Page 57 of A Relentless Rake

“You’re disreputable, the subject of gossip and rumors and—”

He nipped her flesh in punishment. She sucked in a sharp breath as pleasure-pain shot through her.

“I’m a man who lives his life openly and makes no excuses for it,” he corrected with a soothing lick to her shoulder. “There are lines I won’t cross, but I also take pleasure from anyone willing to freely give it and accept it in return. If that makes me a rake in society’s eyes—or those of a beautiful woman—then so be it.”

To prove his point, his hand at her back toyed with the tiny buttons holding up her bodice, but he didn’t unfasten them. Not yet. She knew he was giving her the chance to stop him, would release her from his arms with only a single whisper from her lips. But she didn’t want him to stop.Willing to freely give pleasure and accept it in return… Never had she been more tempted in her life to do just that.

When he tantalizingly slipped free a single button, a heated shiver raced straight down her spine and landed with a fierce throb between her legs.

“Wouldn’t you like to do the same?” he murmured. “Wouldn’t you like to accept pleasure rather than deny yourself?”

She didn’t stop him when he hooked his thumb beneath the sleeve cap of her dress,couldn’tfind the will to stop him when he pulled it down to bare her shoulder to the moonlight and his sensuous lips. Heat prickled across her skin, and she felt herself sliding toward surrender.

“Do you want to be like me, Olivia?” With each button he freed, her bodice loosened a little more. “Uninhibited, daring…”

The last button slipped open, and her dress fell down to her elbows.

“You can be exactly that tonight.”

He nudged down her stays and chemise to bare her breasts to the cool air. Her nipples appeared just above the tight fabric, but far enough for him to flutter his fingertips over them.

“Tonight,” he purred, his eyes gleaming in the darkness at the sight of her, “you can claim whatever pleasures you’d like.”

He dipped his head to capture her nipple in his mouth, and she was lost.

With a soft cry, she dug her fingernails into his shoulders, and the sinews of his muscles flexed beneath her grasping hands. Each suck of his lips pulled a delicious heat up from the ache between her legs to her breasts, to flame right there beneath his mouth.

He moved his attentions to her other breast and laved at her greedily. The dark shadows and gardens cocooned them, and all she heard was the mutual panting of their breaths and the soft, wet sounds of his mouth adoring her. The most erotic sounds she’d ever heard in her life.

Her senses were fully awake now, all of her longing to surrender and let herself be taken. Alec could give her that. Here, in the darkness and shadows of this strange wonderland, he could give her the pleasure and release she craved. No one would ever know. Not Lady Gantry or the other patrons, not Mrs. Adams, not even Henry—

“Tell me what you want,” he cajoled against her breast.

The deep whisper tickled down to her toes in a spark of arousal and need that terrified her with its intensity. If she surrendered to him tonight, the physical joining would be wonderful—how could it be otherwise? But sex was all it would be. All it could ever be. He was incapable of giving her the future she wanted.

Yet to give up the only opportunity she might ever have to be in his arms, to feel his body moving inside hers, to be close to the only man her heart had cared about since Samuel…

“Olivia,” he whispered, half pleading for her to capitulate.

She pulled in a deep breath. “I want…”

“Yes, sweet?”

“I want…” Her face flushed hot. She felt like a goose! Yet she wanted… “To taste you.”

His lips quirked upward in a devilish smile. “Then taste me.”

Emboldened, she pulled loose his cravat and collar. She placed her mouth against his bare neck and fought back a groan as she brushed her lips over his skin.Delicious.Unable to resist, she licked at his flesh and captured on her tongue a wonderful mix of spices, salt, man—she smiled—andlemons.

“What else do you want?” he rasped out. Beneath her lips, she felt his pulse race.

“Touch me,” she commanded, daring to give this powerful man orders. “Down…there.”

“Are you certain?”

She gave a jerking nod of permission. Taking his hand, she laced her fingers through his, then lifted her skirt high enough to slip his hand beneath.

He caressed his palm up and down her thighs above her garters in slow strokes that were both comforting and exciting at the same time. Nervousness stirred inside her even as her knees shook in anticipation of a more intimate touch, but he hadn’t yet given her what her body craved.