To Bed a Beauty (Courtship Wars 2)

She couldn’t claim any such thing. She wanted to be touched, wanted him to touch her.

When she didn’t reply, he drew back to watch her. His eyes riveted on her face, his gaze smoldered, as his fingers worked their magic. She fought the maddening desire but her body was on fire for him.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No…”

Her spine arching, she strained against him, helpless to control the quivers that suddenly rocked her body. Quivers that only kept building in ferocity and power. His eyes held her captive with their intensity while explosive pleasure spasmed deep within her. Roslyn bit back her gasping cries, even though she was so weak she swayed against him.

Yet he wasn’t finished, it seemed. Not at all. Before she could even recover her breath, he knelt before her. To her shock, he lifted her gown to bare her naked limbs to his gaze.

She clutched his hair as he stroked up the insides of her thighs, his long fingers gentle against her sensitive skin. When he pushed her gown to her waist, she felt exposed, damp with desire. He leaned forward then, and his mouth touched her, the moist heat of it a burning contrast to the coolness elsewhere. Roslyn nearly cried out, yet she clamped her teeth shut, knowing she had to keep quiet for fear of waking the household.

For a time, her soft pants were the only sound in the hushed garden as his relentless mouth plied her sweetly, inciting her to a fever pitch of passion. He slowly lapped at her tender folds, teasing the bud of her sex with erotic strokes until she thought she might faint from the pleasure of it. And just when she could bear no more, he penetrated her deeply with his tongue.

It was too much. The sensation streaking through her was so excruciatingly blissful, her entire body shook.

Her second climax was even more powerful than the first and almost brought her to her knees. As brilliant, bursting lights rocketed inside her, he rose to press his palm over her mouth, stifling her cry of pleasure so that it came out as a keening moan. And when she collapsed against him, Arden’s strong arms caught and held her tenderly as his lips brushed soft kisses at her temple.

She clung to him, her heart pounding, her ragged breaths loud in the hushed night.

“Can your earl make you feel such pleasure?” he finally murmured in her ear. “Does he set your body on fire as I do?”

Roslyn hadn’t enough energy to shake her head. The earl had never given her such pleasure; with him she’d never experienced anything like what she’d just done with Arden. Her body felt as if it had suddenly burst into flames, while her heart and mind were in similar turmoil. Wonder and amazement at the incredible sensations Arden had made her feel vied with dismay and disbelief that she had let him go so far-and that she had enjoyed it so much.

Dismay won out. Her racing heartbeat slowing, Roslyn groped behind her for the door.

When he started to kiss her again, she averted her head. “Don’t… Please, just leave me alone.”

Hearing the panicked plea in her voice, Drew stood stock-still for a long moment before his arms reluctantly fell away from her. Freed from his embrace, Roslyn turned and stumbled inside the house, shutting the door in his face.

Drew made no move to stop her as she fled. Instead, he stood there wanting to curse. His arms felt empty, his body hot.

He was aching with more than just sexual frustration, though. The tension knotting his insides had even more to do with his conflicted emotions. He had never felt so torn in his life. His first and only proposal of marriage had been an abject failure-and it was his own damned fault.

He’d decided to stake his claim to Roslyn, whatever it took. Even if it meant having to wed her. But it had been sheer idiocy to blurt out his intentions like that. Not only had he insulted her, but he’d put her on her guard against him.

Her adamant refusal had spurred a fierce need to vanquish her objections. To prove she was attracted to him as well as let her feel real pleasure for the first time. And admittedly, he’d given in to jealousy. He wanted to be the only one who drove her wild, who unleashed that wild, wanton side of her.

She was just as sensual and passionate as he’d expected. Pleasuring her had left him with heat pummeling through his blood-and only strengthened his primal desire to conquer, to seize, to hold.

Drew swore a low oath. His behavior was beginning to border on obsessive. He’d started to act just like Marcus. Call it what you will-infatuation, obsession, madness-but he was infected with the same malady.

Perhaps he had gone a little mad, Drew acknowledged. Yet his impulsive proposal was not wholly irrational. After all, Roslyn would make him an excellent duchess. She had the grace and training for the position in addition to the birth and breeding. And he could certainly admire her personal qualities. She was forthright and honest, independent, generous. Her intelligence and sense of humor matched his own.

Yet her most appealing quality was her warm nature. His greatest fear was that he would be shackled for life to some icy noblewoman like his mother, but Roslyn was the antithesis of his bloodless, passionless mother.

And if he must marry someday to carry on his title, he could do far worse. Roslyn was no simpering, vapid miss who would bore him to tears. She would prove a challenge for him, in bed and out.

Now, however, he faced a more immediate challenge-persuading Roslyn to accept his proposal. After tonight she probably wished him in Hades.

The biggest obstacle to a union between them was her vow never to make a marriage of convenience. She feared the bitter antagonism that had characterized her parents’ marriage.

They wouldn’t have antagonism in their marriage, Drew was fairly certain. They would have friendship and passion, which was more than most genteel marriages had. As for love…

Drew dragged a hand roughly through his hair. Roslyn’s notions about love in marriage were idealist claptrap, but he knew they were heartfelt.

For a fleeting moment, he wondered if he should attempt to make her fall in love with him, but he rejected the idea almost as soon as it occurred. He didn’t want to get tangled up with emotional complications. He certainly didn’t want to trick her into believing he could give her what she wanted. When he couldn’t reciprocate, it would be highly painful for her.