The Regency Season Collection: Part Two. Кэрол Мортимер

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СКАЧАТЬ man she had longed for and lingered over in her head for so long passion and need and love stuttered down her supple spine and warmed her toes. Yes wound a little tighter, she wriggled closer so she lay against the cushions and felt him shift to follow her down with a smile of satisfaction he read on her lips. She used her freed hand to pull him after her and still his hot, deep kiss never hesitated on her willing mouth.

      Wasn’t it amazing what ten years of trying to live without a man she’d cried for far too often could do? Fire shot through her everywhere they touched and she found out how to shiver with sensual heat in mid-winter. Still he held himself away to shield her from the full force of his arousal. Bless the man; doesn’t he know his rampant need makes me melt from the inside out? If he wanted her this much, it must be possible to play with fire, now she had the lick of it deep inside her to remind her there was more to making love than kissing.

      A snatch of uncertainty nibbled at her conscience, but she loved the tightly muscled fact of his powerful torso tensing under her hands, as if he felt her touch and wanted to take her deeper. All the reasons she couldn’t loose her gown or rip off his neckcloth and push away his snugly tailored coat to insinuate herself closer screamed in her head. She tried to ignore it as every inch of hot satin-smooth skin over hard muscle fascinated her; for a precious few moments he was her Luke.

      She wanted to be naked with him, was almost ready to find allure enough and even some feminine enchantment she hadn’t recognised in herself until today. All the reasons that couldn’t be were stronger now; Verity was full of life and promise and must soon dream as a young girl should, without her hopes being smashed before she had time to grasp the bright promise of all life might give her.

      Meanwhile Luke was kissing his way along the pared-down curve of Chloe’s jaw, as if it was uniquely fascinating to feel his mouth there. Ah, just one more minute, she promised her inner woman as her breasts seemed to swell and kick up against the buttons of his waistcoat and the leashed strength of him, begging for release from the demure gown and very correct corset she’d imposed on them for some reason that eluded her right now. Somehow her nipples felt as if they had a life of their own, needs they hadn’t fully told her about until this moment and now they were hard and tight and begging to be satisfied.

      Under their disguise they pouted and longed, then made her sigh when she shifted against the cool silk and jet of his black waistcoat, fine buttons and him, then felt them tighten even more. Far better with his bare skin over taut muscle to writhe against her, her wildest instincts whispered sneakily. Chloe moaned at the very idea and almost wished it hadn’t sprung into her head that to feel his fingers explore her might go beyond pleasure into something desperate and driven and even needier.

      Maybe he read her mind because he rolled a little closer, lay half over her and she felt those wanton breasts of hers bloom with satisfaction against a hard wall of muscle and her almost painfully hard nipples tightened even more mercilessly. He raised his head to look down at her with so much in his eyes she had to blink and decided there was no point trying to hide her arousal from him. She held his hot grey eyes with steady acceptance they wanted each other more than she’d known a man and woman could. No use guarding herself from him any longer, no point pretending he was only a man just like any other. Luke was the man; the only one who could build a universe for her; spin stars and planets into the sky, and if only this world was different, go on doing so for the rest of their lives until it was vast and beautiful and all theirs to explore together.

      ‘I want you so much,’ she murmured as reason slammed back into his dear grey eyes and she finally saw his beloved northern skies, clear cool moorland air and the full depth of his fine mind and loving heart in them.

      ‘You know I’m on fire for you,’ he muttered, endearingly gruff about the fact, so explicit now even she could hardly help but know it.

      ‘I want it all with you, Luke Winterley, everything a mature woman can share with a very well-grown and mature man,’ she murmured with dreams in her eyes and far too much love in her heart to hide it from him. He’d awoken a wicked sensuality she hadn’t even known she was capable of until now and it whispered of endless delight and satisfaction to be had, if they were not who they were.

      ‘But?’ he whispered and the knowledge there was always a ‘but’ for them was deep in the clear depths and complex shadows of his gaze.

      ‘You know why,’ she said with Verity’s secrets misting her gaze with tears.

      ‘Aye, I do,’ he acknowledged roughly, as if saying so hurt.

      ‘Not because of you,’ she said as if that might make it right.

      ‘Yes, because I’m me,’ he argued and it nearly broke something in her when he levered himself away to put distance between them. ‘If I wasn’t a titled aristocrat with more houses than a one man can decently live in, you would give yourself to me heart and soul, Lady Chloe Whoever-You-Are. If I could offer you decent obscurity and a full heart, you would marry me and be my love for the rest of our lives, but because I’m Farenze and will be until the day I die, you won’t see what we could be.’

      ‘Oh, I see,’ she argued shakily, ‘but I won’t do. You don’t believe in love and swore to marry again only for convenience. In your wildest dreams you could never describe me as convenient.’

       Chapter Thirteen

      ‘Marry me anyway,’ Luke asked, stubbornness in his intent eyes.

      ‘You don’t even know who I am,’ Chloe objected even as joy sang in her heart and a flock of butterflies seemed to take up permanent residence in her fluttering stomach, then fly lower to whisper of delights unmapped and infinitely pleasurable.

      ‘I know you’re Chloe; Verity’s aunt and mother in all but giving birth to her. I know you would give everything for someone you love, let alone your sister’s child, a girl you love deeply for her own sake. I’d be a fool to try and part you from her. How can I not want that for our children, Chloe? How can you refuse it to the red-headed, mule-tempered brats we could have between us, if only you would let go of your pride and allow them to live?’

      ‘Who I am would come back to bite you and our black-haired, dark-eyed wild things, the ones we can’t make because of me,’ she argued sadly, feeling the air chill between them. They sat upright on the graceful little seduction of a chaise, designed for two lovers to while away a long winter evening together.

      ‘Don’t I deserve to even know why not, Chloe?’

      Of course he did, even though he would know she was right as soon as she told him. She had no reason to prolong the sweet moment when she might reach out and grab her wildest dreams, if only she loved him less.

      She delved in the pocket no fashionable lady would have permitted to spoil the line of her high-waisted gown and silently held out the letter, addressed in Virginia’s elegant sloping hand to Lady Chloe Thessaly.

      Watching him read those three damning words, she waited to see all she dreaded cloud his face and make him frown with revulsion, but there was only mild interest in his eyes. Hadn’t he heard her family name under all the notoriety her father and brother heaped on the title until it stank like three-week-old fish?

      ‘My father was Lord Crowdale,’ she made herself admit.

      ‘Mine was a fool, but it doesn’t prevent us marrying,’ he insisted.

      She was shocked into meeting his gaze and saw anger deep in the silver-and-gold-rayed СКАЧАТЬ