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Not just that, she wanted to be his. Completely. Thoroughly. After tonight, he’d probably go wed his Margaret to keep his heart safe, but she didn’t want to keep hers safe. She liked that he’d remembered her even though he hadn’t paid any attention to her as a girl. She loved how he’d changed himself after Natalie had fallen sick because he’d wanted to be a better brother. And she positively adored that he hadn’t looked down on her stepmother and had been unfailingly patient and kind toward Jimmy. No matter what happened after, what pain it caused her, she wanted him to be her first, her only. She couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone but him.

She must have undulated or something against his arousal, for with a groan, he drew back to look at her. “We have to stop, dearling, before I take you to bed the way I want to do so badly.”

“Then, why stop?” she whispered.

He stared at her as if uncomprehending. “Wait, are you trying to tell me all that rot again about wanting to be my mistress?”

“No. You were right—I would never shame my family like that.” She slid her hand inside his banyan to find his chest fully bare. My, my. Her Noel had quite the manly chest, didn’t he? “But I want to be yours, even if just for tonight. Make me yours. Please?”

He closed his eyes as if to shut her out. “You don’t know what you ask.”

“I do. I want you to be the one who shows me what it’s like to be with a man. Only you. Consider it your Christmas present to me.” And to clarify what she meant, she rubbed her bottom over his arousal.

His eyes shot open, and he stared at her a long moment. Then with a groan, he shifted from beneath her so he could stand, but only to catch her up in his arms and stride for the open door to his bedchamber.

She blinked at him.

“I’m not going to make love to you in my study, for God’s sake,” he growled, as she threw her arms about his neck to hold on. “You deserve better than that. And if this is anyone’s Christmas present, it’s yours to me.”

“Then it’s our present to each other,” she whispered.

After carrying her into his bedchamber, he kicked the door shut behind him. “I must be out of my mind,” he grumbled, as he headed for the bed. “I only went into my study in the first place for a book to put me to sleep, so I wouldn’t toss and turn, thinking of you in your bed upstairs and wanting you. Clearly, that plan didn’t work very well.”

“I think it worked perfectly.” She flashed him a teasing smile. “You won’t be tossing and turning, will you?”

“There will be a certain amount of tossing and turning, I daresay. Just not the kind I anticipated.” When she stretched up to brush a kiss to his lips, he deepened the kiss, but after he laid her down, he paused to look at her with a gaze so hungry, she felt it to her toes. “Are you sure about this?”

She sat up to put her legs over the edge of the bed so she could open his banyan, then press a kiss to his stomach.

“God in heaven, Eve,” he rasped, shrugging his banyan off as she spread kisses up his stomach to his chest. “You are a wonder.”

With both hands, he pushed her wrapper off her shoulders. When she shrugged out of it with a shy smile, he tugged her nightdress up and off of her, leaving her as naked as when she was born.

“No drawers, I see,” he murmured as he stared down at her, his breath coming in quick gasps.

“Maman says it’s wicked to wear drawers. Men wear them, so …” She ducked her head, a bit embarrassed. “I don’t understand why that makes it wicked, though.”

“I’ve heard the argument before,” he said hoarsely as his eyes ate her up, “but trust me, I don’t mind your lack of drawers, especially now.” He bent over her to fit his hand between her legs. “What pretty red curls you have, dearling, even here,” he said and slipped one of his fingers inside her down there, making her gasp. Then he brought his finger to his lips and licked. “Tasty, too,” he said, eyes gleaming.

“Noel!” she cried, shocked.

When she blushed to the roots of her hair, he swept his gaze down her. “I’ve been wondering if you blush everywhere. Apparently, you do.” He fondled her again between her legs, making her shimmy at his touch. “I like making you blush.”

She tipped up her chin with what she hoped was a seductive smile. “Perhaps I can make you blush,” she said as she unbuttoned and untied his drawers.

He chuckled. “I doubt that.”

She tugged his drawers down, then swallowed hard as his substantial verge, as Maman had called it, sprang free. It was thick and rather dark, jutting from a nest of curls much like hers, except his were black as sin. And his verge, so firm and bold …

“Good Lord,” she whispered and ran her finger along it, then laughed nervously when it bounced beneath her touch.

“Oh, you think that’s funny, do you, my little seductress?” he said, then lifted her legs onto the bed so he could lay her out before him. “That’s enough of your teasing. Now it’s my turn to tease.”

Still standing by the bed, he covered her mons with his hand and began to stroke her with such deft movements that she found herself arching up to meet his questing fingers. They delved inside her wantonly, rubbing and teasing and making her gasp with how good it felt.

“Do you like that, sweetheart?” he asked hoarsely.

“Yes … Oh, yes …”