He gave a shake of his head as he opened his lids to look across at her guardedly. ‘Has no one ever told you it is most unattractive to say I told you so in that triumphant manner?’
‘Hah to that.’ Georgianna was too excited at being proved right to behave in the least ladylike about it, despite Hawksmere’s rebuke. ‘I was right, Zachary, and you were wrong, and you may mock all you like, but...’ She stilled, excitement dying as she took in the full import of Hawksmere’s statement. ‘He is already on the move, you say?’
The duke gave a haughty inclination of his head. ‘So it is reported, yes.’
‘Then I was too late to be of help, after all.’ Georgianna groaned, shoulders slumping in defeat. ‘I delayed too long and arrived too late, Zachary.’ She buried her face in her hands. ‘Too late.’
Zachary was instantly torn between the need to go to Georgianna and comfort her by taking her into his arms, and the certain knowledge that if he did so he would be unable to stop himself from making love to her again. Last night had been a tortuous hell for him after he and Georgianna had parted so ignominiously. Knowing Georgianna was in the adjoining bedchamber, that silky ebony hair no doubt once again loose about her shoulders and breasts, and wearing nothing more than one of the two white nightgowns he had packed into her bag earlier in the day at her lodgings, had played havoc with his efforts to find rest, let alone sleep.
So much so that he had quickly worked himself up into a fine temper, his annoyance with both Georgianna, and his own weakness in desiring her, making it impossible for him to relax.
He had finally given up all attempt of sleeping just before two o’clock in the morning. He’d thrown back the bedcovers to get out of bed and pull on his brocade robe over his nakedness before pacing about his bedchamber instead. All the time aware, so totally aware, that Georgianna was just a door-width away from satisfying the lust that coursed so hotly through his body.
A lust Zachary could not, dare not, allow to rule him, when he still distrusted the woman responsible for that emotion.
Only to then realise, when Georgianna had slept in so late this morning, that while he had been suffering the torments of the damned the night before, she had been perfectly at peace in the adjoining bedchamber, sleeping like the dead—or innocent?—and so totally unaware of his own tormented longings.
His visitor earlier this morning, bearing news of Napoleon’s possible flight from Elba, had done nothing to improve the already short fuse on his overstretched temper. To so much as touch her now would be insanity on his part.
Oh, to hell with his caution, Zachary dismissed as he took the two long strides that brought him to her side, before reaching out to take her in his arms. He wanted this woman, to kiss her, to caress her, and God knew when he would have the opportunity to do so again.
She was so very slight, in both height and stature. Her head rested against his chest just beneath his chin. So slender, it was almost like holding a child in his arms.
Almost.
Because it was a certainty that Georgianna did not bring out even a spark of paternal instinct in him.
‘I should not have delayed my departure from France for so long.’ Her voice was muffled against his chest, her breath a warm caress through the thin material of his shirt. ‘Should not have been so cautious, so worried, that I might be discovered attempting to leave. And now Napoleon will return to France and— My God—’ she lifted her head to look up at Zachary searchingly, her face paling as realisation dawned ‘—that is where you are going, is it not?’
It so happened that that was exactly where Zachary was going.
But he was not allowed to discuss his mission. Even with the woman who was responsible for bringing him the news that it was Napoleon’s intention to leave Elba. If, as was suspected, the Corsican had not already done so.
Zachary gave a mocking smile. ‘I had not realised you had such a vivid imagination, Georgianna.’
‘Do not even attempt to treat me like the foolish young girl I once was, Zachary,’ Georgianna warned fiercely.
His expression was grim. ‘Oh, I assure you, I am only too well aware that you are no longer that young innocent, Georgianna, foolish or otherwise.’
‘Then do not... Umph!’ The last came out as a protesting squeak as Zachary silenced her by claiming her mouth with his own, his arms like steel bands about her waist as he held her so tightly to him her body was melded close against his own.
Georgianna fought against the confinement of those arms as she also tried to wrench her mouth from beneath his. All to no avail, as Zachary merely tightened his arms and deepened the kiss by parting her lips beneath his with the invasion of his tongue into the moist heat of her mouth.
His marauding tongue that explored every sensitive and heated contour of her mouth, before stilling her as that tongue stroked against her own in a slow and sensuous caress, claiming, possessing, and sending rivulets of pleasurable heat coursing through the whole of Georgianna’s body.
She had never... No one had ever made her feel like this before.
The sheer carnality of Zachary’s kiss was beyond anything Georgianna had ever experienced before, beyond anything she had ever imagined, and she had no defences against it.
No defence against Zachary as he continued to plunder and claim her mouth even as he lifted her up into his arms and carried her across the room to lay her down upon the bed before joining her there. He draped one of his legs across her thighs to keep her in place beside him as he continued to kiss and taste her even while one of his hands began to roam restlessly along the length of her body.
Her neck arched as Zachary broke that kiss to explore the column of her throat. She gasped as his hand cupped beneath her breast, instantly seeking out the sensitive berry at its tip, caressing, stroking and causing a tingling ache that spread like wildfire from her nipple down to between her dampening thighs.
Nevertheless, she knew she must seek some semblance of sanity, to put an end to the madness that had so rapidly overtaken them. ‘Zachary.’
‘Do not deny the desire that exists between us, Georgianna.’ He raised his head to look at her, his eyes glittering fiercely, a flush across the sharp blades of his cheekbones, his lips thinned.
As evidence that his own desire for her angered him rather than pleased him?
No doubt it did, when Zachary had every reason to believe she had been André Rousseau’s lover.
‘I will allow you to think of nothing and no one else whilst you are in my arms, Georgianna,’ he warned harshly, as he seemed to guess some of her thoughts. ‘And I fully intend to have you before I leave,’ he continued determinedly as he rose above and then over her, pushing her nightgown up her thighs as he settled between her legs. ‘All of you.’
She swallowed at the lustful violence she now saw in the fierceness of Zachary’s gaze. A violence of emotion that threatened to overwhelm completely Zachary’s previous cautions where she was concerned.
Georgianna ran the moistness of her tongue across the dryness of her lips. ‘You will only regret it.’
‘As you warned me yesterday I should regret having insisted you remove your veil?’ he retorted harshly as he slid slowly down the length of her body, able to smell the sweet lure of her arousal once he was comfortably settled between her thighs.
‘Yes.’
‘And I did regret it. I regret it still. But it seems that regret does little to change the fact that I also desire you.’ Zachary gave a shake of his head, his endurance, and his patience, pushed beyond his control after his second sleepless night in succession. Because of this woman. Because of the desire he felt for her. A desire he had every intention of satisfying before he left England later today.
‘Please, Zachary.’
‘Oh,