Geoffrey swallowed, the sound audible to her. “The library,” he rasped. “Meet me in the library tonight after everyone goes to bed.”
An ironic smile lifted her lips. “You like kissing women in the library, don’t you?” she murmured, pressing her lips to his.
“Mmm,” he said. “Only you.”
Chapter Nineteen
G
eoffrey rearranged a pillow on the chaise for the seventy-second time. He was smoothing the fringe when the clock struck one in the morning. The supper ball had come to an end and the guests had finally dispersed nearly an hour ago. He thanked the stars for early country hours, for he didn’t know how much longer he could wait for Liliana to arrive.
He’d uttered the word library when she’d made her enticing demand because it had been the first thing to enter his mind. Yet it couldn’t be a more perfect place for their rendezvous. He spent the majority of his nights amongst the stacks or in his study anyway, as sleep often eluded him due to the nagging ache of his injuries. The staff had long ago learned never to disturb him here.
“Setting the scene for your own seduction?”
Her voice reached across the darkness, the husky timbre caressing him like a lover.
“I suppose I could make use of a chaise,” she said, locking the double doors behind her.
As she came into the light, Geoffrey noticed she’d donned the same dark day dress she’d worn that first night, probably to be less conspicuous sneaking through the halls. How thoughtless of him. He’d have to show her the secret passageway so she didn’t risk being caught next time she came to him.
And there would be a next time, if he had anything to do with it. These past days had been sweet torture for him, but his plan was working. Liliana was becoming as addicted to him as he was her—he was certain of it. It should be only a matter of days before he convinced her to extend their rendezvous for a lifetime.
“The scenery hardly matters,” he murmured. “You began your seduction of me long ago.”
Liliana cocked her head in that way he found entirely enchanting. “I did?”
“Yes.” The moment I first saw you. “I’ve been able to think of little else since this morning, imagining your hands upon my body as mine were upon yours. I’ve been strung tight all day.”
“You have?” she whispered. “How horrible for you,” she said, yet her smile was all female satisfaction.
Geoffrey tried for a stern frown, yet he felt the corners of his lips straining to lift. “Yes. And it was deuced disconcerting, I must say, politely greeting stodgy old guests whilst your sweet cries rang in my memory.” Hell, he’d been stiff as stone all bloody day. He didn’t know how he’d last a moment when she actually got around to touching him.
Liliana blushed, but she stepped closer. “Well, we shall have to remedy that, won’t we?” She leaned up on her toes and fitted her lips to his.
Geoffrey moaned. He couldn’t help himself, as her tongue boldly forayed into his mouth with no preamble. It seemed he wasn’t the only one strung tight all day. Her hands went immediately to his shirt. He’d removed his cravat and untucked for easier access, and she unerringly found her way to the heated skin of his stomach. Her hands danced along his skin under the cotton, rising until she found his nipples. She brushed her fingers lightly over them, then pinched simultaneously.
Geoffrey gasped, breaking his lips from hers.
“Did you like that as I do?” she asked, avid curiosity gleaming in her purple gaze.
“Mmm…,” he said, trying to nod. “Back to being my little experimenter, are we?”
“Mmm…,” she repeated, before once again reclaiming his lips.
Geoffrey lost himself in her kiss, allowing her to explore at her leisure. She ran her tongue along both sides of his own, testing the texture, swirling and dueling, then dipping along the inside of his cheeks, his teeth. She suckled him into her mouth in a rhythm that brought to his mind other ways she could please him, ways she would have no way of knowing unless he showed her. Just the very thought of her lips wrapped around other parts of him brought him dangerously close to losing himself. He pulled away from her kiss, setting her back from him a bit.
“Hold a moment, love,” he said. “A man can only take so much.”
“Or what?” she asked.
“Or he spills his seed and the fun is over too soon.”
She nodded her head thoughtfully. “I see.”
She didn’t, but she would before the night was through. A niggle of guilt worked its way into Geoffrey’s mind at what he was about to let her do, but he chased it away. She would be his wife, after all. That made it only a matter of timing. He stepped back, removing his shirt, and sat upon the chaise.
Liliana followed and said, “Lie back,” while she pulled an ottoman close.
Geoffrey obeyed, the brocade of the chaise rough against his skin.
“May I assume that since you liked it when I stimulated your chest, men and women are not so very different?” she asked, a chestnut brow cocked as she looked down upon him. “And that you might like the other things you did to me this morning?”
Good God, he didn’t know if he could stand that. Still, he nodded. “That would be a safe assumption.”
She sat on the ottoman and leaned in, brushing his lips with hers. Her hand returned to his chest, this time swirling around his nipple, tweaking, soothing. Her mouth moved down his neck, suckling at his racing pulse point as he’d done hers many times.
Geoffrey gasped for breath, closing his eyes and doing his best to hold still for her. Yet when her hot mouth closed around one of his nipples, he nearly came off the chaise. He’d never had a woman kiss him thus, had no idea how pleasurable it would be. A groan ripped from his throat as she drew deeply from him. “Liliana, please.”
His plea started her hand moving again, downward over his stomach. His breaths became shorter—he couldn’t get enough air as he waited for her to touch him.
Yet she hesitated, lifting her head.
His eyes popped open, and he tried to focus them on the lovely woman over him.
“I’ll need your help…”
“Of course.” He lifted his hips, dragging his trousers over them, a relief of sorts taking him as he sprang free.
“Oh my,” she whispered, seemingly enthralled. How had he gotten so lucky to have been gifted such an intelligent, curious woman in his life and soon to be in his bed? She looked up at him. “May I touch it?”
“I think I might die if you don’t.”
Her lips curved into a smile before she turned to her task. She reached out, touching him lightly at first, just a tentative brush of her fingers, but Geoffrey felt it in his very bones. She glanced up, gauging his pleasure. He thought he nodded encouragement but couldn’t be sure.
When she touched him again, it was with her entire hand, circling him, squeezing gently, then harder. “It’s such a contradiction,” she murmured. “So soft, yet so hard…like satin over steel. I’ve seen men naked before, of course, when I’ve treated them, but I never imagined…” She raised her head to him again. “Show me what to do.”