Diana longed to confess this to Ian, but it sounded so absurd in her head, she couldn’t imagine giving voice to the words. In her struggle, she sought comfort in the way the firelight danced over his fine cheekbones and cast gold streaks in his dark hair. She’d watched him closely for so long, she couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t fascinated her.
“I heard what you said to your mother. When she told you to cut me loose.” He cupped her face before she could turn away. “You defended me. Hell.” His voice grew hoarse. “You subverted her orders to protect me.”
Slowly, he lifted his hand and stroked the necklace with his thumb. “Why did you refuse to give her the emeralds?”
He was daring her to reveal her true feelings. Diana resented the way he’d asked her with such calm.
But when he drew a breath, his chest shook. The hand that rested on her neck trembled.
The same way her hands quaked with the longing to touch him.
She covered his hand with hers. “I thought by now you would have figured out that I wanted…I want—”
When the words stuck in her throat, she laughed at the absurdity of her fear.
She was not a cowardly woman. Neither in her actions nor her feelings.
“You want?” Ian echoed.
“You, Ian. I want you.”
He uttered a low groan as his fingers laced through her hair to draw her closer. Against her ear, he whispered, “You want more of what happened between us in San Sebastian?”
“Yes.” Heat flooded her, from his proximity and from the memory. “And this time I want to reciprocate.”
His mouth skated across her throat. “Are you sure?”
“It doesn’t—” Her voice cut out as his hands stroked the sensitive skin at the back of her neck. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
The warmth of his fingers brushed down her shoulders as he deftly unfastened the back of her dress. “Do you think what happened at the brothel meant nothing?”
“No,” she admitted softly.
“No,” he agreed.
The contrast of his hand moving across her skin and the friction of the fabric set fire to her blood. Perspiration broke out on her forehead.
“I wanted it to only be physical,” she whispered.
His lips met the exposed skin of her shoulder as he murmured, “It isn’t purely physical.”
It won’t ever be,she conceded silently.
She opened the buttons on his waistcoat with the same slow precision he was relieving her of the rest of her clothes. His muscles tightened beneath her hands,and she was breathless at the prospect of tracing every inch of his well-formed torso without the barrier of clothing. “The thing is, I enjoy adventuring with you.”
He laughed roughly, but his expression turned more serious as his hands traced her throat. “I like the way your mind works around a problem. How fiercely you attack it.”
“You’re fierce too. Though you fight so hard to contain it. You don’t have to with me.”
Ian’s mouth finally descended on hers. She wanted to drown in his taste and became giddy with the way he nipped at her lips and tangled his tongue with hers. She continued to play along with his slow seduction by lazily unwinding his necktie.
In between long kisses, his fingers explored her hair. Gently, he removed her hairpins so her thick locks wouldn’t tangle. When her hair cascaded over her shoulders, he leaned back.
The scent of linseed oil and his soap was so intoxicating, she needed him closer and looped her arms around his neck. “We’re two intelligent, capable people. If we make up our minds, this doesn’t have to be more than this moment.”
“You think once this happens, we won’t want to repeat it?”
“It doesn’t have to be anything more than giving each other…physical pleasure.”
