Page 34 of To Break the Rules

“I was striving to be on my best behaviour,” he said, looking a little sheepish, though there was a glint in his eyes. “I am happy to continue to take liberties, Lucia, believe me. I need little encouragement.”

“You need no encouragement at all,” she replied with a tart smile that only made him grin wider.

“True.”

He chuckled and crossed the room to stand before her, taking her hand. Suddenly Lucia wasn’t so sure she hadn’t been right to consider escaping via the window as his large hands encompassed hers, trapping it between them. They were warm and rough, calloused from years of hard work, and they sent a shiver of pure pleasure rolling over her skin.

Winded, she looked up at him, trying to find some acerbic comment, something to cut him down to size, to make him look foolish and uncouth, but… but she got caught in eyes the colour of the indigo flowers she’d dreamed of so often.

“Lucia,” he said, her name a soft breath upon his lips.

For a moment she wanted to correct him, to give him the name given her as a girl, but she didn’t. Couldn’t.

He reached out and one of those hands rose to her face, to trace the curve of her jaw, the featherlike touch making her shiver again, longing coursing through her.

Stop it, she told herself. Stop wanting what you can’t have. It’s impossible.

Yet it didn’t seem impossible, not with him standing so close to her, touching her with such reverence. It seemed inevitable, inescapable, and she raised her head, answering the unspoken question in his eyes.

He lowered his mouth and she gasped at the first press of his lips against hers. She was unstable, her senses rocked, that fleeting touch enough to scatter her thoughts, her ambitions. It made her wonder what life might be like if she had taken another path.

His hands went to her waist, sliding around her back as he pulled her closer and she moved to him without protest. She clutched at his lapels as her balance seemed uncertain, her knees not as willing to support her as usual.

“Beautiful Lucia,” he murmured, pressing kisses to the corner of her mouth, her jaw, hot little touches of his mouth against her throat as her breath became erratic. His lips returned to hers, his tongue a shocking surge of heat against her as he licked into her mouth.

She made an innocent sound of surprise but did not push him away, too intrigued to stop him, to ask what he was doing. He would show her, she thought, with a rather hysterical bubble of laughter rising in her chest.

He did show her, illustrating the delicious slide and caress she did her best to imitate as her body came alive. Well, this was the danger Dharani had always warned her of. She’d said Anna-Marie lived for this, for this feeling.

“It’s dangerous, Aashini. Men make too many promises they can’t keep.”

She’d ignored Dharani’s warning once before, only to discover how right she was, but that time had been nothing like this….

Those kisses had been pale, insipid, nothing compared to his.

It was like comparing a warm spring day in Norfolk to the searing heat of Calcutta, a heat so intense you felt it could peel the skin from your bones like the flesh from a roasted fish.

Maybe Anna-Marie was onto something.

He kissed until she was dazed and giddy, and then he held her, saying nothing, just holding her close, as though he could do so all day. Forever. How she wanted him to!

It was the strangest thing, just being still in his arms. Her head rested on his chest, the fine cloth of his coat soft beneath her cheek. One hand still clutched at his lapel, the other lay against his chest, tracing patterns on his silken waistcoat. Just for a moment she felt safe, cherished, instead of like a fallen leaf tossed about on the breeze, always at the will of others, never settling, with nothing solid to cling to, no roots to anchor her.

“I would like you to trust me, Lucia,” he said, the sincerity of his words making her close her eyes against the anguish that burned there, hot tears she refused to allow, stinging.

The moment of peace and happiness had passed, as she’d known it would. She’d not get it back again. Time to move on.

“Trust you with what?” she said with a false little laugh, giving him the benefit of a raised eyebrow as she tried to move away from him, as though he was merely flirting and not offering her more.

His arms tightened around her, his gaze on her with an expression which dared her to make light of his words.

Silly man, of course she dared.

“With my heart, perhaps?” she said with a teasing lilt. “Or were you thinking of my maidenhead? What price are you offering?”

A flash of anger and hurt heated the blue of his gaze.

“Don’t do that,” he said, his fingers hard upon her now. “Don’t pretend you think I’m insulting you when you know I am not, would not. I admitted I was wrong, terribly wrong, and I wish I had never spoken so.”