“It’s important for my family to come to town. It is high time the ton learned to deal with our ilk, don’t you think?”
“I think I will leave that decision in the capable hands of your mother.”
“Damn, then I’ll just have to buy another country estate for the two of us to use, exclusively. And, do not mention my motheragain while we are in our bedroom.” He shuddered. “That could be catastrophic to my ardor. May I continue?”
“I want this and I want you. I just don’t want to disappoint you when I don’t enjoy it as much as you.”
“I will do my best to ensure that you do.” He combed his fingers through her hair and began kissing her neck just below her ear, the heat of his kisses burning a trail of desire through her body.
“Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to touch you here?” He licked and sucked at the pulse point of her neck, making her aware of a part of her body she never would have expected to bring her so much pleasure.
“I do now,” she breathed.
“At Harding House, I used to lean over your chair almost every morning just so I could smell your scent and dream of running my tongue along the silken skin of your neck. My God, I never could have imagined it being this soft.”
She moaned with the tantalizing trail he created with his lips and tongue. Her hand slid across the ridges of his abdomen, glorying in the definition and strength he’d built in the short month she’d stayed away.
Simon pulled down the sleeve of her gown, baring her shoulder as his kisses followed the path of the naked skin he revealed. His clean, masculine scent was doing things to her body she didn’t understand, until he talked of how he craved her just as much.
Her breathing became labored and her body heated in places she’d never experienced before. It was as if he had cast a spell over her, because despite her belief that no woman could possibly enjoy the ministrations of a man, she rather enjoyed what he was doing.
He stopped and met her gaze before exposing her further. “May I?”
She nodded, afraid to say anything as he held her gaze and spoke to her in the most reverent tone she’d ever heard from him. “Your skin is as smooth as butter cream.” Slowly, he unbuttoned her gown with the nimble movements that would put the best of lady’s maids to shame. Then he pulled her fichu from around her neck and exposed a bit of flesh she had covered since her marriage. “I don’t ever want to stop exploring every inch of your body.”
“Simon…” Oh, the things he was doing to her.
Her gown gaped in the front and she resisted the need to grab it and hold it in place as he pulled her to stand in front of him between his thighs. He slowly slid each sleeve down, devouring each bit of flesh he exposed with his gaze as he released her arms one at a time and her dress floated to the floor.
He met her gaze once more, a question in his eyes, and she merely nodded her agreement as he began unlacing her corset. Gooseflesh rose across her arms and chest as his knuckles grazed the top of her breasts, and her rapid breaths threatened to get the best of her.
“Remember how I taught you to breathe?”
Once more, she nodded.
“I need you to do that now, alright?”
As she released the air in her lungs on a slow and languid exhale, her mind began to calm, her body still a bundle of exposed nerves. Her corset dropped to the floor, and something landed on her foot. She startled, grabbing Simon’s thighs for support. She felt his flinch and her eyes flew open as she began stepping away from him, but he was faster. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her back.
“I’m fine. You just startled me, the muscles in my leg are tight.”
“Then let me massage your leg before we go further.”
He shook his head, as if that was the last thing he wanted her to do, and then he studied her face. As if sensing her needs had instantly changed, he acquiesced. “May I take my trousers off?”
“I never wanted you to put them on after your bath,” she admitted, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
He tore at his falls, popping buttons off in all directions to create a musical chord of anticipation as they struck the floor.
She chuckled and turned to pick up the errant brass fasteners, but he stayed her once more by grabbing hold of her wrist.
“My apologies. I got carried away.”
Standing there in just her shift, it was as if there had been a transfer of power in their relationship. Simon had given up his power completely, allowing her to take the lead. She knelt and began pulling his pants over his hips, down past gloriously thick thighs to his ankles.
“Caillen,” he groaned, the sound sexy and alluring. “That’s not helping.”
She looked up to find his eyes half closed, and his erection tenting the front of his smalls as it strained for release. She helped him step out from his trousers and removed his stockings before standing up to untie his smalls. As she pulled them down, his cock sprang loose as if it were demanding to be serviced. Now. Yet because it was Simon, she wasn’t threatened by his masculine strength and prowess. She wanted to touch him, soothe him, but she had no idea how.
