Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)(22)
Pru realized, as she saw the shadow of sadness in the other woman’s dark green eyes, how little she really knew the Duchess of Stonewell.
She was very beautiful, of course, and always elegantly attired.
But now that she gave the matter some thought, Pru did not recall ever seeing the other woman with any particular close female friends.
No doubt being a duchess precluded some of those friendships, but the outspokenness of Lady Jacqueline, who was always at her daughter’s side, must also make it difficult for Angelique Sinclair to form close feminine alliances. Quite what Pru would do without Jocey to talk to and confide in now that Cilla was dead, she dreaded to think.
Of course, there was another explanation as to why the duchess chose to keep herself aloof from close friendships. Being a traitor to one’s country must be exhausting—
“Titus!” The sadness in the duchess’s eyes was no longer in evidence when she turned to give Romney a glowing smile, making Pru wonder if she had imagined it being there at all. “It has been so lovely to see you again. And to spend time getting to know Lady Prudence better,” she added warmly.
“I believe the pleasure was all ours,” Romney answered with a brief glance in Pru’s direction.
Angelique Sinclair gave a throaty laugh. “I have not seen this teasing side of you before, Titus.”
“Perhaps that is because only Lady Prudence succeeds in coaxing forth that part of my nature,” he drawled.
“Indeed?” The duchess eyed him speculatively. “Well, please do not leave it so long before both of you join us again for dinner.”
Pru’s cheeks were ablaze with color as she allowed Romney to place her cloak about her shoulders before escorting her to his carriage. Not all that color was embarrassment. It greatly warmed her to know that Titus’s teasing was something the duchess knew nothing about, because, as he admitted, it was a part of him reserved for Pru alone.
Chapter 8
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Pru snapped herself out of her reverie. She would have plenty of time to continue her speculation about the Duchess of Stonewell once she arrived home, rather than wasting any more of the precious time she had left to spend with Titus this evening. Except… “Is the duchess happy with Stonewell, do you think?”
She could see Romney’s brows rise in the light given off by the lantern inside the carriage. “What on earth makes you ask that?”
She shrugged. “She seems…sad, somehow.”
“Angelique does?” His expression was one of surprise. “I have always found her to be very gay and charming.”
That could be because, as Pru’s mother had observed, it was the ladylike face the duchess chose to show to the outside world. But Pru had caught a glimpse of another side to the other woman this evening, most especially so once the two of them were alone in the entrance hall together. But Titus had known the other woman far longer than she had, so perhaps she had imagined the duchess’s underlying sadness.
She gave a dismissive shrug. “I am sure I should feel the occasional frustration if I was married to Stonewell or had a mother like Lady Jacqueline.”
“Stonewell is not so bad,” he reproved.
“If you say so.” She eyed Titus teasingly. “She thinks you make a ‘lusty beau,’ by the way.”
He looked startled. “Lady Jacqueline does?”
Pru could not resist teasing him further. “I believe, if you gave her the least encouragement, she would happily forgo Lord Holmes’s company for your own.”
“Indeed?” Romney’s expression had turned to a glower. “And what is your own opinion on the subject?”
She opened widely innocent eyes. “I believe Lady Jacqueline might be a little old for you, but you did assure me that with maturity comes experience, so perhaps—”
“Bring your teasing little bottom over here. Immediately,” he growled when Pru failed to move quickly enough for him.
She chuckled as she crossed the carriage to sit beside him. “Lady Jacqueline—”
“Can go to the devil,” he rasped, turning so that she now lay on the seat rather than sat upon it, the length of his body coming to rest on top of hers mere seconds later, the thickened evidence of his arousal pressing against her mound.
Romney took the majority of his weight on his elbows as he unfastened her cloak before unbuttoning the front of her gown to pull down her chemise, baring her breasts to his heated gaze.
“I have been remiss in not paying more attention to your beautiful breasts.” He lowered his head and took one of the swollen and sensitive nipples into his mouth.
Pru groaned, her body arching up into his as she felt the hot rasp of his tongue against her turgid flesh. She gave a gasp, her hands moving up, fingers becoming entangled in the hair at Titus’s nape as his fingers grasped hold of her other nipple, rolling and squeezing it in the same rhythm as his mouth suckled its twin.
Was it possible, she wondered mindless minutes later, for a woman to come only from having her nipples suckled and squeezed? The slickness and rapidly rising heat between her restlessly moving thighs gave the impression it was.
“Titus?” she gasped as that heat became unbearable. “Titus, please!”
He raised his head to look at her with heavy, dark eyes. “Come for me,” he said gruffly.