Valentine smiled. “I like it when you’re masterful.”
Despite the cold November chill in the air, he wasted no time doing as she asked. Stripping while she watched proved highly arousing. During the process, she devoured him with her bewitching brown eyes. Numerous times she glanced at the bulge in his breeches. Damn. His cock throbbed with the need to enter her tight body.
“Hmm.” She moistened her lips as she scanned every inch of him. “May I touch you?”
Bloody hell!
Was this a test?
Did she not know he was about to burst from his breeches?
“Madam, I am yours to command. Do with me what you wish.”
Miss Kendall bit down on her bottom lip as she crossed the carriage. In another move that pleased him as much as it surprised him, she came up on her knees and straddled his thighs. She reached out and placed her palms flat against the hard planes of his chest.
“Your heartbeat is pounding hard against my hand.”
Hell, his heart was not the only organ desperate to pound long and hard.
Valentine’s hands settled on her waist as he drew her further onto his lap until his swollen cock pressed against her most intimate place. “And can you feel that, Ava? My heart and my body are both keen to further our acquaintance.”
With a firm grip of her hips, he ground against her, watched in awe as her lips parted and her eyes glazed. The sweetest moan he had ever heard resonated in her throat.
Her hands moved to caress his chest. “You’re so hot, so hard.”
Valentine hummed. “Are you talking about my chest or the other part of my anatomy?”
Her cheeks flushed scarlet. “The muscles in your shoulders are as solid as marble.”
“During my time abroad, I learnt to protect myself in more ways than one. I might be the best shot amongst my peers, but I can fight just as well with my fists.”
“Unless your opponent is a monkey,” she countered as she bent her head and pressed kisses along his jaw. “Then a moral dilemma makes combat more difficult.”
Valentine closed his eyes and savoured the feel of her mouth as she moved to the sensitive skin on his neck. The tips of her fingers brushed over his nipples. Devil take him. If he was not mistaken, he was the one being seduced. And she was doing a remarkable job. Then again, she had boasted about being a woman with worldly experience.
“Speaking of moral dilemmas,” he said, sensing the restlessness inside her building. When she found her release, the sight would be spectacular. “I’ll not make love to you in a carriage, Ava.”
She sat up and looked at him. Doubt flashed in her eyes. “You won’t?”
“An hour is not long enough to pleasure you as you deserve.” And with the added jerking of the carriage, a man might miss the moment to withdraw. “And I’ll not have you walk the length of Park Street in a state of dishabille.”
He could have said that it was a sacred act, saved for their wedding night, but enlightened ladies of fortune did not marry, and he was not strong enough to resist this temptress. If they continued their friendship, it was only a matter of time before it reached the inevitable conclusion.
And yet he wanted more than a passionate liaison.
He wanted her.
That was all.
He wanted her in his life.
Permanently.
So why was he making it more complicated?
“I understand,” she said, reaching down to move her mouth across his in a kiss that spoke of abiding affection. “As a gentleman, you prefer that we were in bed.”
Hell no!