Page 52 of Cocky August Rake

Rose had undressed before men countless times. Slowly. Artfully. Calculating exactly how much each revealed inch was worth.

This felt different.

“Because it is,” a little voice taunted in the back of her mind.

She ignored the taunt.

Because the most captivating man she’d ever known was on his knees, staring up, staring into her eyes.

Her fingers trembled when she lifted them to the last ties. For a moment, the gossamer fabric clung to her breasts, her waist, her hips. Then it floated down, joining everything else at her feet.

Rose stood before him in silk stockings and garters.

And nothing else.

The air crackled and if felt like lightning could strike between them.

But then he blinked and focused. His gaze moved over her body in a way that she swore she could actually feel.

Her bare breasts. The curve of her waist. The soft swell of her belly. The golden curls between her thighs.

She pressed her thighs together before she could stop them.

Lord Reginald saw that too.

When his breath finally left him slowly, it was as though he’d taken a blow.

“Rose,” he said.

Only her name.

“You see then, do you not? How it excites me to see the want in your eyes?”

“Yes.”

She waited just a few seconds before trailing her fingertips over her belly.

“Kiss me then,” she said. “Here.”

He edged forward on his knees. And keeping his hands down at his sides, he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to her navel.

There was no hiding the shiver that followed.

“Lower,” Rose said.

He complied, trailing his mouth to the spot just above the soft little triangle at her apex.

Rose reached forward, grasping his arms, sliding down to guide his hands. “Here.”

When his palms gripped the soft flesh of her behind, her knees nearly buckled.

“I won’t let you fall,” he said, gripping the backs of her thighs now.

He inhaled against her, long and deep, and the sound that left him was almost a groan.

“I dreamed about tasting you.”

He’d dreamed too…?