Page 14 of For the Earl's Taking

The want of her stormed in him. There it stood, the nape of her neck tantalizing him. His legs moved on their own volition. He came behind her and his arm locked around her waist. Amazing how he felt failingly unable to keep his hands away from her.

Her breath caught in her throat. She melted in her middle. Would she ever be able to resist him?

“I left unsatisfied last night.” He murmured in her ears in a hoarse voice. He bent so his mouth reached her delicious nape.

“My lord could have stayed.” She managed to reply in a weak voice, as her head bent back. She had awoken in the middle of the night and extended her arm feeling for him, but her cot remained cold and lonely.

“True.” His smooth voice operated a melding of her senses. “And then we’d be discovered with nefarious consequences for you, maybe.” His lips strolled over her nape.

She arched towards him and felt his hard cock press on her back. “Maybe.”

He breathed hard in her ears, making her even hotter. “Do you know what I’d like to do to you right now?”

“No, my lord.”

“I have a name, Sarah!” He nipped the curve of her neck. She only sighed and he continued. “I want to roll up your skirts, rip you of your drawers and have you here, from behind, on the books you love so much!” His other hand at it.

The fantasies that he evoked set her on fire. She felt her nipples harden. All she wanted, to acquiesce. Nevertheless, it could not be. Mrs Talcott requested too many things from her today. “My lord, it’s easy to be interrupted in your library.” She had to call on some reasoning.

“Possible enough.” He panted even harder as his hand left her skirts and palmed her peaked breast. “Go to your room and wait for me there. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

She only nodded. With wobbling legs she left the library.

As soon she passed through the kitchens, Mrs Talcott saw her and sent her on a number of other tasks that had to be completed in the morning. Sarah had no choice but to go about them.

Hugh made sure not to be seen as he climbed the servants’ stairs to her room. He entered and closed the door. No one there. The cubicle meticulously tidy. Dimly lit by the little daylight that came from the small round window. He would probably always remember the nights he had spent here and the consuming bliss he felt with her.

Ten minutes passed and she did not show up. He waited five minutes more and no trace of her. He went dow

n in a rage of frustration, locked himself in the library in a fowl mood. Afterwards, he could not remember a single word from the reports.

Sarah had been asked to take some cleaning materials to the upstairs maid, who cleaned the drawing room. She walked on her way back, when Lord Hawkmore opened the door to his chambers. As he saw her, he grabbed her arm and dragged her back to his chambers. The door closed and she leant on it.

She had never been to his chambers before. Not even on duty, since she did not have the upstairs duties. It had top luxury decoration, with thick carpets, brocade curtains and upholstery and the biggest four-posted bed she had ever seen in her life. The colours masculine and it smelled of him. Her senses instantly alert.

He stood a breath away from her, looking directly at her. “I told you to go to your room!” His piercing eyes were attentive on hers. She had to bend her head far back to look at him. “Why did not you do it?”

Her arms tried to find something to hold on behind her, but she saw nothing. His stare made her weak. “Mrs Talcott saw me and sent me on many tasks.” She could decide if she trembled for fear of his anger of desire for him.

“I am the lord of the house!” He pulled her to him. “I have precedence over Mrs Alcott!” His sleek jet-black hair fell on his forehead.

“Yes, my lord.” Her head angled down but her eyes continued on his, giving her an air of defiance.

He looked attentively at her and it downed on him: “I know, I know…” He rubbed his cheek on hers. “I am acting as a medieval lord, using my prerogatives on you!” Now he embraced her tightly. “But wanting you is driving me crazy! I cannot help it!”

She rested her hands on his lean upper arm over his shirt. “My lord might remember that if I refused to go about my tasks, she’d demand to be informed as to why.”

Meaning they would give a huge clue as to what went on. “You’re right, Sarah.” He sighed and touched his forehead to hers. “But at night, Sarah, ah, at night…you’ll be mine! Only mine!”

In an impulse, he lifted her in her arms and carried her to his bed.

She gasped with the quick movement, her skirts flying around. “My lord! What…!” He settled her gently there; it felt like he put her on the clouds. The bed heavenly soft.

“Give me just a moment, Sarah, please!” His body covered hers as he murmured in his hoarse, seductive voice. “I wished so much you lay here this morning!” When he kissed her, she forgot about everything.

Hugh felt grateful that Adelaide invariably attended one social affair or the other and seldom wandered around.

As he kissed her repeatedly, his hands roamed over her uniformed, bony body. She held him by his upper arms and corresponded to all his passion. What did that woman have that drove him so inexorably to her? He lifted his head and her lips were swollen and moist. Their eyes met.

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