You are losing it, Violet.
Yes, yes she was.
Ah, yes. He’d asked her a question.
Violet suddenly doubted her purpose. Her instincts. They’d brought her to the wrong door after all. Should she have sought him out? Have allowed her impulses to rule? For all his maddeningly handsome flesh, it seemed rather impulsive now that he was before her. However, before sense could claim dominion over her actions, her body acted faster. Violet seized his shoulders and rose to the tips of her toes. She couldn’t quite reach his mouth, not without him bending his head, but she could reach his chin. Her lips grazed the rough stubble there, the contact sparking something impatient inside her, venting into a firm bite.
A curse blew over her face, his eyes blazing into hers. “Still wish to knock on Serpent’s door? Speak now.”
“I was half correct.” That counted for something in her book. “I merely got my left or right wrong.”
His answer was to slide his hands to the mounds of her buttocks, something he loved to do, and in a single, effortless motion, he lifted her clear off the floor and carried her toward the bed.
“Your wound,” she began but let the words trail off. Did the injury even bear mentioning at this point? He wouldn’t stop because of it, and she wouldn’t stop him from not stopping.
“It’s fine,” he said roughly.
Case in point.
“Don’t think me weak because of it.”
“I would never.”
“Don’t believe I am of no danger to you. Iam.”
“I’d never believe such an absurd thing.”
His head buried in her neck as he laid her down, his tongue licking up and down her neck before finding her collarbone, grazing his teeth over the spot he’d nipped before. This was what she’d wanted. His lips on her. His body against hers. Touching her. Possessing her. Owning her in a way no one had ever before,she’d never allowed before. This was about opening a part of herself to a man of her choosing, a man who would take what was offered, and give no less than he claimed.
This was what she desired.
A lover.
Was she truly considering this?It’s already considered.Everybody had someone. A husband. A wife. Loyal family. She wanted someone, too.
Sensation closed in on her from every side.
“Drake . . .”
He pulled back, eyes sparking dangerously. “You came to me and destroyed any limits and good intentions I’ve set.” His eyes seemed to darken. “Are you prepared for me?”
Blazes. This man had misunderstood completely. However, now that he’d brought it up, should she confess her true identity before they crossed the final line? Could she keep the secret forever? If they became lovers, were these the sorts of things lovers confessed? She parted her lips to tell him, but the words wouldn’t form.
She reached out to trace his scar with the tip of her finger.
Would he shun her if she told her? Toss her into his barren dungeon?
No, she couldn’t tell him. Not yet. She wanted to be selfish first. Leaving London had been her first act for herself. This was the second. She refused to let it slip through her fingers. She’d find a way to impart the truth later.
“Prepared,” she breathed, lips curving into a smile at his soft exhale.
His hands slid to her calves and began their unhurried ascent. The fabric of her shift gathered beneath his fingers as he drew it upward inch by maddening inch, his knuckles grazing skin that had never before been so deliberately taunted. Washe torturing her with his slowness? His next words proved affirmative.
“I cannot believe,” he murmured, voice deep and disapproving in a way that made her pulse skitter, “that you left your chamber wearing only this.”
She swallowed as the hem reached her knees. “I was not thinking about what I wore.”
“That’s not good, Violet. Don’t ever leave your room again looking like this.”
