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He groaned. “Amelia…”

She wanted to taste him as he had tasted her. She slid over his body until she reached his jutting cock. She slid her tongue over the tip, and he jolted. “Sweet…” he groaned. “Do that again.”

She was emboldened by his demands. She cupped his balls as she slid her tongue over his length. His breathing became heavier with each stroke of her tongue over his heated flesh. She stopped and slid him fully inside her mouth and sucked gently. He groaned even louder. “Amelia,” he said huskily. “Darling, it feels so bloody good, but if you keep that up, I will be done. I want to be inside of you.”

She slid her mouth off of him. “We can’t have that…” She climbed over him until her center hovered over his cock. “I want you inside me.” She drew his length into her and began to ride him. “You feel so good,” she told him.

Her pace increased as pleasure rocketed through her. Her climax began to climb through her, and she was so close. “Amelia,” he begged. “I want to touch you.”

She was too lost in him to stop and untie him. “You can touch me later,” she promised. “I’m so close…”

“Me too…” He began to push up into her as she slammed down. Their rhythm became erratic and messy, but they both found their peak at the same time. She collapsed on him and nearly blacked out from the pleasure. When she came to her senses, she reached up and undid the knots in his cravats, freeing him.

He smiled. “That was something I never would have imagined you would have planned…”

“I surprised you then?”

“In the best possible way…”

The teasing grew quieter, melting into the room's silence. Their next kiss needed no clever remark to encourage it, and when he drew her close, she went willingly. She slid her hands into his hair. They made love again with a tenderness she hadn't planned. Their last restraint gave way to trust.

Later, Amelia lay beside him, her head on his shoulder and her hand resting over his heart, feeling the slow, steady rhythm beneath her palm. The fire had settled lower, its glow soft and red upon the walls. Upon the dressing table, the ribbon lay beside his cravats, abandoned where she had left them. She could see them in the lamplight if she turned her head, but she preferred to watch the small movement of his fingers against hers, the gentle, absent way he traced the lines of her palm.

For a while, neither spoke.

She had thought the silence might become awkward once there was nothing left to arrange, nothing to say or do. Instead, she found herself wanting to stay in it, wrapped in his warmth, listening to the faint tick of the clock and the whisper of the dying fire.

That frightened her more than anything they had done. Dominic brushed his lips against her hair. “What are you thinking?”

“That I never planned for this.”

“Neither have I,” he said, and she felt his smile against her temple.

She smiled, but the humor did not quite conceal what she had been avoiding. A small, cold ache had begun beneath her ribs. She could send him home soon. He would leave when she asked, as he had promised. Their third evening would be complete, and she would be left with several letters, two lengths of silk and linen, and far more feeling than she had agreed to acquire.

Amelia lifted her head, her heart thudding. “We never decided who won.”

He arched a brow. “Our wager?”

“Yes.”

His gaze moved over her face, soft and attentive in the dim light. “I believe we should each have a question.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That seems a remarkably convenient conclusion.”

“It seemed fitting,” he said, a smile in his voice.

She traced the edge of his hand with one finger, considering the question she had carried since his last letter arrived. At the opera, he had suggested another evening. She had welcomed it without asking what he meant, and the unasked question had lodged in her. She did not want to spend tomorrow examining the words for reassurance he could give her now. She drew a slow breath and tightened her fingers around his.

“Do you wish to see me again?”

Dominic answered before she could regret asking. “Yes.”

The relief was so immediate that she had to draw a breath before continuing, her eyes stinging. “Without a wager?”

“Yes.”

“And without an evening carefully arranged to entertain you?”