Scandalous Wager by Christy Carlyle

Author:Christy Carlyle [Carlyle, Christy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781499566246
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Createspace
Published: 2014-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Ian meant to resist her, to pull away from her kiss, to sit her down and speak sense to her. But she addled all his senses. She smelled like lavender and fresh air, and she tasted like a delicacy, a rich indulgence he did not deserve.

Her kiss was gentle, as if she sensed how exhausted he was, how much he needed comfort. But the horrors of the night made him want the opposite of gentle. He wanted to lay her down on her father’s desk and take her, possess her, make her his so that he could protect her. For the first time since he had come to London ten summers past he wanted to leave the city and return to the southern countryside where he had been raised. But what would he do there? How could he earn the wage required to deserve Lizzy Ainsworth?

Ian wrapped his arms around Lizzy and pulled her close. Breaking away from their kiss, he pressed his mouth to her neck and breathed her in, nuzzling the tendrils of hair that had escaped their pins and hung in loose curls against her ear.

He grinned against her skin when he felt her body melt into his, felt her press herself more tightly against him, embracing him with the same fierce need.

“What is it?” She spoke the words quietly, nearly a whisper, and they were infused with a tenderness that tempted him to unburden himself of the dreadful scenes he had witnessed during the night. However, those memories—that brutality—was exactly what he wished to protect her from.

But there were other things he needed to say to her. Pulling back, he gazed into her eyes. “There is something I must say to you before you continue to distract me.”

“Am I such a distraction?” She seemed surprised to acknowledge her effect on him.

“The very best kind, Lizzy. But I must say this to you before your father returns, and hopefully I will have a question for him when he does.”

She scrunched her face in a sort of consternated pout, and he felt his heart tip even further.

“Surely it is best for you to speak to my father after I have. I promised I would support you with him, and I will. And with Sara.” She paused in what had been an impassioned declaration and turned her head away from him, as if she was suddenly shy. “No matter what has or has not occurred between us.”

If she was going to start on about her sister again, he feared he might just turn her over his knee and paddle her arse, though the image that accompanied the thought seemed much more erotic than punitive. He still held her in his arms and had the urge to kiss her so thoroughly she would never doubt his intentions again.

When he said nothing, stalled by images of spanking Lizzy, she filled the silence. “I apologize for coming to your lodgings last—“

He kissed her, stopping her words, willing her to read his intentions in his actions, but she seemed as stubborn-minded as she was passionate.

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