And now she was essentially telling him that the only way she would marry him was for the sake of a baby.
“I see,” he said, thinking his voice uncommonly calm, given the hot rush of fury surging through his blood.
Fury he probably had no right to feel, but it was there nevertheless, and he was not enough of a gentleman to ignore it.
“It’s too bad I promised not to ravish you this morning, then,” he said dangerously, unable to resist a predatory smile.
Her head whipped around to face him.
“I could-how do they say it,” he mused, lightly scratching his jawline, “seal the deal. Or at the very least, enjoy myself immensely while I try.”
“Michael-”
“But how nice for me,” he cut in, “that according to my watch”-he was near enough to where his coat lay on the table to pluck his pocketwatch out into the open-“we’ve only five minutes to noon.”
“You wouldn’t,” she whispered.
He felt little humor, but he smiled all the same. “You leave me little choice.”
“Why?” she asked, and he really didn’t know what she was asking, but he answered her, anyway, with the one bit of truth he couldn’t escape:
“Because I have to.”
Her eyes widened.
“Will you kiss me, Francesca?” he asked.
She shook her head.
She was only five feet from him, and they were both sitting on the floor. He crawled closer, his heart racing when she didn’t scoot away. “Will you let me kiss you?” he whispered.
She didn’t move.
He leaned toward her.
“I told you I wouldn’t seduce you without your permission,” he said, his voice husky, his words falling mere inches from her lips.
Still, she didn’t move.
“Will you kiss me, Francesca?” he asked again.
She swayed.
And he knew she was his.
Chapter 19
… I do believe Michael might be considering a return home. He does not say so directly in his letters, but I cannot discount a mother’s intuition. I know that I should not pull him away from all his successes in India, but I think that he misses us. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have him home?
– from Helen Stirling to the Countess of Kilmartin, nine months prior to the Earl of Kilmartin’s return from India
As she felt his lips touch hers, Francesca could only wonder at the loss of her sanity. Once again, Michael had asked her permission. Once again, he had given her the opportunity to slide away, to reject him and keep herself at a safe distance.
But once again, her mind had been completely enslaved by her body, and she simply was not strong enough to deny the quickening of her breath, or the pounding of her heart.
Or the slow, hot tingle of anticipation she felt as his large, strong hands slid down her body, moving ever closer to the heart of her femininity.
“Michael,” she whispered, but they both knew that her plea was not one of rejection. She wasn’t asking him to stop-she was begging him to continue, to feed her soul as he had the night before, to remind her of all the reasons she loved being a woman, and to teach her the heady bliss of her own sensual power.
“Mmmm,” was his only response. His fingers kept busy with the buttons on her frock, and even though the fabric was still damp and awkward, he divested her of it in record time, leaving her clad only in her thin cotton chemise, made almost transparent by the rain.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, gazing down at the outline of her breasts, clearly defined under the white cotton. “I can’t-I don’t-”
He didn’t say anything more, which she found puzzling, and she looked at his face. These weren’t just words to him, she realized with a jolt of surprise. His throat was working with some emotion she didn’t think she’d ever seen on him before.
“Michael?” she whispered. His name was a question, although she wasn’t quite sure what she was asking.
And he, she was fairly certain, didn’t know how to answer. At least not with words. He scooped her into his arms and then carried her to the bed, stopping at the edge of the mattress to peel away her chemise.
This was where she could stop, Francesca reminded herself. She could end it here. Michael wanted her- badly, she could see quite visibly. But he would stop if she just said the word.
But she couldn’t. No matter how hard her brain argued for reason and clarity, her lips could do nothing but sway toward his, leaning in for a kiss, desperate to prolong the contact.
She wanted this. She wanted him. And even though she knew it was wrong, she was too wicked to stop.
He’d made her wicked.
And she wanted to revel in it.
“No,” she said, the word crossing her lips with awkward bluntness.
His hands froze.
“I will do it,” she said.
His eyes found hers, and she found herself drowning in those quicksilver depths. There were a hundred questions there, not one of which she was prepared to answer. But there was one thing she knew for herself, even if she would never speak the words aloud. If she was going to do this, if she was unable to refuse her own desire, then by God, she would do this in every way. She would take what she wanted, steal what she needed, and at the end of the day, if she managed to come to her senses and put an end to the madness, she would have had one erotic afternoon, one sizzling interlude during which she was in charge.
He’d awakened the wanton within her, and she wanted her revenge.
With one hand on his chest, she pushed him back onto the bed, and he stared up at her with fiery eyes, his lips parted with desire as he watched her in disbelief.