"What conversation?"
"The one where she told you that you had to marry me to save my reputation."
He frowned at her. "I thought you were asleep."
She met his gaze defiantly. "Well, I wasn't. The thing is, Drake, I don't care about my reputation, so you don't need to worry about ruining it."
"You cannot attend the Season if no one will receive you." He spoke as if to a dull-witted child.
"I know that."
"Then your reputation is of utmost importance."
She was finished discussing the paltry subject. If he was determined not to understand, she wasn't going to force the issue. She wanted to experience more of what he made her feel.
Running her fingers down his neck, she tried to look alluring. "Kiss me again."
It must have worked because he groaned and did just that. He also moved his hand on her breast, squeezing her in the most delicious way, and she sighed with pleasure. She wanted this more than she wanted a Season, more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.
He made her feel things, and not just physical things. When she was with him, she did not feel alone as she had since her mother's death. When he touched her, she felt connected to him in a way that, in her secret heart, she had always longed for.
Drake made her feel like a woman without making her feel weak. He made her feel beautiful and desirable. How could she not want his touch?
She started unbuttoning his shirt and noticed for the first time that he wore no neckcloth. She got his shirt open and skimmed her fingers over his bare chest, noticing a sprinkling of dark hair across his chest. It felt courser than the hair on his head and she skimmed lower to explore this new discovery.
He made an inarticulate sound and grabbed her wrist. "No."
"I want to touch you."
Rather than argue, he flipped her on her back and came down on top of her. Locking his lower body against hers, he effectively prevented her questing fingers from going lower. She would have protested, but the delicious sensations she experienced as the hardness of his body rocked against her most intimate place swamped her senses. She arched her back to increase the sensations, and he plunged his tongue more deeply into her mouth.
He matched the rocking motions of his hips with thrusts from his tongue. Feelings spiraled within her. She rubbed her bared breasts against the hair on his chest and nearly fainted from the sensation it evoked. How had she lived three and twenty years without ever feeling remotely like this?
The tension inside her grew and grew, while the pleasure increased to unbearable proportions as everything coalesced inside her. Her body seemed to contract and expand all at once, with something like explosions going off inside her.
She may have screamed. She could not tell with his mouth devouring hers. Her entire body went stiff down to her pinky toes as the ecstasy gripped her. Then her muscles all relaxed at once and she went completely limp beneath him. He slowed the rhythm of his rocking hips until he was eventually still. His mouth withdrew from hers and rained kisses along her cheek, jawline, and down her neck.
"I am surprised that wives ever allow their husbands to leave the bedroom, as this is undoubtedly one of the few benefits of marriage," she whispered, incapable of speaking in a normal tone after what she had just been through.
; He shouted with laughter and Melly snored loudly, mumbling something in her sleep. They turned to look at the sleeping maid then back at each other.
"I forgot she was there." Drake's voice held astonishment.
"I did, too."
He jumped off her as if burned, leaving her more bereft than she thought possible. "We could have… I almost…"
She cocked her head to one side. "What?"
His glare was at complete odds with the passion they had so recently shared. "Damn it, woman. I almost made love to you in the same room as your sleeping maid."
She was confused. "Wasn't that making love?"
He stared at her, his brown gaze disbelieving. "How can you be so bloody innocent?"
She felt as if he'd insulted her, but wasn't certain how. Surely innocence was not a fault. "I assure you, had I met a man like you before, I wouldn't be."