Page 45 of The Duke of Deceit

Emboldened, she brought her mouth down to his neck and placed hot, open-mouth kisses everywhere her lips could reach around the cravat and collar that blocked her way. When the tip of her tongue flicked across his earlobe, then circled his ear before plunging wickedly inside, heat flamed at his crotch.Sweet Lucifer.She was making him hard with nothing more than littlesounds of desire and soft kisses that were barely anything at all, and if she kept wiggling her bottom on his lap like that, she’d soon discover exactly what effect she had on him.

“I deserve to be kissed, do I?” she whispered, her warm breath tickling his ear.

“Yes.”

“And touched?”

God yes.He nodded stiffly.

“If I deserve that…” she began in a low murmur, although something about the way she said that stirred a low warning inside him. Her hand on his shoulder trailed down his chest, where he was certain she could feel the pounding of his heart beneath her fingertips. “Then so do you.”

Her hand lowered to his waist. Just as her fingers touched his cock through the tightening fabric of his trousers, he took her wrist and stopped her.

No, I don’t deserve your touch.Regretfully, he lifted her hand to his mouth and silently placed a kiss to her palm.

Her lips parted as she stared at him, utterly baffled.

“You need to go back to the party now,” he told her, expending all his strength to keep his voice even and unaffected. “Before you’re missed.”

“But—” She quickly pulled her chemise and corset into place, covering herself. “But the ladies saw me walk into the garden with you.”

“Exactly.” He reached behind her and deftly buttoned up her bodice, careful not to accidentally brush her bare skin. A single touch would have destroyed him. “Which is why you have to go back. You can’t be away too long, or they’ll suspect more happened than a turn about the garden.”

“It did,” she corrected him softly, although he certainly needed no reminder of that.

He set her off his lap, then gave her a once-over glance. He wanted her to think he was simply checking to make certain all was back to rights with her appearance, with no telltale wrinkles in her dress or stray locks of hair out of place. The truth was that he simply couldn’t resist having another look at her.

He nodded. “You look fine.”

“Earlier you said I was beautiful.”

Because you are.“I know.”

The wounded expression that flashed across her face pierced him. His punishment, he supposed, for all the cruelties he’d committed in his life. God knew he deserved it, yet the sharpness cut like a knife.

“Then I—I don’t understand.” She bit her bottom lip as she considered him. “You didn’t like kissing me?”

The pain edging her voice was agonizing.I liked it more than you’ll ever know… But he could never admit that. He had to keep her away from his life and his secrets. Best to let her think she’d been right about him all along, that he was nothing more than a heartless bastard.

He kept his face carefully impassive. “Of course I did.” At that moment, he hated himself. “But you need practice, and I’m afraid I don’t have the time nor patience for an unschooled innocent. I’m certain you understand.”

She stiffened, as if turning to stone. “And that’s why you stopped kissing me.”

I stopped kissing you because if you had let me continue it wouldn’t have been merely kisses and touches you’d be given. I would have taken your innocence.“Isn’t that what we rakehells do? We lead young misses astray, then discard them when we’re bored with them.”

Her voice emerged impossibly soft. “And you’re bored with me?”

Never.Yet he callously shrugged, letting her assume the worst about him. After all, better to cause her pain now than to allow her to get too close and be completely ruined later.

“Mr. Stevenson was right,” she rasped out. “You really are a horrible man.”

He had no idea how he managed not to flinch. Never before had he cared what any woman thought of him. But this one had the power to flay him with nothing more than a whisper.

Her eyes glistened in the dappled light. “I never want to see you again.”

Her soft words broke him. He rose to his feet and reached for her hand. “Jessamyn—”

“Don’t.”She snatched her hand away before he could touch her.