A Love So Dark (The Dark Regency Series Book 4) by Chasity Bowlin

here, I had quite a bit of time to consider the matter.”
    He grinned. “And what conclusions did you reach, wife?”
    Olympia looked away, unable to meet his gaze as she spoke. “That my ignorance is an impediment, and the longer I remain in ignorance the greater my fears and doubts will become.”
    “We shall endeavor to resolve your ignorance, but I will not come to your bed tonight,” he said.
    Olympia let out a breath she hadn’t even been aware she was holding. It was equal parts relief and disappointment. “I don’t understand.”
    He shoved away from the desk and stalked toward her, only stopping when they were toe to toe. She was forced to tip her head back to be able to look at him as he spoke.
    “When I come to your bed, it will not be about duty, or about submitting to your husband the way a wife should… when I come to your bed, Olympia, it will be because you wish for me to be there—because you need me to be there. It will be because I have done what a man ought to when he means to make a woman his lover.”
    “And what, pray tell, is that?” she asked.
    “I will have awakened you to passion…Slowly, reverently, and with all the skill that I possess. Desire, Olympia, is not something to be rushed, but rather is something to be fed over time, to be tended until it is lush and ripe.”
    There was no time to think or even process what he’d just said to her. He swooped in, his lips settling over hers in such a proprietary manner that she could do nothing but submit. And savor.
    Heat built within her, slow and steady. A soft languor settled into her body and forced her to simply sink against him. And then came the satisfaction when his arms closed about her, tightening until she was pressed completely against him. There was a strange choreography to what was happening between them, a give and take that allowed her to feel, even in her ignorance, that she was not entirely powerless. Every movement, every sound elicited a response from him. It was a heady feeling.
    The hardness of his body was a wonder to her, the firm press of his chest and his granite-like thighs. But there was something else, the hard and insistent ridge of his sex as it pressed against her belly.
    Yes, she was innocent, and there was much she did not know. But that was unmistakable. Suddenly she was no longer standing on her own two feet. Instead, he’d born her back against the bookshelves, lifting her until his thighs were nestled between her own. The hardness of him pressed between her thighs, and even through the layers of fabric that separated them, it was insistent, bold, and it beckoned to a part of her she’d never before recognized—an inner wanton that had been silent to that point.
    The kiss deepened, his tongue delving between her lips, sliding against hers in a way that shocked her. She had not thought to like it, but more than that, she was not prepared for the immediate craving for more. The taste of him was intoxicating. The feelings he invoked in her were beyond anything she’d ever experienced—heady, volatile. She felt reckless and bold. It was that which prompted her to kiss him back, to meet his questing tongue stroke for maddening stroke.
    Kissing, she soon realized, involved more than just the meeting of lips. It was the soft, slow stroke of his tongue, the sting of his teeth as he bit her lower lip. And there was a rhythm to it. Slow and easy would give way to fast and consuming. Soft touches would be replaced with demanding ones only to recede into gentleness again. She felt dizzy from it all, swept away into a realm where little mattered beyond the touch of his mouth to hers, the weight of his body against her, and the pressure of his hands as they tightened on her hips, drawing her even closer.
    Abruptly, he pulled back from her. His breath was a harsh rasp against her ear. He pressed his forehead to hers, apparently reluctant to let her go entirely.
    “Did I do something wrong?” she asked, bereft