“I know,” he murmured against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. “I know exactly what you need. You’re thinking too much,” he observed.
“I believe,” she muttered, her breath stuttering, “I am not thinking at all.”
He laughed lowly. “Good.”
His thumb traced small, deliberate circles on her inner thigh. The sensation traveled through her with a precision thatsuggested he was perfectly aware of the effect his touch had on her.
Augusta closed her eyes. The room spun gently around her, a carousel of scent and sound and the increasingly urgent demand of her body.
“Hudson,” she murmured, not entirely certain whether she was issuing a warning or a challenge.
“That’s right. Say my name. Keep it in your mouth where it belongs.” His lips traced the line of her thigh.
The practical part of her mind insisted that this was madness. The rest of her could not summon the energy to care.
Augusta could only describe Hudson’s smile as wolfish. He took her hand, his fingers threading through hers with a possessiveness that sent a shiver along her spine.
“Come here,” he urged and drew her to him again.
This time, their kiss contained none of the tentative exploration of their first. It was deliberate, hungry, his hands cradling her face with a tenderness that stood in stark contrast to the commanding press of his mouth.
Augusta surrendered to it with a willingness that would have horrified her three hours ago, her fingers finding purchase in thethick fabric of his coat as though she might otherwise drift away entirely.
One of his hands slid from her face to her throat, his thumb tracing the rapid pulse there with a precision that suggested he was cataloging her responses with the same thoroughness he might apply to a business ledger.
The comparison should have been absurd. Instead, it sent a fresh wave of heat through her body, pooling low in her abdomen with an insistence that bordered on rudeness.
His other hand found the fastening of her dress with a dexterity that raised several questions Augusta decided were best left unasked for the moment. The silk whispered against her skin as he loosened it, cool air brushing across her collarbones and the swell of her breasts.
Augusta should have felt exposed. Vulnerable. Instead, she felt something closer to triumph, as though some long-suppressed part of her had finally been granted permission to exist.
“Augusta.” Her name on his lips sounded like something he had been saving for a special occasion.
His forehead rested against hers, their breath mingling in the narrow space between them.
“Hudson…”
She desired him,desperatelyso.
Hudson’s exhale carried a roughness that suggested her answer had affected him more profoundly than he had anticipated. His hands moved to her shoulders, pushing down her dress further until it pooled at her waist, leaving her in nothing but her chemise. The thin linen did remarkably little to cover her, and a shiver went down along her arms and across her chest, her nipples hardening visibly beneath the fabric.
His gaze traveled over her with a thoroughness that made her want to both cover herself and arch into him. She did neither, opting instead to maintain what she hoped was an expression of composed dignity, which was rather undermined by the fact that she was half-naked in a room in Hudson’s house, and thoroughly wanton.
“God, you’re beautiful,” Hudson growled.
He looked almost angry about it, as though her beauty were a personal inconvenience he had not adequately prepared for.
His hand cupped her breast through her chemise, his thumb circling her nipple with a pressure that made her gasp. She reached for the buttons of his waistcoat, her fingers less steady than she would have preferred.
He caught her wrists, stilling her hands with gentle firmness. “Allow me.”
He guided her to her bed, his movements unhurried and deliberate. When she was seated, he knelt before her on the floor, and the sight of him there stole her breath.
“What are you…”
“Hush.” His hands settled on her thighs, pushing the rumpled silk of her dress further aside. “Yield to me, darling. Let me take charge of your pleasure, worship you exactly the way you deserve.”
The soft air of the room kissed her bare legs, and his palms slid up the inside of her thighs with a slowness that bordered on cruelty.
