But Harriet cut him off with a deep, aching kiss. Tasting her again was heaven. Beyond heaven. It was pure bliss. And then Harriet teased his bottom lip with her tongue and bliss cracked into mad,desperate desire. He backed her up against the nearest wall and reached down to start dragging her skirts up.
Christ, but he couldn’t wait to be inside of her. If she still wanted that. It might make him the greediest man in all of England, but he desperately hoped she still wanted that. Alexander reached down and began undoing his fall.
Suddenly, her hands stopped him.
“Don’t you want to, err … engage … a device?” Harriet asked, unsure of how to phrase such a thing.
“Please, Harriet, just say what you mean, I can’t think right now,” he choked out next to her ear.
“French letters, sponges, I don’t remember the rest. Something to prevent getting with child!” she said, pulling back and putting a few inches of distance between them. His face grew serious then, or more serious. Truly, the man became so sincere when aroused, it was rather comical. She did her best to suppress the giggle that rose in her throat, suspecting it wouldn’t go over well at this moment.
“I don’t think I made myself clear.”
“Oh dear,” she teased at his severe tone. She couldn’t hold back—she laughed then.
“I’m serious,” he growled, grabbing onto her wrists and pinning them to the walls behind her.
“Yes, quite!” she said, her eyes wide in sarcastic reverence.
“You really must be punished for your poor behavior, you little minx,” he warned. His thumbs rubbed up and down her wrists where he held them. “I don’t want a marriage in name. I want a real, full marriage with you. I want … Harriet, Iwantchildren with you. I don’t care if they become dukes in this cursed line someday. I just want them to be yours.”
The desire to giggle had long since disappeared, replaced with the urge to cry. He searched her face, clearly anxious that he’d said the wrong thing. His grip relaxed and she snaked a hand up to cup his cheek.
“Well, ours,” she corrected.
He kissed her again, tenderly, which was lovely, but it wasn’t going to get them any closer to solving the problem between her legs.
She pushed lightly on his chest, ending the kiss to ask: “Do you think we might fuck now?”
The brazen question cracked him open. He laughed deeply, his eyes crinkling in the corners, something Harriet bet the ladies of London didn’t realize was actually his most attractive feature.
Second most attractive feature.
Still smiling, he nodded, then dipped his head again to return to her mouth, but Harriet stopped him.
“I thought I actually might return to my demonstration that was so rudely interrupted.”
He grinned again, unable to wipe the joy from his face. “I do apologize for that. Rather unkind of me to declare my love.”
“Apology accepted; now sit,” she said, directing him to a wooden chair that looked as if it might not be able to bear his weight, let alone both of theirs. Oh well. It was her publishing house now. If she wanted to break a chair, she could break a chair.
He sat, obediently, apparently unconcerned with the chair’s constitution. She drew up her skirts again and returned to straddling his lap.
“You see, the idea you gave me, about, well, rubbing myself on top of something. It proved quite helpful.”
“Did it now?” he asked, already distracted. He reached between them and started tracing his hands down her sternum and across her cleavage, dipping closer to the edge of her bodice.
“I’ve been practicing quite a bit. I’ve tried all kinds of things. I wanted to make sure I could come without you.”
“I would love to hear every single thing you attempted,” he said, laying kisses across her chest. “In detail.”
“The problem was, however, I couldn’t stop imagining coming with you.Fromyou.” The filthy words made him come up off his chair, the hard ridge of his cock pressing right against the core of her. She let out a lusty moan, so glad to have him here, for him to understand just how much she wanted him. “But I did find it educational,” she said, and he laughed. Harriet could feel his smile against the skin of her neck.
“Youdolove learning.”
“One thing I learned about myself, for example, is that I simply love to ride things.” Alexander sat back then and swallowed thickly. He was finally paying full attention to her words.
“You do?”
