She caught her breath as he stroked and kneaded her, his gaze hot on her face. “Marcus, we shouldn’t—”

“Shh, dearling.” Taking her by surprise, he dropped to one knee and clasped her about the waist. “Let me taste you,” he whispered, planting a kiss to the inner valley between her breasts. “One taste to enhance your adventure—”

“I never said I wanted…an adventure.”

Not one this scandalous, anyway. His mouth was so hungry, so bold. This went too far—she could not let him…she mustn’t let him…She clutched his head, meaning to draw him back, but his thick hair engulfed her hands in a silky mass and she couldn’t resist stroking it, burying her fingers in it.

And now he was drawing down the bodice of her gown to bare one breast to his intent gaze. Excitement vibrated along her every nerve, making her tighten her fingers in his hair.

“Marcus, what are you…” She trailed off as his mouth seized her breast as boldly as it had seized her lips earlier. Oh, heaven…how delicious.

And what he did to her nipple with his tongue, good Lord!

“God help me,” he tore his lips from her breast to murmur. “Even here you smell like sun and honey. So warm…so sweet.”

He returned to sucking her breast while his hand fondled her other breast beneath her gown. He strummed one nipple and tongued the other until her blood beat wildly.

Then she was pressing his head into her chest, wanting more of the erotic thrills surging down her, undulating along her belly to throb madly in the secret place below that he’d stroked before.

He removed his hand from her breast, only to drag her onto his bent knee. She gasped as his rigid thigh pressed right on that spot between her legs, setting every nerve thrumming.