Chapter Ten
G eorgina was focused on the mock battle. Unlike when Alexander had caught her around her middle, their current grappling didn’t trigger bad memories.
“Let me know if I am frightening you,” Alexander said as he firmly but gently pinned her hands to the floor. He’d asked a similar question before he’d placed his thighs on either side of her hips and when he leaned over her prone body. His constant inquiries reassured her that she had complete control over the situation.
“I’m fine.”
Even with Alexander’s heft pinning her down, she only felt determination to reverse their positions as easily as he had. Yes, she was untrained and more than several stone lighter, but she’d always been a wee bit competitive.
She catapulted her lower half into the air and swept her arms down toward her legs. The combination of the moves broke his grasp on her wrists and knocked him forward. As he flew toward the floor, she grabbed his stomach, burying her head into his abdomen, just as he’d instructed. Hugging his torso, she climbed up him as nimbly as a red squirrel. Quickly, she grabbed his shoulders and forced his body under hers. A moment later, he lay on his back with her kneeling on the ground between his legs.
“I flipped you! I actually flipped you!” Georgina tossed her hands upward and stared into the cloud-painted ceiling.
Alexander’s warm chuckle brought her eyes back down to the floor, where he lay beneath her. Most of his auburn hair had escaped its queue during their tussling. It fanned out around his head, the red strands glowing in the light from the windows lining the ballroom’s east and west sides. Just like when she’d first met him, the sun seemed to claim him as its own.
Alexander’s laughter stopped abruptly, his gemlike eyes fixed on her face. She watched in fascination as the amber specks in his irises overtook the cooler blue and green hues. His gaze looked molten, like gold in a crucible. An odd ache started in Georgina’s heart as she suddenly became acutely aware of just where she was situated. Her body was snuggled between his thighs. And her knees… her knees were pointing at a very intimate part of Alexander’s anatomy.
Georgina didn’t blush. She wasn’t one for that.
Instead, needy heat coursed through her. If her cheeks reddened, it was from lust, not embarrassment.
Her mind and body simultaneously recalled how she’d scrambled up his torso. Despite the layers that they both wore, she’d felt the hard muscles of his chest against the softness of her inner thighs. And then when she’d squashed her face against him, the ridges of his stomach had pressed into her cheek. At the time, she’d been so focused on wriggling her way to the correct position to flip Alexander onto his back that she hadn’t fully appreciated what a delectable climb it had been. Yet her antiquarian brain had very kindly registered, categorized, and neatly filed away each lovely sensation.
“We should rise.” Alexander’s voice had deepened into a warm tone that reminded Georgina of hot spiced cider. It made her want to launch herself forward and press her mouth against his for a taste. Before she could, Alexander slowly sat up, his body moving inexorably out from under hers. He rose to his feet. Leaning down, he reached his hand out, his other braced on his cane for support. His expression looked affable on the surface, but Georgina could see the strain around his eyes.
Although Georgina had little experience with love, she was extremely observant about things that interested her. And right now, Alexander Lovett, Marquess of Heathford, fascinated her. More intriguingly, she didn’t seem inclined to fight against that attraction anymore.
She accepted his hand, allowing him to help her rise. As soon as she was upright, his fingers began to slip from her grasp. She held on.
Alexander cleared his throat. When he spoke, he sounded bright—overly bright. “It’s about time to leave for Elysian Fields.”
“Do we still have a few more minutes?” Georgina’s heart kicked into a rhythm that it normally only did when she spotted a glint of metal or a shard of pottery in her pit.
“There’s enough time for you to change into male clothing, if that is your concern. I assume you were able to pack some belongings before my sister and Calliope spirited you away from your brother’s townhouse.” Alexander lifted his thumb as if he meant to stroke the knuckles of her hand still clasped in his. But he seemed to stay himself.
“I did bring the disguise, but that wasn’t what I was asking about. I was thinking about something more… pleasurable.” A giddiness strummed through Georgina. She could not believe herself. She was flirting… and she was about to do even more.
Alexander’s entire frame jerked as he grasped her meaning. When he spoke, the deep, deliciously rich tone had returned to his voice. “What do you desire, Georgina?”
She might be new to the art of seduction, but Georgina had never lacked for boldness in pursuing what fascinated her. “A kiss. I’ve never had one before, and I suddenly desire my first with you. I want to know what it feels like. What it will do to this… this pressure I feel inside me.”
Alexander swallowed. Hard. Georgina could see his Adam’s apple convulse.
“That could be dangerous, Georgina. It could play into the plans of my father and your brother.”
“How would they ever know? It is just a brief meeting of our mouths.”
An odd choking sound emanated from Alexander. He was not grinning now. In fact, he appeared rather poleaxed. “I can promise you it will be much more than that, and it will not be brief.”
“Interesting. How long are kisses normally? More than a minute? Perhaps two?”
Alexander’s strangled coughing suddenly transformed into something that might have been a growl. Or maybe a purr. A growl-purr?
Before Georgina could fully define the sound, Alexander’s mouth closed over hers, and she forgot all about terminology.
His lips—strong and deliciously warm—moved hungrily against hers, the friction utterly intoxicating. Shimmers of pleasure sparked inside Georgina until she felt alight.
She’d thought embracing him would relieve the tension coiling inside her. It didn’t. It just made her greedier.
Georgina had read about coitus before. The Greek and Roman myths were full of lust. But she’d never truly understood the power and the utter madness of attraction. Was this heady elixir what had driven the ill-fated Helen and Paris of Troy?
Alexander’s tongue traced her sealed lips, eliciting new but equally brilliant sensations. She hadn’t expected him to lick her, but she rather liked it. Gently, he nudged, and she realized that he wanted her to open her mouth.
Curious, she complied. Alexander groaned, and the sound reverberated through Georgina. With one arm, Alexander pulled her closer. When she felt his glorious muscles, she freely plastered herself against him. He staggered, and she realized that it must pain him to support her weight and his. She tried moving back, but his forearm remained tightly banded against her.
Instead, she reached up to grasp his shoulders, guiding him gently down. He seemed to understand, and his cane clattered as he dropped it.
Their mouths still working madly against each other, they lowered themselves to the parquet floor. Once they were kneeling, Alexander changed the angle of their kiss, deepening it even more. If he hadn’t been holding Georgina, she would have melted into an undignified but supremely happy heap.
With his right hand now free, Alexander caressed her body. First, she felt a delicate brush against her cheekbone. He traced down to her jaw, leaving a trail of sparks that joined the rest of the fire coursing through her. His fingers skimmed along her neck, resting hotly against her collarbone for several heartbeats.
He fiddled with the gauzy fabric above her bodice, and Georgina’s muscles tightened. A need, strong and clear, blazed through her. Her breasts literally began to ache with the desire to be touched.
She moaned into Alexander’s mouth. The sound should have embarrassed her.
It did not. She was too full of want to care.
Alexander understood the guttural request, and his warm hand closed over her bosom. His fingertips touched her bare skin while his palm rested against the satin of her stomacher. The fabric heated as he began to knead.
Georgina gasped at the onslaught of sheer sensation. Her head jerked back, and Alexander buried his lips under her ear. Sweet heat spiraled through her. Georgina didn’t think. She simply reacted. She pressed her hands against his chest, pushing him backward. This time she was the one who captured his mouth.
His hands left her breasts as they both crashed to the floor. His fingers splayed across her back as she leaned over his prone body. Eagerly, she explored his mouth, her hands planted on either side of his face. He seemed to surrender—nay, open to her, allowing her to take not just the lead but her fill of him. Matching the rhythm that she set, Alexander kissed just as ardently.
A squeak—which was most definitely not from Georgina and too high-pitched for Alexander—broke into Georgina’s pleasure. An echoing one definitely left her own throat when she realized that she and Alexander had been discovered. With a speed she did not know that she possessed, she half leapt, half spun and flipped off of Alexander. Georgina landed so hard on her rear that she bounced. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alexander slowly rise like a sleepwalker. Gripping his cane, he blinked twice before his eyes widened.
Taking a deep breath first, Georgina carefully turned to look over her shoulder. In an open doorway stood Alexander’s sister and Calliope. Charlotte’s entire face had pinkened. Calliope, however, showed no signs of embarrassment. She merely appeared amused.
“You shouldn’t have made a sound,” Calliope scolded Charlotte. “They were clearly enjoying themselves. We could have quietly backed away, and they would have been none the wiser.”
“I wasn’t expecting…” Charlotte trailed off and then helplessly waved her hands vaguely toward the space Georgina and Alexander had been occupying only moments before. “Well… that.”
“I can tell you are not a writer,” Calliope said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “There are so many more suitable descriptors beside ‘that.’ For example…”
Georgina felt partially mortified and partially amused. It was odd having a friend tease her. Alexander and Charlotte, however, clearly did not see any humor in the situation.
“Please don’t continue, Calliope. I beg you,” Alexander ground out, his voice choked as he interrupted her.
At the same time, Charlotte plugged her ears and admonished, “Calliope, he is my twin! Who wants to hear those words about their brother?”
“I concede your point,” Calliope said, “but you have to admit the circumstances are a bit comical. Georgina, your reflexes nearly rival a cat’s. You must work on your landings, though.”
“I am not exactly planning on a repeat,” Georgina said as primly as she could manage while spinning around to face the women. Her embarrassment, she found, was fading. The ladies were not gossips, and Calliope had the right approach to simply laugh off the entire episode.
Charlotte removed her fingers from her ears. “Something similar has already happened—this time, though, is the reverse of the first. Alexander previously interrupted Matthew and me, so I know how you feel, Georgina.”
Charlotte turned to her brother. “As the two of you have both expended great efforts to avoid a forced marriage, I recommend that you lock each and every door in the future.”
Alexander scowled, and he looked a bit like a pouting schoolboy, especially with his hair so thoroughly mussed. “At least a ballroom is better than a glasshouse.”
“Neither is a good place for assignations,” Calliope said airily. “They both lack creativity and, much more importantly, seclusion. There is a certain art to affaires de coeur.”
Alexander rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I wasn’t planning—wait, why am I trying to explain myself? Georgina and I must leave. We have plans.”
“Of course you do.” Calliope smirked. Broadly. Then she winked.
“Not those kinds of plans.” Alexander tapped the ferrule of his cane against the hardwood floor. “Ones of an investigative nature.”
“Oh, an investigative nature . Is that your term for it?” Calliope spoke so impishly that Georgina could not help but be amused. It was rather fun watching Alexander squirm. He always seemed so confident; Georgina hadn’t thought him capable of awkwardness.
“Calliope!” Alexander roared, and he then glanced at Georgina. “I apologize on Calliope’s behalf. She means to tease me, not you.”
“It’s novel to be part of banter like this. I don’t mind,” Georgina admitted.
Calliope swung her arm around Georgina’s middle and gave her a gentle squeeze. “I am glad someone appreciates my humor.”
Georgina wondered if this is what it felt like to belong. It was something she hadn’t experienced for a long time.