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This would indeed be a night to remember.
Her hands trembled as she reached back to remove her necklace.
Nerves or excitement? “Here, allow me.” Carefully, he helped divest her of her jewelry and then assisted her in disrobing.
Each ribbon pulled loose brought him a step closer to finally seeing her perfection up close. Each layer of clothing that fell to the floor served to further enflame his arousal. Every time the backs of his fingers made contact with her bare skin, a spark caught in his own flesh and sent desire rocketing through his veins.
He’d been vacillating between various degrees of stiffness since before dinner, but his erection had been constant since the concert in the drawing room. Now, his cock twitched and strained in protest against confinement as blood rushed to fill it even further. He’d never been so hard in all his life and wanted nothing more than to free himself of his trousers, but it could wait. They had all night, and he wanted to savor his prize.
At last, he lifted her chemise over her head. Only her stockings, lacy garters, and dainty slippers remained. He feasted his eyes for a moment on creamy skin and a body to make a man weep with want. “You are, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, meaning every word.
The blush that stole over her cheeks as she lowered her lashes was simply enchanting. And puzzling. Does not that Laurent fellow ever pay her such compliments?
Looking up, she met his stare. Seemingly emboldened by what she saw there, she reached out and fingered the end of his cravat. “May I return the favor?”
“You may do with me whatever pleases you,” he answered with a slow smile. He sobered as her gaze sharpened, and she gave the cravat a sharp tug, causing him to stumble and take a step closer. With a few more gentle tugs, the cloth fell away. As soon as it hit the floor, she stepped close and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to the base of his now-bare throat, following with a little nip and lick before stepping back and pushing his coat back off his shoulders.
The fire that had been slowly building inside him instantly flared white hot. But he maintained self-discipline and after shrugging off his jacket remained still, curious to see what she had planned. If there was anything he’d learned about pleasure, it was that delayed gratification was often the best kind.
Mesmerized, he watched as her nimble fingers made short work of the buttons on his waistcoat. That, too, fell to the floor. When her hands slid beneath his shirt and she ran her palms up along his abdomen to skim across his nipples, however, he decided enough was enough.
Bending, he pressed his lips against the sensitive joint of her neck and heard a trembling sigh escape her lips. He smiled against her skin as she tilted her head, granting him better access, and rewarded her by continuing upward in a trail of small kisses, mirroring her earlier action with little nips and flicks of his tongue.
One by one, he pulled the jeweled pins from her hair, and soon his hands were buried in a wavy flow of honey-gold strands that caught the candlelight and held it prisoner. Working his fingers beneath it at the nape of her neck, he massaged her scalp and was rewarded by a soft, broken groan. Desire speared straight down through his vitals to pool in his pelvis.
I’m just getting started.
Not all touch had to be sexual in nature to give pleasure. This was evident as she leaned close and melted against him. Her warmth seeped through his fine linen shirt and sank into him like summer sunlight. Moving his fingertips in small circles, he worked his way over the back of her head and then forward to her temples.
Her eyes drifted shut. Framing her face between his palms, he at last brought their mouths together. The first contact was electric, eliciting an all but unbearable ache in his groin, as though the two places were directly connected by a single, raw nerve.
Ghosting his lips across hers, he licked the seam where those rosy petals met, begging entrance. It was granted on a sigh, and he reveled in the catch and slide of their mouths as he gently angled her head so they slotted together perfectly. The sweetness of sherry and the cake they’d had for dessert erupted across his tongue, along with something he’d never tasted before, something uniquely her.
She pressed into him, deepening the contact, and now the groan he heard was his own. A tremor wracked his whole body as multiple sensations ran riot through it at once, reverberating back and forth like ripples crossing each other on the surface of a pond until he couldn’t take any more and had to pull back to catch his breath.
He kissed the curve of her neck to hide his face, afraid of what it might reveal. The impatient nudging of her lips at the tender flesh just below his ear urged him on.
Closing his eyes against the sight of her, lest he lose control, he kissed her again, pouring all of himself into it. Kissing wasn’t something he’d often indulged in, feeling it was too intimate for casual encounters. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself now.
She responded with renewed fervor, and their breaths mingled in a series of soft gasps as her frenzied fingers pulled at his shirt. Breaking away, he yanked it off over his head and tossed it, not caring where it landed, such was his eagerness to feel her velvet skin, to learn the shape of her with his palms and explore every lush curve.
Her hands were busy again, fumbling with the buttons on his trousers. He batted them away. If that barrier were removed, it would be the undoing of him, and he wanted to draw out this feast and make it last as long as possible. To ease the sting of his reprisal, he brought her hands up and pressed a kiss into each palm before continuing his way upward.
The shudder that ran through her at the gentle touch of his lips against the inside of her wrist brought a smile to his face. He flicked his tongue across the delicious inch of skin, delighted to hear her breath catch. Slowly, he worked his way up that arm, over her shoulder, and the wings of her collarbone, not forgetting the charming dip between before treating the other arm to the same attention. She was pliant, like clay waiting to be sculpted by his hands as he drew back to contemplate his next move.
When he looked at her face, he expected her eyes to be closed and was surprised to find them open and ablaze with naked hunger.
Chapter Fourteen
So this is what it’s like. Diana stared at Blackthorn as arousal melted through her, leaving her hot and aching. And he’d done nothing more than kiss her.
Oh, but those kisses. Tender, yet ferocious. Gentle, yet full of fire. Based on those kisses, it would be easy to believe there was more to this than lust. But she knew Blackthorn was here for one thing only. He would get it, but she’d have her desire of him, as well.
Stepping back, she looked him up and down, drinking in the sight of his broad chest, letting her gaze fall to the trail of dark hair that disappeared beneath the waist of his trousers. Just below that, she marked the distinct bulge where his cock strained against the cloth. She cupped it with a bold palm and was gratified to hear a low, animal groan torn from his throat just before he took her lips in a bruising kiss that was far more aggressive than its predecessors.
Lust rose to the challenge, and she met him with equal force until they were both gasping for breath. She thought she’d faint when his palms grazed the sensitive sides of her breasts, and the noise she let out when his thumbs began to circle her areolas was shockingly primitive.
It was nothing compared to the sound she made when he dipped his head and took a nipple into his mouth—that was obscene. Her cheeks heated, but her embarrassment was short-lived in the face of the maddening sensations running riot throughout her body. Lightning seemed to strike in the agonizingly empty place between her legs every time his tongue flicked, every time he grazed it with his teeth or pinched it between his lips. It was absolute torment, yet the instant he stopped, she found her fingers diving into his hair, drawing his head back.
