“I don’t need a demonstration. I don’t doubt your expertise in the least.”
“Then perhaps we should test your skills.” Before she could do more than draw a breath, he stepped even closer and
cupped her face in his hands. “Kiss me, love, and show me your charms.”
His bold gesture caught her completely off guard. Roslyn went rigid with dismay as the duke bent his head and captured her mouth with his.
It was a startling kiss, not only because of its unexpectedness but because of the effect it had on her entire body. His lips moved over hers in a sensual exploration that was tender and arousing and wildly exciting.
She had been kissed before, but nothing whatever like this. Her skin suddenly felt covered in heat, as if she were standing too close to a fire.
Her heart was pounding when he finally shifted his caresses away from her mouth. His lips brushed fleetingly along her jaw to her ear, where they lingered. “You taste like innocence,” he murmured, his voice surprisingly husky. “It is a charming act, but entirely unnecessary.”
“It is no act,” Roslyn replied shakily. “I am not experienced.”
He drew back enough to study her, his gaze skeptical. “I much prefer honesty.”
Roslyn stiffened. “You don’t believe me?” she asked in a warning tone.
He reached up with his fingertips to trace her lips beneath her mask. “Let us say I am willing to be convinced. Come here, my sweet…”
He bent to her once more and kissed her again, this time more passionately. Alarmed by her own response, Roslyn tried to retreat, but Arden pulled her fully against his body, letting her feel the hardness of him, the vitality.
Stunned by his devastating sensuality, Roslyn whimpered, amazed that she could be so aroused by a man’s embrace. When finally he broke off the kiss and raised his head, she looked up at him in an unfocused daze.
His smile was rueful. “I confess…most women don’t have this powerful an effect on me. You feel it, too, Beauty, don’t deny it.”
It was true, she had never in her life experienced anything like it-this lightning bolt of attraction that sparked between them. This devastating heat and desire. This yearning.
Not that she would ever admit it to him.
Struggling to regain a semblance of composure, Roslyn cleared her throat.
“Indeed?” she managed to say with a blithe laugh. “Your arrogance is astonishing, your grace.”
It was obviously not the response he expected, and Roslyn pressed her point. “Your vanity is vastly over-inflated if you think I am eager to leap into your bed.”
The slow, charming smile he gave her was impossibly wicked, impossibly seductive…and sensual enough to bewitch a saint. “A bed isn’t necessary. We can make use of the chaise longue behind us.” He waved in the general direction of the alcove. “And at the same time we can remedy the fact that we are strangers.”
“I have no desire to become better acquainted with you.”
“Perhaps I can change your mind.”
He raised his hand, his warm fingers tracing a path from the hollow of her throat to the swells of her breasts, which thrust prominently upward in her shepherdess costume.
“Your grace…” Roslyn began in protest, but he stole any further words away with another kiss, claiming her mouth with tender possessiveness. When he cradled her silk-clad breast in his palm, the brazen shock of it rendered her immobile. She wore no corset beneath her low-cut bodice, so she could feel the heated pressure of his caress through the fragile fabric.
A rush of excitement swept her senses; fire radiated from the hand that held her throbbing breast and from his lips that were plying hers with such expert skill.
His mouth continued to hold hers effortlessly as he stroked the bare skin above her bodice with his fingers, dipping down into the valley between her breasts. Then his hand curled over the low neckline and lightly tugged, sending the mounds spilling out of her gown.
Roslyn gasped as the cool night air brushed her exposed flesh, but she couldn’t manage a word of rebuke, not even when the duke’s sensual kisses ended and he drew back.
His eyes darkened as he gazed down at her nakedness, surveying the ripe firmness crested with dusky nipples.
Her breathing suspended, Roslyn remained speechless as with his thumbs he traced slow circles around the hardened peaks. A low moan was dredged from her throat while the ribbons of her bonnet slipped through her nerveless fingers.
At her response, he took the weight of her breasts in his hands and tugged the nipples to taut attention with lingering caresses, pinching lightly with his fingers, soothing with his thumbs.