Free Desired by a Lord (Regency Unlaced 5) by Carole Mortimer Page A

guessed.
    “Only the once,” she quickly defended. “Last night. I did not know… I had no idea before…”
    “Before I kissed and aroused you, and you felt compelled to touch yourself to find some relief for the aches and needs of your body?”
    The color blazed even more hotly in her cheeks at his frankness. “Yes. But this…this was so much more…intense, even than…than that.”
    Xander did not know what to say in answer to Emily’s admission.
    He felt angry with whoever or whatever had taught her maintaining control is everything . It was an impossibility to remain completely in control and still take full enjoyment from lovemaking.
    He knew a deeper anger with the man who had married her but not cared enough for her, in the five years of their marriage, to help her overcome her inhibitions. To secure his young wife’s satisfaction, as well as his own.
    Marsden was not unique in that selfishness, of course. Many men in Society believed a lady must always remain a lady, even in bed. Obviously, Marsden was one of that ilk.
    Was it any wonder Emily had responded so deeply to Xander’s kisses and caresses, and that once in the privacy of her bedchamber, she had felt compelled to give herself the pleasure no man had ever bothered to gift her with?
    His expression softened. “Did you enjoy it?”
    She smiled tremulously. “Very much.”
    “There is more, you know.”
    She swallowed. “I had a feeling there might be.”
    Xander nodded. “Would you like to explore further during your stay here?”
    Would she?
    Emily’s immediate answer was yes . Oh God, yes.
    Her second and cautionary one was is it possible to find sexual gratification with someone without falling in love with them? Because she could not allow herself to fall in love with Xander. He was a lord, a member of the ton ,who socialized with dukes and marquises. A world in which she would never be welcome.
    But she did not need to be in Xander’s world to enjoy his lovemaking.
    Only for the duration of her stay here at Whitney Park, of course.
    The temptation to say yes was overwhelming.

Chapter 9
    “A picnic luncheon?” Emily repeated Xander’s suggestion uncertainly late the following morning. “Outside?”
    His lips twitched. “That is where one usually enjoys a picnic. We should make the most of this continued hot weather.”
    She glanced out the window. There was no doubting it was an unseasonably warm and sunny day. Perhaps the last of such clement days before the winter set in.
    She was not concerned with the weather. It was the look of wicked intent in Xander’s gleaming blue eyes that was making her nervous.
    She had woken alone in her bedchamber this morning, absolutely sure she must have imagined the events of last night. That she could not really have allowed Xander to make love to her so shamelessly in the study. That he had not really suggested, and she had accepted, she become his mistress for the time of her stay here. That the two of them would explore sexual pleasure together in more depth.
    She had been disabused of that certainty the moment she closed the study door behind her this morning, dressed and prepared for working on the farming journals, and instead been swept up into Xander’s arms and very thoroughly kissed.
    As if he was fully aware of her thoughts, uncertainty and denial, and intended to stake his claim at the earliest opportunity.
    Emily had felt thoroughly claimed by the time that heated kiss came to an end, Xander having removed the pins from her hair at some point, those red tresses cascading down her back. He had refused to allow her to pin them back in so severe a style too, by pocketing half her hairpins so that she could only secure the curls upon her crown, leaving several tendrils loose at her temples and nape.
    She had no idea how she had struggled through the rest of the morning. Although she had very much enjoyed having Xander show her round his precious library. There were so many rare and