Finally, he pulled back the coverlet on her bed and, picking her up, laid her on the bed and tugged the sheets over her to keep her warm.
It was only after he’d taken off his coat and begun unbuttoning his waistcoat that her eyebrows knit.
“What,” she said softly, “are you doing?”
HER CHEST HURT. Her heart and lungs and breasts, they all hurt with every breath she took. She felt as if part of her world had broken off and fallen, never to be reclaimed again. Jeremy was dead. Dead, and she’d not even known it until Putley had blurted the news. Shouldn’t she have known? Shouldn’t she have felt his passing in some fundamental portion of herself?
She shied from the thought, from the bone-crushing hurt, and looked at Lord Hope. Somehow he’d taken her to her rooms and undressed her. She should be scandalized, but she just hadn’t the will to be. And now… and now he appeared to be taking off his own clothing.
She peered at him, only a little bit curious. “What are you doing?”
“Undressing,” he said, and that certainly made sense because he was.
He took off his waistcoat and shirt, and she watched, detached. His arms were strong and brown from the sun. Had he worn a shirt when he’d lived with the Indians? He unbuttoned the fall of his breeches, and she watched him strip those off as well. His smallclothes were tented over his masculine parts, and at any other time she would be very interested at the sight, but at the moment she felt… nothing.
Or at least almost nothing.
“But why?” she asked, and even in her sad state, she knew her voice sounded like a small child’s.
“Why what?” he asked as he removed his shoes and stockings.
“Why are you undressing?”
“Because I intend to lie with you,” he said, and took off his smallclothes.
Well, that certainly was something she’d not seen before. His cock stood up as proudly as a soldier, thick and round and almost a purplish red, particularly at the head. She blinked at the sight. Then he was walking toward her, that part of himself bobbing with each step, and he got into the bed with her. He gathered her close and he felt so hot. So hot he was like a furnace and she sighed a little at how nice his hard, hot body felt against her cold skin.
She looked up at him, so close, his black eyes only inches from her own, and said, “He’s dead and I’ll never forget him.”
“Yes, I know,” he replied.
“I want to die, too.”
His eyes hardened. “I won’t let you.”
And he kissed her. His mouth was hot, too, and this time he didn’t wait but thrust his tongue into her mouth. She moaned a little at the sensation. He tasted of rain-water and salt, and suddenly she couldn’t think of anything better to taste. She grasped at his shoulder and felt bare, masculine skin, and she dug her fingernails in. If she wasn’t allowed to die, then she would live and forget the rest of the world for right now.
At this moment, there was only the two of them, together in this cozy bed.
He pushed his fingers through her hair, gripping the back of her head, holding her as he explored her mouth with his tongue. He darted in and then out until she caught him and sucked on him, and he made an approving sound. He rolled then, climbing atop her, and she felt the brush of his chest hair against her breasts, tickling and arousing.
She made a sound deep in her throat, and he raised his head. “Am I hurting you?”
“No.” She tried to pull him back down to kiss her, but he held still, resisting her.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She said it irritably, because she missed his kisses. It seemed to her that he was simply teasing her.
Then he moved, shifting so that one of his legs began to part hers. Her eyes flew to his, and she saw the corner of his mouth quirk.
“You’re sure?”
“Ye-es,” she said, but she was distracted, feeling the slow insertion of his thigh between hers. Her legs fell open, admitting him, but he didn’t stop there. He continued pressing down until his thigh had thrust to the very apex of her thighs, until he had burrowed against her feminine flesh, and she was parted, open against him.
Her eyes widened.
His eyes drooped, the tattooed birds looking wild and pagan.