Page 47
“Nathaniel, it’s dangerous, you could get seriously hurt.”
He came closer to her. She became very much aware of his proximity, the scent of male musk and his cologne, a combination so intoxicating she wanted to smear it all over her body.
He cupped her face. “Would you prefer me to go back to a wealthy duchess lover who used to shower me with gifts?”
She felt the blood drain from her face.
He chuckled softly with an edge of self-deprecation in his expression. “Oh yes, Calliope, that is how low I fell to provide for my sisters. My father was wrong. I wasn’t completely worthless. This pretty face and my gentleman’s charms weren’t for nothing.”
She swallowed. “Nathaniel—”
“You asked if I went to courtesans? I was a courtesan myself, darling. What else would you call someone who pleased wealthy, powerful women in bed for the gifts they could bestow upon me?”
He was quite ashamed of that. She could see it in his eyes. Her heart ached with empathy for him. “You will never have to do that again. You have me now.”
His eyes blazed with heat as he slowly took in her face, her neck, her whole body, as though studying a completely new territory. “Quite right, darling. I have you. I have not seen anyone else from the moment my eyes fell upon you.”
With that, he took her face in both hands and kissed her.
As his lips touched hers, heat swept through her, chasing away the goose bumps.
The kiss…the heavenly, beautiful kiss. His lips brushed and teased hers, coming together in delicious strokes, pulling apart, then returning. It was as though he was drinking from her, and yet the more he drank the thirstier he got. Her head was spinning, her body going limp and so, so warm. Every breath she took brought her more of his incredible scent.
She could do nothing but wrap her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer to him. She was burning, and he was her only salvation.
Her breasts became heavy and achy, and she felt a delicious clenching inside. Maybe this would be fine. He wouldn’t laugh at her. He had told her he’d wanted her since the moment he saw her…
He’d probably said that to those duchesses he’d bedded, too, but this would be fine. He knew what he was doing.
“What is it, love?” he asked as he leaned back, breaking the kiss, his eyes dark. “I feel you tense. Are you still cold?”
She swallowed. “I’m not cold. I’m quite warm.”
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, looking her over.
She tried to contain her breath. “I don’t know.”
“If you ever want me to stop, just say the word and I will.” He swallowed hard. He looked almost pained. “But I pray to the heavens you don’t.”
Then he was back to her lips, making her quite breathless again. His arms wrapped around her, bringing her to him like an iron vise. He picked her up, hooking one arm down under her knees and one under her back. Calliope gasped from surprise and from the feeling of weightlessness. It was a sweet pleasure, to feel small and fragile in the arms of this beautiful man.
He laid her on the bed and returned to kissing her. His lips went down her neck, and when he was close to that damned spot William had pinched, she stilled. But as though having sensed that, he didn’t touch it, but continued, making his way down to the ovals of her breasts protruding from the top of her bodice. His kisses left delightful, burning sensations of desire.
She squirmed when he lifted one breast from her corset with a satisfied murmur. Calliope sucked in air.
“Nathaniel!” she panted.
How could she be so terrified and yet aroused at the same time?
“What a beautiful breast, darling,” he murmured, and then, just like in one of those books, he leaned his face towards her and licked.
Calliope cried out as delicious fire rushed through her.
“Do you like this?” he asked, but without waiting for her answer, he lowered his head and took her nipple in his mouth completely, sucking it. The tugging sent pulses of desire through her, darting right into the apex of her thighs. She was all hot and achy there, and she brought her thighs together, trying to satisfy that ache.
“Oh, you do like this,” he said as he stopped his heavenly torture of her breast and looked at her thighs. Then he looked up with hooded eyes and a half smile.
She swallowed, breathing hard. Was he smiling because he was enjoying himself…because he liked her…or because somehow she was embarrassing herself?
