The Libertine by Saskia Walker Page A

before had she been touched with such persuasive hands. Torn, she knew she
should feel this was wrong, allowing this man so close to her bed. But it didn’t
feel wrong, it felt good, and she wanted more. Have I lost
my sense of reason?
    “You are most desirable. Perhaps I should not confess this,
Mistress Chloris, but you have made me crave a taste of you.” Mischief glinted
in his eyes, the candlelight picking it up as he turned his head.
    She shook her head.
    “Why do you fight it?” He breathed against her collarbone as he
rested a kiss there. “This is what you wanted, to be a woman who is fecund and
rich in possibility.”
    His words were so suggestive, so flagrantly outrageous. Yet it
made her entire body throb in response.
    “You are all of that and more.” Whispering the words close
against her ear, he captured the lobe between his teeth and tugged at it gently.
“What man could resist?”
    “But I...”
    “Don’t fight it. This is what you came to me for.”
    Was it? She wasn’t sure anymore. He was a wild one, living by
his own rules. Why did that intrigue her so?
    Brusquely, he undid the remaining ribbons on her bodice, and
then tugged her shift down, exposing her nipples where they rose up and breached
the top of her corset. Unruly fire built in his eyes as he looked down at
her.
    He ran his thumb over her peaked nipple. “Take your pleasure
from my touch, it will serve to bed down the magic of the ritual.”
    He lowered his head and kissed her nipple. It was gentle,
barely a breath of a touch, but it drew the heat inside her up and to him,
linking them together somehow, swelling the vitality inside her.
    Even in the peculiar heated state she found herself in—adrift
on the sensations he introduced into her—she tensed in his grip. Decorum forced
her reaction. She was shocked at his intimacy. She drew back. “Master Lennox,
please...”
    Don’t.
    Please don’t . That’s what she had
intended to say, but she stumbled on the words.
    He swooped, kissed her other nipple, this time fiercely.
    “Please, Master Lennox, I cannot bear it.”
    He lifted his head, but his expression had turned serious. “I
cannot help but wonder at this,” he said gruffly, and she realized his whole
body was tense with withheld passion.
    She stared at him, unable to believe that this man wanted her.
It was there in his eyes, though, in every touch and action. “Wonder?”
    He sat alongside her on the edge of her bed. “This, it seems so
unnecessary, for you are a desirable woman, Mistress Chloris. As lush as a ripe
fruit and just as tempting.”
    The man was every bit the seducer Jean had suggested, and
Chloris leveled her gaze at him, battling to control her senses, for they were
driven wild by him.
    “I do not sense that you are barren,” he added.
    Reference to her malady made her emotions tumble. “It is almost
certain. I have seen a physician in Edinburgh, the best of his profession. But
you’re attempting to distract me from what just occurred.”
    His eyes narrowed. “Perhaps it is your husband who is
barren.”
    “No.” She shook her head. His comments did nothing to quell the
tension she felt.
    “If you were to take a lover, it would prove the matter,” he
added.
    Chloris expected to find mischief in his eyes, but his
expression was quite serious. She sighed. “How convenient to have a man in my
bed, should I feel your suggestion was appropriate.”
    That made him smile. “I take it you do not have a lover, or
have you?”
    “No.” It was a suggestion she’d heard many times before,
though, from her friends and acquaintances in Edinburgh. She’d even been offered
the opportunity of an introduction to a suitable man who would be willing to
undertake the task. “If I were to take a lover...I would not do it to prove my
husband was at fault. I am loyal to Gavin. That’s why I...” She beseeched him,
searching his eyes for understanding.
    His eyebrows gathered. “Loyal, through