Then Came You (The Gamblers #1)(112)

Out of the corner of her eye Lily saw a passing housemaid, and she beckoned discreetly. “Sally, please look after Nicole for a while. It’s time for her nap, so if you gathered up a doll or two and took her to the nursery…”

“Yes, mum,” the maid said with a smile. “A good little girl she is, mum.”

“She won’t be,” Lily replied wryly, “after a few years of Lord Raiford’s spoiling.”

Giggling softly, Sally went into the parlor and began to sort through some toys. “Mine!” Nicole cried, wriggling to be let down, and she went indignantly to rescue her dolls.

“My lord,” Lily said demurely, though inside she was filled with giddiness and anticipation. Alex looked at her questioningly. “I wondered if we might have a word in private?” Without waiting for an answer, she headed to the stairs and ascended them gracefully, her hand lightly touching the lacy iron balustrade at measured intervals. A frown worked between Alex’s tawny brows, and he followed her slowly.

When they reached the blue and white bedroom, Lily closed the door behind them and turned the key. Suddenly the silence became electric. Alex watched her but didn’t move, conscious of his body swelling and thickening, his skin turning hot and sensitive beneath his clothes. His breathing became shallow, and he strove to control it.

She came to him, and he felt the touch of her fingers on his vest, her movements deft and light as she unfastened the intricately carved buttons. The vest hung loose, and she moved to his cravat, unknotting the warm silk and pulling it free from his throat. Alex closed his eyes.

“I’ve neglected you terribly, haven’t I?” she whispered, starting on his shirt.

He was stiff and straining with arousal. He knew she could see the flush creeping over his skin. The touch of her breath sinking through his shirt to his chest nearly caused him to groan. “It doesn’t matter,” he managed to say.

“It matters very much.” She pulled his shirt from his trousers and slid her arms around his lean waist, rubbing her face against the rough hair on his chest. “It’s hardly the way to show my husband how much I love him.”

Suddenly his hands came up and closed around her wrist in an unconsciously brutal grip. “What?” he asked numbly.

Her dark eyes gleamed with emotion. “I love you, Alex.” She paused as she felt a tremor in his powerful hands. “I love you,” she repeated, her voice vibrant and warm. “I was afraid to say it until now. I thought you’d send me away once you knew about my daughter. Or worse, that your sense of honor would make you keep us, when you secretly wanted to be rid of us and the scandal we’d cause.”

“Be rid of you,” he repeated thickly. “No, Lily.” He let go of her hands and caught her face between his palms. “It would kill me to lose you. I want to be a father to Nicole. I want to be your husband. I’ve been dying slowly over the past days, wondering how to convince you that you need me—”

She laughed throatily, her eyes bright with tears of happiness. “You don’t need to convince me of that.”

He buried his mouth in her throat. “I’ve missed you…Lily, my love…”

Her breathless laugh dissolved into a moan. His body was hot and demanding against hers, his muscles taut beneath her palms as she caressed him. Hastily he undressed her, and stripped off his own clothes. She reclined on the bed as she watched him, wanting to cover herself but knowing that he took pleasure in the sight of her. Lowering himself to the bed, he pulled her smooth, na**d body against his and cupped her bu**ocks in his hands, urging her hard against him. “Tell me again,” he muttered.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I love you, Alex.”

His hand slid deep between her thighs, while his mouth possessed her in a long kiss. She touched her tongue to his, and they slid together in a mingling of silken heat and fire. “Again…” he said, but this time all she could do was sigh brokenly and writhe in time to the invading push of his fingers. As she arched against him, the tips of her br**sts dragged through the springy hair on his chest. He bent his head and wet her ni**les with his tongue, stroking and circling until the rosy peaks ached exquisitely.

Turning her face, she pressed her lips to his shoulder, drawing in the scent and taste of his golden skin. Moving lower, she searched with her tongue until she found the flat, silken point of his nipple, and he groaned with pleasure. Inquisitively her fingers combed through the thick, inviting hair and over the tautly delineated muscle of his abdomen, following the narrow tracing of hair that led to a denser thatch. Her palm slid over him, lightly gripped the silken hardness, and she caressed him once, twice, before he moved, pulling back and spreading her wide, easing inside her soft body with a guttural moan.

Intoxicated by the sensation, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, urging him deep within her supple strength. He nudged upward, driving high and slow, lost in an intense enchantment. He pulled back and she grasped at him hungrily, using her legs to press him inside her once more. He repeated the movement, taking fierce delight in the way she worked to pull him back. The smooth, controlled motion drove her wild, and she felt herself sliding helplessly into a trembling state of madness, existing only to feel him pushing and thrusting, his back turning as hard as oak beneath her hands, his h*ps driving with relentless force until the torment ended with a soaring, shattering burst of pleasure.