Panic raced through him. Please, don’t stop. “I do like very much,” he managed through his tight throat.
She lifted her hand to his jaw and swiveled his head so that he was forced to look at her. Her lips were curved upward in a tempting smile, her eyes lit with promises he prayed she would keep. “Tell me what you like about me.”
“Everything,” he blurted out. “Every bloody thing.”
Her smile grew, and she lifted her mouth to his, nuzzling his lips. “I want a list,” she said. “Give me a list.”
He squeezed in a breath of air. “I like your hair,” he said. “It’s long and wavy, but soft.” He lifted his hand to touch, but she pushed his hand aside.
“Not until you finish the list,” she said playfully.
He wondered what kind of game she was playing but would do anything to keep her hand on his thigh or anywhere else, so he went along with her. “I like your eyes. They’re sexy.”
She squeezed his thigh and moved closer, brushing her breasts against his arm. Geoffrey was immediately consumed with thoughts of her breasts, touching them, caressing and kissing her nipples.
“Go on,” she said.
Fortitude, my man. Fortitude. “I like the way you wrinkle your nose when you’re displeased about something.”
She lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “I do?”
“Yes, you do, and you look down your nose at people when you get impatient with them.”
“I do not,” she said and wrinkled her nose. Realizing what she’d done, she wrinkled it again and removed her hand from Geoffrey’s thigh. He almost died. “Okay, maybe once in a while. What else?”
He cleared his throat. “Could you put your hand back on me?”
She met his gaze for a moment, then a realization crossed her face and she gave a wicked smile. “Does it help with the list?”
He nodded. She returned her hand to his thigh, this time higher, and he sighed in a combination of agony and expectation.
“More,” she said and rubbed her breasts against his arm.
He could say the same thing. More. Please. Now. He closed his eyes for a moment. “I love your mouth. It gives away your emotions. The way you talk, the way you smile. The way you laugh.” He sighed. “The way you kiss, although I don’t have nearly enough experience.”
A beat of silence followed, and he felt her lips on his jaw, moving down to his neck. Her tongue darted over his skin, scoring him with her heat, then he felt her open mouth on his neck and he shuddered with pleasure. She squeezed his thigh and he turned to take her mouth, but she backed away, shaking her head.
“The list,” she whispered, but he saw a hint of arousal in her eyes that gave him hope.
“I don’t like how you got your scar,” he said. “But I like what it says about you. You’re strong. You’re a survivor.”
Her gaze turned solemn. “For a stuffy, self-centered Englishman, you see a lot.”
Affronted, he sputtered. “Stuffy? Self-centered? I am neither stuffy nor self-”
“I know. Just wanted to see your reaction,” she said and smiled again. “Anything else you like about me?”
Dammit, she was pushing him to the edge. “Obviously I like your body. You could make every clock in England stop. I like everything I’ve seen, but I haven’t seen everything. I want to see more,” he said and decided to hell with it. “I want to feel more. Do more.”
“Me first,” she said and slid her hand between his legs to his erection.
It took several seconds for him to respond. “Okay,” he said. “Ladies first.”
“Lady,” she said, squeezing him gently. “Lady.”
“Lady,” he agreed, and one second later, she took his mouth in hers in a searing French kiss.
Geoffrey nearly came right then, but she pulled back. “You’re wearing too many clothes,” she said.
“Yes,” he managed in a gruff voice. His clothes felt tight, his skin even tighter. “You’re wearing too many clothes, too.”
She opened her mouth to protest.
He shook his head. “Fair is fair.”
Meeting his gaze for a long moment, she sighed, then unbuttoned her blouse and stripped it off. Her bra barely concealed her full breasts, her nipples just barely peeking above the white lace.
“Oh, my-”
“If you’re going to be that distracted, should I put my shirt back on?”
“No, no, no, no…”
“Okay,” she said and kissed him again, this time stripping off his shirt and rubbing her palms over his naked skin. Somehow he’d ended up more bare than her. How had that happened?
Her hands flowed down to his waist, where she unfastened his slacks with little fumbling. He didn’t want to think about what that meant regarding her experience. How many men before him? He cut off the thought. He didn’t want to go there. What was important was this moment. This woman.
Seconds later, she plunged her hands into his crotch, touching his bare erection. He forced himself not to growl, not to…
“What are you doing?” he murmured. “What do you-”
“I’m going to kiss my way down your chest,” she said, lowering her wicked, wonderful mouth more and more. She pushed his jeans down farther, exposing him to her gaze. And mouth.
Geoffrey stifled a dozen oaths as her breath brushed over him intimately. “Oh. God.”
Meeting his gaze, she lowered her head and took him into her mouth.
“Oh. My-”
Geoffrey was in ecstasy. The sensation of her tongue on him, the visual of her hair on his crotch, her mouth devouring the most sensitive part of him.
“Do you like it?” she asked, then slid her tongue over him. “Does it feel good?”
He was one millisecond away from losing it, and she stopped. She smiled at him with a sultry gaze. “Your turn.”
Geoffrey acted purely on instinct. He lifted Maria on top of the piano and pulled off her bra. Her breasts spilled free-her nipples were large, dusky, and taut. He cupped her breasts and took a nipple into his mouth. She moaned.
Geoffrey fumbled with her jeans but succeeded in unfastening them. She graciously lifted her gorgeous hips so he could lower the denim to her thighs, then her ankles.
He caught sight of her swollen femininity. Her obvious arousal nearly did him in. “You’re so gorgeous,” he said, sliding his fingers between her thighs to where she was wet and velvety.
“That feels good,” she said, wriggling beneath his touch.
He had to have her every way. Every way. Lowering his head, he spread her legs with his hands and took her with his mouth. She gasped and sighed and gasped.
The sound was like music to his ears. The taste of her drove him crazy. She grew more swollen with each stroke of his tongue. Her reaction was beyond gratifying. “Take me,” she whispered. “Take me.”
Sitting down on the bench, he brought her onto his lap. She struggled with her jeans, kicking them off, then rose again and plunged downward on him.
“Oh. My,” he said.
“God,” she said, undulating on him.
“I can’t last long,” he said.
“Me, either,” she said.
And Geoffrey felt as if he’d died and gone to heaven. Or hell. Or both. He didn’t care which. He just wanted to go again.
After they made love again, this time on a blanket on the floor, Geoffrey held Maria in his arms. She was warm, sensual, and lush. “You are the most amazing woman in the world.”
“That’s your woodie talking,” she said, but she smiled.
“It is not,” he said. “I don’t even have a woodie at the moment,” he told her, then chuckled to himself. “You took very good care of that.” He slid his finger over the dark tendril of hair hiding one of her eyes. “Are you sure you’re not a secret goddess?”
She threw back her head and laughed. “If I were a goddess, would I shovel horse manure?”
“I don’t know. Would you?”
Her smile faded, but joy glinted in her dark eyes. “Perhaps.”
“If you were a goddess, what would your life be like?”