My Duke's Seduction (Wicked Lords of London 1)

Nibbling on her lip, she searched for the words that might tell him, she wanted him to ruin her without actually saying it out loud. Drat, why hadn’t she practiced this beforehand? “Perhaps we could discuss it inside?”

He paused for a long moment before finally answering. “You’re just going to enter my house in the middle of the night, through the front door?”

Shrugging, she looked away then. “I no longer need to preserve my reputation.”

“I see,” he answered evenly before he guided her to the entrance with an arm around her waist.

Stepping inside, he waved away the staff that made to greet him. With his arm still around her waist, he turned to the right and entered what appeared to be a sitting room.

He lit a candle, sitting it on the nearest table, and led her to a settee. “What happened, Tricia?” he asked as he sat down, pulling her with him.

“I don’t…that is to say…that’s not what I came for.” She turned toward him then.

She heard him give a short sigh. “Well, it’s what I want to know.”

Swallowing, she shook her head. She didn’t want to talk. Summoning her courage, her tongue darted out to wet her lips. His gaze fell to her lips, his eyes following the trail of her tongue. Pushing all thought aside, she leaned in and placed her lips on his. He didn’t move and for a moment she wondered what to do but then her body took over. Remembering his kiss in the garden, she pulled back slightly and then kissed him again and again, until his lips responded. She barely had time to register his response when he’d pulled her into his lap, her body pressed to his, his hand in her hair as his tongue ravaged her mouth in the most delightful way.

This is what she had wanted. To lose herself in his strength, his passion. It was exciting and comforting all in the same moment.

His other hand slid down her body, cupping her behind. The press of it felt so delightful, she moaned into his lips without intending to.

He gave a growl of response. “What are you doing to me, Tricia?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling them closer together. She didn’t want to talk, only to feel. To forget.

He slipped his hand out of her hair and brought it to her cheek. As he did so, his thumb brushed something warm and wet. He pulled back at the same time she realized she was crying.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured then, giving her another very soft kiss. “Tell me.”

It was only then that she managed to tell him the story. Sitting in his lap, wrapped in his embrace. Herman’s words, the looks of the crowd. “I know I deserved it, Ryker,” she choked out. “I knew what I was doing but I didn’t expect it to hurt so much.”

“I know what you deserve and it wasn’t that.” He wiped her tears again.

“I’ll be better tomorrow,” she whispered. “I always knew I’d be a spinster but it was so much harder than I thought it would be. I’m sorry to bother you like this. I guess I thought…” She trailed off because the words made her sound like a harlot.

“What did you think?” He stilled under her, his thumb no longer stroking her cheek or wiping her tears.

“I thought…” She was glad for the dim light, it hid her blush. “That being near you would make me feel better. And that if I were to be ruined anyhow…” She gulped as she went to say the next words. “I may as well actually be ruined.”

She heard him suck in his breath and for a moment there was no sound at all. Then, without warning he let out a choked laugh that startled her near to death. She made to scramble off his lap but his laughter abruptly ended and he pulled her back down against him. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to laugh.”

“Then why did you,” she huffed.

His thumb came to her cheek again, his palm cradling her head. “It’s just that every other lady I’ve ever been acquainted with would have used this meeting, and our prior ones, to ensure her own future by demanding we wed.” He paused to give her a small kiss. “Had that even occurred to you?”

A blush again rose in her cheeks. Not only was she a wanton woman, apparently she was a dimwitted one at that. “Should it have?”

“I’m glad it didn’t,” he whispered. “It’s the very reason we will, in fact, be wed. Even though you are heaps of trouble. Sneaking out, causing scandals at balls.” Then he kissed her again, a deep, hard kiss that left her mind spinning. She barely processed his words as they pressed together. But slowly, they cut through the haze that seemed to penetrate her thoughts whenever he touched her.

“Married?” she whispered then, pulling back. “You want to marry me?”

He quirked a brow as he gave her lopsided grin. My lord, he made a woman breathless like that. “I do.”

She blinked several times. “But you don’t want to get married. You said so the first night I met you.”

“Marriage is required of me.” His hand trailed up her back in a slow, light caress. And while the touch spoke of affection, the words left her rather cold. “And while I intended to wait, I doubt I will find another woman quite like you.”

Well that warmed her. It was a declaration of affection at the very least.