certainly not feeling excluded, either.
Because, as Lord Grayson claimed, St Claire had set the example he wished his peers to follow by making her socially acceptable once more?
Grateful as she was for a slight melting of the frost that had previously been shown to her, it was not quite within Juliet to allow that the outrageous Lord St Claire and his marked attentions towards her were indeed responsible for that change. Even if they were, he need not have been so persistent in his interest—especially as she had given him every indication that she wished him to cease all such attentions. Besides, there had been no one else but themselves present when he’d intruded onto her balcony yesterday evening. Or when he’d invaded the privacy of her bedchamber this morning.
Juliet became very still as she felt something touch the exposed nape of her neck. A fly, perhaps? Or possibly a bee …
‘Do not turn around, Juliet,’ Sebastian St Claire urged huskily, just as she would have done so.
Juliet stiffened. St Claire was standing directly behind her, in the shadow of the curtained doorway. Juliet’s wide-eyed glance about the room showed that none of the other guests seemed in the least aware of his presence.
He was standing so close to her that Juliet could feel the heat of his body through the thin material of her gown. As she had yesterday evening, Juliet also smelled the sharp tang of male cologne and the cigar he must have smoked earlier with his port.
The fact that he was standing so close to her implied that the feather-light touch she had felt against her nape had very likely been St Claire’s fingertips against her bare flesh …!
She flicked her fan open, bringing it up in front of her mouth so that their conversation would not be visible to the other guests. ‘What do you think you are doing?’ she whispered fiercely.
‘Something I have been longing to do since Dolly interrupted us yesterday evening,’ came St Claire’s unapologetic reply. ‘Did you know that your skin is as soft as velvet?’ Once again those fingertips caressed the length of her nape.
Juliet was instantly aware of that quivering sensation once more as those fingers ran the length of her spine. Just as she had the previous evening, Juliet wondered whether it could be pleasure she was feeling. Certainly no one else had ever made her feel such a warmth and tingling in her body before. It was not an unpleasant feeling, and nor was she repulsed as she had always been whenever Edward had touched her.
On the contrary, that warm and tingling sensation was now spreading across her shoulders and down into her breasts …
‘Has anyone ever likened your hair to the colour and texture of sable?’ he murmured, and she couldn’t suppress a tiny shiver as the warmth of his breath moved the curls at her nape.
It was strangely disturbing to have him standing behind her like this and for no one else in the drawing room to be aware of it. Again, this was not an unpleasant feeling—more of a deliciously wicked one that Juliet could enjoy without feeling any regret or embarrassment.
‘Does your skin taste as good as it feels, I wonder …?’ he whispered.
Juliet gasped, and her back arched involuntarily as she felt the softness of his chiselled lips against her nape, those quivers down her body increasing in urgency as she felt the gentle rasp of his tongue against the bareness of her flesh.
‘Mmm, it tastes even better than it feels,’ he murmured appreciatively as he alternately kissed and licked a heated path down the length of her spine. That path came to a halt as he reached the top of her gown. ‘May I …?’ he asked huskily.
Juliet was too hot, too confused by the strange clamouring of emotions she was feeling, to immediately comprehend his meaning. By the time she did understand what he was asking Sebastian had already unfastened most of the buttons down the back of her gown!
‘I ask that you do not turn around, Juliet,’ Sebastian reiterated as she once again made an attempt to do so, placing his hands firmly upon her shoulders to accompany this reminder as he held her in place. ‘I wish for you to remain exactly as you are so that I might … explore.’
Juliet’s gaze moved wildly about the drawing room, but no one was paying her—or consequently him, where he stood hidden by the drapes—any attention. They remained engrossed in their party game.
Having Sebastian touch her in this way was so sinfully wicked that Juliet could not possibly allow him to continue. Could she …? Yet with her gown unbuttoned down her back did she really have any choice but to remain standing exactly as she was?
Did she even want a choice?
Juliet could not deny that she felt a curiosity. A wanting. An aching to know if the sensations she was feeling really were pleasure.
Juliet gasped again as she felt the heat of Sebastian’s hands about her waist. Only the thin material of her silk chemise separated those hands from her bare flesh. That gasp became a tiny moan as his hands shifted beneath the loose material of her high-waisted gown to move caressingly upwards to just below the pertness of her breasts.
‘Shh, sweet …’ Sebastian murmured soothingly.
How could Juliet possibly remain silent when those hands touched her so intimately? When she could feel her nipples become engorged in anticipation of caresses yet to come?
She felt a warm flooding between her thighs as Sebastian continued to touch her just beneath her breasts. A hot dampness in her most secret place. A clenching spasm deep inside her as Sebastian’s hands trailed a slow path from her breasts down to her waist and then back again.
‘You must stop, Sebastian!’ she protested agonisingly from behind her fan. Her knees seemed in danger of buckling beneath her.
His only reply was to tighten his hands about her waist as he held her more firmly in place and his lips explored the bareness of her shoulder, licking, gently sucking.
Juliet was in no doubt now—this was pleasure!
Unimaginable, indescribable pleasure.
It was a sensation unlike any Juliet had ever known before.
A sensation she wanted to continue ….
Sebastian knew that he should stop. That he must stop soon or risk exposing them both to a scandal that the ton would never forgive or forget.
But finally being able to kiss Juliet, to touch her, to feel her pleasure in his caresses, to hear her little panting breaths and feel the response of her body, was feeding his own desire, so making it impossible for Sebastian to do anything other than continue the wild, illicit caresses.
Her skin smelt of spring flowers and tasted like silken honey as he continued to explore its smoothness with his lips, feeling the arch of Juliet’s back as he ran his tongue down the ridges of her spine. Her bottom was pressed against him, and the hardness of his throbbing, aching arousal fitted perfectly against her.
That Juliet was completely naked beneath her chemise Sebastian had no doubt, and he allowed one of his hands to glide lower down over her stomach, to cup her between her parted legs. He was able to feel her dampness through the thin material that was the only barrier to his questing fingers.
A barrier Sebastian pushed
