He groaned. “I want you now. If you would let me take control—”
She licked the corners of his lips. “Letting someone else hold the reins is the truest test of control.Selfcontrol.”
“I don’t have any,” he muttered.
But he forced himself to stay in place, watching her with heated eyes.
Was it any wonder she loved him? She dipped her head so that he could not read her expression, and pulled the hem of his shirt from his waistband, pushing the soft cambric up inch by inch, allowing her eyes and her fingertips to learn the hard planes of his abdomen.
When her fingertips reached his nipples, she lowered her head to taste his skin with her tongue.
His stomach tightened, his arms twitching as if desperate to reach for her, but he held his position.
She scooted down, her thighs sliding over his until her mouth was just above his waistband.
“Maybe I should investigate you,” she purred.
“Do... whatever you want...”
She unhooked the buttons of his fall and slid her hand beneath to grip him fully. “How many people have you spirited through your secret panel and into this room?”
“None,” he gasped. “Until you.”
Her breath caught and her heart pounded even faster.
This was his private bedchamber. Not his salon of sin above the masquerade. This was where he was truly himself. A place where neither of them need hide behind a mask. He brought her here because he wanted to be withher. To have a moment that was real.
Unity wanted that, and so much more.
But she would start with this.
She lowered her head and rewarded them both by becoming too occupied to ask more questions.
Chapter 20
Julian closed his eyes when she took him into her mouth, then immediately opened them. He didn’t want to miss a single moment of making love to Unity.
He knew what would inevitably happen. They would enjoy each other, then go their separate ways. It’s what always happened. It was what he preferred, what he had always engineered.
But he didn’t want her to walk away. He wanted to keep her.
No—he wanted her to want to keephim.
He had never invited anyone into his personal quarters, into his real life. It was terrifying. If this was the end—if, after they found their pleasure with each other, they never found each other again—his private rooms would always remind him of Unity. His bed would forever hold the memory of the time she had been in it with him, of the moments they’d shared in each other’s arms.
If shelethim hold her, that was.
God, he wanted to hold her. To kiss her, to love her, to...
Love.
There was no sense denying it anymore. His heart was perfectly capable of the emotion, and had in fact gone completely off script and tumbled irrevocably in love with the woman who was bringing him perilously close to release.
“Stop,” he croaked. “I want... I want...”
“I will give you what you want.” She removed her mouth, then licked him from base to tip before lifting her head with a smile. “Or maybe I won’t. Are you in control?”
“Yes,” he promised. But it was a lie.
