Page 66 of Must Love Scoundrels
“But you didn’t have to—” He indicated his nether regions.
“I confess, I enjoyed it. Speaking of confessions...”
Duncan looked over at her.
“Did you mean what you said? About me? How you feel about me?”
He knew what she was referring to. He hadn’t meant to say it. That wasn’t the way he’d wanted to tell her he loved her. But it was out now.
“I meant it. I don’t know how or exactly when but yes, I’m in love with you.”
She stared at him. “Are you certain?”
Duncan laughed then reached for his trousers and fastened them. He found his shirt lying beside him and slipped that on. He didn’t want to have this conversation half-naked. “I’m certain,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. To tell myself to get over it. To wonder if it was just infatuation or lust. It is...well, it’s what I said it was.”
“No one has ever said that to me before. That they loved me. Well, my parents, of course. And once when I was very ill and had a high fever, and I think Willoughby worried I might die, he told me he loved me. But usually, he never says things like that. I never say things like that.” She glanced at him.
“I don’t expect you to say it to me. I don’t expect you to feel the same way. I’m sure this is something of a shock to you.”
“I don’t know ifshockis the word I would use. I certainly feel something for you. Before I would have said it was friendship. But tonight there is a definite element of lust.”
“Will you tell me this”—he made a gesture encompassing the two of them—“was a mistake in the morning?”
“Probably.” She grinned.
“Then I think we should make the most of our mistake tonight.”
“What do you—oh.”
He removed his shirt again, tossed it aside, then picked her up.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting you where I want you.” He placed her lengthwise on the cot then came down on top of her. “One of these days you won’t be done up in corsets and tapes and laces, and I’ll be able to see you. For now this will have to suffice.” He ran his hand over her bodice, cupping her breasts, then sliding down to her waist. There he grasped the material of her skirts in his hands and began ruching them up.
She looked up at him, and he bent and kissed her cheeks, then her forehead, then her lips. She tasted a bit like him. His cock hardened, a feat he hadn’t thought possible after what she’d done to him just a few moments before.
Her skirts were at her waist, and he grasped hold of her drawers and pushed them down. She lifted her hips to assist him then kicked off the garment. He slid his knee between her legs, opening them. Still kissing her, he pressed that knee lightly against the heat of her sex.
Lucy gasped and arched. Duncan broke the kiss and bent to tease the lobe of her ear.
“Let’s see how long you can hold out.”
