Page 41 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
His eyes sparked.“Athene…”
This kiss lasted longer.Hugo angled her back, but only as her bottom bumped the desk did she realize what was about to happen.
Her heart raced, and her blood was on fire.It was a struggle to remember why they had to stop.Demand throbbed in the pit of her stomach, and her body softened in readiness for his.On this desk, she’d written so often about other people’s passions.The idea of Hugo taking her here crashed through her like a tidal wave.
With a last grab for prudence, she pulled away.Struggling to drag air into her lungs, she flattened her palm against his chest.“We can’t, Hugo.Not here.Sylvie has customers.”
Heaven help her, Sylvie could walk in on them at any time.
Hugo leaned into her hand, focusing on her face.A flush marked his cheeks, and his eyes glittered with barely contained desire.He looked fierce and overwrought.How she loved her effect over him.Given he could destroy her with a word, it made her feel more like his equal.
“I want you,” he grated out.
She knew he did.When they’d kissed, his hardness had pressed against her stomach.Her attention dropped to the tented front of his breeches.She’d long ago realized that he was big all over.
“Don’t,” he said on a groan, briefly closing his eyes.
She blushed to realize that she’d licked her lips at the prospect of all that potent maleness filling her.“I want you, too,” she confessed and gave a cracked laugh at his flare of interest.“No, don’t kiss me again.Not here.”
His hands closed on her hips.Urgency roughened his voice.“Then where, Athene?Where?”
“I can’t think when you touch me.”
Predictably that led to more kisses.This time, it was Hugo who stopped.She was perched on the edge of the desk, her skirts tangled around her thighs.Thighs that cradled Hugo’s narrow hips.He was mere inches away from entering her.
Gasping, he buried his face in her shoulder.Under the hands she spread across his back, he trembled with tension.“I need to stop touching you,” he growled.
She kissed the top of his head.“It might be wise.”
“I’ve never felt less wise.”
“Me either.”
She waited for him to move away.Instead for a long moment, they clung to each other.His touch aroused her, but perhaps more powerfully, it made her heart swell with tenderness.So when he eventually shifted as he must, regret sliced at her.And when he stepped out of her embrace, she felt bereft.
“Don’t look like that, my darling.”His smile was tender, too, sparking poignant emotion in her foolish heart.No man had ever regarded her with quite that enthralling mixture of longing and worship.“Or I won’t be responsible for my actions.I’d hate to shock Madame Sylvie.”
A cracked giggle escaped Athene.She stumbled upright, straightening her skirts to something approaching propriety.“You’ve turned me into a complete hussy.”
“Not yet.”When he took her hand, his smile was sweet.“Although I have ambitions.”
She laughed and twined her fingers around his.“How are we going to do this?”
“I could set you up in a house somewhere.”He sounded doubtful.“I believe that’s how it’s done in the ton.”
She frowned and pulled her hand back.“Like a demimondaine?You offer me carte blanche and a contract specifying a carriage and what servants you’ll hire and the payoff I’ll get at the end of the affair?”
He winced at her edged tone, although she had no right to carp.She was the one asking for a liaison instead of marriage.But with every moment, she realized that her impulsive offer to go to his bed – the only offer she could make to keep her sanity – held a thousand pitfalls.
“We could do it discreetly.”
“I’d still feel like a courtesan.”
“I’m a rich man.I want to shower you with every luxury.”
“I appreciate that.”
He gave a dry laugh.“No, you don’t.”
