Page 8 of Lucien's Gamble

“You don’t know me well either. For if you did, you wouldn’t be so fearful of my intentions.”

Turning away, Lucien stared into the dying fire. “You are distraught over your brother.”

“I am,” she admitted, her clear voice telling him as she faced him again. “I will have to bail him out of this mess, just as I’ve always done.”

He sighed. “If I touch you, you’ll be ruined, and the marriage you require to save your brother will be jeopardized.”

“I’m aware of that. My actions tonight were foolish at best, but I knew the possible consequences and I weighed them carefully. I’d planned to sit in a quiet corner and observe. I wanted to watch you in your element, a place where the rules are completely yours and you are not bound by the strictures that suppress you in Society. It is unfortunate that Ridgely chose my table to share, but not unexpected.”

“Lady Julienne. If you’d been found out—”

“The scandal would have destroyed all chances of an advantageous marriage, I know. But perhaps that would be best for Montrose. I don’t care much for the thought of being a sacrifice on the matrimonial altar. Facing the consequences of our actions is the best way to learn responsibility, but I am to blame for shielding him too well. As for this moment, is it so wrong to want the pleasure other women experience? Is it so terrible to steal a little passion in a life that will be bereft of it? There are ways … ways to … ways that would leave me a virgin—”

Lucien turned in stunned amazement. “How would you know of such ‘ways'?”

She flushed from the top of her breasts to her hairline. “I read … things.”

“You read ‘things'?” His eyes widened.“Erotica?”

Julienne’s hair was a golden curtain around her. With her bared shoulders and flushed face, she looked every bit the wanton seductress and nothing like the genteel virgin he knew her to be.

And yet it was the unabashed tilt to her chin and the defiance so evident in her silence that most affected him. An innocent who wasn’t quite so innocent. His cock had been aching before. Now the throbbing was downright painful.

Her beauty was what had first caught his eye, her voluptuous figure had kept his attention, but her smile, warm and open, was what obsessed him. Women did not look at him with such sweet interest. They either shot daggers at him for being what he was, or invited him to their beds with seductive glances. When Julienne had first seen him across the Milton’s crowded ballroom, she’d smiled so beautifully that he’d found it difficult to breathe. He’d wanted her instantly, wanted to discover what it was she saw that lit up her eyes with such warm regard.

But now that he had her in his grasp, he found there was more to his interest than mere carnal gratification. He was startled to realize helikedher, liked that she was unconventional and bold, as well as beautiful and kind.

Abruptly—regretfully—he realized he couldn’t take her. Doing so would destroy her, and he could never do that.

“No.” He gave a wry smile. “It’s not wrong to want passion. And I’m deeply flattered that you want to discover it with me.”

Her smile was so brilliant, it made his chest tight.

Lucien ran a hand through his hair. “I enjoy a good debauch as much as any man, Julienne. But sometimes I wish for the finer things in life, the softer things, pure and innocent like you are.”

“I’m not so innocent as all that. If you knew the thoughts I have about you—”

“Hush. Don’t say any more. I’m having a hard enough time being honorable as it is.”

“I rather like you dishonorable, if you don’t mind.”

He arched a brow and grinned. She was a minx. He never would have guessed. “Haven’t you been warned about men like me?”

“Yes.” Her lips curved. “But therein lies the problem.”

He shook his head.

“You see,” she continued, her voice lowering. “Being around you makes me ache. The way you look at me makes me ache, much more so than when I read Hugh’s books. I’m a grown woman. Allow me to worry about the consequences.”

Lucien groaned low in his chest, a sound filled with defeat and the death of good intentions. He was only a man, an extremely lustful man, with the woman he wanted most offering liberties he shouldn’t accept. But would. He couldn’t turn away the chance to touch her, to hold her, just once.

“I’ll take care of that, sweetheart,” he said softly as he approached her. “I’ll make the ache go away.”

He placed one knee on the bed and then stretched out beside her, clenching his teeth as she rolled and pressed her breasts into his chest. She tilted back her head, offering up her lips, and he claimed them, his tongue sweeping into the sweet recesses of her mouth. Her response stunned him, her eagerness obvious, and he could hardly bear it. He shook with the effort to slow down, to be gentle, when the fire in his blood urged him to hurry.

His hand caressed her shoulder and then moved down to her breast, finding her nipple as he ravished her mouth. He tugged gently with his fingers, loving how she melted against him, completely responsive and unreserved. Pulling her body to drape over his, Lucien caressed the curve of her derriere, kneading the firm flesh until she squirmed.

“Please,” she gasped, pulling her lips from his. Her legs spread in silent invitation.

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