This was disastrous. James did the only thing he could in the situation.
“You will turn around and return home at once!” he ordered in a tone that would suffer no rebuttal, only instant obedience.
Then he turned and ran.
Poppy stared in astonishment as James ran in loping bounds up the staircase of his home. The butler made a choked sound as she hurried after him. “James, what are you doing? I must meet with you right away!”
“Milady,” the butler cried rushing after her.
James paused, gripping the banister. “Did I not tell you to leave?”
“Yes, but that I am here and in disguise should tell you it is clearly a matter of grave importance.”
A pained grimace crossed his face. “I will find you later and speak of it.”
“It might very well be too late then! I overheard a matter of importance that is related to you.” She lowered her voice and glanced back at the butler on her heels when she said this, not wanting servants to get a hint of anything that might involve Rebecca. Poppy knew firsthand that servants loved to gossip, and most scandals from private homes were spread by them.
“I will bear it in mind,” he said, “I shall call on you tomorrow.”
Then he continued up the stairs. Poppy gaped at his retreating back. What in the world was he about? Why was he acting in this strange and odious manner? Tomorrow would be too late. He would attend the ball tonight, and then he would be trapped in her stepmother’s scheme.
Poppy sprinted up the stairs with a muttered curse, leaving the butler in a confused daze at its base. Upon reaching the landing just in time to see James closing a door down the hallway. What in heavens was happening. She tested the doorknob and found it locked.
Poppy knocked on the door. “James?”
No answer came forth. She knocked again, and still, the dratted man refused to come to the door. Poppy would leave a note for him and damn his silly hide. He would owe her an explanation for this behavior. She walked away, and her steps faltered. He would occupy the master chamber, so the room beside his should be an adjoining one. Poppy tested that knob, and it opened noiselessly under her palm. She hurried to the connecting door, opened it and spilled into James’s room.
He was there, pacing like a caged lion and raking his fingers through his hair. At her entrance, he whirled toward her, his lips parting in shock.
“James, I must tell you. I overheard my…my stepmother plotting to compromise you most thoroughly at tonight’s ball. You must not attend it. That is what I wanted to share with you, but you ran away from me. What is wrong with you?”
“I told you to leave,” he growled.
“Well, yes…you did…James. Why are you removing your jacket?”
Next, his shoes came off, and with an almost violent motion, he tugged his shirttails from his pants.
“I tried to stay away from you. I really did. But then you are here, in my chambers, where all the carnal fantasies I’ve had of you happened. I’ve fisted my cock to the very image of you, and you are here.”
Oh, dear. “Do you mean to ravish me?” she demanded a bit breathlessly, wondering why she was not running.
“Every delectable inch of you.”
That promise had heat blossoming through her body, and her sex ached unexpectedly.
“So my dearest, Poppy, run. I’ll not chase you, but I do not have the willpower to deny myself you anymore. Every night I dream of you…and you are here.”
Her heart jerked so fast Poppy felt dizzy. “Every night, I think of you as well, James. You…You are more than a friend. You are someone I crave.” The confession felt torn from her very soul.
James made a strange sound when she removed her hat and veil and tossed it onto the chaise longue and toed off her shoes.
“You are not running.”
“Only unless it is into your arms,” she said softly, her heart beating so fast she felt faint. “I want this…I want you.”
He held out his arms, and she hurtled herself forward. James gathered her into his arms, dragging her up against his body, pulling her mouth up to meet his, invading with his tongue. His kiss was passionate and so very wonderful. With a muffled moan, she moved her mouth under his, kissing him back with every emotion burning inside for him.
He dragged his mouth from hers and pressed it to her ears. “This is damnably reckless.”
“I know.” And she did, for no marriage would come from him. At least not for three years. Yet Poppy could not bear for this moment to ever end. She was painfully aroused and gripped by emotions she had never felt before. “I do not want to be rational or good or biddable. Tonight, I want you, James, in all the ways I have been dreaming.”
With a muttered curse, he took her mouth over and over, in sweet and other times hard, desperate kisses. Poppy dazedly realized he had unbuttoned her jacket and full skirts. Her dress, chemise, laces, and corset were removed with kisses in between. She should have been a nervous mess, but that book had prepared her.
Soon James was naked, and so was Poppy. Before shyness could overcome her, he swung her into his arms, and within a few strides, they were by his bed, tumbling down on the soft mattress. They kissed endlessly until her body grew fevered until the ache between her legs was pulsing wetness. Until she was twisting and tugging at his shoulders, demanding something she was not familiar with. Poppy felt as if she would disintegrate under the lash of heated arousal pulsing throughout her body.
But James seemed as if he could not stop kissing her. Her mouth, her cheeks, the curves of her throat, down to her breasts. He sucked a nipple into his mouth, and Poppy slapped a hand over her mouth, a low moan breaking from her.
She had never imagined such sensations were possible.
“James, I need…I…ahh,” she cried out when he nibbled at her sensitive nipple then laved it with his tormenting tongue.
One of James’s hands drifted over her body, molding and shaping, teasing, and tormenting. His fingers brushed over the hollow of her throat, over the aching mounds of her breasts and seared a path over her quivering stomach down to her thighs. His fingers found her damp curls, gliding through slick folds, sinking deep into her tight, wet sex. And the entire time, he kissed her mouth with a breath-taking intensity.
All of Poppy’s senses were assaulted with piercing desire. Her flesh felt sensitized and needy. She nudged her hips, and his finger moved within her. It was as if lightning struck her low in her belly and traveled down to her sex.
Poppy pulled her mouth from James’s, breathing raggedly at the strange but wonderful feeling. She gasped as his thumb glided over her nub of pleasure. The friction had her arching her hips more into his wicked caress. James licked down her body, following the path his fingers had taken earlier, kissing and nipping all over her body, paying attention to the quivering softness of her belly. Then he went even lower. A kiss from his scorching lips skimmed her inner thigh. Poppy trembled, the ache spreading to her belly.
His fingers moved from her body, and she cried out her protest. Now she felt empty when she desperately needed to be filled. James cupped her buttocks in both his palms, tilting her hips, dipped his head, kissing her deeply in the sensitive place between her legs. That deep, heated lick across her folds ripped a wild cry from Poppy. The pleasure was sharp and searing, flowering from her nub and throughout her entire body. Poppy sobbed, and quaked, and lifted her hips to his mouth for more. He licked her over and over, dragging his tongue over her pearl of pleasure, before sucking her wetly into his mouth. Sweet, bone-shattering ecstasy tore through Poppy, and she cried out, gripping the sheets at her side.