LITMIR.BIZ

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the seam of her sex, parting her with a gentle touch. Then he leaned into her heat, sweeping his tongue along the sweet, silky furrow.

      Her hips jerked, and she kicked him in the kidney. “Chase.” Her hands patted around his back and shoulders, meeting atop his head. She gave him a shake. “Chase. We can’t do this. Not here.”

      “Certainly we can.” He wasn’t sure if his words reached her, given that his voice was muffled by her skirts and his mouth had more pleasant tasks at hand than enunciation. He explored the treasure before him with slow, gentle passes of his tongue, giving her time to adjust to the sensation.

      She gasped and bucked. “This is so very wrong.”

      Beneath her skirts, he grinned. “That’s what makes it so very good.”

      “A servant could come by at any moment.”

      “Then stop interrupting.”

      Her fingers still clutched at his hair, but she ceased struggling.

      With that, he returned to his task. He found the swollen bud at the apex of her cleft and fluttered his tongue.

      Her breath escaped on an erotic sigh.

       That’s it. Surrender to the pleasure. Surrender to me.

      He slid his hands to her bottom, clasping tight with both hands and drawing her closer, the better to kiss, lick, suck, nibble. Using her reactions as his guide, he learned the ways to make her sigh, moan, whimper, and dig her fingernails into his scalp.

       “Chase.”

      Hearing his name from her lips was the most heady triumph of all. It told him he wasn’t an anonymous lover to her, but a man—one with whom she would share her most intimate places and sensations. A man she deemed worthy of her body and her pleasure. Even if he could never be worthy of her heart or her hand, this was enough.

      At least, he would tell himself it was enough.

      She began to roll her hips, seeking more contact, wanting it faster. A muscle in her thigh quivered. He knew she was close.

      Come, he silently willed. Come for me.

      A few more flickering pulses of his tongue, and she went over the edge. She came with a series of shuddering whimpers, bracing herself on his head and shoulders. He didn’t let up until her pleasure eased, and even then he couldn’t tear himself away. He pressed his mouth to her inner thigh, sucking and biting until a bruise rose on her tender flesh.

      There, now he’d left his mark: Chase Reynaud was here.

      Once her breathing slowed and the leg draped over his shoulder went limp, he extricated himself from beneath her skirts and carefully rose to his feet, making sure to support her weight as he did so.

      God, she looked beautiful. Throat flushed, chest heaving, her glazed eyes looking up through thick, dark lashes. Her hair had been mussed in the back, from where she’d reeled and rubbed against the shelves. The early-morning light painted her skin with a palette of golds and rosy pinks.

      “You,” she sighed, “are terrible.”

      “You”—he pressed his lips to her forehead—“are delicious.” He kissed her cheek. “Beautiful.” Then the corner of her lips. “Irresistible.”

      He leaned in, hungry for more.

      She put her hand to his chest, holding him in place.

      He took a step back, then cocked his head and searched her expression. “Is something the matter?”

      “No.” She wet her lips. “Not really. It’s only . . .”

      “Dropsy.”

      Chase wheeled about, searching for the source of this abrupt diagnosis. What?

      Rosamund stood in the corridor. “It’s dropsy today,” she repeated. “The funeral is prepared.”

      “Right.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Miss Mountbatten and I were just . . .”

      “Looking through books,” Alex finished.

      “Well, yes.” Rosamund gave them a quizzical look. “That is what one does in a library, isn’t it?”

      “Precisely,” Chase declared. “Go on, then. We’ll be up directly.”

      Once Rosamund had left, he and Alex exchanged looks of relief.

      “That was close,” he said.

      “Much too close.”

      “I concur.”

      “If she’d been three minutes earlier, Chase. Just imagine.”

      “No,” he clipped. “I refuse to imagine. You can’t make me.” He stood aside for her to precede him as they left the room.

      “You’re right. There’s no use fretting over it now.” She repinned her hair as they went. “Dropsy, really? I thought that was an old person’s disease.”

      “Well, you know what they say. Only the wood die young.”

      She stopped in the middle of the corridor and burst out laughing. “That,” she wheezed, “was dreadful. Criminally bad.”

      “It made you laugh, didn’t it?”

       Finally.

       Chapter Twenty-One

      “Chase? Chase.”

      Chase tore his gaze away from the clock. “Hm?”

      “And . . . ?” Barrow gave him an impatient look. “What did you want to do about the mining interests?”

      “Which mining interests?”

      “The ones we’ve been discussing for the past hour. The coal in Yorkshire. Is this jogging your memory?”

      “Right. The coal. Sorry.”

      Memories weren’t Chase’s problem. His mind was full to bursting with memories. The problem was, they were all memories of Alexandra beneath him, naked, gripping the bedsheets in ecstasy. Even if his body was in the study with Barrow, his mind was downstairs in his retreat. Which wasn’t even his retreat anymore. Over the past fortnight, it had become their retreat.

      Chase straightened in his chair and sifted through the report before him. “Hold on to the mines. The seam is nowhere near exhausted, and the demand for coal will only increase.”

      “Agreed.” Barrow dipped his quill and bent over the writing desk. “Chase, I know how you feel about me meddling in your personal affairs, but this is different. You must put a stop to it.”

      “To what?”

      “Whatever it is you’re doing with Miss Mountbatten.”

      Chase looked up sharply. “What makes you think I’m doing anything with Miss Mountbatten?”

      “Oh, come along.” Barrow threw down his quill. “Whenever she’s in the room, you steal hungry glances at each other. It’s obvious.”

      “It is not obvious.”

      Barrow lifted his eyebrows, and Chase realized too late that he’d given himself away.

      “That’s not what I meant. It’s not obvious because it’s not happening.”

      “Work on that ‘gentleman’s retreat’ seems to have stalled. You haven’t demanded my opinions on satin bedding or erotic etchings in weeks.”

      “I was going to solicit your preferences on perfumed sensual oils,” Chase said idly, “but then I decided not to spoil your Christmas

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