wasn’t.
“You know I have no idea what you mean.” She said the words softly but an unexpected heat raced through her body and she regarded his dark beauty with as dispassionate an eye as possible. Unfortunately, an understanding of why so many women had graced his bed became clearer by the passing moment, and it wasn’t just his masculine appeal.
Fair trade
.
He was…not just polite but genuinely considerate. Other than their initial exchange in which he was suspicious—understandably so; she’d been suspicious too—of why they were locked in together, he’d always been thoughtful and solicitous, though she knew thestrain of forced idleness was difficult for a man more used to action.
If he’d changed his mind on staying a gentleman that was no doubt her fault.
“Demonstrate in what way?” she asked when he didn’t speak, but she instinctively knew the answer. It involved that scandalous bed and liberties she should definitely deny him.
And her heart had begun to flutter in a particularly unruly manner.
When he reached across the small table and took her hand, her pulse began to truly race. His fingers were long, strong, and entirely masculine, and the way he looked at her when they clasped hers made her feel as if she were suddenly transfixed by some magic spell.
Ran said softly, “You are right. No one will ever know what happens here between us. Not what we talk about, not what we do…You can depart from here with your virginity intact and, meanwhile, we have nothing but time.” His voice dropped in timbre. “And I think you are very beautiful.”
His libertine status gave her pause, of course, but it was fleeting. The potent pull of attraction he’d described was there. As much as she would like to be known as the one female who did not find the Raven as darkly seductive as everyone else, she did.
From that first moment when she woke to find him sprawled next to her.
She shouldn’t.
But, then again, her future involved a dutiful marriage to a man she knew only from stilted drawing room conversations, and the discussion she and Ran had just haddidn’t present arrangements like what awaited her in the best light.
“I…I don’t know anything,” she faltered.
Rising, he tugged her with him, coming around the small table and drawing her close because he still held her hand, and placed a persuasive palm at the small of her back, bringing her up against his hard body. “You don’t have to know.” He lowered his head and his breath brushed her lips. “I know enough for the both of us.”
That
she believed and would have tartly said so, but he kissed her.
There, as the rainbow shadows lengthened, Lord Andrews gave her the first kiss of her life, his mouth firm and warm. The contact was light and then deepened as their lips clung, parting briefly, and he pulled her even closer and kissed her again.
Deeply.
Shockingly.
Perfectly
.
When a true rake kisses a virgin, she discovered, it was a moving experience if he puts some effort into it. Or so logic told her, but logic was hardly in charge as her hands tightened on his arms and she let her eyes drift shut. When he lightly traced her lower lip with the tip of his tongue and she stiffened, he murmured against her mouth, “It’s just a kiss, my sweet. Relax. I won’t ravish you, I give you my word. I just want to taste you. Surely others have tried, but I am honored to be the first to succeed. May I?”
Once or twice she’d been invited for a moonlit terrace stroll, but she wasn’t that foolish, nor was her father that permissive. But it was still mortifying he could tell she’d never done this before.
Perhaps this wasn’t the time to think of her austere father,who would be furious to know of her permissive behavior, clad in only a thin robe, pressed up against the notorious Andrews.
That thought actually steadied her, made her tilt her head back and allow her lips to part. Not because she knew her father would be aghast, but
“You know I have no idea what you mean.” She said the words softly but an unexpected heat raced through her body and she regarded his dark beauty with as dispassionate an eye as possible. Unfortunately, an understanding of why so many women had graced his bed became clearer by the passing moment, and it wasn’t just his masculine appeal.
Fair trade
.
He was…not just polite but genuinely considerate. Other than their initial exchange in which he was suspicious—understandably so; she’d been suspicious too—of why they were locked in together, he’d always been thoughtful and solicitous, though she knew thestrain of forced idleness was difficult for a man more used to action.
If he’d changed his mind on staying a gentleman that was no doubt her fault.
“Demonstrate in what way?” she asked when he didn’t speak, but she instinctively knew the answer. It involved that scandalous bed and liberties she should definitely deny him.
And her heart had begun to flutter in a particularly unruly manner.
When he reached across the small table and took her hand, her pulse began to truly race. His fingers were long, strong, and entirely masculine, and the way he looked at her when they clasped hers made her feel as if she were suddenly transfixed by some magic spell.
Ran said softly, “You are right. No one will ever know what happens here between us. Not what we talk about, not what we do…You can depart from here with your virginity intact and, meanwhile, we have nothing but time.” His voice dropped in timbre. “And I think you are very beautiful.”
His libertine status gave her pause, of course, but it was fleeting. The potent pull of attraction he’d described was there. As much as she would like to be known as the one female who did not find the Raven as darkly seductive as everyone else, she did.
From that first moment when she woke to find him sprawled next to her.
She shouldn’t.
But, then again, her future involved a dutiful marriage to a man she knew only from stilted drawing room conversations, and the discussion she and Ran had just haddidn’t present arrangements like what awaited her in the best light.
“I…I don’t know anything,” she faltered.
Rising, he tugged her with him, coming around the small table and drawing her close because he still held her hand, and placed a persuasive palm at the small of her back, bringing her up against his hard body. “You don’t have to know.” He lowered his head and his breath brushed her lips. “I know enough for the both of us.”
That
she believed and would have tartly said so, but he kissed her.
There, as the rainbow shadows lengthened, Lord Andrews gave her the first kiss of her life, his mouth firm and warm. The contact was light and then deepened as their lips clung, parting briefly, and he pulled her even closer and kissed her again.
Deeply.
Shockingly.
Perfectly
.
When a true rake kisses a virgin, she discovered, it was a moving experience if he puts some effort into it. Or so logic told her, but logic was hardly in charge as her hands tightened on his arms and she let her eyes drift shut. When he lightly traced her lower lip with the tip of his tongue and she stiffened, he murmured against her mouth, “It’s just a kiss, my sweet. Relax. I won’t ravish you, I give you my word. I just want to taste you. Surely others have tried, but I am honored to be the first to succeed. May I?”
Once or twice she’d been invited for a moonlit terrace stroll, but she wasn’t that foolish, nor was her father that permissive. But it was still mortifying he could tell she’d never done this before.
Perhaps this wasn’t the time to think of her austere father,who would be furious to know of her permissive behavior, clad in only a thin robe, pressed up against the notorious Andrews.
That thought actually steadied her, made her tilt her head back and allow her lips to part. Not because she knew her father would be aghast, but
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