The Problem with Seduction (47 page)
Read The Problem with Seduction Online
Authors: Emma Locke
Her twenty-fourth year had finally been the year. He was mad for her now. The bulge in his breeches rubbed insistently between her legs, telling her so. She should object to him taking her on her desk, but it seemed fitting. This year, she’d learned the tricks of a woman, and used them to gain the freedom to start this school. She’d seduced London’s most notorious rake while doing so. If he wanted to take her across her desk, well, it was her place of power. It was where she felt the best.
She smiled against his mouth.
He groaned and began grabbing fistfuls of her plain gray gown. It inched up her legs. The room had been pleasantly warm when he’d come in, heated by a small fire in her grate, but as the air touched her stockings it felt cool.
“Lucy,” he said before tugging her fichu from her décolletage with his teeth. He dropped the sheer fabric halfway against her neck. The other half trailed to the desk. He bent and placed kisses along her exposed collarbone, each one searing like a tiny brand. “I’ve thought of nothing but this since the last time. You can’t deny it was magical. Say it. Tell me you missed me, too.”
There was a hard edge to his voice. She gripped the soft wool of his expensive greatcoat and inhaled air that seemed laden with his lemon scent. She’d thought of this, too. A woman didn’t forget the man who’d taken her innocence.
“Say it,” he urged her. His thumb teased her nipple between the many layers of cloth.
She couldn’t. She hadn’t missed him. She’d seduced him and walked away, taking with her memories that she’d intended to last her a lifetime. Leaving him had been her intent all along. Capturing the interest of a man known for his fickle-heartedness had been all she’d wanted, and missing that same fickle rake would have been pure foolishness.
Her lure had been dropped, then reeled in. She’d taken a look at her prize, weighed and recorded it, and tossed it back. She hadn’t expected him to return. If he’d swum back due to some masculine sense of failure and a need to try again, then by Zeus, she’d break his heart harder this time.
He left her suddenly. Her hand reached instinctively out to him. It caught thin air. Then he tossed up her skirts entirely, exposing both stockinged legs, and caught her waist. He pulled her body along the polished surface until her bottom almost reached the edge. His hands pushed gently at her knees and he looked up at her for one feral moment before opening her legs for him. She watched him in a trance, her heart pounding a staccato in her ears, as he dipped his face toward her most private place. His light blue eyes never left hers. His lips parted and his tongue darted out and when he touched her, she nearly exploded from the table.
Her hands gripped at the desk, but it was too slick. She twisted her fingers into his curls instead.
Oh, my.
He licked a place he’d only just taught her was there for her pleasure. Her moans grew to whimpers and she could feel something happening, building inside her from the place his tongue met her flesh. He worked faster and she couldn’t stop, couldn’t look away, couldn’t keep her body from contracting and arching toward him. Suddenly, pleasure seemed to burst from within her. She cried out, then clamped her hand across her lips, while the sound of her panting seemed to grow louder and louder until it was all she could hear.
It was as much his panting as hers, she realized. He rose from his knees and dropped the fall from his breeches. His member sprung forth and she reached for it, needing it to finish breaking her. For that’s how she felt, as though he’d cracked her in two.
He slid her down on the desk and brought her legs to either side of him. One hand gripped his hard length and the other looped under her arm and splayed across her back. He looked at her with those blue, blue eyes and said, “I
did
miss you,” as he plunged himself into her and pulled her toward him at the same time.
Her belly turned in on itself. The feel of him slick and filling her drew her full attention, until her ears echoed with words that could have been said to someone else. He thrust into her and she gripped his back. He held her so close to him it felt as though they’d been merged into one.
Had she missed him?
No. But she’d certainly longed for this.
There was a knock at the door. Her heart stopped. Roman paused. She knew one true, terrible moment of destruction. Of feeling that it was all about to come crashing down.
As if in a dream—no, a nightmare—Mr. Mowry and Mr. Strickett entered, followed by a third person.
Mr. Strickett’s wife.
Did you miss the novel that started it all?
He put her on a pedestal…
When Celeste Gray arrives in the sleepy village of Brixcombe-on-the-Bay, she thinks she’s one step closer to leaving her notorious past behind. She even suspects the deliciously handsome—if somewhat stuffy—viscount next door is developing a
tendre
for her. That is, until the day Ashlin Lancester learns she’s not the unassuming spinster she’s pretending to be.
Now she has farther to fall
After a decade of proving he is nothing like his profligate father, Ash is horrified to have given his heart to a Cyprian. He launches a campaign to prove his attraction is nothing more than a sordid reaction he can’t control. But he soon learns that unlike his father, he can’t find comfort in the arms of just any woman. He needs Celeste. When he takes her as his mistress, he’s still not satisfied, and the many late nights in her arms only make him want more…
Also by Emma Locke
The Trouble with Being Wicked
The Art of Ruining a Rake
Coming Soon
The Danger in Daring a Lady
The Importance of Being a Scoundrel
The Hazards of Loving a Rogue
Other Intrepid Reads Authors: Darcy Burke
Secrets and Scandals Series
Never Love a Scoundrel (winter 2013)
Scoundrel Ever After (spring 2013)
To learn more about Darcy, her books, or sign up for her mailing list to hear about new releases, visit
www.DarcyBurke.com
.
Darcy Burke’s
Secrets and Scandals
Series
To save his orphanage from collapse, Montgomery "Fox" Foxcroft leads a double life as a highwayman. Banished debutante Lady Miranda Sinclair is his salvation—until she rejects him. Out of options and falling for the heiress, Fox must risk what principles he has left and take advantage of her wicked ways—even if it ruins them both.
Jasper Sinclair, Earl of Saxton, made a bargain with his devil of a father to marry a proper deb. Instead, he becomes entangled with a sometimes actress, Olivia West, who is determined to improve her situation. Destitute and desperate, she agrees to one night with Jasper, hatching a scheme to take his money and keep her virtue. However, Jasper uncovers her deception and vows to claim what he's owed.
When debutante Lady Philippa finds herself in a potentially compromising situation, she’s “rescued” by England’s most notorious scoundrel, Lord Ambrose Sevrin. Despite his scandalous past, Ambrose vows to preserve Philippa’s reputation, but instead launches them both on a path to public and personal ruin.
Former constable Lord Daniel Carlyle thinks he's met the girl of his dreams, Jocelyn Renwick, until he catches her stealing from his mentor. Jocelyn vows to stop at nothing to recover her stolen treasures, but does that include risking a chance at love?
Other Intrepid Reads Authors: Erica Ridley
Historical Romance Novels
(Kensington Publishing)
Born To Bite
Contemporary Romantic Comedy
To learn more about Erica, her books, or to sign up for her mailing list for contests, freebies, and new releases, visit
www.EricaRidley.com
.
Erica Ridley’s
Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Love, Lust
&
Pixie Dust
Daisy le Fey isn’t staying a wannabe pixie forever. As soon as she's a licensed Tooth Fairy, she’ll finally be on the Nether-Netherland ladder of success. All she has to do in order to trade in her homemade glitter wings for the real deal is complete her first solo assignment. Only that’s no sweet child asleep on the pillow. It’s a sexy man who refuses to hand over the tooth. Desperate to save her would-be career, she fights for possession. So what if her wand misses and turns the man’s assistant into a pumpkin. It could happen to the best of fairies!
Anthropologist Trevor Masterson needs his latest find to save his job from impending budget cuts. But then a blonde bombshell wearing glitter wings sneaks into his tent at midnight, claims to be some sort of magical being, and tries to fly off with his discovery. When Trevor chases after the tooth—and the girl—no amount of science can explain their attraction, or the chaos unraveling his carefully laid plans. But there’s no such thing as magic… right?
Dedication
For Lupe and Beth, my single girl-turned-mom friends.