Page 38 of Keeper of Secrets

He opened his stance even wider, inviting her into his space.

“I’ve managed to avoid complete ruin,” she whispered, her voice trembling in a way that assured him she was weakening.“I shouldn’t tempt fate.”

“I won’t take your maidenhead,” he answered, giving her his most charming smile.“I just want to make you feel good.”

“Me?”She scooted toward him the slightest bit and his smile widened.“You’re worried about making me feel good?What about you?”

He didn’t want to talk about that.He’d nearly ruined his relationship with Chloe over doubts and suspicions.And bad behavior.He and Chloe shared an intensely special connection that he’d come close to destroying with a tryst that would have been mediocre at best.“Chloe.”He knew he skirted dangerously close to admitting real feelings.Feelings he would not wish to divulge even to himself.“My satisfaction is irrelevant tonight.What I want is to bring you pleasure.”

Her breath hitched and her knees pressed together.Was she trying to alleviate the ache between her thighs?Good.

“What do you say, love?”

CHAPTERTWELVE

Chloe knewshe ought not to accept his invitation.He was a rake.This is what rakes do… they seduce.

He’d been mean.He’d been distrustful.He looked absolutely tantalizing in the moonlight.

Could she tame him?Go right up to the line… That had been Mildred’s advice.

Some part of her wanted nothing more than to curl up in his lap and allow him to touch her like he’d done the other night.

It had been deliciously wicked.Another skill of a rake, she would imagine.

She shook her head.“No.”Her thighs squeezed together as she tried to calm the pulsing need that radiated out from her core.Despite that, some part of her sensed that she needed to make Ryker work for her affection.

Ryker leaned forward again, slowly reaching down until he grasped her ankle.“You won’t accept my apology?”

“For what?Telling me you don’t want me, trying to bed another woman, or thinking I’m affiliated with some man who doesn’t even have a full name?”

He wrapped his fingers about her ankle as though taking its measurement.“I love your ankles, did you know that?You have a great many attributes and yet…” He lightly massaged the stockinged skin, making her gasp.“I can see I have a great deal to apologize for.”And then he slid his hand up her calf.

She should say no.But lord help her, she didn’t want to.His touch, the pressure of his fingers on her skin, had her aching with need as his hand climbed higher.And much to her dismay, when he reached her knee, her legs parted for him, her body so eager for the pleasure she knew he’d bring.

Her skirts bunched in her lap, the layers of petticoats blocked her view as his other hand rested on her right knee, both hands tracing up her thighs.She couldn’t see but she could feel, and her legs spread wider as her head fell back, her whole body opening to him.

Her eyes fluttered closed when he reached the V of her thighs, one of his thumbs brushing through her curls.He pushed her thighs even wider apart.

In this, she trusted him completely.She settled herself deeper on the seat prepared for the next swipe of his fingers, anticipating the light brush.

But it didn’t come.She opened her eyes just in time to see him drop to one knee on the floor of the carriage.Her brow furrowed as she looked down at him while he pushed even more of her skirts out of the way.“Ryker?”

He looked up at her, his smile absolute sin before he disappeared under her skirts, his shoulders pressing her legs even further apart.

She only had a moment to comprehend his intentions when the flat of his tongue swiped against her most intimate parts, sending sparks of pleasure through her entire body.She curled in, gasping as he licked up her seam, swirling his tongue around the bud of her pleasure.

She clawed at her skirts, attempting to find his head so that she might pull him closer.He obliged by licking her again with even more pressure.Over and over, he used his tongue against her flesh, whimpers and moans falling from her lips as her hips matched the rhythm of his movements.He was as relentless in this pursuit as he was in all others and soon she was so close, her body was one aching ball of tension.

As if he could sense her need, he inserted a finger into her channel, the sensation of fullness and the pressure on just the right place causing her to break, her body spasming as an orgasm ripped through her.

He was up in a second, surging to capture her lips with his.The kiss was sloppy and desperate and filled with the passion that always built between them.

“We were meant for this,” he growled against her lips.“You were meant for me.”

Her head lolled back, her eyes half closed, her body limp, but her mind rang with a bell that sounded like a warning.“I thought this little tryst was an apology.”

“It was.”From this angle she could see the bulge that pressed against the tightness of his breeches and, lord help her, her body responded, her hand itching to touch him.

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