Chapter 13
Thirteen
Dominic rounded the corner, moving through his maze with the easy confidence of a man who knew every inch of it. He knew every turn and every secret passage because this was his. All of it belonged to him.
“You are going the wrong way.” He came to a halt, a glint of amusement dancing in his grey eyes while they gleamed in the dappled light.
Nell pressed a hand to her heaving chest, her lungs working hard to catch her breath. “I am trying to hide,” she whispered, her gaze searching the jagged lines of his face.
“Not there.” He moved past her, close enough that his arm brushed hers and sent heat racing up her spine. She caught the scent of sandalwood and clean male sweat. “Martha will find you in minutes.”
“Then where shall I go?” Nell turned to follow his shadow.
“Come.” He took her hand without asking permission. His fingers wrapped around hers, firm and certain, as he pulled her after him.
She should pull away. She should demand he release her and march back to the rose garden where safety lay in being seen. She didn’t.
He led her deeper into the maze, moving with the surety of long familiarity.
They moved through a gap between two hedges that looked like a solid wall until she was standing directly in front of it.
“Through here.” He pushed branches aside, holding them back with a protective arm so they wouldn’t scratch her face.
He pulled her after him into the darkness.
She ducked under his arm, her shoulder brushing his chest—a contact that sent a bolt of heat through her.
“One hundred!” Martha’s voice was faint and far away, barely audible through the thick walls of the hedge. The game had begun.
They emerged into an alcove completely hidden from the rest of the maze.
Dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead.
“No one knows this place.” Dominic released her hand and stepped back, finally putting distance between them.
“I made this path when I was twelve. I cut through the hedge with a knife I had stolen from the kitchen.”
Nell stared at him, her pulse hammering against her ribs. Her hand still hummed from the warmth of his touch. “You brought me here.” She struggled to find a steady note, her words wavering. “Why?”
“Because Martha would have found you.” He stood between her and the entrance, his broad shoulders blocking the only way out. He kept his glacial eyes fixed on her face, unblinking and intense. “And I didn’t want the game to end.”
“The game.” She echoed him, her throat tightening as the reality of their isolation settled over her.
“Come here.” He stepped back, a sharp nod directing her toward the center of the alcove.
She should refuse. Should demand he take her back to the garden, to her children, to the safe and sensible life she’d built. She should… Instead, she moved toward him on legs that felt like they might buckle.
He circled behind her, a sudden surge of heat radiating against her back.
His hands found her shoulders, positioning her so she was facing the dense, green wall of the hedge.
“No one can find us here.” His mouth brushed her ear, his breath stirring the fine hairs at her temple. “Not Martha. Not Daphne. No one.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel safe?” She intended the remark to cut, but it emerged as a breathless rasp as she stared into the leaves.
“No.” His teeth grazed her earlobe in a sharp, sudden spark of contact. “It’s supposed to make you honest.”
“Honest about what?” Her eyes fluttered closed, her head tilting instinctively away from the heat of him.
“About what you want.” His hands slid down her arms, his touch light yet possessive. “When no one is watching.”
Her mouth went dry.
“You wore yellow.” His fingers traced the edge of her neckline, skimming the sensitive skin of her bare shoulders. “You look like sunlight. Like everything I shouldn’t want.”
“Stop.” Nell tried to force some steel into her tone, but the word broke in the middle. Her hands hovered uselessly at her sides, fingers twitching against her skirts.
“Stop what?” Dominic stepped in front of her and leaned in until his shadow swallowed her whole.
“Whatever you are doing to me,” she whispered, stepping back until the hedge pressed firm against her spine.
“I haven’t even started.” His hands found her waist, fingers pressing into the soft fabric as he pulled her closer. “But I want to. God, Nell. I want to worship you.”
“This is madness.” She looked away from his piercing gaze, her lungs forgetting how to breathe.
“Yes.” His eyes burned into hers, reflecting the dappled sunlight.
“I hate you.” She spat the words, though her fingers betrayed her by curling into the fine fabric of his coat.
“I know.” A jagged line of pain flickered across his face.
“You called me nothing.” The words spilled out, hot and bitter, as she tried to shove against his chest. “Nothing of consequence.”
His teeth locked, the scar whitening against his tan. “Because I have felt like nothing my whole life. And when you looked at me like I was just a man, not a monster—” He stopped, swallowing hard as he searched her expression. “I panicked. I ruin everything.”
She stared up at him, her anger faltering at the raw honesty in his tone.
“Tell me you don’t want me.” He cupped her face, his thumbs stroking her cheekbones with unexpected tenderness. “Tell me, and I shall take you back. I shall never touch you again.”
She opened her mouth to say it, her lips trembling. The words wouldn’t come.
“Tell me, Nell.” Her name scraped from his throat as he tilted his head closer.
“I cannot.” It was thinner than a breath, her eyes fluttering closed.
“Why not?” He pressed, his forehead dropping to rest against hers.
“Because it would be a lie.” She hated herself for meaning it, her breath hitching in her throat.
Something in him snapped. He kissed her, hard and hungry. His hands fisted in her hair, tilting her head back to expose the line of her throat. She kissed him back with all the fury she’d been swallowing for weeks, all the want, and all the hate. Then, he dropped to his knees.
She stared down at him. This tall, powerful man was kneeling before her in the dirt, looking up at her as if she were holy.
“What are you—” She began, but the question died as she gripped his shoulders for balance.
“I have thought about this every night.” His hands found her ankles beneath her yellow skirts, his fingers wrapping around bare skin. “I have woken up hard and aching with your name on my lips.”
“Dominic.” His name caught in her throat as she felt the cool air on her legs.
“I want to taste you.” His hands slid higher, over her stockings and past her garters. “I want to bury my face between your thighs and make you forget your own name.”
“Someone could see,” she gasped, heat flooding her face as she glanced toward the maze path.
“No one will hear you but me.” He ducked beneath her skirts and disappeared into the yellow silk.
She couldn’t see him now. She could only feel his breath hot against her inner thigh and his hands gripping the back of her left leg.
He lifted her. Her leg came up, and he draped it over his shoulder, opening her wide to the quiet alcove.
She grabbed the stone bench behind her, her knuckles going white as she strained to stay upright.
“Dominic.” She gasped his name again, feeling off-balance and terribly exposed.
“Hold tight.” His response came muffled through layers of fabric. “I am going to ruin you.”
His fingers found the slit in her drawers and parted the linen. There was a shock of cool air, then a sudden, localized heat. His tongue dragged through her folds, one long, slow stroke that made her knees buckle.
“Christ.” He groaned against her flesh, the vibration shooting straight to her core. “You are already dripping.”
“Please.” The word escaped before she could catch it, her head falling back against the hedge.
“Please what?” He licked her again, maddeningly slow. “Tell me.”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head blindly, her fingers clawing at the stone.
“Yes, you do.” His tongue circled her pearl without quite touching it. “Say it.”
“More.” Her hips rocked instinctively toward his face. “I need more.”
“More of what?” He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, pointedly avoiding the center of her ache. “This?”
“No.” She whimpered, her breath coming in shallow stabs.
“Then what?” He gave her another kiss, higher but still not high enough. “Use your words, Nell.”
“Your mouth.” She was begging now, shameless and desperate. “On me. Inside me. I don’t care. Just, please.”
He sealed his lips over her and sucked. She screamed, her hand flying to her mouth as her teeth sank into her own palm.
He didn’t stop. He sucked, licked, and devoured her like he would die without the taste.
Her thigh clenched around his shoulder, her heel digging into the sturdy muscle of his back.
“Let me hear you.” He growled against her skin. “No one is listening but me.”
“I cannot.” A sob tore from her throat as she struggled to remain quiet. “Someone will hear.”
“Let them.” He spread her wider with his thumbs, his tongue plunging inside her. “Let the whole world hear what I do to you.”
She stopped trying to be quiet. The sounds that came out of her were no longer words, but broken moans and his name, repeated like a prayer. He ate her like a man possessed, his tongue everywhere at once.
“You taste like mine.” A low, guttural groan escaped him between licks. He worked her with a desperate, wrecked focus. “Like you were made for my mouth.”
“Ahhhh.” She was shaking so violently her standing leg threatened to buckle. “I cannot—I am going to—”
“Not yet.” He pulled back slightly. She let out a broken sob at the sudden, agonizing loss of friction. “Not until I say.”
“Please.” Tears pricked her eyes and spilled over, hot and frantic. “Please, I need...”