Page 23 of His Scandalous Viscountess
She rose from the table and spun away from him, presenting her back. Her shoulders hunched over as she trembled. He stood as well, taking a step toward her, intent on offering comfort, but she straightened up and faced him.
“No. I’ve already told you: I shall not marry again for any reason but love.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say he didloveher, but he would not do so until he was absolutely certain. For one, she would never believe a declaration like that in the moment, not after making her stance so clear.Again.
And second, he wasn’t sure if he truly loved her, or if he simply needed to make reparations for his past sins. He refused to play her false ever again, and he needed time to figure out if his jumbled emotions were love or regret. She deserved that much, at least.
A woman like her, one so strong and confident, ought to be loved for herself alone, and not have it tainted by the past. If and when he was certain he could give her that, then and only then would he offer for her hand once more.
“As you wish. I shall not press the issue, though I still believe it would solve your pesky problem.”
She sighed and offered a sad smile. “It would no doubt end Wallthorpe’s incessant attempts to garner my hand in marriage, yes. But if I have learned nothing else in the last ten years, it’s that I wouldn’t be happy in a marriage of convenience—even to someone as handsome as you.”
Latching on to her compliment, he deliberately shifted the direction of their conversation. “Ah-ha! At least I know now that you aren’t refusing me because you think I’m an ogre.”
She laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Wolf.” She hesitated, but then stepped closer to him. “You know I have always found you attractive. I remember the first time I spotted you across a ballroom, after you returned home from school.”
“The Blakelys’ ball.”
His memory easily called up an all-too-familiar image of a red-haired goddess aglow in the candlelight. He’d been stunned to realize that the beauty who had instantly stolen his heart was his former playmate and best friend.
A small gasp escaped her—if he’d been further away from her, he might have missed it altogether, it was so soft. “You remember that?”
“Of course I do, Jules. You took my breath away back then. Allow me to return the favor.”
Not remember the Blakelys’ ball?It wasn’t possible. He repressed a snort. Ready to end the conversation, he swept her into his arms and captured her parted lips.
The faint sweetness of the red wine they’d had with dinner teased his senses as he plundered and explored her mouth. Never one to surrender control, she met him stroke for stroke, their tongues sliding sensuously together. She melted into him, her corseted breasts pressed against him, teasing him with their proximity.
Determined to suck on the tight buds of her nipples, he began working her dress open at the back. All the while, he continued to sip of her lips and savor the taste that was all her own. Once he finally had her gown loosened and gaping in front, he reached down and lifted one breast free of its confinement. There were too many more layers of clothing to get through to wait for the pleasure of sucking the tip of her breast. So as he continued loosening her clothing, he took her pebbled nipple into his mouth and drew on her succulent flesh.
She laced her fingers through his hair and moaned as he tugged on the sensitive point. When he finally had her corset loosened as well, she pulled his mouth from her breast and turned around.
“Finish undressing me. I want to feel your chest hair chafing my nipples as you kiss me, your skin hot against mine.”
She cast a sly smile over her shoulder as she waited for him to do as requested.
His already-hard cock seemed to grow even harder at her expression, as lust blew past all his restraints. With an efficiency he could only credit to his driving need to bury himself inside her, he quickly divested her of her clothes and all her underthings. Naked and unabashed by her natural state, she turned around, grabbed his jacket, and pulled it down his arms. As soon as he had one hand free of the garment, he was tugging at his necktie, while she finished removing his jacket. Then she was pushing his shirt up over his chest, until his skin was bared to her.
Her green eyes flared with heat as they shoved his shirt over his head together. By the time he had freed his hands once again, she had pressed her torso against his, and proceeded to rub against him like a cat. Any moment he expected her to start purring.
“Mmmm… I do love a man with chest hair.”
She even nuzzled his pecs with her nose.
After a few moments of simply holding her as she chafed her breasts against him, he groaned when she reached down and opened his trousers. He toed off his shoes, while his remaining clothes fell away from his body under her busy hands. Trembling with need, he stepped free from his pants and was about to scoop her up for another kiss when she immediately dropped to her knees and caressed his groin.
“Did you know Arab men remove their pubic hair?” she asked, as she tangled her fingers in the coarse hairs nestled at the base of his shaft.
His reply was strangled in his throat for a moment as she caressed his sac. “I did not.”
She took his length in a firm grip and stroked from base to tip. “They do. The practice has its merits, and its weaknesses.”
She flashed a smile at him and then took the tip in her mouth.
As the warm, wet heat of her mouth engulfed him, shivers chased over his body. Wolf was no stranger to all forms of pleasure, but when Jules sank down his shaft until he lodged in her throat and then swallowed, he nearly came. Taking control over the interlude, he shoved his fingers into her hair, causing pins to fall out as her coiffeur was dismantled from his rough handling. And then he withdrew until just the tip of his erection sat between her lips.
“Jules, look at me.”
