“Take your coat off,” she said. He obliged. He didn’t wear his coats cut as close to his figure as many men did, and he easily shed it. “Now your neckcloth.”
He loosened it and tossed it aside.
She unfastened the buttons at his throat. Pressing her lips to his skin, she kissed and then licked, tasting him. The flavor was uniquely Pierce, masculine and refined and with that hint of foreignness that was horse and leather and which she found so erotic tonight.
Her hands slid over his chest. His body was slim and elegant but also firm and strong. She loved his long, lean lines. She dipped lower, feeling his erection and grasping the length in her hand. She stroked him, but he pulled her hand away.
“Not yet,” he murmured, kissing her again. She thought of protesting, but why should she when he was lowering her to the bed again, settling his weight pleasantly over her? She abandoned herself to the sensation of his linen shirt against her sensitive breasts and the wool of his trousers sliding over her bare legs. She wrapped her arms around him and tightened her legs about his waist.
He inhaled sharply and seemed to struggle for control. His kisses grew more insistent, more passionate, and then he retreated from her lips and tended to other parts of her. He kissed the line of her jaw, the tender skin just beneath it, the ticklish part of her earlobe, and the hollow at the base of her throat.
He worshipped her, kissing and tasting her. She thought he might linger on her breasts, but he surprised her by moving lower and sliding his tongue over her abdomen.
Hot and insistent need flared in her as his tongue dipped lower. “What are you about?” she gasped.
He looked up at her, his head almost at the juncture of her thighs. “More wicked suggestions from my naughty books. Do you mind?”
“I...” Did she mind? She had never dreamed a man, much less Pierce Moneypence, would even consider doing what he was about to do—or at least what she thought he was about to do. As if reading the uncertainty in her eyes, he moved lower and used one hand to part her legs. Oh, she had little doubt what he had in mind, especially when he leaned down and his warm breath tantalized that most intimate part of her. She shuddered and squirmed, but his weight held her in place.
“I want to taste you,” he said. “I’ve read it can be extremely pleasurable when a man applies his lips and tongue to this part of the female anatomy.”
His words were so scientific, and yet, they aroused her more powerfully than anything else he’d said.
“I don’t mind,” she squeaked.
“Good,” he said, his words vibrating against her inner thighs. “Because I’ve been thinking a lot about this.”
“You have?” He thought about doing things like this to her? How often? When? And then she could not think at all, because he pressed his mouth to her and the feeling was so delicious, she couldn’t form a coherent thought for several long, long moments. He had an aptitude for this, or had studied his books diligently, because he quickly brought her to a fierce climax. She cried out, and then covered her mouth in embarrassment.
Pierce slid beside her and nuzzled her neck. “You enjoyed that.”
“I’ve probably woken the entire inn.” She rose on her elbows to ensure the door was locked. “I do hope the maid doesn’t come to check on me.”
“Just tell her it was a nightmare.” He was still nuzzling her neck, which was distracting, especially when his hands wandered to her breasts. She pulled at the tails of his shirt.
“Why don’t you take this off? Take everything off while you’re at it and show me what else you’ve learned from that naughty book.”
“Oh, no.” He captured her hands in his. “There are far too many other pleasures I’d rather show you.”
“But what about your pleasure?”
“Time for that when we marry.”
She sat up abruptly, and he lost his balance and toppled over into the indention she’d left in the bed. “So this is all some ploy to convince me to agree to marry you, and then once we’re married, you’ll have no use for seduction.”
He sat, looking bewildered. “No, not at all—”
“So you don’t want me to marry you.”
“Of course I do, but I’ll still seduce you after we’re wed.”
She rose on her knees, hugging the sheet to her. “Why?”
“Why?” He looked close to panicking, but she was not going to give him the correct answer. “Because you like it? Because I enjoy it?”
“Get out.”
“What? Eliza, no, let’s talk about this.”
She was already up and out of bed. She stomped to the door then paused, looking back at him. He was climbing slowly off her bed, looking as though he’d lost his puppy. “Very well, let’s talk. Do you love me?”
There was the shocked-deer look she remembered so well. That was answer enough, but the foolish man stammered and stuttered and attempted a reply anyway. She was patient. This might at least be entertaining.
“I feel—that is to say—I care very much about you. In my heart—the warmth—t-truly I do esteem you, I am very fond—”
“Fond? You are fond of me? How romantic. A man who is fond of me. Do you do”—she gestured to the bed—“that with all the women you are fond of?”
“No! Eliza, you know there is only you.”
“But I don’t know that, Pierce. I am certain you could find any number of other women you are fond of who would be happy to go with you to Switzerland.”
His chin notched up. “Is that what this
