Bronwyn Scott's Sexy Regency Bundle (42 page)

She failed utterly.

Her mental exercises were no match for the musky scent of his maleness and the clean spicy smell of his soap. His hands caressed and his

worshipped as he made his way up her body, laving and revering by turn until she was at last bare to his gaze.

With a lazy finger, he traced a circle about the aureole of her breast. 'You're beautiful,' he said simply.

Her heart sang at the plain compliment. It meant all the more

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for its lack of adornment and her desire mounted. She could feel her own slickness welling and she grayed it wouldn't be long before Brandon brought his sweet brand of agony to an end. Nora writhed against him in encouragement.

'Patience, Nora.' He laughed softly before calming her mouth with a kiss.

would not

this and have it over so

quickly.' He tested her with a gentle finger and even that small, intimate invasion left her gasping.

His erection prodded the entrance to her soft core and she opened to it, spreading her legs wide to accommodate him between them. His heat was contagious and she was seized with an urgency to have him inside.

The sooner this exquisite distress was over, the sooner she could find her balance. She was fighting futilely and frantically now to save herself from complete capitulation.

He entered her with a sharp push that caused her to gasp and then he sighed, sliding home the rest of the distance. She found his rhythm and raised her hips to join him. Had anything ever felt so divine? Her body pulsed around his shaft, faster and faster until she knew she'd burst from the ecstasy of it. Desperately she strove to hold on to a piece of herself, to not give him everything.

'Let it happen, Nora. We've been moving towards this since we met,' Brandon coaxed hoarsely. 'There, let it go. Come

with me.'

And she did.

Nora exploded. Her senses were raw and vulnerable. She could feel Brandon's weight as it sagged in satiation against her, having found his release as well. She could smell the musk of their lovemaking. She could taste the sweat of their efforts on her

Had she ever been more alive than she was right now?

Brandon rolled to his side and pulled her to him so that her backside lay tucked against him. Not for all the sterling in

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Britain would she have moved from that position, even if she could have willed her languid bones to do so. Overcome with an odd sense of completion, Nora fell asleep for the first time in years not wondering about tomorrow.

This
was not what he had come here for, Brandon mused in the dark, watching Nora sleep beside him. He wished he could rest that easily. He idly fingered a long curl and let it fall against her exposed shoulder. He had come to strike a deal with her.

He would warn her about the trap at St John's in exchange for her promise that she would stop the raids. He wouldn't expose her identity. She could move on. Then she would be someone else's problem.

He didn't want her to be someone else's problem. He wanted her to be his problem, and his alone; not Witherspoon's or St John's, just his.

Tonight had complicated matters. He had not come here with any intention to bed her, but, having done so, he was forced to recognise that his attraction to Nora was more than easily slaked lust.

He would be severely compromised if the investors discovered this little liaison. Hell, the investors were the least of his worries. He was the local magistrate and he was bedfellows with the local underworld. Literally. Being with Nora could not happen again.

Nora, Nora, Nora, his mind chanted. At last, his passion had a name and visage beyond the alias and the mask of The Cat.

They had made love twice more and each time had served to heighten his desire for her.

She fired his blood like no other. She was not interested in him for his title or his vote like the powdered women of the
ton.
She wanted him as a man and only as a man. The thought was stimulating and highly complimentary if he didn't the reality

behind it. She could not have him any other way. As a man and

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a woman, there were no barriers between them. Acknowledging him as an Earl and a mill owner erected plenty of obstacles.