Page 59 of Dare to be Wicked

Her jaw dropped, which might have been more amusing if he wasn’t now rigid with desire himself.

“Cassius,” she whispered. “Cass, p-please.”

He was moving before she’d even got to the please, falling to his knees in front of the day bed where she sat for him and pulling her into his arms.

“Oh, love. Beautiful girl,” he murmured, his mouth and tongue doing just as he’d promised and painting her beautiful skin all the way to the barrier of her gown. He growled in frustration and she gave a little laugh and then lifted her hands, undoing the buttons at the front of her bodice and giving the fabric a little tug.

“Oh,” she said in frustration as the corset beneath refused to budge.

Despite his own desire to remove the blasted thing with haste, he laughed, delighted by her impatience.

“Wicked girl. You are forever taking your clothes off.”

“Well, it was a deal easier in a nightgown and wrap,” she retorted.

Cassius smirked and lowered his head. Slowly and deliberately he ran his tongue over the swell of each breast, the only parts available to him.

Lottie shivered and gave a little sigh, and he groaned.

“Two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks, only two weeks,” he said, muttering the words under this breath.

“That’s fourteen whole days!” Lottie wailed.

“Not helping, love.”

Feeling a little desperate, he got up and sat on the bed.

“Come here,” he urged her, getting her to straddle his thighs like she had the other night. “We don’t have long.”

“I know. Mama will be here in an hour.”

“Don’t remind me,” he cursed, pulling her down and battling through the copious layers of skirts and petticoats. “Confound these blasted things!”

Lottie giggled and he huffed, determined to reach skin. Finally… Finally, he put his hands on her warm thighs and tugged, pulling her down so she sat pressed against him and her skirts billowed out on all sides.

Cassius grinned at her. “You look like you’re emerging from a cloud.”

“It’s a very hard cloud I’m sitting on,” she said, quirking one eyebrow.

His breath snagged in his throat as she pressed closer and his head fell back.

“Oh, God.”

Lottie gasped, her colour rising as she discovered the pleasure in friction too.

“Oh!”

She caught on quickly, thank the Lord, too quickly perhaps, as it was an embarrassingly short time before Cassius had to call a halt.

“Stop, stop.”

“But I… I don’t want….”

He grasped her hips, stilling her movement.

“Stop,” he said firmly.

She whimpered and pouted a little but didn’t argue. Cassius drew in a deep breath and then let it out again, slowly.