To Tame a Dangerous Lord (Courtship Wars)

“You know very well what I mean. The hunger you feel is bursting to be free just now. It’s only to be expected, since danger can be an aphrodisiac.”

It was true, Madeline conceded. His potent kisses combined with the excitement of the evening had set her body humming with desire for him. She was aware of the giddy welling of her senses, even before Rayne dazzled her with another lazy smile. “Let me give you a taste of the passion you will know as my wife, love.”

She was not his love. It was merely a figure of speech … his attempt at manipulating her into submission before devastating her defenses. But the seductive way Rayne was looking at her made her heart pound harder. And there was no denying that she wanted him to kiss her again—fervently.

When he obliged her unspoken desire, Madeline froze, bracing herself for the impact as his lips moved to take hers. To her dismay, this caress was even more powerful than the last. His mouth claimed hers forcefully this time—bold, hot, devouring.

Her breath seized as his tender assault went on endlessly while her blood heated. She had no notion of time until she felt the glide of his fingertips along her inner thigh….

What scant breath Madeline had left strangled in her throat when she realized Rayne had lifted the hems of her gown and her shift beneath.

Dragging herself up from the spellbinding daze, Madeline grasped his hand to stay it and pulled her mouth away from his.

“What are you doing?” she gasped.

His gaze locked with hers. “I mean to take up where we left off the night of the ball, Madeline. I have much more to show you about pleasure.”

The provocative promise in his tone combined with the dark glimmer of desire in his eyes rendered Madeline’s protest stillborn.

Nor could she make a sound when Rayne left his seat to kneel before her and draw down her garters and stockings. It was unbelievable that she would allow him to take such liberties, yet she didn’t stop him when he bent down to her and kissed the sensitive bare skin at the inside of her right knee, or when his lips moved further upward, caressing every exposed inch along the way.

He paused in his journey to soothe the mark the clip had made on her inner thigh, nibbling softly, stroking tenderly with his tongue. At the erotic gesture, Madeline groaned, a faint, hoarse rasp, but Rayne never ceased his purposeful ministrations. It was outrageous, scandalous, wanton, what he was doing, yet she fell back against the seat cushions, feeling too faint to resist.

When he pushed her skirts all the way to her waist, baring all her feminine secrets, her thighs opened involuntarily.

Rayne murmured a husky sound of approval as he bent down to her and breathed in the scent of her desire.

Then, as if he knew her own body better than she did, he unerringly found her most sensitive feminine flesh hidden beneath the dark curls at her woman’s mound and began to tease her with slow, delicate laps of his tongue.

The shock of it made Madeline go rigid. With a gasping moan, she gripped his raven hair with clutching fingers, yet she didn’t know if she wanted to push Rayne away or hold his magical mouth in place.

To her regret, he took the choice from her by drawing back enough to command in a husky whisper, “Be still, love. Let me enjoy pleasuring you.”

Trembling, Madeline obeyed. She sank back even farther when he went on flicking light brushstrokes over and over the taut nub of her sex in time with the rhythmic rocking of the coach. And when he delved deeper into her intimate folds with his tongue, she gave a soft cry at the incredible heat he was arousing inside her. The bright flare of sensation that had begun low at her core was swelling to a burning need throughout her whole body.

Urging her on, Rayne parted her thighs even wider and filled his hands with her bare buttocks. Then lifting her to gain better access, he increased his searing caresses, laving her with the flat of his tongue, gently abrading, then soothing her with kisses from his warm, wet lips.

Madeline was almost sobbing by now as she arched helplessly beneath him, straining against the wicked mouth possessing her, yearning for Rayne to assuage the fierce ache inside her. The need built and built … until finally erupting in an explosion that flooded her with shuddering heat and rocked her entire body.

The stunning force left Madeline’s breath rasping in harsh gasps and her limbs trembling with a wonderful aching weakness.

Without speaking, Rayne replaced her stockings and drew her gown down to cover her naked thighs, then resumed his seat as casually as before, as if he hadn’t just given her the most shattering pleasure she had ever known in her life.

For a long moment, Madeline lay sprawled there on the seat, boneless, languid, frightened at the intensity of her response to him. Yet she knew he was watching her as he brushed a strand of her hair away from her damp temple.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” Rayne asked, his tone both curious and tender.

She squeezed her eyes shut and moaned in dismay.

“Is there a problem, sweeting?”

Yes, indeed. Yet again he had made her abandon all her good sense.

“I think you are my problem,” she rasped as she struggled to sit up.

His smile was infinitely sensual. “And at the moment, you are mine. I want you badly, Madeline.”