Page 23 of The Duchess Debt

Relieved that she’d won this battle, if still a long way from winning the war, she folded the list and tucked it inside her bodice for safekeeping, as she did with most notes when she wasn’t near her writing desk.

She looked up and froze. He’d watched her hand go to her bosom, and now his stare heated through her as it lingered on the swells of her breasts, despite the modest neckline of her morning dress. A tingling stirred at her toes. Was heremembering the way he’d kissed her last night and those caresses he’d stolen?

Heaven help her…did he want to kiss her again?

God knewshewanted exactly that. But she also had to be careful. Weddings could be called off at the last moment, vows never taken, all promises of a future together destroyed… She knew that more than anyone. The very last thing she would do was put herself into the same position as Clarissa Wentworth and get herself with child.

Although…what harm could come from a few, small indiscretions? She knew how babies were made, and they didn’t come from kisses and caresses, no matter how achingly delicious and thrilling. And Gabe’s touches were certainly that. Besides, they were engaged. No one would expect them to be completely chaste in the lead-up to their wedding.Somephysical intimacies were to be expected. It was only natural.

And nothing felt more natural to her than being in Gabe’s embrace.

Unable to resist, she rose from her chair and leaned over the table toward him. Her voice lowered with husky temptation. “Seal our agreement with a kiss?”

For a long moment, he didn’t move. Then he slowly circled the table to her. He shoved the breakfast things away, then lifted her from her chair. She inhaled sharply as he set her on the edge of the table, their faces now even.

Despite her spiking pulse, Helena watched curiously as he picked up a strawberry from her plate. He lifted it to her mouth, but instead of feeding it to her, he used it to outline her lips, which parted in soft surprise.

“I make a lot of business contracts,” he murmured, his gaze fixed heatedly on her lips. “But this is the first time my signature isn’t sufficient.”

“Perhaps I don’t find you trustworthy enough for only a signature,” she whispered against the strawberry as he continued to rub it against her lips.

He smiled knowingly. “That’s not why you asked.”

“Then perhaps I wanted an unusual agreement for an unusual list of demands.” Oh, how tempted she was to just grab the berry between her teeth and gobble it down! Then there would be nothing between their lips to keep him from kissing her.

“Trust me, Helena.” He slowly trailed the berry away from her lips and down her throat to the valley between her breasts, making her breath come in rapid little pants. “You are certainly unusual.”

She pretended ire, although she couldn’t truly concentrate on anything except the cool brush of the berry against the inner swells of her breasts. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

“Very much so.” His fingers tugged gently at her neckline.

In silent permission, she arched her back.

His clever fingers swept inside her bodice and freed her breast from the confines of her stays and chemise. She felt his breath hitch at the sight of her, and his soft reaction reverberated through her like a low roll of thunder.

“Is that what first attracted you to me?” she whispered, afraid of speaking too loudly and breaking the spell weaving itself around them. “Because I was unusual?”

“Yes.” But his attention was on her breast, not on the memories she was trying to thrust back into the light. So much so that his gaze never moved even as he dropped the berry to the table and reached for the cup of blackberry jam. He swiped his finger through the jam, then brought it to her nipple and circled slowly with his fingertip, leaving a dark trail across her rosy skin. “I saw you standing there and couldn’t tear my eyes away.”

“But there were…so many other ladies…” she somehow forced out between breaths, “who would have—”

She sighed when he lowered his head to lick away the jam.

“Who would have been boring,” he murmured against her breast. “Simpering.” His tongue swirled in a slow glide around her nipple and sent tingles rippling deep into her chest. “Saying things they thought I wanted to hear instead of the truth.” He laved her nipple and drew it into a taut, aching point. “Not at all argumentative or feisty like you.”

“I wasn’t argumentative or—”

He nipped at her with his teeth for that lie, and a gasp tore from her lips. Then the soft sound changed into a whimper when he closed his lips around her nipple and sucked.

She slipped her hands into his soft hair to keep his head pressed against her and closed her eyes, giving over to the sheer pleasure of his mouth on her flesh. She didn’t dare let herself wonder how a man who refused to love her could make her feel so wonderful, for fear the answer would simply destroy her.

“You were all those things,” he murmured as he continued to worship at her breast. “And so much more.”

“Gabe,” she whispered, her voice pleading.Tell me you love me, that you’ve always loved me and still do…

A soft knock sounded on the door.

He pulled back and gently pushed her breast beneath her clothes, then stepped away.