Page 89 of Aurelia

The earl’s lips parted and he made a noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a groan, the sound so visceral she felt it in her core. He lifted his hands to cup her breasts and she hissed as his thumbs grazed her erect nipples. “So beautiful,” he said, his fingers stroking. “So perfect.”

He lowered his mouth and kissed the budded tips of her breasts lightly, his tongue flicking out to tease, his lips gently suckling as his hand caressed her thigh, his fingers drifting tantalizingly close to the source of her pleasure.

The need inside her coiled so quickly that Aurelia feared she could not contain it.

“Look at me, love.”

Aurelia forced her eyes open and was stunned by the view. His normally pale eye had turned an inky black. Gone was the laughing, teasing lover, his expression now stern with tightly controlled need. The scars on the left side were savage and stark, the skin at the edges of the jagged black wounds white with tension.

“I want to give you pleasure without putting my cock inside you.”

Aurelia’s jaw sagged at the vulgar word.

Amusement briefly flickered in the earl’s eye as he lightly stroked her breasts. “Do you know of what I speak?”

She nodded, her face flaming at acknowledging such a taboo activity.

His eyelid lowered as something hot and dangerous flared in his gaze. “Do you touch yourself, Aurelia?”

“How—how can you ask me such a thing?” she whispered in a choked voice.

His lips curved slowly, wickedly. “I will take that as a yes. I daresay thoughts of you touching yourself will torment me long into the night for years to come.”

Aurelia squeezed her eyes shut.

He chuckled. “No, do not become shy. Look at me.”

She forced her eyes open.

“Has nobody else touched you?”

She shook her head.

His nostrils flared and he made a pleased humming sound as he slowly slid his hands from her breasts over her belly.

It took every ounce of strength Aurelia possessed to put her hands over his wrists.

He stopped immediately, his gaze darting to hers.

“I have not changed my mind,” she assured him. “I just want to say something before we go any further.”

“Yes?”

“I am an adult woman—not a child.”

A slow smile spread across his face. “I have noticed.”

“I do not want you to apologize to me… after. You are not taking anything from me. I am aware of what I am doing and what I am giving.”

The humorous look slid from his face. “You will get no apologies from me, Aurelia.”

She nodded and released his wrists.

“Now, where were we? Oh yes, I believe we were here.” He slid a hand down her thigh. “Smooth like silk,” he murmured, his caress not stopping this time.

Aurelia bit her lower lip as he lightly stroked the springy curls that covered her sex.

He cupped her mound with the hot palm of his hand. “I have been dreaming of your sweet little pussy for weeks, Aurelia.”