Page 77 of How the Earl Entices

No sound came from her lips, but his eyes softened, registering his understanding.

In that moment’s silence, she felt the undeniable connection between them again, returning stronger than before. She knew now that she had been wrong. It wasn’t at all like a ribbon stretching between them. So much more powerful than that! Their souls had intertwined, and what she felt for him now inhabited a secret place in her heart that had never been full before he entered her life.

The shadowy depths of his eyes held her captive, as if he’d cast a spell over her. They never left hers, not when he reached down to take the hem of her night rail to lift it up and off. Not when she trembled at being naked and perched across his thighs. Not even when he shifted beneath her to remove his breeches, leaving him just as bare as she was, his skin warm and soft over steely hard muscles beneath. She couldn’t look away—didn’twantto look away. What she wanted was to drown in those dark depths, to find a way to crawl beneath his skin and become a part of him. The way he’d become a part of her.

She turned to straddle him and slowly reached down between them to take his manhood into her hand. He grew hard and thick against her palm as she stroked his length, teasing her fingertips lightly over his tip and drawing a bead of his essence from the tiny slit.

He squeezed his eyes shut to enjoy her caresses, sliding lower in the chair and tilting up his hips. She whispered his name and traced her thumb slowly over his bottom lip even as her other thumb swirled over the head of his erection, until he twitched in her hand.

He was wrong. He wasn’t going to make love to her.Shewas going to make love tohim, with every ounce of her being.

Holding him still, his tip tickling at her wet folds, she slid forward to sheath his length within her tight warmth. No pain this time, only the delicious comfort of having his hardness filling her. Never did she feel more feminine or more beautiful than when Ross was inside her.

With a soft sigh, she slowly began to rock herself against his hips. There was none of the fierce passion of before, none of the wild need to satiate their physical cravings. This time was slow and tender, so deeply affectionate that tears gathered at her lashes. This…oh,thiswas simply making love. In every way.

“Grace,” he purred as his mouth slid down her neck and smiled against her wildly beating pulse. “My Grace.”

With a trembling sigh, she wrapped herself around him and closed her eyes. Happiness coursed through her veins.

No—what she felt was far more than mere happiness. It was a feeling of being accepted just as she was, scars and past mistakes included. He knew the truth now about all her secrets, yet he still wanted her. Her love for him deepened every time he whispered the name of the woman she’d become. Grace…hisGrace.

With a groan of pleasure, he buried his face in her hair and murmured, so softly that at first she couldn’t understand what he was saying, until she heard—

“I will keep you safe.” Then, in an aching vow for the future they might never have, “Always.”

Her heart skittered, too full of love and joy to beat on as it always had. At that moment, with their bodies entwined and his promise lingering on the dark shadows surrounding them, she realized the truth about the woman she’d become. She was no longer the frightened young girl who had no choice but to flee in order to survive. Now she was strong and formidable, willing to lay claim to what she wanted for her future. And what she wanted…

“Ross,” she whispered as the pleasure engulfed her in a soft shiver. It fanned out from her and into him as he followed after, breath by breath, heartbeat into heartbeat, until it was impossible to tell where she ended and he began.

Her heart—and her life—had changed once more. They would never be the same again.

Chapter 23

Ross came up behind Grace as she sat in front of the dressing table and put the last pins into her hair. In the morning sunlight, she was breathtaking.

He placed a lingering kiss to her nape and murmured hotly against her skin, “Good morning.”

“Averygood morning,” she corrected as she snaked her arm up around his neck.

With a smile at her reflection in the mirror, one that looked just as wicked as it felt, he deliberately raked his eyes over her. Her luscious body gave every indication that she was a woman who had been fully satiated in those busy hours since midnight. Lord knew he’d certainly done his damnedest to make her just that.

She ran her fingers through his hair. The suggestive caress sparked all the way down the length of his cock and tingled at his tip.

“If you keep that up,” he warned wolfishly, wanting nothing more at that moment than to strip off her dress and feast on her, “I’ll have you on your back again before you can blink.”

Her wicked smile matched his own. “That would be bad…why, exactly?”

He groaned at the temptation, yet he somehow found the resolve to unwrap her arm and place a chaste kiss to her fingertips before he set her hand away. “Because Kit’s due to arrive at any moment, and I’d rather my brother never learn what you hide beneath that night rail of yours.”

She bit her lip to keep back her amusement as he leaned against the dressing table, facing her. “A bit territorial, are you?”

Folding his arms over his chest, he arched an indignant brow, as if offended. “Absolutely.”

She laughed, the lilting sound musical on the sunlight that streamed in through the window.

Warmth swelled inside him. At that moment, his world was perfect. Nothing existed outside the walls of this room. There was no espionage ring to expose, no threat of treason—there was only Grace and the way she smiled at him, as if he were the most wonderful man in the world.

“Does your brother really want to become a vicar?” She reached up to affectionately run her fingers over his waistcoat buttons. She couldn’t keep from touching him, even so casually, and he certainly wasn’t going to make her stop.