A Pledge of Passion (The Rules of Engagement #2)(19)

His safe hands? He wasn't sure how to respond to that, but Lady Russell tripped away before he could answer.

Determined only to escort Mariah back inside, he spun to the terrace door and opened it. Bloody, bloody hell. She was gone.





CHAPTER SIX





"For present joys are more to flesh and blood

Than a dull prospect of a distant good."- John Dryden





THROUGH EYES BLURRED WITH TEARS, Mariah navigated the meandering gravel path to the ornamental fountain at the garden's center. Her sobs gradually diminished to an occasional sniff. She sat on the stone bench to remove a pebble that had worked its way into her slipper and then shut her eyes in an effort to lose herself in the trickling tranquility of the cascading fountain. Although now cloaked in darkness, she was still close enough to catch occasional snatches of music and ripples of laughter escaping from the house. After a few minutes, she became aware of the crunch of gravel under someone else's feet.

"Lady Mariah?"

She sucked in a gasp. It was him. Why couldn't he just leave her be? She wished she could hide, or even better, that the earth would just open up and swallow her. "Please leave me, Mr. Needham," she whispered without turning to face him. "I wish to be left alone."

"No, Mariah," he spoke to her back. "The terrace was one thing, but this is quite another. It's not safe for you to be alone out here. Lady Russell has already retired and asked me to escort you back inside."

"But I told you I don't wish to retire until my cousin arrives."

"Well, I shan't leave you out here alone," he insisted.

"You contradict yourself," she replied peevishly. "Less than an hour ago, your greatest fear was for anyone to find us together."

"I told you I was trying to protect you."

"Protect me? I don't understand you at all. If you were so very concerned over my virtue, why did you kiss me in the first place?"

"Why? Because I bloody well couldn't help myself."

"Are you a rake, Mr. Needham?" she asked pointedly.

"Me? A rake?" he asked in a burst of laughter. "I may be flawed in many ways, but I assure you I have never in my life set out to debauch a virgin."

"Then why would you lead me to believe you cared for me?"

Her heart galloped as he reached out a finger to stroke the side of her face. "I do care for you. I have never felt this way for any woman before." He added with an anguished look, "But nothing can come of it."

The heart that beat so wildly in her chest at the touch of his hand now lodged painfully in her throat. "But why—"

"I've explained why," he said. "But now that I sit beside you and gaze into your eyes, all of the reasons that made perfect sense only minutes ago seem to make little sense at all. I can't stop thinking about our kiss, and the temptation to do it again is driving me half-mad."

"Yet you found it easy enough to break away."

"No, it wasn't easy at all." He cupped her cheek with his warm palm. "It was agony, Mariah. Every second that I remain here with you, my will grows weaker." His gaze fixed upon her mouth. "And the temptation to kiss you again only grows stronger."

His answer made her heart swell. She succumbed to the urge to lean into his hand, rubbing her cheek against it like a happy cat. "Then if I asked you to, would you do it?" She licked her lips. "Would you please kiss me again, Nick?"

He shut his eyes on a groan, and her throat thickened at the thought that he might reject her again. But then his hand brushed over her cheek to cup her jaw. Her whole body quivered in anticipation as he slid his palm to the back of her head and pulled her to him. Her breath hitched when his lips met hers, at first brushing over them in a warm caress. She released a sigh of bliss as they slanted over hers. His sliding, nipping mouth sent fingers of warmth tingling through her entire body. He sucked lightly, pulling on her lower lip and gently nibbling with his teeth.

Then his tongue flicked and darted, teasing and tasting her lips. Understanding came quickly as he probed the seam of her mouth. The very moment she parted her lips, he slid his tongue into her mouth. The sensation of it touching and tangling with hers made her stomach flip. The kiss intensified into a frantic game of capture and release. She threaded her fingers through his thick, silky hair as his hands worked into hers, pulling it down and scattering pins.

Suddenly, she was on his lap, engulfed in the heat of his body and surrounded in his musky scent. Lips sliding, tongues tangling, moans mingling, she found herself plummeting into a place of pure pleasure. He cupped her face, and his tongue plunged deeper still. She was breathless, dizzy, drugged with the sensation of his hot, wet mouth, of his big, warm hands skirting up her sides to cup her breasts through her gown. She echoed his moan with a helpless whimper as he pulled away the fichu and reached into the top of her bodice to stroke her breasts.

His thumbs circled the tight buds of her nipples that pressed painfully against her stays, screaming to be freed. She whimpered his name when he broke the kiss and shuddered when his mouth sought the sensitive hollow behind her ear. He sucked lightly on her neck, sending another delicious frisson of sensation straight to the damp, throbbing region between her thighs. His hot mouth traveled the length of her neck to her collarbone in fevered kisses that overwhelmed her senses. Her passage pooled with wet warmth and ached with an empty agony.