Watching him want.
There was something empowering about unmanning a man who usually kept all his feelings locked so securely inside. But unapproachable, stiff, and reserved Guy was nowhere to be seen now. Instead, what stood before her was a man who was putty in her hands. Hers to do what she wanted with.
And at this precise moment, she wanted it all.
“Consider it a birthday gift.” She raked her fingers through his too-neat hair as she kissed him because she preferred him all windswept. “Would you like to unwrap it?”
Apparently, she really was going to bare herself to him—right now. Without snuffing out the candle as she had planned to do as she had paced, and wondering if this was the right way to tempt him.
“God, yes.” His fingers instantly went to her belt and fumbled with the knot. Lottie loved that. Loved that she undid him so—but still left him to struggle with ties because she was enjoying the anticipation.
As the knot gave, the edges of the robe parted in the gentle dip between her breasts and he stepped back a little to take it all in. Tracing the pad of his index finger from her collarbone down to her navel, so slowly it made her shudder. She watched his eyes dip lower to the triangle of curls, and then he smoothed the flat of his hand down to cup them. “Are you trying to seduce me, Miss Travers?”
“I am.” She leaned to brush her lips over his. “Is it working?”
“I was all yours at ‘shut up.’” His fingers traced the same path back up her body. “That’s a lie—you’ve tormented me since you knocked me off my horse. Every minute of every day.” They slipped beneath the fabric to caress the tops of her arms. A part of her body which she had never realized could render her boneless if touched, and yet now it did. “You have no idea how many times I have imagined you naked.” His lips whispered over hers, barely touching, and yet she still felt it everywhere. “Or how humbled I am to finally find out.” He stepped back again as he slowlyedged the robe from her shoulders until gravity caught it and it puddled around her feet.
His sharp intake of breath was its own reward and the subsequent sigh a benediction. “I knew you would be beautiful but—” Something different was swirling in his eyes alongside the desire. Wonder. Awe. Affection. “You are perfection.”
As if she was something fragile and precious, he traced her flesh with just the pad of one finger. Her neck and shoulder. Her arm. The indent of her waist and the curve of her hip. Then finally the outer edge of one breast in gentle rounds until it was circling her nipple.
Lottie moaned, she couldn’t help it, and tilted slightly to shift his touch to the straining tip, but he pulled it away. Then, with a wolfish smile she had never seen before, bent to take the whole thing in his mouth.
“Oh…Guy…”She gripped his head and arched against his tongue, every nerve ending she possessed dancing as it swirled around. Shuddering each time he gently nipped the sensitive bud at the end because each nip and flick caused ripples of need to pool between her legs.
He twisted to shift their positions so that her back was now against her bedchamber door, and plundered her mouth while his hands continued to torture her breasts in a kiss so carnal she quite forgot where or who she was.
As they came up for air, she became aware of the buttons of his waistcoat pressing into her flesh and realized that he was still fully dressed. She pushed his coat from his shoulders, started on the buttons of his waistcoat, but they eluded her touch because he was on his knees, kissing her belly.
Then lower.
And lower.
Lottie cried out as his tongue dipped between the folds of her sex and found that secret, shameless knot of nerve endings. Then, in one oddly lucid moment, realizing that anyone passing the door might hear her come undone, bit the back of her hand as he looped one of her legs over his shoulder. Her other hand groping for the doorframe for support as his tongue did its magical swirl again and she completely lost her wits.
She was so ready, her climax was almost instantaneous, slamming into her with such force, the walls of her body pulsed and contracted for an eternity before she emerged from the stupor. Only to find Guy, still fully clothed and on his knees, smiling up at her from between her thighs like the cat who got the cream.
“What took you so long?” He chuckled as he mirrored her words of just minutes ago.
“Sorry… I…” Should she be embarrassed for coming so fast?
Guy surged to his feet before she could finish that sentence and seared her mouth with a kiss that tasted of her. “I’m not. I intend for that to be the first of many.”
As he kissed her, he lifted one of her legs and then the other so that she had to hook them both around his waist as he carried her to the bed. Then he gently lowered her onto the mattress, only to stare down at her. His gaze darkened with desire but his expression was a little uncertain.
“Would you like me to join you?”
That he felt compelled to ask, to await her invitation, touched her. “I can hardly seduce you otherwise, Guy, can I?” She twisted on her knees to reach for his hand and tugged him nearer. “Any more than I can seduce you with you all buttoned up.” She sat back on her heels, her gaze raking the length of him. “So are you going to take your clothes off, or am I?”
“You are.” His wolfish smile returned with a vengeance as he waited, passive, for her to take the lead again.
Their kiss was a leisurely exploration as she made short work of his waistcoat. He was beside her as she tugged his shirt out of his waistband, and he lifted his arms so she could pull it off. Their mouths parting for just a second while she tugged it over his head.
Then she took several moments to admire his chest. To explore its contours and its hollows. Enjoying the way his nipples puckered as she gently grazed the backs of her fingernails over them, and the crisp feel of the dark dusting of hair that narrowed in an intriguing line down his abdomen and through his navel.
Needing to feel his skin next to hers, she shuffled onto his lap, nestling her hips against the bulge in his breeches while she looped herarms around his neck. They both sighed as she flattened her breasts against his body, falling back on the mattress together and landing with her on top.
Instinctively she straddled him, her arms and hair forming an intimate cage around their faces as they kissed some more. The bulge in his breeches strained against her body as she gently rotated her hips to tease him. Except it teased her just as much and her body ached with need to have him inside her.
