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He snorted.

She pressed her fists to her sides and leaned toward him, her face flushed. “You’ve been laughing at me ever since we met. And perhaps to you, this is a laughable matter, but not for me. For me, this is the only chance I have to actually enjoy what is supposed to be a marital bed. Because I know I am not going to enjoy it with my husband.”

“Fine,” he gritted, the thought of her in Lansdown’s arms sending chills down his spine. But if that’s what she wanted, he’d give it to her. If she could spend the night with him and move on, so could he.

“Fine?”

“Fine, I’ll teach you.”

“Y-you will?” For someone who was so brazen just a moment ago, she looked quite shocked he had actually agreed.

“Yes,” he bit out. “I will. I am not going to go around soliciting other men to take you to their beds. Or else I shall truly become the cock-bawd the thug in the pub had thought me to be.”

She raised her chin defiantly, though her lips trembled. “Then we agree. You shall be the one to teach me… things.”

“Things… yes.” He’d never thought he would one day be having this conversation.

“And I understand that engaging in acts like these can… uh… heighten our feelings toward each other. But this is just a temporary arrangement that is to end before the last item on my list is crossed off.”

“I realize,” he said through his teeth.

She smiled, a coquettish glint in her eyes. “You are not under any circumstances to fall in love with me. I am promised to another, remember?”

Adam was ready to claw out his ears as long as he didn’t have to hear all the ways she thought he was disposable, and mostly, how she insisted she was marrying that old fool, or would gladly hop into bed with some other man. “It won’t be a problem.”

Beatrice reared back for only a moment but quickly collected herself and offered him a hand. “Should we shake on it?”

He took her hand and pulled her close. She gasped and he lowered his head, taking her mouth in a scorching, arduous kiss. “No,” he whispered against her lips. “We start now.”

Chapter 15

The world tilted on its axis, the room went dark, and Beatrice’s knees buckled as Adam kissed her. The taste of rain and his own essence fogged her mind. A million thoughts rushed through her head but none found purchase.

It was only him and only his kiss.

His lips were insistent, applying persistent pressure until she tilted her head back, bending her back, and almost falling down. And she would have fallen if she hadn’t tightened her hold on his shoulders, digging her fingers into his soaking wet shirt.

He pulled her closer, his tongue invading her mouth and then retreating, invading and retreating like the waves of the ocean crashing against the land. But there was no land. There was only his kiss.

The tips of her breasts turned into hardened points, aching and pulsating with need. She rubbed her breasts against his body, hissing as the feeling only made her ache more. Want more.

Snaking his arm around her waist, Adam pulled her closer until their bodies clashed head to toe. The ache between her legs intensified, and she felt the dampness form there. But beyond that, she felt emptiness there, too.

She’d felt that way before. Not this aching need, but the strange tingle, the dampness collecting at her center. She’d read about what that meant, but she never truly understood until now.

She wanted him. There.

She wanted a part of him to fill her from the inside and at the moment, she didn’t care which part.

Raising her leg, she hooked her foot behind his knee, bringing her pelvis close to Adam’s thigh, and rubbed herself against him.

Adam groaned. His hand moved lower as he cupped her bottom and hauled her up until she wrapped both legs around his waist.

He tore his mouth away, and Beatrice whimpered. Adam took a few steps, she didn’t care where or what for. She only cared to have her mouth filled with his taste, so she lowered her lips to his neck, then lower to where his neck met his shoulder.

She bit on the meaty flesh and then suckled it, marveling at the taste of him.

He smelled like fresh grass and rain, and his own musk. The smell and taste she’d craved so badly for so long.