The Perfect Temptation (48 page)

terribly warm."

It
wasn't an engraved
invitation, but it was close. "I can

help you with that," he offered,
reaching up between them

and slowly, very deliberately opening a
button on her bodice.

Alex held his gaze, knowing that she should
step away.

Or at the very least offer a protest, feeble
and dishonest as
it

might be. He opened another and she kept her
silence, stayed

right where she was. Another and her blood
was singing, her

pulse thundering. Another and she was
struggling to pull
air

into her lungs. Another and another and then
he was done,

leaving her unbuttoned to the waist and
trying to keep her

knees from buckling.

He eased the fabric to the sides and blew a
soft stream of

air across the swells of her breasts.
Twining her fingers

through his hair to anchor herself, she
asked on a ragged

breath, "Do you honestly think that's
helping?"

His smile was quirked and soft but no less
rakish for it.

"I'll bet being warm isn't quite as
distracting as it was."

"It's certainly not as unpleasant for
some reason."

Devilment danced in his eyes and he lightly
trailed his

fingertips along the edge of her corset.
Sweet tendrils of

warmth swept through her and coiled into her
core. He did
it

again, his touch bolder this time, more
deliberately inflaming.

She smiled and moistened her suddenly too
dry lips.

And then his fingers slipped into the lacy
confines to

tease her hardened nipples. "Oh,"
she breathed, swaying on

her feet, her head light as she leaned into
his caress.

"Like that, do you?" he whispered,
smiling knowingly up

at her.

"Far more than I probably should,"
she confessed, her

heart overfilling, her core going molten.
"Far more."

"There are no shoulds to desire,
darling.
If
you like it,

you ask for more."

It was a challenge, a dare, a plea.
If
she stepped back from

it, he wouldn't chastise her or
think
any less of her for the

timidity.
If
she accepted it, there would be no more hesitation,

no restraint, no thinking. He would give her
the moon, the

stars, and all the pleasure she could bear.
"More, please. Now,

if
you wouldn't
mind."

His grin was unholy and sent her heart
soaring. "Not at

all," he murmured, slipping his hands
to the underside of her

breasts. His thumbs scraping her nipples, he
lifted them

from the confines of her corset and lowered
his head.

"So luscious," he declared,
kissing a swell, moving

slightly lower, kissing her again.

Alex closed her eyes, awash in the waves of
potent sensation,

holding her breath, afraid she'd die of
waiting. "Oh,

Aiden," she gasped.

Had any woman ever whispered such an
earliest plea?
It

thrummed over his senses, igniting his blood
and fraying his

gentler intentions. He closed his eyes and
paused, determined

to hold his course, to keep their progress
under control. Alex

deserved tenderness and a slow, reverent
hand. He couldn't

let the seduction go too far, too fast. Not
here. Not right now.

"Please, Aiden."

The muscles in his loins tightened and grew
hard. They

were in the kitchen, he desperately reminded
himself. The

others were due back within minutes. He
wanted to go

slowly enough to savor the little quivers of
her pleasure, take

her low moans into his mouth and make her
squirm with

wanting, make her whisper his name and plea
for release.

But not now. He couldn't now.

She threaded her fingers into his hair and
arched back to

boldly offer -his lips a dark, pebbled
treasure. Through the

pounding roar of his heartbeat he heard the
rasp of his own

labored breathing, heard the high-pitched
snapping of his restraint.

A glorious bolt of heat and desire shot
through her, full

and wide and deep. Alex gasped
in
surprised delight, accepting

both the incredible pleasure Aiden gave her
and the need

that drove her deeper into his arms. A
second wave of pleasure,

far more powerful than the first, rolled
over her, filling

her senses, propelling her into a realm of
demanding hunger

and unrelenting need.

"Aiden!" she cried, her legs
melting under the glorious

fire consuming her.

He pulled her up and, wrapping her tightly
in his arms,

drew her full against him. The feel of her
breasts against his

sweat-slickened chest, of heated skin
against heated skin,

her hips cradled hard and close between his
thighs, the fit

magnificently perfect. arousing ...

Driven by the promise of it, he kissed
her-deeply, ravenously-

and intoxicated by the unstinted passion of
her

welcome, the ache in his soul bloomed into
overpowering

desire. There was only the throbbing
hardness in his loins

and the desperate thundering of his heart,
the aching need to

lay her down and lose himself in her.

His conscience weakly struggled against the
tide, and in

the frantic heartbeat he took to tamp it
down, the world beyond

them stridently intruded.

"Peacocks," Alex whispered, gazing
at him, her breathing

ragged, her lips swollen from his kisses.

Someone was here. The realization brought
rational

thought crashing back to the front of his
brain. "They can

live after all," he proclaimed,
abruptly setting her away and

solidly on her feet. He couldn't resist and
kissed her

soundly, quickly, one more time as he
stepped around her.

Snatching up his shirt, be rammed his arms
into both sleeves

at once, saying, "I'll distract and
delay while you put your

clothes back together."

She didn't say anything and he looked over
at her while

frantically buttoning up. She stood there, watching
him, a

dazed, contented smile on her face;
"Dress, darling," he

co
mmanded, jamming
his shirttail into his waistband. He

snatched up his coat and her smile slowly
grew.

Jesus, she was too delicious to leave. He
was too damn

tempted to go anywhere near her. but
if
he didn't jolt her out

of her reverie ... “Alex!"

With a slight start, her gaze came to his,
focused and

aware. He backed toward the door, feasting
on the sight of

her for as long as he could. "I'll see
you at dinner." With a

wink,
he added,
"Preferably not that much of you. Not then,

anyway."

She covered her breasts as best she could
with her hands

and laughed.

Exhaling long and hard, he turned around and
walked out

before she shredded what little of his
common
sense she'd

left him.

Chapter 15

Aiden stood in the shadows just outside
the
carriage house,

letting the afternoon air cool
his
blood and
draw
his senses

down from the heights. Inside Mohan and
Barrett talked,

their voices made low and their words made
indistinct by

their distance and the stable wall. He didn’t
care what they

were saying. What they were doing and where
they were in

the stable wasn't important unless they
started toward the

door.

Until they did, though, he needed the time
to close away

the delicious memories of Alex, to let the
hardness in his

loins ease. The last thing in the world he
wanted was to have

to deal with Barrett before he had the mask
of cool composure

firmly in place. His relationship with Alex
was private

and personal, intensely so, and was going to
remain that

way.
It
wasn't something he was willing to share with Barrett.

Or anyone else for that matter. Alex would
die of mortification

if she thought anyone knew.

Aiden narrowed his eyes and stared absently
at the back

of the house, considering
his
squirming conscience. All

right, so dying of mortification was a bit
of an overstatement.

She'd be embarrassed and then in the way
that was so

stunningly, uniquely her, she'd move past
it, smile wickedly,

say something about experiencing the divine,
and leave him

standing there blushing and breathless.

And, as long as he was being disgustingly
honest with

himself, it wasn't any abiding concern for
Alex's reputation

that motivated
him
to keep what passed between them a secret,

either. If he'd cared all that much about
it, he'd have

kept his wits about him and wouldn't have
let their interlude

in the kitchen go as far as it had. They
were damn lucky that

no one had walked in on them.
If
it weren't for the peacocks'

warning ...

He shook his head to dispel the image and
raked his fingers

through his hair. No, how badly he'd wanted
her - craved

her - had been his overriding thought as
he'd

unbuttoned her bodice. And at her first gasp
of pleasure...

He hadn't deliberately abandoned control;
he'd lost it. And

that was the problem, what he didn't want
Barrett or anyone

else in the world to know.