Impetuous Innocent (Regencies 3)

The clipped accents sobered her. The warmth of his arms still surrounded her, making it difficult to think. Her hands on his shoulders, Georgiana tried to ease from his embrace, only to find the arms holding her so gently were, in fact, made of steel. “I can’t think,” she murmured protestingly.

“Don’t think,” came his voice, so close that his breath caressed her cheek. “Just say yes.”

Again she shook her head, not daring to meet his eyes. Unequal to this battle, she leant her forehead against his shoulder. She felt his arms come up to draw her closer against him, his solid warmth comforting rather than threatening. Ridiculous, she thought, to feel so wholly at peace in the arms of a man who did not love her.

“Why?”

The question drifted softly, a murmur in her mind.

“Because you don’t love me.” She answered aloud without realising it.

“What?”

Abruptly he held her from him, staring at her in stunned disbelief. His eyes searched her face, then his lips twitched. Closing his eyes in exasperation, Dominic drew her head back until it was once again pillowed on his shoulder.

Georgiana snuggled against him, still dazed from his kisses, still wanting more, but not, at this juncture, daring to tempt him further. His insistence on marriage baffled her. Her own responses confused her even more. How wanton she became, with him.

Dominic waited until he had regained some measure of control over his reeling senses before asking, in a perfectly amiable tone, “Do you think, my love, you could explain to me why you think I don’t love you?”

The effort required to return their interaction to an acceptable footing was entirely beyond Georgiana. She contemplated attempting to retreat without explaining herself, but doubted she had the strength to win free of his arms, let alone his presence. So when his lips found her ear and nuzzled gently, inviting her confidence, she sighed and said, “You don’t really love me, you only say you do. I saw you kiss Lady Changley once. You never kiss me like that.”

Put into words, it did not sound particularly rational, but it was the best she could do, with him so close.

Silence greeted her revelation. After a moment she glanced up to find him regarding her, an odd expression in his eyes.

“Do you mean to say that that is why you’ve held me off for so long? Because I didn’t kiss you the way I did Lady Changley?”

His voice sounded strangled. Georgiana looked up at him in concern. When she neglected to answer, he shook her slightly. She nodded.

A groan rewarded her honesty. “Georgiana!”

Then she was swept into his arms and ruthlessly kissed, passionately kissed, until her legs collapsed under her and she had to cling to him for support. And still the kiss went on, demanding, commanding and utterly devastating. When at long last she was allowed to emerge, she was shaken to the very depths of her being.

“Oh!”

It was all she could say. She looked up at him, love, joy and wonder dancing in the golden flames of her eyes.

With a wordless groan, Dominic crushed her to him once more, burying his face in her silken curls.

“But why?” asked a dazzled Georgiana. “Dominic, why didn’t you kiss me like that before?”

To her amazement, she felt his shoulders shake.

Dominic could contain his laughter no longer. And, although his love struggled in his embrace, he held her tightly until he felt rather less crazed and more capable of answering her sanely. Only then did he ease his hold enough to allow her to look up into his face.

Reassured at seeing her own love reflected in his blue eyes—eyes which held warmth and gentle affection as well as the passion she had not recognised before—Georgiana smiled and waited patiently.

Drawing a deep breath, Dominic sought for words to explain how her innocence had tripped him up yet again. “I was most careful, I’ll have you know, not to expose you to my desire, because my sweetest love, it is generally held that innocent young ladies are not—er—sufficiently robust to withstand such raw passions.”

The incredulous widening of his love’s innocent stare nearly had him in stitches again.

“Aren’t I supposed to like…? No, that can’t be true.”

Dominic was nuzzling her ear again. “I assure you it is,” he murmured. “If I’d kissed any of the gentle debs as I’ve just kissed you, seven out of ten would faint dead away and the other three would have had the vapours.”

Georgiana giggled.

Then she felt the arms around her shift slightly and one strong hand found her chin, tilting it up so that he could gaze into her eyes, his own burning again with the dark lights she now understood. A sensuous shiver ran through her.