Chapter Twenty-One
When Dominic entered Artemis’s bedchamber half an hour later, he found her alone, waiting for him in an armchair by the fire. And his heart began to beat double time as she greeted him with a knowing, feline smile and said his name in that rich voice of hers that never failed to stir him.
He adored her self-assurance. How unashamed she was.
She’d never looked so beautiful.
Her glorious auburn hair was unbound for once. It cascaded about her shoulders in wild disarray like a curtain of autumnal fire. She’d changed out of her evening finery into a robe of sky-blue satin, and as far as he could see, she wore nothing else. At all.
Thank God.If he’d had to deal with corsets and crinolines and bloody drawers again, he’d have gone mad.
His cock, which had already been at half-mast just at the idea of spending the night with Artemis, practically sprang to full attention beneath his loose silk trousers and banyan as he crossed the floor to the fireside. Their sexual encounter on the train had been nothing short of thrilling, but now that he’d a taste of Artemis in his arms, he wanted more. At long last,tonight, she would be completely naked and completely his, and he wouldn’t be satisfied until she was crying his name to the heavens.
She reached out a hand and he brought it to his lips. “You’ve been writing,” he observed and when she gave him a quizzical look, he added, “You have ink on your fingers. It wasn’t there at dinner.”
“Oh, yes…” To his surprise, she blushed. “I finished off a letter to one of my friends. You know, just filling in the time until you arrived.”
He lowered his voice. “I can think of more interesting ways to fill your time.”
“Only my time?” She arched a brow. “I hope you can fill more than that.”
“It will be my absolute pleasure to give you a complete demonstration.” He caught her other hand and drew her out of the chair. “But first things first…” He gently tugged at the tie securing her robe and it slowly slid undone. “We need to dispense with this.”
He raised his gaze to Artemis’s. “May I?” he asked as he reached for the blue satin lapels.
Her breathing had quickened and her brown eyes were dark with longing. “You may.”
Lust hurtling through his veins, Dominic pushed the robe off Artemis’s shoulders, and it slid with a whispered rush to the Turkish rug beneath her elegant bare feet.
“By God.” His voice was laced with awe as he fully absorbed Artemis’s naked beauty for the very first time. Every exquisite part of her was gilded by firelight. Her full breasts tipped with rosy nipples as delectable as raspberries, her slender waist flaring into generous hips. The smooth plane of her belly and the thatch of fiery curls at the apex of her thighs. Her long, shapely legs. “I’m speechless.”
“I’m pleased you like what you see,” she purred. Her hands lifted to his silk-clad shoulders. “Now your turn, Your Grace.”
She slid off his banyan and then smiled when she caught sight of the tented front of his trousers. The frank admiration in her gaze, combined with the light caress of her fingernails through his chest hair and then down the taut ridges of his abdomen, somehow made him even harder. “Actually, it seems to me that you like whatyousee. A lot.”
“Damn right I do.” Dominic caught her about the waist and pulled her flush against him. She was soft and warm with skin smoother than the satin robe he’d just removed. And the way her bare sex rubbed against his throbbing cock when he seized her delectable derriere and pressed her closer… Through the silk of his trousers, he could feel she was already wet, and he couldn’t wait to claim her in all the ways he’d been dreaming of for so long.
He captured her chin. “But I don’t just want to look at you. Let me show you how much I burn for you. How much I need you.” And then he kissed her.
It was a hot, hard, crushing kiss, and as his mouth ruthlessly plundered hers, he pushed a hand into her unbound hair, gripping the back of her head. He wanted her breathless and moaning and weak at the knees. He wanted her to feel just as lust-ridden and desperate as he was.
And perhaps she was already. Artemis clutched his bare shoulders and kissed him back with an urgency that matched his own. Her sweetly tart tongue tangled with his, and she ground herself against him, writhing her hips as though she couldn’t wait for him to be inside her.
He coaxed her to the floor, encouraging her to lie on the rug, and then his body covered hers. He wanted to taste her everywhere. Touch her everywhere.
His mouth slid to her jaw, and he laved the sweet hollow behind her ear. Traced the shell-like curves with his tongue. He scraped his teeth along her neck, then rained hot, feverish kisses across her shoulder and lower until he reached her breasts. And then he feasted and gorged upon those plump, sweet mounds and their ripe, rude peaks, tugging and sucking and licking and relentlessly tormenting her flesh until Artemis was moaning and arching and twisting beneath him with mindless abandon.
But it wasn’t enough. He wanted Artemis rendered boneless. He wanted her pleasure-soaked cries and frantic gasps. Despite his own fierce need—his ballocks were aching and his cock was already leaking seed—he pressed on. This passionate onslaught was far from over.
He dragged his mouth down her torso and across the soft, silken plane of her stomach. His tongue dipped into the hollow of her belly button and traced the outline of each hip bone.
And then he moved lower and feathered kisses across the tangle of red curls hiding her sex. Glancing up the length of her body, he caught her heat-filled gaze. “Open for me, Artemis. Let me taste your sweet honey.”
She complied without hesitation, spreading her thighs, and Dominic immediately wedged his shoulders between them. Her glistening sex was on full display, and the musky scent of her arousal surrounded him in a sensual cloud, making his mouth water and his blood pound.
She gently rolled her hips in blatant invitation. “Don’t be cruel, Dominic. Don’t make me wait,” she whispered huskily.
“Shhh,” he murmured, sliding his finger through her nectar, spreading it along each plump fold and then up to the pearl of her clitoris. “I’m enjoying the view.”