Page 40 of Desperately Seeking Seduction

There was a time and place to let down her guard. This was that moment. Tomorrow, she’d be gone. She would never have this chance again to be how she’d been born. “Undress me.”

“Winston,” he said in a tone that sounded like a warning.

“I mean it. I want to be kissed by you, and if removing my garments is the only way you can feel comfortable doing so again, well…” She shrugged, her stomach quaking. “It must be done.”

He chuckled softly. “I said I shouldn’t kiss you when you look like me, not that I wouldn’t want to.”

He pulled her tighter into his arms, driving her backward toward his large bed. She could feel his hands on her back where they lingered over the bindings around her chest. Men seem inordinately obsessed with breasts, she’d noticed. And suddenly she wanted to be free of restrictions, to feel Stratford’s hands and lips on her breasts to discover what all the fuss was about.

Winston fumbled with the buttons on her waistcoat.

“Wait,” Stratford whispered. “The door.”

“Locked already,” she assured him.

He groaned and ran his hands up and down her back briskly. “You definitely are my kind of woman.”

“Don’t call me that,” she hissed, nearly dancing in her eagerness to get on with their seduction of each other.

He chuckled softly in her ear and then kissed it. “Do you object to compliments, Win?”

“The compliment is fine, but the description is problematic, given I’m wearing the guise of your valet.”

“You are a woman in all the places that count to me,” he assured her. His hips pressed against hers, and she felt his arousal prodding her. “In a moment, you won’t be wearing any clothing, only a smile as luminous as your wore at sunrise.”

Sunrise with a man between her legs, making her squirm and cry out in pleasure with his tongue lapping at her. Now she would be bare in his arms, with no barriers left between them at all. No modesty, no impediments to any lovemaking. She wanted that—and yet she had a moment of doubt. Lovemaking frequently led to child-making. Winston could not leave Stratford, only to discover later that she’d become pregnant by him. She’d not be able to live as a gentleman then and earn her way in the world. A rounded belly wouldn’t fool anyone much beyond a fleeting glimpse.

She put her hand on his chest. Holding him back momentarily, trying to work out how to tell him.

“Just kisses again,” he promised in a whisper. “We’ll lie together on my bed and explore each other fully with only with our hands and lips and tongues. I’m not ready for fatherhood, either.”

She nodded quickly, grateful he’d understood her hesitation and felt the same. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t curious about everything possible between a man and woman now. That morning’s lovemaking had been divine until the moment she’d feared they’d been seen. There had also been a furtiveness about their lack of undressing, too.

She moved to undo one button on her waistcoat, but Stratford’s hand covered hers. Holding her still. “Let’s not rush this moment of surrender.”

She nodded and relaxed even more into his embrace. Stratford knew what he was doing, and he also knew how inexperienced she really was. She’d only just had her first climax after all, thanks to him.

She gave herself up to wherever her emotions took her. He helped her out of her coat and urged her to lay down with her head on his pillow.

She watched him remove his coat and for a change, he carefully laid it across the back of a chair. His waistcoat and shirt ended up there neatly, too, and that amused her. “I appreciate you not making more work for me later.”

His smile was immediate. “I aim to please.”

“You do. Please me, I mean. As a lover. As an employer, however, you can be rather frustrating,” she told him.

“Deliberately, to get a rise out of you,” he whispered, grinning despite her criticism. He sat beside her hip and captured her fingers. “We will have to be cautious carrying on our affair,” he whispered.

“I understand,” she whispered back, but there would be no continuation tomorrow.

“It will be easier when we return to London together,” he promised.

She looked at him in shock. “London?”

“There are fewer people in Ravenswood House, and far more opportunities for us to have fun together elsewhere, too. There are any number of scandalous places two gentlemen might visit together after dark and no one will think twice about it.”

Winston stilled momentarily. Stratford spoke of a long future as her lover, but that could not be. Even a future that promised the continuation of the pleasures she was only just discovering could never be considered. Her father was just down the hall. “We can discuss it later.”

“Yes,” he said, leaning over her. “We will have all the time in the world soon.”