Her mouth. Again, he craved it.
Give her time.
Ah, God. It had been so long since he’d had a woman, longer still since he’d yearned for a particular one, or even felt the driving need to claim her mouth, to see her consume him. His shaft disappearing into her hollowed, hallowed depths.
Lady Scandal scandalized his innards to such a degree, his brain couldn’t tell up from down, out from in, and his bauble just wanted to blow—
In her hand.
In her mouth.
Goddammit. This wasn’t like him.
As if to punish him for his unholy thoughts about such an innocent, the sky chose that moment to further unleash its wrath, the peltering downpour emphasizing the ferocious pounding of his blood. He fisted his hands in her shift where it bunched at her thighs, striving for patience even as he swelled under her stirring attentions. Heart and cock both, lurching uncontrollably in response to this enchanting woman and her unguarded, unassuming manner.
But there was one thing he could control—his need to see her in bed. Upon sultry, satin sheets perhaps. “Why don’t we take this interview up to your bedchamber and I’ll demonstrate—”
“I regret we cannot.” Said so swiftly, she couldn’t have given the matter a speck of consideration.
“Forgive me. That was too forward—”
“No! No it wasn’t.” Her maddening clasp stroked up his shaft again. “You weren’t. ’Tis because it leaks that I said no.”
“It leaks? Your bedchamber?”
“The roof. After all the rains this past week, my room is soggy beyond reckoning, I’m afraid.”
Ah. At the reminder, he did recall how her advertisement had mentioned roof leaks needing repaired. He’d have to see to that sooner rather than later. Make those silk sheets and her satin limbs a reality…
“The settee it is, then.”
“Oh, do ask me something else,” she said on a wisp of air, her fingers about to send him round the bend—or to straight Bedlam. “Hurry!”
And she called him impatient?
Zeus paused, reflecting. There remained so much still to be asked, discussed…discovered. But her breathy encouragement and the lure of tasting her proved too great a temptation. Time enough to tame his mind’s curiosity later. For now, he needed to explore the rest of her body—with his own.
“Shall I demonstrate my command of my delightful tongue?” he queried as calmly as possible, in view of how said tongue was practically frothing at the remembered taste of her mouth, at the thought of sampling her intimate charms, those honeyed secrets shielded betwixt her thighs. “I confess a need to do so, to see if you find it pleasing as well.”
Her stroking fingers skidded to a halt…brow furrowed. “You want to entertain me with witty repartée—now?”
Laughing more than any man in his position had a right to—Who knew lovemaking could be so refreshing?—Zeus gingerly lifted her off his lap. Sliding her back onto the settee, he guided her down with a gentle push to her shoulder.
She dug her elbows into the cushion and propped herself upright, indignation firing her gaze. “Where’s the humor, pray? For I fear ’tis me and my ignorance you find merits mock—”
“No you don’t!” Splaying her resisting arms wide so he could lean forward and steal a kiss—then slowly steal his way toward her breasts, Zeus chided, “Don’t turn stiff on me now.”
Tugging the shift out of his way, he winced when several threads snapped, but he didn’t stop, not until one finger tapped upon a bare nipple.
“But—” Eyelids fluttering, her protests dwindled as the tiny nub grew taut, firm beneath his touch. “But…”
“Show some trust, my lady. Trust that I know what I’m doing. You owe me that, wouldn’t you say?” Rotating his thumb over the beaded tip, he held her gaze. “Have I not answered every blasted question you’ve lobbed my way? Allowed my pride to be shredded fulfilling your bedeviling requirements? Suffered Hastings’ judgment, that of Miss Hales’, and ultimately your own? Choked down a scone not fit for starving swine?”
“What?”
Overriding her confused murmur, he demanded, “Did I not disrobe without demure—”
“Hardly without demure!” Despite her rejoinder, her mild pout at his litany of valid complaints, her back arched, thrusting her entire breast toward him.
“Very good, my lady.”
“What is?” she grumped, her diffident gaze bouncing from her distended nipple to his chest to a point somewhere over his head. “That I weakly allow myself to be mocked?”
“Nay, never that.” He settled his broad palm across the pliable mound of her breast, and damned if the firm tissue didn’t leap into his touch as if it belonged there.
“That I’m too curious to learn what else you may show me I fail to depend upon pride to see me strong and instead…” Once again, she cut her gaze to his. “Instead I begin to depend on you?”
“Mayhap I find the idea of you depending upon me satisfying in the extreme.” Exhaling audibly with a measure of contentment he’d never thought to feel today of all days, Zeus ensured her splinted leg was fully supported, then he angled the other to hang off the settee, widening her thighs. He climbed into the vee he’d created between those pale, creamy limbs, a broad smile lifting his cheeks. A moment later it was wiped clear when his tongue sought the destination his hand had claimed seconds ago—her plump little breast.
“Mr. Tanner!” she gasp-moaned.
He hollowed his cheeks and sucked sharply, allowing his tongue to bedevil the knot of nipple now held snugly between his teeth.
“Mr. Tanner…”
This time it was a sigh. One of capitulation, of complete and utter sexual surrender. And Zeus couldn’t have been more pleased.
Until she added, more than a little primly for their current circumstances and his liking, “My body may melt under your torrid tutelage, but I have yet to be granted an accounting of precisely why you deem it necessary to laugh at me.”
To punish her for thinking so—especially when his mouth was so very delightfully occupied, Zeus drew deeply on her flesh, taking
