A Scandalous Proposal by Julia Justiss Page B

emotion crossed her face and she seemed to withdraw a little.
    Had he offended her? “Not that your own gown isn’t lovely!” he hastened to assure her, eyes glued to her face. “But I saw this, and couldn’t help but envision you…youreyes…the color….” He was babbling, he realized. Shutting his lips firmly, he took a deep breath. “Please?”
    â€œOf course. I’ll only be a moment.” With a brief smile she gathered up the parcel and walked away.
    He hoped she wasn’t offended. Later, next time, he would want to undress her himself, placing kisses upon each inch of slowly revealed flesh until she was as hot, as eager, as panting for him as he was for her. But this time, he wanted her to walk out to him as she had last night—wearing his gown.
    When she did, the vision was all he’d hoped for. Purple silk framed her shoulders and cupped the lower curves of her breasts like a lover’s hands. Cream lace, but a pale imitation of her glorious skin, half concealed, half revealed the swelling mounds themselves and the dark, rigid nipples. The gown overlapped and tied beneath her left breast, then parted along the smooth line of her left thigh and leg as she walked.
    She reached him and twirled around. The skirt parted as the light material fluttered in the breeze of her pirouette, revealing the pale skin of her calf, knee and thigh. “Does it please you, my lord?”
    â€œEvan,” he gasped, his voice nearly caught in his throat. “Call me Evan.”
    â€œEvan,” she breathed as she lifted her face to his.
    He’d never unwrapped so beautiful a gift.
    Taking her mouth hard, he moved one hand to the ties beneath her breast, pulling them free, skimmed the other under the open edge of the gown and down across her satin belly to cup the springy nest of curls. She parted her legs to his insistent fingers and moaned when they entered her.
    He slid them in and out, moving his thumb up to caress the small nub hidden above. Flipping the untied gown backover her shoulder, he broke the kiss and moved his mouth to one naked breast.
    She shuddered when he filled his mouth with its fullness, sucked deeply on the nipple. Her arms curved around his head, holding him there, and she moved her hips urgently into the steady rhythm of his fingers.
    â€œT-take me t-to b-bed,” she gasped. “Please…Evan.”
    â€œNot yet, sweetheart,” he whispered against her breast. She reached one hand, feeble, fumbling, toward his trousers, but he caught it, placed it back about his neck. “Later, my darling,” he said as he transferred his lips to her other breast and moved his free hand to grasp her tensed buttocks, pulling her more firmly against his fingers.
    He quickened the pace, and her nails bit into his neck. With savage joy, he felt it the instant she shattered against him, her soft, gasping cries filling his ears. She sagged, and had he not caught her, would have fallen.
    He lifted her into his arms. Her half-glazed eyes, still befuddled, gazed up at him. “Oh, Evan.”
    He gave her a wolfish grin and kissed her hard, then carried her to the bed, the open, purple silk gown fluttering like fairy wings about them as he walked.
    She’d recovered enough by the time they reached the bedroom to insist on undressing him. And got back her own as, after swiftly removing his jacket and boots, she slowed her pace, slipping off his neckcloth and pausing to kiss his neck, chin and ears, then unbuttoning his waistcoat and shirt and tracing her lips down the furred skin beneath. Her tongue playing about his navel, she freed one by deliberate one the straining buttons of his breeches, then stripped the tight garment down to his knees.
    He gave a startled cry when she fondled his bared buttocks. And a shock like bolted lightning erupted through him when she took him into her mouth. For a few blinding seconds, he knew only unbearably,