‘That is true.’ Lisette eyed him guardedly. ‘But you did not seem to think that yesterday.’
‘I have had a great deal of time to think since yesterday.’ He sighed. ‘Lisette, could we perhaps make ourselves more comfortable?’
‘More comfortable?’ she echoed doubtfully; she was already seated beside him and held in his arms; how much more ‘comfortable’ could they get inside a moving carriage?
‘If I sit back this way, thus.’ Christian moved so that his back was against the side of the coach rather than the back of the seat. ‘Then I am able to do this, thus.’ He manoeuvred his injured leg so that it lay along the length of t
he seat. ‘And you can now sit, thus.’ He turned Lisette so that she now sat along the length of the seat between his legs, her back resting against his chest, her feet on the seat and her knees drawn up, his arms about her waist.
A position Lisette was not at all sure to be proper, with so much of their bodies now in such close contact, particularly her bottom nestled back against the intimate vee between Christian’s thighs.
She moistened her lips nervously. ‘Christian...?’
‘Are you about to deny me this simple pleasure, Lisette?’ His voice was husky and extremely close to her ear.
Lisette was only too well aware that she was incapable of denying this man anything. It was part of the reason she had been so defensive on the journey from France to England, and for the time they had spent at the inn together. The same reason she had been so against accompanying him to London today.
Christian Seaton was not only the most handsome man she had ever seen, but also a duke, and a man whose service was valued by the English Crown.
A man far and above her own lowly station in life—the bastard daughter of a woman who owned and ran a French tavern. The same woman Christian knew to be plotting against his own Prince Regent, and who might be—no, in all probability was!—connected to the kidnapping of this man Maystone’s young grandson.
The two of them sitting together so cosily in this carriage was ludicrous in those circumstances.
And yet...
Lisette was no longer an innocent when it came to a man’s body, and she could now feel the undeniable hardness of Christian’s lengthy arousal pressing against her.
His arms about her waist held her tightly back against him, and his hands were resting dangerously close beneath the fullness of her breasts.
She moistened her lips. ‘Christian, I do not think—’
‘I do not want you to think, Lisette,’ he groaned, his cheek now resting atop her head.
‘But—’
‘Shh,’ he encouraged. ‘We have been at odds with each other these past few days; let us now just sit here quietly and enjoy each other’s company in silence.’
Lisette had no doubt that the now familiar tingling of her breasts and the almost uncomfortable warmth between her thighs was in direct response to Christian’s close proximity. The hard arousal now pressing so insistently against the softness of her bottom was demonstration of Christian’s response to that closeness.
Just as she had no doubt that it was not each other’s ‘company’ they now wished to enjoy.
Chapter Nine
Christian gave a sigh of contentment as he held Lisette in his arms once again and breathed in the familiar perfume of the softness of her hair, a heady mixture of lemon and the light scent of flowers. A perfume he had missed these past two days. As he had missed holding the sweet curves of her body pressed against his own.
Marcus had warned of it being a dangerous attraction yesterday evening, as the two men talked quietly and enjoyed a brandy together before retiring for the night.
Dangerous, and as undeniable to Christian as his next breath.
‘What are you doing...?’
Christian laughed huskily. ‘I do believe I am placing my hands upon your breasts.’ His hands now cupped beneath that delicious fullness, allowing him to feel the hardened nipples pressing against his palms. Evidence that, no matter what she might now say to the contrary, Lisette enjoyed having her breasts held and fondled as much as he enjoyed holding them.
‘The windows, Christian,’ she protested half-heartedly. ‘Anyone might ride by and see—and see what we are doing.’
Christian felt heartened by the ‘we’ in that statement. ‘Pull down the blinds if it bothers you,’ he encouraged softly as his lips now tasted the creaminess of her throat.
‘Of course it bothers me—’