She let out a heart-stopping gasp, and her eyes flew open with a mixture of surprise and pleasure that Alec planned to never forget. After a few moments of trial and error, he found the motion and pressure that seemed to affect her the most. Then he dipped his head and drew her rosy nipple between his teeth. The mere taste of her rosewater-scented skin sated him more than any banquet ever had.

She breathed his name and arched even higher, her fingers digging into his scalp, holding him to her breast, as if there was a chance he might pull away. While he continued to suck, his free hand began to gently pinch her other nipple, and the evidence of her desire grew heavier and warmer under his fingertips. He coaxed her steadily toward her release, feeling every shudder of pleasure, every muffled sigh, every twist of her hips, until every muscle seemed to tighten at once. He pulled away to watch as Lottie’s lips parted, gasping in wordless cries at the sensation rioting within her. Then her brow tensed before it all slowly faded into an expression of pure bliss.

His erection had grown so stiff and hot it was nearly painful, but it didn’t matter. This was enough—more than enough. More than he had ever dreamed. To simply touch her, to watch those emerald eyes grow heavy with pleasure, to hear her cry out with desire built by him, by the two of them together. She could get on with her life, and he could have just a little bit of her. A memory to keep. He pressed a soft kiss against her lips and she brought her arms around his shoulders. Her hands slid under the collar of his jacket and he shivered at her smooth touch, but it was another moment before he realized she was easing it off.

“Lottie,” he murmured, but she only tugged harder, until he was obliged to remove the garment himself, lest he become trapped in his own dinner jacket. He stood from the bed and pulled the jacket off, while Lottie watched him with a dark, ravenous look that threatened to undo him all over again. Her eyes followed the jacket as he let it drop to the floor, then returned to his face.

She uttered just one word: “More.”

A thrill shot through him at the idea of disrobing before such a rapt audience. He sank one knee on top of the bed, looming over her partially clad figure, and began to unbutton his waistcoat, though his fingers slipped more than once, until it, too, joined the jacket. Her hand traveled between her thighs, and she pressed it against the still-sensitive flesh. Alec inhaled sharply at the sight. Lottie gestured to his suspenders with her chin. “Those too,” she murmured.

He pulled each one off slowly, deliberately, riveted by watching her watch him, of pleasuring herself to his image.