Page 34 of Cora
“Eryx never shared with me the details of their arrangement. He guards his business affairs closely. I hope she’s all right. Countess Oreste has always been kind to me. Socially, I mean.”
“You’ll have to drop her.”
“The countess is too connected to drop casually. I’m tired of you and Martha telling me who I can and cannot associate with.”
“We want you to be a success. That’s all.”
“I want that too,” she said slowly, to his surprise. Cora hadn’t acted like it in the weeks since her arrival.
She speared him with a sidelong glance that tore his heart in two as she turned away. He caught her wrist. Cora turned to him expectantly. Gideon thought his molars might crack.
“I…regret my actions that night. I was unkind to you. I want your forgiveness.”
There. He’d said it.
“You haven’t earned exoneration, Gideon.”
She yanked. He held tight, but she did not yield. They hung there, suspended, connected only by his hand on her wrist, as tension stretched between them like a tight wire.
“What would I have to do to earn it? Beg?”
“Wouldn’t hurt.”
He would never do it. Gideon’s patience snapped. He dragged her in, spiking his fingers into the hair at the back of her neck and crushing his lips to hers. Demanding that she give what he wanted: everything.
She gasped against his lips and he pressed the advantage, backing her up a step and coiling his free arm around her waist. Another step. Her hands came to his chest, resisting, but her mouth opened to him and her tongue danced tentatively with his. She desired him. His cock thickened. He couldn’t think when she was in his arms.
Her ass hit the edge of the billiard table. Gideon bent her backward over it, sliding his hand down the curve of her hip and pulling her thigh up around his. He ground his aching cock into her softest place and savored her low moan.
“Say you forgive me and I’ll give you the stars,” he whispered against her lips.
She shoved his arm ineffectually. With one arm hooked around his neck and bent backward over the table, she couldn’t get leverage to push him away.
“You can’t give me stars,” she said flatly. “All you can give me are empty promises.”
She nipped his earlobe, and Gideon saw red.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
GIDEON
Gideon yanked her silk gown up. Cool air kissed Cora’s bare legs. She hated the way he made her feel so hot and empty. She knew what would happen if she gave into her natural urge to fill the aching emptiness within her.
He wouldn’t be gentle, judging from the way he handled her on every prior occasion. He would thrust inside her and make her gasp with the stretch, pump a few times, and withdraw. Or, probably, he wouldn’t withdraw, and she would be carrying his child.
Strangely, she was not appalled by the idea.
“Say you forgive me for what I did to you.”
“I don’t,” she breathed. She never would. Certainly not after that pathetic excuse for an apology. “But you can show me what it is you believe I’ll find enticing enough to make me reconsider.”
After all, what was the point of being married if one couldn’t discover the delights of the flesh? She had to admit that his touch unraveled her in ways no one else’s ever had. She had wanted his hands everywhere—and there was no denying that he felt the same way. The evidence was pressed against her thigh. Against all reason, her husband desired her, and vice versa.
He went still and tense. Cora hung there, suspended over a billiard table with her nightdress pooling over the dark wood, and wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.
Softly, firmly, he kissed her lips. He moved down her throat, taking his time. Tasting her. Cora’s body responded despite her misgivings and hurt. Gideon palmed her breast and she arched into his touch, clinging to him. Her breath quickened, until all she could do was exhale.
The belt of her wrapper had been slowly loosening for some time, and now it fell open. Gideon pushed it down her shoulder and pressed a hot kiss through the silk. Wordlessly—she would never admit to desiring him out loud—she tugged his hair until he moved down and captured her breast in the damp, heated cavern of his mouth. He flicked his tongue over her nipple and sucked hard.
