A Dash of Scandal(69)

“I don’t want to go.”

“Then stay a minute longer.”

Millicent lowered her forehead to his chest and his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close to the warmth of his embrace.

“I must be one of the silly fools I was talking about,” she whispered.

“If that is so, it’s only where I’m concerned. You are quite sensible in all other matters.” He paused and moved closer to her. “Except where what you are doing for the gossip writers is concerned. I must admit that, if it is true you are not doing it for the money or by force, I would really like to know why you are doing it.”

With her face half hidden in the warmth of his shirtfront she said, “Did you come here to talk about that?”

“No. I came to do this.” He kissed the top of her head and pulled her into his warm arms and held her with his cheek against hers. He breathed in deeply as if trying to take in her essences. “I love the way you feel in my arms and the way you smell.”

She should be trembling with fear of being caught, but instead she was acutely aware of his every touch and filled with desire to have his lips on hers.

“I don’t like being an unwise person, Chandler,” she whispered earnestly.

“No, Millicent, you are not foolish. You are intelligent, beautiful, and desirable.” He reached up and slowly caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingers as if they had all the time in the world to be together.

“What would you have done if Phillips or one of the maids had come to the door?”

He kissed her cheek, letting his lips travel down her neck as he whispered, “I would have produced your dance card, which I have in my pocket, and said I found it on the floor as you were leaving the party. I rushed to catch you before you departed, but couldn’t, so I followed you in my coach. I would have handed it to him along with a guinea. No one would be the wiser.”

“That shows how much practice you have had meeting young ladies in secret.”

“I have some experience.”

“Too much.”

“Enough.”

“So much that I am no match for your machinations.”

“As it should be.”

Millicent tilted her head back, giving Chandler freedom to explore the soft skin behind her ear before he moved up to brush his lips across her eyelids and down to her cheekbone. He made her feel sensuous, languorous.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I didn’t see you and hold you,” he murmured across her cheek.

The warmth of his breath on her skin, the strength of his body pressing against her, the seduction of his words made Millicent want to forget everything but this man and the way he made her senses come to life. She loved the way he touched her and soothed her fears.

Wanting like she had never known before filled her. She lifted her mouth to him. The soft warmth of his tongue swept the outline of her lips slowly, teasingly before taking them passionately in a kiss that was meant to weaken the last vestige of her reserve, and it did.

His hand moved up from her waist to cup her breast. Millicent’s breath quickened. His palm flattened against her breast and gently moved up and down, causing ripples of pleasure to course through her.

From deep inside herself she found the strength to say, “I must go in. Hamlet barks to let Lady Beatrice know I’ve come home. She will send Glenda looking for me if she doesn’t hear me coming up the stairs soon.”

“All right,” he whispered. “I’ll let you go.”

No, don’t.

“But only after I have one more kiss. I want to go to sleep tonight with the taste of your lips on mine.”

He bent and pressed his lips to hers in a soft, lingering kiss. In the coolness of the night, his lips were warm, his body firmly protective. He circled her in his arms and brought her up tightly to his chest and hugged her to him. It felt wonderful.

Millicent sighed contentedly. She had been disappointed when she hadn’t seen him tonight, and while she knew she should be angry that he continued to jeopardize her reputation, all she could think was that she was so happy he took the risk in coming to see her.

“You taste of liquor,” she said softly into the warmth of his mouth.

He nodded a little. “I’ve been drinking, trying to forget about you.”

“Obviously, it didn’t work.”

“No. It didn’t. We don’t suit, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I fear you are in my soul.”