Page 62 of How the Earl Entices

His words spun through her, winding more tightly the throbbing need coiling inside her. She clutched at his broad shoulders to keep her knees from buckling beneath her.

Still, his gaze didn’t leave hers, and a sinful glint shined in his eyes. “I wonder,” he murmured against her, placing a kiss to her inner thigh, just below her aching center. “Do you taste like jasmine, too?”

She tensed with pulsating longing. “If you—”

He licked her. The sensation of his tongue stroking along the seam of her sex tore a shuddering gasp from her. Her fingernails dug into his hard shoulders as she fought to regain her breath.

When he did it again, this time stroking deeper into her folds and flicking across the aching nub hidden within, her hips bucked. “Ross!”

A pleased groan rose from the back of his throat. The soft sound rumbled into her, and her sex tightened reflexively, eagerly yearning for more. He obliged, this time swirling the tip of his tongue down into the hollow at her throbbing core. The rush of pleasure was so intense that she moaned, shamelessly not bothering to even attempt to silence herself.

He nudged her thighs farther apart with his shoulder until she stood wide-legged, all of her open to his seeking mouth that continued to kiss, lick, and nibble in turns, sometimes taking great greedy mouthfuls, other times only a tiny suck. Heavens, how good it felt! He had a hot ache pulsating inside her, her fingers and toes tingling, and her hair standing on end. Never had she experienced an intimacy as powerful as this.Never.And only, she knew, because it was Ross who was bringing her this pleasure.

“Do you have any idea how hard it was to sleep with you in the same room all those nights, wanting my mouth on you like this?” he murmured against her. Each hot word tickled over her wet folds and intensified the tightening tension. “Fantasizing about how good you’d taste beneath my lips, how soft you’d feel beneath my hands? You drove me mad.”

“You deserved…to be tortured,” she panted out.

She felt the tickling rumble of his laughter against the lips of her sex, which only increased the heated ache for him there. “Almost begged you to tie me up again.”

She tossed back her head to laugh and was rewarded with a plunge of his tongue deep inside her, then another and another as he thrust into her, mimicking with his mouth the sexual act she was certain he wanted to perform with his body. She trembled as that tempting thought settled wantonly over her and flamed her fire to an all-consuming blaze.

His gaze lifted to hers, as if making certain she was watching his mouth working against her as he gave her the most intense sexual pleasure of her life. That same connection to him that she’d felt since the night of the storm engulfed her, only now so much stronger, so much more powerful. All of her shook wildly, and she grasped at his shoulders, desperate to keep his mouth on her as he drove her toward bliss.

He murmured soft words of encouragement against her as he circled her throbbing clitoris with his thumb, teasing but not fully touching. Such a wicked tease! To hold back from her what he knew she needed—

She neededhim. She thrust her hips against him, begging in incoherent mewlings and whimpers for release.

He closed his lips around the aching point and sucked.

An exquisite pleasure shot through her, straight out to the tips of her fingers and toes. She bucked violently, and he grabbed onto her hips to hold her still, so he could suck again, harder and longer than before—

“Ross…Dear God.” She arched herself into him, her hands clenching around his head, her fingers wrapping in his silky hair. “Ross!”

A hoarse cry tore from her as she broke against his mouth. The ruby ring fell out of her hand and dropped unwanted to the floor with a soft ping. She shuddered as a wave of pleasure crashed over her with such force that it knocked the air from her lungs.

She crumpled against the wall, her upper body sagging as his large hands around her hips kept her pinned there on her feet, his mouth still against her. She quivered helplessly against his lips in a series of soft tremors as the intensity of the pleasure ebbed, leaving bliss behind.

She reached a hand down to stroke his cheek as he continued to kiss her tenderly, the soothing softness of his lips helping her come down from the heights he’d shot her to. Hot tears stung at her lashes and blurred his handsome face, and she choked back words of affection poised on her tongue. She’d given her body, but she wasn’t yet ready to open her heart. There was still too much at risk.

When she’d finally caught her breath, he placed one last reverent kiss against her inner thigh and rose to his feet. He gathered her into his arms and buried his face in her hair.

“I’ll bring you that pleasure again, if you let me.” He shifted his hips until he pressed the hard length of his erection against her soft belly. There was no mistaking how much he wanted her. “This time, I’ll be inside you when I do.”

She clung to him, wanting exactly that. Now that he’d awoken the yearning woman inside her, she was far from satiated. If he could devastate her with only his mouth, she shivered to think of what his hard body could do.

“Grace,” he whispered, his hands stroking over her as she pressed against him. “My beautiful Grace.”

Grace.

Instantly, her blood turned cold. The fires he’d set only moments before were doused, and remorse replaced her desire.

“No.” She tried to pull away, but his arms tightened around her. “I can’t! I can’t—I won’t—no!”

He froze, as startled as if she’d struck him. Then he cupped her cheek against his palm and lifted her chin until he could search her face. Confusion flickered briefly in his eyes.

Then they darkened as his face grew hard. “Why not?”

She shook her head and pushed against his chest, but he refused to release her. “Ross, please—”