Page 70 of The Lord Next Door
Her dressing gown slid to the floor, and he pressed his mouth behind her ear. His robe brushed against her delicate nightdress, and the sensation against her breasts was consuming her every thought.
His hands slid up her back, then down to cup her behind. She gave a little gasp as he pulled her hips against his, and she felt the long bulge she’d noticed before. Only thin garments separated her from discovering everything about it. Was this what Mrs. Wayneflete had meant when she said he put part of himself inside her?
And then she couldn’t think anymore, because he’d pulled her totally against him, his arms holding her close, his mouth spreading kisses down the side of her neck. But she could smell his hair, feel its silky texture against her skin. The buttons at the back of her neck came free, and her nightdress slid loose at one shoulder. He followed its descent with his lips, the moist softness of them making her shudder. She held him close, his shoulders so impossibly wide. He made her feel wanted, needed, and no longer worried about her nudity. He was not a man to judge her.
He dropped to his knees before her, holding her about her waist. The neckline of her nightdress hovered at the upper curve of her right breast, in front of his face. She could even see her own flesh tremble. With a slight tug, he pulled the material, and one breast was revealed.
She felt the air on her brief nudity as if she’d never undressed before. But David was staring at what he’d revealed with a heat that seemed to jump between them. She wanted him to touch her there again, and her nipple hardened into a point at just the thought. He gave a slow grin that was very male, very possessive, and she thrilled at the sight of it. And then he did something she never expected.
He leaned forward, opened his mouth, and licked her nipple, a slow, wet, hot, rough sensation that would have sent her swooning to the floor if he hadn’t held her so tightly. Darts of pleasure shot low into her belly, and she wanted to press that part of her against him, as if just touching him could somehow make everything better.
Her moan seemed loud as he continued to taste her. When his mouth closed over her and suckled, she cried out, shuddering. She found herself on her back on the carpet before the hearth, not even remembering how he’d laid her there.
This was going too far—and she hadn’t told him what she’d done.
“Wait, wait, David, I have to tell you something. I should have said it before we even started.”
David sat back on his heels and looked at his wife, all flushed and soft and aroused just for him. He had thought of this all day, to the point of distraction. How was he supposed to get any work done, when he was contemplating new ways to seduce his wife?
In the candlelight, her plump, pink breast glistened with moisture, and he wanted to taste it again, to tear the garment from her body and taste everything.
He was surprised by how difficult it was to stop, how hard it was to think when he was touching her. He’d once thought himself in love, yet he’d never felt this way before.
But Victoria needed to talk to him, and he found he could refuse her nothing. He reached a hand down to her, and although she took it, she fumbled to cover herself. Her breast, so plump and delicious, disappeared from his sight as she rose to her feet.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“Don’t be, Victoria. Go ahead and say what you need to.”
“I accepted Mr. Dalton’s dinner invitation for both of us.”
He frowned. “I thought you understood that I didn’t need to go.”
She pressed her lips together and continued to hold her nightdress against her throat. “I think we should attend, for the sake of your career and your place in society.”
“But this doesn’t matter to me.”
“I think it should. I’m trying to be a good wife to you, David. I thought a good wife should help you socially, not be a hindrance like I am, with my common background.”
He rubbed his hand across his face. “You don’t need to put yourself through this. People of the ton are not nice, and in the end, they’ll hurt you.”
“Have they hurt you, David?” she asked softly. “Is that why you don’t wish to be among them? What went on in this house after your mother died?”
He stiffened, and silently cursed that he’d so revealed himself to her. “She has nothing to do with this, Victoria. Good night.”
“You could try writing your thoughts in the journal,” she called. “That helps me think what I can’t say aloud.”
And there was that old journal, on the table where she’d left it for him to see. He wanted to fling it across the room with an anger he thought he’d put behind him. Instead, he went into his own room and very carefully shut the door.
~oOo~
In the morning, Victoria was shocked when David took her horseback riding, as if they hadn’t had an argument the night before. It was as if he’d shut her behavior from his mind because he didn’t want to deal with it. He certainly had not been lying when he said he knew how to play a part.
Was that how he wanted to spend his life, hiding behind the façade of the man he thought he should be? It made her angry all over again that he’d decided the course of their marriage, and he wanted nothing changed.
She wanted change; she wanted to change for him. Didn’t he realize how hard she was trying? She needed him to meet her even part of the way.
She had accepted a dinner invitation; she was not going to give society another reason to ridicule her by changing her mind. David would be gone in the evening, as usual. She would attend without him.
