hungry.”
“Well, I am. I couldn’t eat a bite all evening, I was so anxious.”
That much was true. There was a quaking excitement inside her that set all her nerves on edge.
Heath did not appear to share her excitement, however. On the contrary, he looked impatient. “Why don’t you come to the point of your invitation, Lily? What the devil are you up to?”
She swallowed. “Well, the thing is…I have a proposition to put before you.”
“What proposition?”
His tone was as un-loverlike as possible, Lily noticed, her lips trembling with nervous amusement. “I know it is normally the gentleman’s prerogative to initiate an affair, but…I want you for my lover.”
His brows snapped together. “Is that so?”
“Yes. You were right, Heath. I don’t want to remain a virginal spinster all my life. And that is all your fault. You gave me a mere taste of passion when I want the full experience. But you have tantalized me long enough.”
“You don’t honestly expect me to deflower you?” he retorted. “You are supposed to be a lady.”
“True,” Lily agreed, a humorous smile hovering around her mouth. “But you know I have never conformed to the proper rules of society. And you said you wanted me in your bed.”
“As my wife, not my paramour.” Heath’s frown deepened. “What is this, Lily? Your next move in our game? Because Fleur and Chantel are likely to take away points from my total if they learn I have despoiled you?”
She shook her head. “I have no intention of telling them. And this has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with desire.” Lily stood slowly, holding his gaze. “I want you Heath. I want to be your lover.”
Unmoved, he crossed his arms over his chest. “You know my terms, Lily.”
She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Tess warned me that I might have to seduce you.”
At her blithe admission, one dark eyebrow shot up, but otherwise he didn’t respond.
“Although I suspect,” Lily went on, “you won’t like it if I ape all those other women who have chased you from the time you were out of short coats.” As she spoke, Lily reached up to pull the pins from her hair. She was gratified when Heath’s eyes followed her movements as she let down the dark tresses and combed them out with her fingers.
“Don’t you want me, Heath?” she asked in a pouting voice.
“You know damn well I do.”
“And I want you. So what is the difficulty? I am willing, even eager to become a scarlet woman.”
“I have no intention of making love to you until you agree to wed me, you know that.”
“Why not?”
“I won’t risk getting you with child, for one thing.”
“Ah, but I have a solution. Sponges soaked in brandy or vinegar are deemed most effective, I am told. Peg gave me some to use tonight.”
His gaze sharpened, but he stood there obdurately, his jaw set.
Bending, Lily drew off her evening slippers one by one. Then reaching behind her, she unfastened the hooks at the back of her gown. When she let the garment slip to the floor and stepped out of it, she was left wearing only a delicate lawn chemise and silk stockings.
Sensation danced over her skin as Heath’s golden gaze fixed on her breasts. Her nipples had hardened and the rosy aureoles showed through the thin fabric of her chemise. When his gaze dropped lower, she knew he could see the shadows of the dark curls below her belly. The desire that flashed in his eyes was unmistakable, and it encouraged her a measure.
With a casualness she wasn’t feeling, she leaned down and undid the ribbons of her garters, then slowly peeled the silk down her legs.
“Lily, stop right now.” The command was low but husky.
“I don’t believe I will, Heath. If you won’t make love to me, then I shall have to be the aggressor.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. He was making an obvious effort to resist the temptation she presented, Lily realized.
When Heath didn’t speak, she moved around the room, turning down the lamps until only a faint glow remained from one on the bedside table. While there, she drew back the bed curtains. Then silently, she went to the door to lock it and withdrew the key.
Turning, she dangled the key from one finger provocatively. “You will have to take this from me if you want to escape.”
“Lily…” There was exasperation in his voice along with a faint note of dismay. Yet he didn’t look as if escape was on his mind. Instead, he stood rooted to the floor, watching her every move.
His eyes had darkened with hunger, Lily saw. It gave her the confidence she had lacked until now. Tossing the key in the direction of her discarded gown, she crossed to Heath, then reached up and began to untie his cravat.
“Lily, devil take you…”
She laughed softly. “You may swear at me all you want, but I intend to have my way with you.”
Her laughter affected Heath more than anything else she could have done. He stared back at Lily as she unwound his cravat from around his neck. A teasing smile graced her lips, while her eyes were innocent and full of deviltry at the same time.
That look enchanted him, sending a hot rush of need straight to his loins, even before she slid her fingers down his waistcoat to probe the firmness of his burgeoning erection beneath his evening breeches.
“Do you really think you can resist me?” Lily murmured tauntingly. “Do you even want to try?”
Her big dark eyes sparkled with repressed laughter and something more: desire. She had been truthful when she said she wanted him. The realization aroused Heath even more than her tantalizing touch.
“I understand that seduction is an art,” Lily was saying as she knelt before him. “And I know firsthand that you are a consummate artist. So I hope you will forgive me if I am not quite as skilled at pleasuring you as you are at pleasuring me.”
When she unbuttoned the front of his evening breeches so that his sex sprang free, Heath muttered another oath and growled in a low voice, “Lily…I am not made of stone.”
“I should hope not,” she murmured, curving her fingers lightly around his cock. “Although this
Then she began stroking him…cradling the thick shaft of his manhood, grazing the blunt head with her fingertips, cupping the heavy, swollen sacs beneath.
At her boldness, Heath sucked in a harsh breath. He had never seen Lily like this. She had taken complete control, playing the enchantress, determined to seduce him. Her willfulness not only delighted and tempted him, it jolted him with stronger emotions he couldn’t begin to sort through just now. It was a struggle simply to remember why he had to resist her sensual assault.
“Am I doing this correctly?” Lily asked innocently, gazing up at him. “You had best advise me, or I might inadvertently hurt you.”
He didn’t reply except to curl his hands into fists at his sides. Then her touch grew even more brazen, her fingers wrapping around his turgid length, sweeping slowly up and down, squeezing, kneading gently.
Heath’s jaw locked and his entire body went rigid as he fought for control. Lily’s erotic caresses made him throb with heat. And when she leaned forward and pressed her lips to the crest of his arousal, it jerked eagerly.
He gave a low, strangled sigh as she closed her lips over the swollen head, tasting him with her tongue. A rush of fire flared through him, destroying the last vestiges of his resistance.
Tangling his hands in her hair, Heath closed his eyes and let his imagination take over. He could almost feel his shaft gliding slickly between the feminine folds of her sex…
The fire built inside him as Lily went on suckling him, plying him with warm caresses of her tongue and lips, laving and pulling, coaxing a shudder from him.
Heath finally yielded before he exploded. With a low groan, he grasped Lily’s shoulders and pulled her up. The satisfied smile on her lips gave him absolutely no choice but to haul her close and seize her mouth in a hungry kiss. He couldn’t possibly stop himself.
And in truth, he didn’t want to stop himself, Heath thought dazedly, drinking in her breaths as their tongues
