for living, her spontaneity, her endearing high spirits, delighted him down to his soul.
It was remarkable, the bond he felt with her after such a short acquaintance. Marcus’s younger sister Eleanor was the only other woman who’d ever engendered such sentiment in him. And in truth, Lily acted toward him much the way Eleanor did, as if he were her older brother, her demeanor friendly and platonic.
Heath intended to change that very shortly, but he relished the feeling, in large part because it reminded him so much of his closest friends. He had distant relatives still living, but no immediate family, yet he thought of Marcus and Drew as his brothers. He cherished the bond he’d shared with them over the years. The joys and sorrows, the camaraderie, the friendship.
He would greatly miss that closeness now that they had each found brides. But seeing their happiness made him wonder what he could have with Lily.
If she were his wife, he would be able to spar with her regularly, to laugh with her, to tease her and provoke her and challenge her as he was doing now. And he could have her in his bed. It was highly pleasurable to imagine awakening with her beside him every morning, making love to her slowly and thoroughly…
He wanted to take her right now, Heath thought, gazing down into her laughing eyes. She was so utterly desirable, he wanted to bury his hands in her lustrous hair and back her against the wall and make a delectable feast of her.
But he would not allow himself. He didn’t want a hurried affair; he wanted Lily for his wife. More crucially, a careless seduction would surely wound her, no matter how it might assuage the stinging needs of his body. And then there was her reputation to consider. Lily had lived under a cloud of scandal for years, and he wouldn’t make it worse for her.
No, he intended to leave her a virgin until she was his bride. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use passion to persuade her to accept his hand in marriage. He wanted more than her surrender, however. He wanted her to know the blissful pleasure that could exist between a man and a woman…
Heath didn’t realize he had gone still until Lily looked up at him quizzically. “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all. But it is time for your next lesson.”
“What lesson?” she asked, her expression suddenly a bit wary.
Not replying at once, Heath stepped toward her and took her foil from her, then set both rapiers down on a side table. When he returned to stand before her, the need to have his arms filled with her was almost overwhelming.
“I mean to teach you about arousal,” he said as he drew Lily against him.
Her breath catching audibly, she raised her hands to push against his shoulders, but Heath refused to release her.
“Have I mentioned that seeing you in those breeches makes my imagination run riot? I’m afraid it has had the opposite effect than the one you intended.”
“What effect has it had?” she demanded, her voice nervous and uneven.
“You have aroused me quite painfully,” he said, his gaze locking with hers.
“I most certainly don’t mean to.”
“And you can’t deny that I arouse you.”
Lily’s mouth opened as if to do just that, but then she closed it again. “Of course you arouse me. You are a renowned lover who can seduce anything in skirts. But my response doesn’t mean a thing. It is purely an involuntary physical reaction.”
“You dismiss physical pleasure readily enough when you know little about it.”
His hands moving to her waist, Heath held her flush against him, enjoying the fine tremor of her body. “You are a woman of great passion, Lily. Too passionate to live the rest of your life as a spinster. Too warm-blooded and intense. And I mean to prove it to you.”
Her chin lifted stubbornly. “I think passion is highly overrated.”
“I know you do. But you won’t after today.”
Lowering his hands to her hips, he slipped one knee between hers, parting her legs. With a soft gasp, Lily tried to pull back, but his tightening grip pressed her abdomen into his loins.
The contact sent a surge of desire rocketing through Heath, purely masculine, primal and urgent, yet he clamped down fiercely on his own urges. This moment was for Lily, not for him.
Deliberately rubbing his thigh against her woman’s mound, he lifted her slightly to make her slide against him. Her breathy inhalation turned to a moan just before he bent his head and captured her lips.
Lily went rigid at his bold assault, but Heath went on teasing, coaxing, playing, exploring…showing her that he found her mouth incomparably special.
After a long moment’s hesitation, he was rewarded when she began to respond ardently, as if she couldn’t help herself. The riveting sweetness took him off guard and made exultation rip through him. She kissed with an enthusiasm and hunger that set his blood soaring, her mouth willing and wild, almost abandoned.
Heath let himself get swept away by her eagerness, feeling the effects of the kiss as if it were his first. He himself was breathless by the time he forcibly drew back.
Lily stared at him, looking dazed and beautiful, her hair tousled, her cheeks flushed, her eyes bright. The sight made him want her with a kind of primitive ferocity he’d never experienced before. But he forced himself to go slowly.
Pulling her with him, he backed toward the chairs lining the wall and sat in one. Then he eased Lily down to straddle his knee.
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t protest when he opened his shirt to bare his chest, or when he caught her wrists and placed her palms against his warm flesh.
But when his hands began revolving in lazy, widening circles over her shoulders and along her arms, she finally murmured his name. “Heath…”
“What, love?”
“You have to stop this.”
“What an amusing notion. We have barely begun.”
His gaze dropping to her breasts, he parted the front of her cambric shirt. She wore a linen camisole beneath, and her nipples were blatantly outlined beneath the fine fabric.
Tugging down the edge of the undergarment, he freed the lovely mounds to his perusal. Then slowly Heath ran his hands upward till his fingertips barely brushed the uprise of her breasts. The rose-hued buds were ruched and taut, begging for his attention, yet he ignored them, instead tracing the silken ivory skin surrounding them.
Lily quivered, muscles tensing, and when he cupped her fullness, cradling the weight in his palms, she drew a shuddering breath.
Her heated softness was a sensual delight. Wanting to learn her by touch, he began gently kneading, molding. He relished the feel of her, the enchanting contrast of feminine firmness and softness-both her ripe breasts and her thighs nestling the harder flesh of his leg.
Her breathing was shallow by the time he circled the peaks with his thumbs. Her nipples were highly sensitized, he suspected, lifting his fingers to lightly stroke. He lingered on the engorged crests, introducing her to sensation, then plucked at the straining buds, caressing, teasing.
Lily inhaled sharply, while her deepening flush told him he was successfully arousing her. And that was before he bent to lick one nipple with his tongue. It was hard and tight, and he prodded it to even stiffer erection with slow erotic circles, laving with tender care.
“I have dreamed about doing this for weeks,” he murmured, finally moving his mouth to her other nipple. “Tasting you, suckling you…”
He set his lips to her soft flesh, nibbling, tantalizing, and elicited a shivery gasp from Lily with his sensual assault. When he drew the tip deep into his mouth, she whimpered and clutched at his shoulders.
Heath savored her for long heated moments, until Lily pleaded with him hoarsely. “Heath…you have to stop.”
“Not until you beg me,” he replied.
She would do no such thing, he knew very well, since she clearly didn’t want him to stop. And he wasn’t letting her go. Her lithe, supple body was ripe for his touch, eager even. She felt warm and intensely vital in his arms, and the feel of her skin heating under his hands and mouth was enough to drive him mad. Already his erection was throbbing, rigid and swollen with need.
