Page 54 of The Duke of Deceit

“Nothing more?” she challenged in a husky whisper.

He nearly groaned with frustration. Sweet Lucifer, he wanted so much more! “Not if you don’t want it.” Yet he knew how temptation worked, how the most tantalizing kinds were stumbled into exactly when a person thought he could avoid them. No one lost control more than the person who clung sodesperately to it. “I want to kiss you, Jessamyn,” he repeated and tempted her with a slow caress of his thumb along her jaw. “Let me. Please.”

She hesitated, then nodded. He wasn’t prepared for the wave of relief that rained over him.

But before he could lower his head to kiss her, she rose up on tiptoes and brought her lips to his. His breath hitched, and for a moment, he was too surprised to do anything more than let her. Her lips were soft and gentle against his, moving tenderly as she tried to cajole him into kissing her back.

Gladly.He slipped his arms around her and pulled her against him to kiss her the way he’d been yearning to do since she stepped into the grotto and lowered her hood.

“Lucien…yes,” she sighed against his lips.

And with that, he was lost.

Chapter Sixteen

Jess closed hereyes, held her breath, and simply let go.

She didn’t let herself wonder if kissing him was wrong or if she were betraying her sister by allowing him to pull her into his arms like this. She refused to think about what it meant that she longed to be kissed and touched by someone who still kept so many secrets. She didn’t dare let herself consider what it meant that her fingers itched to run through the silky dark curls at his nape, that her body yearned to press as tightly against him as possible, that part of her ached for even more.

All she knew was how wonderful she felt, and at that moment, that was all that mattered.

He slid his mouth over her cheek to her ear, where he placed a slow kiss to her earlobe.

“I wanted it to be you,” he murmured. It wasn’t the confession she wanted from him, yet it still made her heart swell. He trailed his mouth down to her throat, where she was certain he could feel her racing pulse against his lips. “When that message arrived in the box, I wanted you to be woman who was waiting for me.”

“I was worried you wouldn’t come if you knew it was from me,” she whispered, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders to prove he was real and not simply another dream.

“Not come to you? Never.” He nipped lightly at her earlobe as if in punishment for doubting him, and she gasped at the jolt of pleasure-pain.

“I should have sent you on a wild goose chase,” she admitted. “You would have deserved to be mistreated by a woman after the things you said to me at Lady Holkham’s. The way you behaved… You were absolutely beastly.”

He lifted his head just far enough to gaze into her eyes. “I am so very sorry for that. I hated wounding you that way. You didn’t deserve it.”

Her mouth fell open. He was…apologizing?“Then why did you?”

“I had no choice.” Before she could press him for a better answer, he lowered his mouth to her neck. “Will you forgive me?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Then shall I kiss you again, Jessamyn?” he mumbled against her skin as his lips found her pounding pulse in the hollow at the base of her throat.

“Yes.” This time, the single word was a plea for mercy.

She was betraying her sister—how could she not be? But the longing she felt for him warred with her loyalty to Amanda…and won. God help her, she wanted him all for herself. So she leaned into him and brought her mouth to his, and when the tip of his tongue traced lightly over the seam of her lips in silent cajoling to open, she parted her lips and surrendered.

A groan rose from the back of his throat. He lifted his hand to cup her face, then slipped his tongue between her lips in a smooth, delicate glide. She caught her breath. Soft, sweet, so unbelievably tender… His kisses had never been like this before. He wasn’t kissing her so much as reassuring her, and every deep plunge into her mouth and every slide of his tongue over hers made her ache with longing.

When he took her bottom lip between his and sucked, the pull of it tugged all the way down her body to land with a thud between her legs. She couldn’t help the soft whimper that came from her and surprised them both.

When she felt him smile against her mouth, her legs turned boneless, and she sagged against him to keep from falling. His arms tightened around her as if he knew she needed his support, but instead of keeping her pressed against him, he eased her gently back a step. Her hip hit the stone ledge behind her, and she sank down onto it, her bottom perched on its edge. Thank God, because what his kisses were doing to her now made it impossible for her knees to support her any longer. She would have said it was sheer heaven except that it felt far too wicked.

So did his hands as he swept them up her sides. Her skin beneath her gown tingled in the wake of his fingers, which remained chastely at her sides and frustratingly nowhere near her breasts. She remembered the feel of his mouth on her nipple and craved it. Too embarrassed to ask for that, she simply arched her back toward him and hoped he understood what she needed.

He trailed his fingers suggestively down her neck but frustratingly stopped at her collar bone. “Do you want me to touch you?” he asked hoarsely, as if reading her mind.

Yes, please touch me!“If you’d like,” she answered instead, her voice trembling as much as the rest of her.

“I’d like that very much.” He leaned in and whispered into her ear, “And I hope you like it, too.”