“When did I say you could call me by my given name? It’s dreadfully scandalous, you know.” She took another sip and dropped back into her chair.
“You are going to have a horrible headache tomorrow.”
“Good,” she said with another sip. “With any luck, I will be retching all over you in the coach. Perhaps that would make you turn back for London.”
Braden tilted his head back and laughed. “Let us hope you have no luck, then. I would prefer to have a vomitless trip.”
She sipped the rest of her brandy. Rising slowly from her chair, she released the pins holding her glorious red curls. “Perhaps there might be another way to convince you to stay here for a few more days.”
The drunken seductress. He had never met one he couldn’t push away . . . but as his cock rose tight against his breeches, he doubted his willpower. She approached him slowly. He wondered just how far she would take her act.
“So tell me, Middleton, what would it take?”
“You tell me, Tia? How far would you be willing to go?”
Slowly, she stripped off her elbow-length white gloves. “As far as it takes.” She strained to reach the three buttons on the back of her gown.
“Would you like some assistance?” he asked with a half-grin. He was playing a dangerous game with a woman whose mind was hazed from alcohol, and yet he couldn’t stop himself.
“ I have it.” She put her arms down and shook them out. She closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them with an overly bright smile. “I’m just a little dizzy.”
“Brandy will do that to you.”
She let the blue silk fall to the floor. “And what will you do for me?”
Bloody hell, the woman had a body made for a man’s touch. Her full breasts pushed up from the stays. Her nipples were already straining against the white cotton of her shift.
“You’re not moving,” she commented.
“No, I’m not.” He could barely move with his shaft so hard. “This is all up to you, Tia.”
Her erotic smile almost made him come. “Is it?”
He shouldn’t encourage her. A sane man would stop her now before things went too far. “Think long and hard before coming any closer. I cannot promise to be a gentleman.”
She giggled softly. “I have never heard you were a gentleman, my lord.” She took a step closer. “A rake. A defiler of innocents. That is what you are.”
“Never that,” he interjected.
“A man who takes whatever he wants.” She straddled his lap and innocently pressed herself against him. “A man who knows how to pleasure a woman,” she whispered near his ear.
“Now that I am,” he said closer to her ear before running his tongue along the outer shell. “I can bring a woman to the wondrous heights of a climax several times in one night.”
She shivered. “How wondrous?”
“Too wondrous for words.” He kissed the long length of her neck until she moaned softly. “Tell me the truth, Tia. Did you enjoy that brief kiss on the dance floor? Did it excite you? Did the idea of such a scandalous thing make you wet?”
Her head fell back as he moved his lips along her jaw. “Yes,” she whispered. “I hated you for it, though.”
“Good, you should have. But no one will see us here.” He cupped her cheeks with his hands and brought her lips to his. Perhaps he’d had too much brandy because he couldn’t remember the last time an innocent kiss made him react so passionately. He moved his hands to her back to press her soft breasts against his chest. The urge to rip her clothes off and take her right here was becoming the most important thing in his mind.
He should push her away. Even as he had that morally righteous thought, her mouth gaped, allowing him entrance to her mouth. It was something he took full advantage of, and with a swift movement his tongue brushed against hers.
Her soft moan undid him. Suddenly nothing else mattered except being deep inside her warmth, showing her the pleasure a woman could feel with a man. She tasted like brandy as her tongue wrestled with his for dominance. God, she would be a spirited lover. One who could give as well as take. And damned if he didn’t want her now.
Unable to stop himself, he lowered her shift until those beautiful breasts were exposed to the chill in the room. He pulled away from the allure of her lips to stare at her blue-veined breasts.
“How did that happen?” she said with a giggle, looking down at her exposed breasts.