[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”They said their farewells, adding more gentlemanly ones for Charlotte, then slipped from the room more quickly than she imagined they normally would.Andreas tapped his tricks on the table, then threw them into the center.He made a dark noise and rose, grabbing his jacket in one smooth motion.He turned and walked to the door.“I’ll speak with you later,” Roman said evenly at his departing back.Andreas didn’t halt, just signaled something over his shoulder.Something that she guessed wasn’t exactly a kind gesture.The door slammed behind him.Silence stretched over Charlotte as Roman’s eyes remained narrowed on the wood.“What an ass,” he finally said.She cleared her throat.“Your brother doesn’t approve.”He made a little hand gesture.“He doesn’t approve of anyone.”“No.” She laughed without humor.“You shouldn’t have brought me here.It will just cause you trouble.”“What did he say?” The question was casually asked, a thread of coaxing beneath.She pressed her lips together.Roman sighed and pushed his chair back, obviously confident that he would find out later.“Don’t pay whatever it was any mind.It’s just his nature.He’s overbearing.Especially with recent events.”She stared at him, disbelieving, as he rose, stretching.“Overbearing?”Roman stretched farther, his shirt lifting a bit to show a peek of skin beneath.“My God, I was just up, and still, how do people sit in those knobby, wooden chairs for so long?”“You are spoiled.”“I know.” He grinned widely, his eyes lighting with that rare boyish charm that was so odd on such a sinful face.“It’s brilliant, no?”She shook her head but couldn’t stop an answering smile, trying to fully push away the lingering unease Andreas’s words had caused.“You are a menace.”“Also brilliant.” He swept forward and suddenly lifted her up and over his shoulder.She let out a surprised squeak.“What are you doing?”“Being a menace.” He strode forward, kicked the door to his bedroom fully open, and plopped her down on the bed.“This is hardly proper,” she said breathlessly, anticipating his next movements already.“There is nothing proper I want to do to you anyway.” A finger stroked down her throat.“I can’t stay all night,” she whispered.He smiled and leaned forward.“We’ll see.”Chapter 19L oose hair fell across her eye, and she had the strangest urge to blow it from her view.Emily did that, but Charlotte had never dared.She touched his collarbone, tracing it down to his sternum.There were old and plentiful wounds there.She circled one at the top, then moved to the next.“Cataloging my imperfections?”“From where did you get them?”“Here and there.”She circled a third that undoubtedly had been made by a knife, then pinched him in response to his nonanswer.He caught her hand and flipped her.Her hair spread in all directions, leaving her free to observe him.He pinned her hands above her head with one hand, and her breathing sped back up.One bent leg pressed her hips to the bed.“I’d rather examine you.” His free fingers traced down her collarbone and followed the same path she had taken but veered off when he reached her left breast, tracing the perimeter, watching it with a lazy smile as her chest rose more rapidly, pushing it higher toward him.He leaned down, his roughened cheek resting on the edge of one breast, his lips breaths away from the other.“You realize”—every puff of warmed air hit her—“I could do anything to you right now.Anything I want.”She squirmed, strangely aroused by the thought.Then again, she had given complete trust to him in this arena weeks ago.“You do realize you already did things to me?”One finger traveled up the inside of her thigh, and the tip curled slowly into her.She arched against him, still pinned beneath.He withdrew the touch and began making lazy patterns on her thigh.Her breath came quickly now, for at any moment he would repeat the motion.She knew it.Could feel him smiling against her chest.His amused breath against her exposed nipple.“There is your perfect thigh.”She tensed at the word.His finger slipped over her thigh, then just as easily slipped into her, her body once again ready, curving in a little more, brushing against the shockingly potent place that he’d already overcome her with.“And your perfect smoothness.”She clenched around the digit, body trying to lift up.His palm cupped her, and his thumb rubbed between.She panted out a breath, then another, all calmness and coolness erased.“And your perfect reaction.”“I hate that word.” She breathed the response.“I know you do,” he whispered against her ear.“Who are you?” And unlike earlier, this time she purely meant it as a question to him.He pulled back and met her eyes steadily.“Simply a man.”“I know so little about you,” she whispered.“Sometimes I’m not even sure you are real.While you know everything about me.”“What flowers you like, what time you rise in the morning, how you take your tea? Hardly things that others don’t know or can’t learn.”“No.” She kept her eyes locked with his.“Not those things.”“How you like to be touched?” He pulled a finger over her thigh, the sensitive inner flesh that always made her shiver.“How your body responds best? What makes you moan?”“Not just those either.” She shook her head slowly, tilting it back on the pillow, something choking and fearful and overwhelming taking hold of her.“What you hope for? What you need?” He leaned forward and whispered in her ear.“What you fear?”Everything she feared.Things she didn’t want to admit to herself.Foolish, vain things
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]