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Lady Pippa’s eyes flashed with something akin to defiance. It stirred something hot and visceral inside William’s gut, and he took a step closer to her beguiling sweetness.
“Is this the manner in how you greet all your callers, my lord?”
“I am never called upon, especially not by young debutantes.”
Her mouth tipped into a smile. “I am hardly a debutante, William. I am no longer a shy lady of eighteen years who is uncertain about the things she wants from life.”
God, the way she said his name scraped rawly against his nerves. Suddenly he knew that he could not allow this woman closer. He would take what she so innocently offered and hurt her abominably in the process. William did not want to hurt her, ever. That he knew it with such certainty shook him to the core. “And what is it that you have determined you want from life?”
Her bold, raking gaze said it washim. He almost laughed, for he was a seasoned debaucher, and this bit of innocence was tripping up his insides. “I am a man of one and thirty and you are a chit of one and twenty,” he growled, sitting scandalously close beside her, enough so that her knee brushed against his. “You are playing a game where you do not even know the rules, Lady Pippa.”
“This is not a game for me,” she whispered, her gaze flicking to the open doorway and then back to him. “I am very much interested in getting to know you. Do you not have a similar curiosity, my lord?”
He damn well did. Even to his own hearing, William’s breath seemed uneven for a moment. “Do you know what I do to ladies who come uninvited to my home?”
Hell, he knew his actions would damn well scare her off, but it was necessary. He was not inclined to marry anytime soon, and a lady like Pippa would demand marriage. Whatever nonsense she had fashioned in her thoughts about him and her needed to be forgotten, by any means necessary.
“I suppose you ravish them,” she said with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. “I have not come for ravishment, hence why I brought a chaperone. I merely wanted to invite you to take me for a drive in Hyde Park in your new barouche.”
William couldn’t help laughing. “So you know of my new barouche, hmm?”
“I do. The scandal sheets thought it important to mention that it is gold lacquered.”
“Young ladies do not invite gentlemen to drive with them, Pippa.” He bit back a curse at her challenging smile.
She lightly trailed her finger over his jawline. “Come now, William, we have already established I am not like any lady you’ve ever met.”
He took her chin between his hands, silently cursing at the wonderful softness of her skin. Her lips parted and her eyes flicked to the open door once more.
“Do you think I care the door is open and your supposed chaperone or one of my servants could enter at any time?” he murmured, sliding a thumb across her lower lip.
She lurched away from him, stood, and hastened toward the door. Sensing she meant to close it, William went after her, grabbed her around the waist and pressed her against the wall. “I thought you delighted in taking risks,” he said, his teeth gently nipping at her ear.
The hitch of her breath flowed through him, and he closed his eyes on a breath of regret for having to teach her this lesson.
“I find you wildly attractive, Pippa,” he said softly. “In truth, I want you to know I cannot ever recall wanting another woman in my lifetime. That want is purely sexual, do you understand?”
“That is the point of a courtship,” she said raggedly, clutching at his shoulders. “To see if the wanting goes deeper and perhaps if we might want more.”
“I know I am not interested in marriage, and you are a lady a man marries. I would gladly take you as my lover, Pippa, but I can see the want for more in your eyes. I will not deceive you and make promises of more. I might be considered a rake about town by some, by God, but I have been honest with every lady I’ve interacted with.”
Her throat worked on a swallow, then she met his stare, a sweetly taunting smile touching her lush mouth. “Perhaps I am not afraid of being your lover, William…to decide on this is not only the purview of gentlemen. What men have done…we ladies can certainly do, hmm?”
Then the wicked little minx leaned forward and nipped him on his bottom lip.
Pippa feltfaint and flush and heated. She was scared and also excited. The duality of such sensations almost robbed her of breath. Or perhaps it was being pressed against the wall with the marquess’s powerful body pinning her in place, the threat of discovery in this scandalous position a real threat for the door remained ajar. And his golden eyes gleaming with dangerous want.
Worse, she suspected that if they were caught in this compromising state, he would not move to offer for her. Not that she would want him in such a manner. Nay, Pippa would only marry the Marquess of Trent if she fell in love with him, and if he in turn also fell gloriously in love with her. She was being far too daring with the wretched rogue, but she could not help herself. Since she had decided to live life to the fullest, Pippa had not allowed any form of society’s constraint to dictate her actions.
Still, she couldn’t escape the feeling that she might have gone too far in her reckless desire to be different from that shy girl a few years ago. “William,” she began raggedly, “I—”
Oh!He caught her words with his mouth and everything inside her surged toward him. She felt that the breath had been stolen from her lungs by his deep kisses. Sensations dropped low into her belly like fire, and it was with a dazed sense she felt her dress being dragged up to her thighs. William did not stop kissing her, and Pippa fell deeper and deeper under his sensuous spell. The touch of his fingers along her inner thigh wrenched another moan from her throat and he swallowed it down into his being. Those wicked fingers climbed even higher, and she pulled her mouth from his when he slipped a finger through her drawers and ran it along the curls covering her sex.
Pippa clutched his shoulders and stared up at him, her heart pounding and her body shaking. She bit her lip to hold back the whimper when he pushed his muscular thighs between hers and opened her legs. Pippa felt weak and feverish and utterly shocked and aroused.
“This is all I have to offer,” he said against her mouth. “Wicked debauchery, Pippa. A man like me is not for an innocent like you, hmm?”
He rubbed his fingers along her sex and she lurched to her toes, a wanton sound escaping from her and hissing in the space between them. His eyes had darkened to black, and the cords of his throat stood out in stark relief. It was then she felt the slight trembling in his frame, and a sense of awe whispered through her. Still perched atop her toes, she moved one of her hands around his neck, curling her fingers through the hair at his nape, and with the other hand she tenderly cupped his jaw.
