Lord Sebastian's Secret (The Duke's Sons #3)(23)

“Schoolrooms are all alike, aren’t they?” said Sebastian. “The one at Langford is just the same.”

She looked around. The long chamber was furnished with cast-off furniture, mismatched but comfortable and well able to bear rough treatment by boisterous children. A large table in the center served for study and projects. Shelves held a variety of volumes, from picture books to scientific guides, along with bits and pieces collected by Stane offspring over the years. The draperies were a bit faded. Nervous, she spun the great globe that sat on the floor beside her. For some reason, this made Sebastian flinch.

“Did you want something?” she asked, and flushed more deeply at the answering flare in his blue eyes. Something deep within her recognized it and leaped to fiery life.

“A few minutes of conversation with my betrothed,” he replied.

“About what?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just getting better acquainted, eh?”

He didn’t look satisfied with this remark, and Georgina couldn’t summon up an answer because the air seemed to have thickened around her. It couldn’t have; that wasn’t possible. But she was finding it hard to catch her breath. Silence fell over the room. Every detail of Sebastian’s handsome figure called to her—his sharp cheekbones, his dashing side-whiskers bracketing sensuous lips, his thighs in tight buckskin riding breeches. She had sat just there, across them.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I won’t go beyond the line. Again.”

Georgina hadn’t known she could ache like this for a touch.

“What…what…were you…reading?”

He spoke as if he had to remember each word from a foreign language. Georgina followed his gaze to the book at her feet. She had no idea. And she didn’t care. She wanted only one thing, and just at this moment, she couldn’t think of one reason to resist her desires. She took a step, and another. Reaching Sebastian, she slipped her arms around him under his coat. She pressed against him—bodice, hips. She rested her head against his chest. The speed of his heartbeat under her ear reflected the pounding of hers.

He returned her embrace. For a long, delicious moment, he held her. Then one of his hands drifted up, brushing her cheek, gently raising her chin so that he could capture her mouth in a soft kiss. Soft, and then exploratory, and then searing. How could lips communicate so many nuances of emotion? How could their touch send bolts of sensation through her body?

She arched closer. One of Sebastian’s knees slipped between hers as he pulled her tighter against him. Georgina felt as if she was melting. If he hadn’t been supporting her, she couldn’t have stood upright.

Her back came up against a hard surface. The door. They’d moved somehow. She leaned against it as Sebastian kissed her neck, her shoulder, and then took her mouth once more. She answered him, more practiced already. The kiss went on and on, incendiary. His knee pressed deliciously closer. Georgina shifted, willing it to reach the ache that consumed her. And then, as if they knew better than she how to manage the thing, her legs came up and laced around Sebastian in a second embrace.

He made a strangled sound. His hands gripped her bottom, holding her there. Buckskin rasped against sheer muslin. Georgina lost all sense of anything but the exquisite feel of that friction. It built as Sebastian pressed closer, rising unbearably until a great wave of release burst through her. “Oh,” she cried. He caught the sound with his lips, kissed her as it shook her to the core. She clung to him, riding the delight from crest to ebb.

Supported by strong arms, slowly, Georgina relaxed. Her breath slowed. Limp, sated, she rested her head on Sebastian’s shoulder.

He groaned. Then he carried her over to the old brown sofa and set her gently down there, skirts tumbled, face flushed.

Georgina leaned back. A country upbringing had shown her a bit about mating. She could see clear evidence of Sebastian’s unsated arousal. “I should do something for you,” she said. She had some ideas on that score. She reached up.

“Georgina?” called a voice from outside the room. Of course it was Hilda, with her genius for the inopportune moment.

The door handle rattled.

Rigid, Sebastian stepped away from her. She saw him grit his teeth as she straightened her dress. His face seemed full of longing.

“There you are,” said Hilda as she stepped into the schoolroom. “We’ve been looking everywhere.” Emma followed her in. The two girls hesitated as if they sensed the tension weighting the atmosphere. “What’s going on?” Hilda asked.

Georgina spoke quickly to save her fiancé from their curious stares. “We were just talking.” Her gown was terribly crumpled, she realized. Her sisters were only too likely to notice.

“Must go,” muttered Sebastian, his voice uncharacteristically thick.

“But we wanted to ask you…” began Emma.

“Not now,” said Georgina as he stalked through the door.

“Did you do something to offend him?” asked Hilda. She shot Georgina a reproachful glance.

Georgina couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing.





Five


He would not go mad, Lord Sebastian Gresham thought as he joined the Stanes and their guests in the castle’s great hall the following evening, awaiting the signal to go in to dinner. Even though he was closer to Georgina than he’d managed to get since their encounter in the schoolroom, even though her nearness affected him like a match to a powder keg. She was talking to one of the visiting neighbors, but Sebastian felt no envy of that. He didn’t want to talk to her. Not at first, anyway.