Elise sighed and turned her head into the pillow, frowning at something in her dreams.
Luc brushed back a golden lock from her forehead and a wave of tenderness clogged in his chest. “I’d give anything to know what it would take to win your favors,” he whispered.
He sucked in a ragged breath, then glanced down at her fully clothed body and suffered the debate of the century. Let her sleep in her clothes or torture himself by undressing her?
Luc loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt then undid the cuffs. “I don’t want to wake you up, darlin’, but I don’t think I can be enough of a gentleman to undress you without succumbing.” He waved a hand over her slender legs. “Hell, Elise, you’re wearing a garter belt. Don’t you know how much that turns me on?”
Her answer was to rub her legs together and shift restlessly.
Luc swallowed hard. “Elise. Wake up,” he whispered. His fingers itched to touch her, but he didn’t dare risk it. He should just let her sleep in the skirt. But Luc knew he wouldn’t sleep. Ten minutes ago he’d been exhausted, but now his body was wide awake and throbbing. “Elise, darlin’, you have to help me. I’m thinking impure thoughts. I want you so bad I can’t see straight,” he admitted so softly he barely heard himself.
She emitted a purely feminine noise which nearly did him in.
He sucked in a deep breath and raked a hand through his hair. The woman wasn’t cooperating. She wasn’t supposed to torment him me like this. She was supposed to wake up, give him the Mother Superior look, and order him out of her room. Damn. She wasn’t going to wake up. “Okay, wife, you leave me no choice. I’ll undress you, but if I can’t keep my hands off you it’s your fault. I gave you plenty of chances.”
Watching her face, Luc cautiously extended his fingers towards the zipper on the side of her skirt. “If you’re going to wake up, darlin’, do it now.” She didn’t wake up. “Damn. Then at least do me the favor of not making that noise again. Hell, this is worse than being a horny teenager.” He caught the zipper with trembling fingers and tugged it down. “No, on second thought keep your eyes closed.” Shaking with a hunger which bordered on ravenous was bad enough, but letting her know how much she affected him? Elise would have too much power over him then. As if she didn’t already have power over him. Twice she’d stopped him killing the Bingleys.
Luc pulled her shirt up and carefully worked her skirt down. “Sweet Heaven above have mercy on me,” he breathed. The woman was shameless. Skimpy silk underwear and a black garter belt. He shuddered with need. “Damn. All those months you were hiding this.” He grimaced against the aching pain in his pants which no amount of cold showers would be able to erase. She was beautiful. Firm. Soft. Curvy. And all his. She belonged to him.
Well, in name only, but still… it was enough to make his head spin. She was perfect.
She was also asleep.
Luc tore his gaze away from her legs. He was in the throes of the most powerful lust he’d ever felt and the woman was asleep. He mentally reviewed every curse he’d ever heard, then went to work on unhooking her stockings from the garter.
That’s when he felt it. The brush of her fingertips across his forehead followed by a soft and sleepy, “Lucien.”
Damn. Busted.
CHAPTER TEN
His fingers froze and he slowly raised his guilty gaze up to her face. Elise’s eyes were open and her lips parted. She reached out and caught the ends of his tie, then, smiling with sweet promises of torture, pulled.
Luc went willingly. “Uh, Elise, I was just—”
“Kiss me, Lucien.” She tugged him down on top of her and arched her lithe body against him.
“Elise,” he whispered before obliging her and fusing their mouths. He shuddered when she moaned throatily and snaked her arms around his neck, securing him against her like he might float away. Hell, he felt like he might.
Her fingers, nimble and erotic, slid across his chest, eliciting a rapturous groan from his throat, and settled on the buttons of his shirt. Luc pushed himself upon his elbows, keeping their lips melded together, and yanked his shirt out of the waistband of his trousers. Elise whimpered with pleasure and pushed her palms inside his shirt, fitting her hands to his body. He tensed, her touch roaming across him up to his shoulders, and Elise moaned urging the shirt off him. Luc moved, accommodating her, and after a few jerky movements felt her shiver against him, caressing his chest, shoulders, back, her nails scraping and teasing him.