Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [66]
He nuzzled her neck. “He did not teach you much, did he?”
It took a heroic effort to push aside the haze enough to comprehend what he said. Since he did not stop caressing her, it took even longer to consider why he might have said it, and at such a moment.
He kissed her and did something with his tongue and mouth that seemed an invitation. She understood then. Feeling incredibly wanton and relieved that his probing gaze had been about something so simple, she tried to kiss him the way he had kissed her.
No, she had not been taught much, but in the minutes that followed she had her first lesson in expressing her passion more mutually. She became an active agent in stoking this risky fire, but it made her heady with power and impressed by her own audacity. She even ventured a kiss to his neck and tentatively slid her hand beneath his waistcoat.
Moving now, in a flowing weightlessness, as he carried her to that sultan’s bed and laid her among the silk pillows. He looked down while he stripped off his cravat, then his waistcoat and shirt. She closed her eyes because he frightened her a little, the way he looked at her.
You are a fool to trust him. You know he will not stop. Better men would not, and he is proud of his sins.
Whatever power that inner voice had was defeated in the next moment. He joined her on that chaise longue and took control of her with one masterful kiss and one devastating caress.
With the way he embraced her, there was nothing to do but embrace him back. His warmth surrounded her, encompassed her, and the sensation of his skin, of the hard shoulders and back beneath her hands, entranced her. She caressed as if by instinct, and it increased the intensity and heat like her kisses had.
He released her. Turned her. Her dress loosened. Then the stays she had sensibly worn. Fabric slid off her shoulders and down her body until her breasts were naked.
He turned her again, and she tried to cover herself with her arms. He moved her shields away so nothing protected her from his gaze. While he looked, the fabric slid lower yet, making her gasp from shock and arousal and the feel of the breeze. Then she gasped again, as his hand moved down her nakedness and removed her dress and chemise entirely.
She dared not look at herself or him. She could barely contain what this did to her, this exposure and vulnerability. Real fear moved in her, but so did powerful desire that made her shake.
Then he no longer touched her at all. He moved, and she opened her eyes to see him stretched out next to her, his head resting on his hand while he looked at her. His other hand placed the small box with the ear bobs between her naked breasts.
“Put them on for me.”
She knelt so she could fasten them correctly, sensing as she did that she had just ceded some vital ground, even though she did not know what it was.
The ear bobs were not heavy or overlong. She screwed the backs until they held. Castleford rose up on his arm to get a better view of them. And her.
His hand touched one of her ears, then moved down. He fondled her breast. Torturous pleasure poured down low in her, tantalizing her in the worst way.
“They are the only jewels for you,” he said. “You are perfect in diamonds. Exquisite. Beguiling.” He kissed her ear, then her chest, then bent and kissed her breast. His tongue flicked on its tip, and a shock shot through her. “Now do as I do, so we both know some relief this day.”
He knelt tall and worked the fastenings on his lower garments. Astonished anew, but too far gone to care, she fell back on the cushion while he removed them entirely.
He knelt there, looking down, those golden flecks in his eyes so dangerous now. They mesmerized her, and she knew, just knew, what he wanted her to do. She wanted it too, so she did not even feel shy when she stretched out her arm and touched his naked chest. She allowed herself the pleasure of watching her hand move over him, over the hard ridges of his muscles and the soft smoothness of his skin, over his taut stomach and around the tight swell of his rear