Nicola Cornick – Notorious (страница 14)

He brushed aside the ebony curls with fingers that shook, and pressed his lips to her throat. Her skin was cool beneath his touch and Dev felt like a starving man offered manna in the desert. His self-control hung by a thread. He slid the gown down a little and nipped at the curve of Susanna’s shoulder, biting softly, tasting her. The scent of honey was on her skin, faint and sweet. Dev had never eaten honey in his life but he wanted to eat it now. He wanted to lick her all over. He felt almost light-headed with the craving.

The bodice of Susanna’s gown rustled softly as it slipped another inch lower. Dev felt the filigree lace rough against his lips and Susanna’s breast soft beneath it, inciting him to rip the material away so that he could take her in his mouth. He groaned.

Susanna put one hand against his chest and pushed him away. Dev was so surprised that he let her go.

“Have you finished trying to make a point yet, Sir James?” She sounded slightly bored.

It took Dev a moment to cut through the clamor of his body and to focus. When he did, it was to see that Susanna was adjusting that provocative lace and was patting her hair back into place beneath the saucy bonnet, which had been knocked askew in their embrace. Her face was perfectly blank, pale, composed, the indifferent mask of a lady of fashion.

Shock and disbelief raked through Devlin that he should feel such an intensity of desire and, more disturbingly, such a treacherous sense of affinity with her when to Susanna it seemed it had been nothing but a dare.

“You were pretending?” he said.

Her green eyes were expressionless. If anything, she looked slightly puzzled. “Of course I was,” she said. “Weren’t you?”

“I …” There was an odd emptiness beneath Devlin’s heart. “That innocent response,” he said. His throat felt dry. “It was feigned?”

She smiled. It was a smile that made him feel a naive fool. “Men seem to like it,” she murmured.

“And you always give men what they want,” Dev said. He could feel the bitterness rising like bile in his throat.

“If it gains me what I want.”

Dev took her by the shoulders, searching her face for any clue that she lied, looking for even a hint that the storm of sensation that had racked him had touched her, too. She met his gaze defiantly.

“I don’t believe you,” he said. “You wanted me, too.”

Susanna shrugged and turned her face away from him.

“Your opinion is not important to me,” she said. “You were trying to prove a point. You failed.”

Dev let her go, sinking back onto the seat. The taut desire had drained from him now and he felt chilled and empty. Susanna’s words were no more than a salutary reminder of how cynical she had become.

“I find I would rather walk than suffer any more of your … conversation,” Susanna said. She rapped sharply on the roof of the carriage. The hackney jerked to a halt.

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