Page 62 of A Devilish Element
“Of course not. Why would you think—?”
“Only, that I feel such a cad. Eliza, you must know that I want you to be mine. I want to know you in all ways, and for us to be together. I can’t stop thinking about you. My head is bursting with you, and every detail of earlier. How your mouth felt wrapped around my cock. The heat of it. The taste of myself on your tongue. Friggin’ your pearl yestereve. I want to do it again. To lick you. Kiss you. Touch you. To bring you the same measure of pleasure. Nay, even more, for you deserve to be worshipped.”
“Jem,” she chuckled. “Perhaps you have imbibed a little too much.”
“Not at all. The effects subside rather quickly. I’m speaking only the truth. I adore you. You’re the most intoxicating of creatures that ever lived. There’s never been a woman in my life to whom I’ve felt such a desperate affinity. I was so, so sure that Joshua would have won you. Christ, I wish that I could give you the life you wish. I would do so in a heartbeat. All the learning you might desire, and all the acknowledgement too.”
What else could she possibly do but smile at such at notion? “You enthral me too, Jem. You are not like other men of my acquaintance, you are not pompous and over-inflated in your opinions, you delight in the workings of the world as I do, and you see me. You never belittle my accomplishments.”
“Belittle them? I should like to sing them to the heavens.”
“Yes, but don’t,” she said, turning and catching hold of his hand as he made to raise them and exalt her to the ceiling. In so doing, she knocked the bag from his hand, which escaped across the floor, emptying its contents into the air of the room. “Drat,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
Jem put his hands over hers. “It doesn’t matter. There’s more brewing, and I think I have the measure of its effects.”
They both stared at their entwined digits. To Eliza it felt hopelessly right. “If you wish him mirth it will surely bring it, or do you mean to open his mind?”
“Ah.” Jem’s teeth rasped against his lower lip. “It’s a rather delicate topic. Might we avoid it? I don’t wish to think of Linfield when I am with you, anyway. I’d rather think of us, and all the things we might do together.” His expression sobered a fraction. “But what of Joshua?”
“What of him, Jem? I have not heard a whisper from him since that day. It seems so long ago, and so impossible as to have been anything more than a daydream.”
“It was not. I was there.” His look said he could still feel the collision of their lips as vividly as she did. “Then, may I kiss you?”
“May you? Lud, I thought you’d never ask. I should like that very much. But wait.” She stayed him with her hand against his chest. “What of Doctor Bell?”
“Bell? Ah, yes, Bell.” Jem shot a glance over her shoulder, but he didn’t turn his head. “He won’t disturb us.”
“Jem, he’s right next door.”
“You’re right.” He hollered. “Ludlow, don’t you dare come in.”
Eliza covered her mouth with her hands, then laughed, her incredulity infectious, so that they were both beset by giggles.
“I can’t believe you did that? Whatever will he think?”
Jem caught her hand. Raised it and kissed her knuckles. “Do you know, I don’t actually care. He may imagine whatever he wishes. We will know the truth, and that’s all that really matters.”
“And what is the truth?”
His arms slid around her. “That I want you all to myself for now and always.”
“Is that so?” She challenged him with the arch of a brow.
“Aye, it is so. Will you come up here?” He patted his lap, only when she rose to oblige, he lifted his legs onto the chaise. “Straddle me, as a man would a horse.”
“Next, you’ll propose that I ride you like one. I thought you wished to kiss me.”
A flush rose through his neck into his cheeks. “You see into my head. God, Eliza. I swear my prick’s crying out for you. And yes to kissing. Don’t you recognise a man when he’s desperate?” He tugged her down on top of him and stole the air from her lungs as his kisses teased the seam of her lips, and his tongue led hers in a merry dance. They were both breathless and still lively as spring lambs when they pulled apart.
“Should I kiss you elsewhere too?” She reached for his falls, eager to reacquaint herself with that part of him too. Feeling the velvet heat of his prick before had only cemented her desire to further explore the relations that happened between a man and a woman, and how such connections came about in practice.
“What he’d most like is to slide deep into your cunny.”
“How scandalously you speak.” Their mouths were mere inches apart now, her straddled over him, his hands, one on her waist and one beneath her skirts, on the bare flesh of her thigh above her stocking top. He ticked a finger from side to side across her skin. “Are you in fact, a roué, sir? Set on deflowering me?”
“I confess, such a temptation has crossed my thoughts.”
