“Because I want to know if you will respond in the same way when I kiss you.”
Giving a start, Maura peered up at him. “You cannot kiss me, Beaufort.”
Ash raised an eyebrow. That sort of bald challenge was irresistible to a Wilde. “Certainly I can—and I will. Your anger still needs soothing.”
She stared at him in mute disbelief. When he tightened his arm around her, she drew a hushed breath upon realizing he was serious.
Her beauty was alluring in the golden lanternlight, her lips intensely inviting, Ash reflected as he bent closer.
It was outrageous of him, provocative in the extreme, and might earn him the same response his predecessor had received. But he was acting again on impulse, following his instincts as he lowered his head to capture her ripe mouth.…
Evidently he had startled Maura enough to catch her off guard, for she went utterly still in his arms.
Her lips were just as delectable as he’d imagined, Ash thought, relishing their softness. Driven to explore further, he parted the seam of her mouth and slipped his tongue inside to tangle with hers.
When she remained frozen, he took advantage of her momentary paralysis to deepen his kiss, sliding one hand behind her nape and holding her head so that he could drink more fully of her. Maura opened for his penetration, her response tentative, curious, as if she were contemplating his taste.
The experience made heat rise inside Ash. His loins stirring to life, he trailed his free hand downward, along her throat to the swell of her breasts. Maura reacted with a small indrawn gasp. Yet instead of pulling away, she leaned into him and raised one slender arm to twine it about his neck.
Her involuntary surrender only increased Ash’s craving for her. Painfully aroused now, he felt a primal male urge to take what he wanted—and an even stronger need to heighten her desire.
Still savoring her mouth, he slipped his fingertips below the edge of her bodice, delving under her chemise and corset, gliding against bare, silken skin.
Her resulting shiver filled him with satisfaction. Lightly brushing her hardened nipples with the back of his knuckles, Ash freed one luscious breast from her confining garments and bent down to taste her. When he flicked the taut rose-hued bud with his tongue, she gave a soft moan—an unmistakable pleasure-sound that made Ash suddenly recall their surroundings.…
Sweet hell. He was getting so carried away that he was about to undress Maura Collyer right there in the garden, within shouting distance of three hundred ball guests.
Breathing heavily, Ash forced himself to draw back. In the rasping silence, Maura blinked up at him, looking dazed and dreamy-eyed.
“That is quite far enough, my lovely witch,” he murmured, his voice huskier than he would have liked.
His comment apparently broke the spell she was under, for her entire body gave a start. Yet Ash was forewarned and thus prepared for her next instinctive action. When Maura drew her fist back, he caught it and locked his fingers around her wrist to prevent her blow from landing painfully on his jaw.
“I should have known you would try to plant me a facer,” Ash said with a rueful smile. “And perhaps I deserved it.”
“No doubt you did.” Breathing hard herself, she jumped up from the bench and retreated a safe distance, looking both disconcerted and disgruntled as she awkwardly covered her bosom. “I told you not to kiss me, Lord Beaufort,” she complained.
“No, you said I cannot kiss you, which is not at all the same thing. Telling a Wilde he cannot do something is like taunting a bull with a red cape.”
“How well I know it,” Maura admitted with a huff of annoyance. “Katharine is the same way. But I was not challenging you to prove your manhood, I promise you.”
“Perhaps I just couldn’t help myself,” he said with more honesty than was wise.
She raised her fingers to her lips, then shook her head in bewilderment. “Not for a moment do I believe you lacked self-control.”
“You should. I could not resist kissing you, Miss Collyer. You look very beautiful when you are in a towering rage. But I also wished to provide you a diversion and take your mind off Deering.”
“Now that I might credit.”
“My tactic worked, did it not?”
His question made her pause. “As a matter of fact, it did.” For a moment, Maura offered him a wondering, if fleeting, smile. Then she shook her head in exasperation. “You are utterly outrageous, Lord Beaufort.”
“So I have been told.”
“I always knew you were an infamous rogue, but I never suspected you to be as lecherous as Deering.”
“Good God, I should hope not.” Ash gave a mock shudder. Although he’d enjoyed his share of scandalous liaisons, he was hardly the libertine that Deering was.