Page 38 of Seducing a Frigid Lady
“I would never lie to you about something like that,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper, his eyes never leaving hers. His tone took Priscilla’s breath away. She felt the urge to pull back, knew that she ought to have done, and yet she could not bring herself to move.
Instead, she met his gaze and breathed in the musky scent of him, realising that she had seen the truth of his words playing in his eyes. He was not lying to her. She could sense it.
What am I supposed to say to that?She thought.
Before she had a chance to come up with anything, Lord Sinclair suddenly blurted, “I want to put an end to this wager between us.”
Priscilla’s throat clenched so violently with surprise that it was almost painful. Her chest and stomach twisted, making it almost impossible for her to breathe. And the first words that came to her mind were,Me too.
Yet, she could not bring herself to say the words aloud, at least not yet. Not until she had learned why he would possibly want to do such a thing.
“Why?” She breathed out the word, barely daring to say it out loud. Lord Sinclair raised an eyebrow at her.
“Do you wish to keep it between us?” he demanded, looking more than a little frustrated.
“Perhaps I do,” Priscilla stated stubbornly, pursing her lips. “I am a woman of my word.”
Lord Sinclair sighed deeply and finally broke his gaze from hers. The moment he did, Priscilla felt disappointment edge into her stomach. She would have liked to spend the rest of the evening gazing into his hazel irises and watching the way the green flecks danced about his eyes.
When he looked at her again, there was a look of indecision in his gaze. And as Priscilla watched, it turned to quiet determination. “And I am a man of my word. However, I no longer care for this wager.”
The anger in his tone made Priscilla feel uneasy. Did he no longer wish to seduce her? If that was the case, then he was standing entirely too close for her to ever believe it.
“Nor do I,” Priscilla admitted, deciding that she had been stubborn enough on the matter. The shock that struck in Lord Sinclair’s eyes was enough to make the corners of her lips twitch upwards in the beginnings of a smile. She quickly regained control of herself, scowling at him before he could read too much into it. “I find it entirely too silly for my time.”
A look of hurt spread across Lord Sinclair’s face, and he took a step back. The corner of his lips twitched in a half-smile, though it was gone almost immediately.
“I had almost forgotten just how cold you can be,” he scoffed. He looked away, his gaze darkening as he did, and Priscilla feared that he might leave. Then he turned back to face her and explained, “I wish to cancel the wager between us because I wish for something more.”
Surprise and alarm swept through Priscilla like a tidal wave, not because it was the last thing she would ever want, but because she actually liked the sound of what he was saying.
“My lord, I…” she stammered, unsure of what to say.
“Miss Lloyd, do not try to dissuade me,” Lord Sinclair declared. “I have quite made up my mind. I wish to be with you, whatever that might mean for us.”
At that, Priscilla raised an eyebrow. “Whatever that might mean for us?” she repeated, wondering what that could possibly mean.
Lord Sinclair looked at her with amusement in his gaze. The hurt and frustration seemed to have left him, replaced by something else, something akin to hope. And it made Priscilla’s insides flutter.
“Come now, Miss Lloyd, you and I both know that we are not made for marriage,” Lord Sinclair chuckled, shaking his head. He raised his hand back to her face and cupped her cheek in his palm. “We both know where the other stands. This can be whatever we want it to be.”
What he was suggesting sounded like a fantasy, one that Priscilla had never realised that she wanted but that, in fact, she did. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but before she could, he stroked his thumb along her bottom lip, his eyes trailing after the gesture as though he longed to kiss her lips. Under his breath, he confessed, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you for even a moment.”
Heart racing, Priscilla’s own eyes darted to his lips. And as if he took this to mean something, Lord Sinclair gripped hold of her face in both his hands and kissed her.
It was a mind-whirling, heart-stopping kiss so powerful that Priscilla thought her lips might bruise. And yet it was intoxicating, so intoxicating that she reached up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her so that he could not pull away.
When his hands trailed away from her face, tickling her neck as they went further still, Priscilla quivered with desire. One arm snaked around her waist while the other came to cup her breast. It was a gesture so carnal that it made heat pool between her thighs. She pressed her body even harder against his, wanting to feel his hands on every inch of her.
All thought of denying him was forgotten. In fact, for once, Priscilla’s mind was entirely still as her body took over. She did not fight it as the viscount hooked his hands under her buttocks and pulled her up into his arms.
Heart racing, she allowed him to set her down on the nearby desk, the skirts of her gown hitching up around her thighs so that she could wrap her legs around his waist. Holding him to her still, never allowing her arms to leave his neck, she kissed him ever more deeply.
The way his hand snaked beneath her skirts, how his fingers squeezed her thigh, how his lips never left hers, all of it made Priscilla’s head spin; and though deep down she knew she ought to have stopped him, she could not bring herself to do so.
Her heart pleaded with her to let him go further, to allow him to take her right then and there, as though nothing else in the world mattered, as though she wouldn’t be entirely scandalised if anyone were to find out.
Then, just when she believed it might actually go that way, Lord Sinclair finally pulled away. The tension in his jaw as he did so suggested that it had taken everything he had in him to do so.
