A dream where she was leaning up, lifting on her tiptoes, sliding that soft hand around the back of his neck. Their lips were less than a breath away and then their mouths met for the second time in as many days.
Both her arms came around his neck and he couldn’t help himself. He caught her waist, drawing her even closer.
No, this wasn’t a dream. Somehow it was fantasy come true. And just like the night before, he forgot reason and prudence and gentlemanly behavior. Everything but the pulsing need to taste Evangeline, to get drunk on her, to lose himself in her…everything else was gone.
He sank into the moment with abandon, driving his tongue past her parted lips, crushing her against his chest so he could feel the slopes and valleys of her curves mold to his own. She made a soft sound in the back of her throat, not of distress, not of refusal…it was a sound of pleasure. Of surrender.
Her hands clutched him closer, her fingers denting the muscles of his shoulders as he backed her toward the settee they had both abandoned. They fell onto it together, his body half covering her as he angled her head for better access and drove even deeper.
They were spiraling out of control now, her hips lifting beneath him perhaps without her knowing it. Her breath short, his too. And his body rapidly hardening to steel beneath his trousers. His mind screamed at him to recall himself, recall that he was a gentleman. All the while his blood burned at him, demanding he take, claim, pleasure, in a voice he didn’t even recognize because he had denied its existence for so long.
Still, the gentleman was strong in him, even if it was weakening by the moment. At last he pulled away, jolting to his feet and pivoting from her so the hard evidence of his arousal wouldn’t offend any more than his punishing mouth or hands already had.
“I’m sorry,” he panted. “I’m sorry.”
She was silent for a moment. For two. It felt like a lifetime. Then she said, “Henry, look at me.”
It was an order, given in the tone of voice of a woman who was not accustomed to being denied. And he didn’t deny her. He couldn’t. Slowly, he faced her and stared down.
Evangeline had sat up from the reclined position, but her hair was mussed, her lips red from kisses, her dress slightly crooked in the bodice and wrinkled from where they’d ground against each other in reckless abandon. She looked ravished even if she hadn’t been.
She made him want to finish the job.
“Evangeline—”
“Henry, if you apologize once more I will have my feelings hurt,” she teased, but he saw the truth of that statement in her eyes, flashing there with rare vulnerability before she controlled it as she seemed to control all else.
“I wouldn’t want to do that,” he murmured.
She tapped the settee beside herself. “Please come back.”
“That’s a dangerous proposition,” he said, staring at the small cushion so close to her own. “I’m not sure you know how dangerous.”
She held his gaze once more and then slowly let it lower to where his cock was still outlined, hard against the fabric of his trousers. “I think I know exactly how dangerous. Sit.”
He shook his head, but did it, drawn to her despite his own rational mind that knew the path this experiment could take. They were working with uncontrollable substances now. Explosions were imminent.
“I came here, as I said, because I can’t stop thinking about that kiss last night,” she said, her voice calm even if she kept worrying her hands in her lap. “And what I want, Henry…what I want…I want exactly what you want. I want more. I want to be pinned to this settee and have your hands on me. I want all the things those…those naughty books I’m not supposed to read describe. I want…I want you.”
Once again, he questioned whether this was a dream, despite all the evidence that it wasn’t. Or perhaps he’d struck his head and this was something worse. He had a dozen questions. A hundred. He started with one.
“Wh-why?” he whispered.
Her eyes went wide, as if she hadn’t considered that he might question her. And why would she? Most men would simply jump at the opportunity to touch this woman. How many times had he heard the whispers about her beauty and allure? Whispers that always made him bristle, for reasons he hadn’t allowed himself to explore until…well, just until.
“I might not have the same level of experience as you do, but I certainly have the same longings,” she said, her tone becoming slightly more peppery. “Why should a lady not want desire or something wicked? You men get to do so at your pleasure.”
He drew back, for she seemed to view him in a light that wasn’t exactly accurate. And perhaps if she understood this, the world would go back to turning in the direction it was meant to turn, rather than this madness that now surrounded him.
“Evangeline, I have not…” He shifted. “I am not a rake, my lady. I have no experience in the delights I believe you are describing.”
Her lips parted. “Am I to understand that you are…you are a virgin?” she asked.
He nodded, though he felt blood heat his cheeks at the shock in her tone. Also at the directness with which they were addressing this sensitive subject.
“How is that possible?” She looked him up and down then repeated the question. “How is that possible?”
He shook his head at the way she asked that question. As if he had a dozen women falling at his feet. That was certainly not true. “I suppose men do have more freedom in these things and there is an expectation that men of a certain rank should cat around. God knows my brothers both do. But I…it never appealed to me.”
“At all?” she burst out, and there was a lilt of desperation to her tone.
He chuckled. “Well, I think we’ve already established that it isn’t at all. Certainly I have thoughts, desires, longings, as you described them. But I have enough control not to go chasing after every single thing that makes me…er…hard.”
She twisted her mouth. “I see. That puts a wrench in things.”
“A wrench in what?” he asked, watching as she stood and all but flounced to the fireplace. She turned there.
“Well, I came to seduce you,” she said, tossing up her hands.
“You did?”
She tilted her head. “Of course I did. Gracious, Henry, you’re very intelligent, do try to keep up.” She folded her arms. “Of course, I have little experience in this arena and apparently you know nothing either. So how would I even do that if you can’t guide us once we start?”
He lifted both brows. “I never said I didn’t know anything.”
She stared, confusion lining her expression. “What do you mean? How could you know anything if you haven’t done it?”
“I’m a scientist, Evangeline.” He got up, moving toward her because he couldn’t stop himself even if he should. She watched him, her breath catching with every step. “I haven’t experienced a great many things that I know to be true. I’m looking for a planet that has been nothing more than a rumor for hundreds of years. I can’t see it, but I believe it to be there. I’m an expert in its potential existence.” He stopped before her and reached out to trace her jaw, as she had done to him a few moments before. “I study my interests, my lady. And I have done a great deal of study on the topic we were just discussing.”