Page 52 of Broken

“What is wrong with you?” Lilly’s gray eyes searched his and Giles found it hard to breathe. She looked sincerely worried for his health. Precious angel—if she knew the real reason, she wouldn’t look so concerned.

He tugged her toward the drawing room where he hoped no servants awaited. Luck was with him—the room was bare of servant chaperones. He closed the door behind him and locked it for good measure. “You are so very lovely, Lilly, and you must know I want you badly. “It is not easy to resist your charms, but I am trying to behave,” Giles confessed with apprehension. This level of honesty was a surefire way of scaring her off again.

“Why?”

Giles laughed and the pressure in his trousers lessened. “Angel, you say the most astonishing things.”

Lilly laughed with him but settled her hands on his chest. Of their own accord, his hands curled around her back and slid downwards.

“You look like you want to kiss me again,” she whispered.

The blue muslin didn’t hide the warmth of her derrière, or the lush curve of her hip. “True.”

“Actually, I think you want to do more than kiss me.” Lilly teased him, flirting. The thought was so provoking that he lost a little more control over his libido.

“True as well,” Giles sighed and pressed his lips to hers lightly. “You are not making this easy for me.”

“You prefer things to be easy. You don’t like complications.” Lilly pulled out of his embrace and walked a few steps away.

Giles followed along behind. “I…don’t know what I want when it comes to you, Lilly. But I do know I don’t want to upset you again.”

Lilly picked up a deck of cards and handed them to him over her shoulder. The way her head turned to him, the angle of her neck beckoned, and he lowered his lips to kiss her skin.

He didn’t wander farther and clutched the cards tightly in his fist to keep at least one hand under control. Lilly angled her neck and he nibbled her earlobe.

She moaned. “Will you come to me tonight?”

Giles swallowed and tried to think of a reason to refuse. He didn’t want to refuse. He pressed a lingering kiss behind her ear. “I shouldn’t.”

“I want you to,” Lilly said hesitantly.

He turned her and gave in to the urge to kiss her properly. He deepened the kiss as soon as her lips parted, teasing her tongue, invading her warmth, and drowning his senses in the rightness of her lips.

Lilly sighed when their lips parted, as if she was as consumed by passion as he. He allowed his hands to caress lower and he gripped the firm swells of her bottom possessively, feeling her smile around his kisses. As their tongues brushed and played, Lilly pushed her hands up around his neck and held him tightly.

“Teach me to play,” Lilly whispered between kisses.

“Whist or something else?” Giles murmured before he caught her earlobe with his teeth.

Lilly squirmed in his arms, brushing against his groin with less innocence than he expected. “Something else.”

Giles froze, pretty sure they were thinking about the same thing. “Are you sure you want that?”

“I’m sure I want you.”

Giles pushed her away, but held her head with one hand at her nape. He dragged in several deep breaths before he spoke, readying himself to be a gentleman and back away. “Even if it’s not forever?”

Lilly nodded. “Even a single night can be enough.”

Giles locked every muscle in place lest he launch himself at her bodily. Blood roared in his ears, drowning out the world around them. All he could hear was Lilly’s panting breaths. All he could see was her face flushed by desire. “It’s too early to go to bed yet and hope to fool the servants.”

“Then teach me to play whist to pass the time,” Lilly suggested, appearing surprised that the most decadent pleasure-seeker in London was quaking in his boots.

How little she knew him. He felt unbalanced for the first time in a decade around a beautiful woman. He was drowning in the unfamiliar waters of a different kind of lust. Different, better, and far stronger than anything he’d known before.

And all because of Lilly, the one woman he hadn’t imagined feeling anything for. She could have been his wife once. A woman he’d have bedded to do his duty to produce an heir, but little else beyond. Arranged marriages had never been about love. Tolerance, perhaps, and hoped-for affection.

What he felt for Lilly at this moment defied his considerable experience. “All right,” Giles said after a pause. “But no more kisses till later.”