She was drowning in him, lost to everything but him. Perhaps that was his plan. She wasn’t so foolish as to think he wouldn’t use her desire against her to keep her from going against his wishes. But in that moment she didn’t care. She wanted to be comforted by his touch and offer the same comfort to him. The past few days had been so painful…they both deserved a little pleasure to soften the edges.

But he didn’t ask for that. Instead, he drew away, releasing her gently as he tried to catch his breath.

“Why?” she gasped.

He smiled. “It is not for a lack of wanting, I assure you. But last night you withdrew your consent. I respect that barrier and your reasons behind it.”

It was evident he wanted her by the expression on his face, not to mention the patently obvious erection straining his trousers. But he didn’t pursue because she’d asked him not to.

Only she didn’t want that anymore. She wanted connection. She needed it, and she knew he did too. She cleared her throat and opened her chamber door. “Lord Harcourt, I want you to come into my room. I want you to come into my bed. I want you to come into my body. Right now. Tonight. All night.” She shifted as the discomfort of demand washed over her. “Please.”

He tilted his head back with a low chuckle that seemed to work its way through her very bloodstream. “Can’t help that last part, can you?”

“No, it’s my nature to ask rather than demand,” she admitted.

She backed into her chamber and he followed, his shoulders back, his chest forward, like a beast stalking her rather than a very proper earl. She liked the beast.

“You did a very good job demanding,” he whispered as he shut the door behind them.

She moved to him and he caught her in his arms, grinding his mouth down without the sweetness or hesitation he’d had in the hallway. He consumed her and she burned in the fire of his desire even as she stoked it with the fuel of her own. She had never needed something as much as she needed this man. She’d never wanted something more.

She wasn’t about to let tonight end without getting exactly that.

She forced her hands between their tightly pressed bodies and found the buttons on his jacket. She twisted at them in frustration, opening some, popping others away as he laughed against her mouth. She pushed the jacket aside just as he spun her around roughly. He yanked her backside against his pelvis, rotating them together as he walked her toward the bed.

She couldn’t breathe as he kissed the side of her neck, sucking hard enough for a flash of pleasure-pain to make itself known in every sensitive nerve ending in her trembling body. He unfastened her with far more finesse than she had used, and once the gown was open she tugged it away so she stood only in her chemise.