Again the Magic (Wallflowers 0.5)(72)

She gasped a little at the velvety stroke of his thumb and forefinger against her nipple. “Why is that unfortunate?”

“Because at times like this, my conscience is screaming at me to leave you alone.”

Turning in his arms, Livia slid one of her thighs over his hip. “Tell your conscience this,” she said, and fastened her mouth to his.

Requiring no further encouragement, Gideon took her lips in slow, drifting, gently inquiring kisses. He opened the silk robe as if he were peeling a fragile, exotic fruit, laying her bare before him. His head lowered, and his mouth traveled tenderly over her downy skin. Finding the vulnerable places where her pulse beat most strongly, he stroked her with his lips and tongue, and caught at her lightly with his teeth until she made shivering sounds of delight. He had never known such an overwhelming need to penetrate, to enter, to possess another human being. Whispering her name, he touched the place between her thighs, where the flesh was silken and very wet, and he slipped his fingers inside her. Livia went rigid at his touch, delicate splotches of passion marking her skin, her hands opening and closing frantically against his shoulders.

Gideon teased her languidly, loving her faraway expression, the sensual helplessness of a woman being fondled and stroked into cl**ax. Livia’s eyes closed as she gave herself over to his gentle skill, gasping and arching in mounting pleasure. She reached the peak, going stiff against him, her toes curling tightly. “Yes,” he whispered, his thumb swirling over her clitoris, “yes, sweet lady, sweet darling…” He brought her down slowly, tracing erotic patterns in the damp thatch of curls between her thighs, kissing her br**sts until she was calm and still beneath him. Then he drew his lips over her midriff, and the soft skin of her stomach, and he pressed her thighs open with his hands.

Livia moaned as his tongue found her, while his thumb pushed inside the swollen entrance of her body. Gideon nibbled and teased her, loving the sounds she made, the rhythmic undulation of her h*ps as they rose against his demanding mouth. Feeling the delicate clench of her muscles around his thumb, he realized that she was at the edge of another orgasm, and he withdrew his hand slowly. With a little protesting cry, she stretched her entire body toward him. He levered himself over her, spread her trembling limbs, and thrust inside her warm, pulsing softness.

“Oh God,” he whispered, suddenly unable to move, so intense was his pleasure.

Purring, Livia wrapped her slim arms around his back and rocked her h*ps upward to engulf his stiff length and pull him deeper. He answered her movements compulsively, nudging, pushing, then plunging, until the sweet impact of flesh into flesh was too much to bear. She held her breath and shuddered, her body tightening around him in a rippling inner caress. Gideon withdrew from her with a harsh cry, his c**k throbbing in frenzied release against her stomach.

Groaning, he collapsed beside her dizzily, his pulse thudding in his chest and loins and ears.

A long time passed before either of them could speak. Livia lifted her face from his shoulder and smiled drowsily. “Amberley never did that, at the end,” she told him, her fingers playing in the hair on his chest.

Gideon grinned suddenly at the reference to his last-second withdrawal. “It’s the coffeehouse method of contraception.”

“Coffeehouse?”

“You go in and out without ever spending anything,” he explained, and she pushed against him with a muffled laugh. He caught her wrists easily. “Livia…I have to protect you from the consequences of what we’re doing, until—”

“I know,” she interrupted, pulling away from him. Clearly she did not want to discuss anything of importance right now. Slipping out of bed, she gave him a provocative smile. “We’ll talk about that later. But for now…”

“Yes?”

“Come and bathe me,” she said…and he obliged without hesitation.

Sixteen

The first morning of waking in Gideon Shaw’s arms made Livia feel as if the world had been transformed while she had slept. She had never expected to feel this intimate connection with a man again. Perhaps only those who had loved and lost could truly appreciate this magic, she thought, nestling against the soft, springy fur that covered his chest. As Gideon slept, his face robbed of its usual expressiveness, he had the countenance of a stern angel. Smiling, Livia let her gaze trace over the severe beauty of his features, the long straight nose, the lushness of his lips, the widow’s peak that caused a stray lock of amber-gold hair to fall over his forehead.

“You’re too handsome for words,” she informed him, when he yawned and stretched. “It’s a wonder that you can get anyone to listen to you seriously, when they probably just want to sit and stare at you for hours.”

His voice was sleep-scratchy. “I don’t want anyone to listen to me seriously. That would be dangerous.”

Smiling, Livia smoothed his hair back from his forehead. “I must return to Marsden Terrace before Mrs. Smedley awakens.”

“Who is Mrs. Smedley?” Gideon rolled to pin her beneath him, nuzzling into the warm curve of her neck.

“My chaperone. She’s old, hard of hearing, and dreadfully nearsighted as well.”

“Perfect,” Gideon commented with a swift grin. He moved lower on her body, cupping her br**sts in his hands and kissing them softly. “I have meetings this morning. But I would like to escort you and Mrs. Smedley somewhere this afternoon…out for fruit ices?”