Well, yes. In bed, he could lavish her body from head to toe.
“I have no qualms making love to you here.” He was not a prude. “I am merely thinking of you.” He could be wild and rampant like the best of rakes. He could bend her over the seat and thrust until dawn. The thought sent another rush of blood to his cock.
“I understand,” she reiterated. “The first time can be unpleasant I’m told.”
“Unpleasant?” Valentine snorted. “For you, love, I would make everything perfect.”
It took a moment to absorb what she had said. He had been so focused on the latter part of the sentence that he had missed the crucial part. Clearly, lust played havoc with a man’s mind.
“The first time?” he said, repeating her words.
A nervous smile touched her lips. “Yes. Enlightened ladies often embrace such things as part of being progressive. But surely it is not wrong to treasure one’s virginity.” She sounded defensive.
Valentine scoured his mind, trying to find the reasons why he thought she had already taken a lover. “But you said you were in love once.” That thought stabbed at his heart. “You said you knew the difference between the moans of pleasure and pain. From the way you kissed me, I assumed—”
“I said I thought I knew love. I did not say I had partaken in sexual relations with a man.”
“And so I would be your first?” he clarified. His heart swelled at the prospect.
“Most definitely,” she snapped. “You’re the only man who has ever roused a deep passion. You’re the only man I could take as a lover.”
As a lover?
Not a husband then?
“Then permit me to seduce you properly. Perhaps you might join me at home tomorrow evening for dinner.” He would explore her mind, and later her body. He would pleasure her until she could not live without him. “I have a huge bed with more than ample room for two.”
She hesitated. “If you wish to entertain me at home, you will have to think of a way I may enter unnoticed.”
“Trust me. I will think of something.”
Chapter Twelve
“I could always wear gentlemen’s clothes tomorrow evening,” Ava suggested. Excitement tickled her stomach as she imagined entering his private domain. There was something to be said for recklessness. “I know you cringe whenever you find me wearing them, but you seemed to like the feel of my silk waistcoat tonight.”
Valentine dragged his shirt over his head, and Ava almost groaned in protest. “Madam, I am still trying to come to terms with the fact I cannot have you right now. Must you remind me that there is nothing but two fine layers of material covering your modesty?”
Ava smiled. The flames of passion still danced in his eyes. The look held her spellbound. As did the knowledge that she cared so much for this man, she would permit him anything.
The air in the carriage was still charged with excitable energy. Numerous times, she imagined kissing him and letting events take their natural course. When two people shared such a powerful attraction, nothing could keep them apart.
“I could sit and watch you dress and undress all night,” she said. Desire still thrummed through her veins, too.
He wrapped his cravat around his neck and tied it into a simple knot. “Trust me. Tomorrow we shall have plenty of time to fulfil our fantasies.”
As she watched him button up his waistcoat and shrug into his coat, it occurred to her that Lucius Valentine was not the sort of man to bed an innocent—not without making a declaration. In a moment of insecurity, she might have concocted a
story in her head, one that made her feel inadequate, inferior. The tale would spin out of control, fed by her one and only experience with an evil man determined to have his wicked way.
But it was not that way with Valentine.
A man did not give away a prized heirloom to save a lady the pain of parting with hers if he didn’t care. And so she would embrace the passion they shared in the hope it would blossom into something lasting.
She loved him.
Perhaps one day he might learn to love her, too. If not, she would have to be thankful that she had experienced a glimmer of the love her parents shared.
“We’re approaching Mount Street,” Valentine said, dragging her from her musings. “I cannot let you walk the length of Park Street alone.”