Mad for Love: Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 2 Read Free

her down the stairs. Aware her mother would expect her back directly, that only proved as an incentive to go with him. Besides, when would she ever get this chance again, to enjoy the company of a man like this?
    Her behaviour was a little daring, but not too much. Made more when he procured them each a glass of white wine and then took her not back upstairs, but to the open door that led to the garden.
    Gardens in London were more spacious than they appeared from the front, but this one contained a greater number of people than it was used to, so Aurelia assumed she’d be reasonably safe. Until he turned to her and she realized she’d never be safe anywhere. Not with him.
    His eyes gleamed in the moonlight, seeming to take on the silvery hue. Transfixed, she let him take her glass and set it down on a nearby parapet before taking her hand to lead her along a path to a small pavilion set by the wall to the next house. “We’re in luck,” he murmured. “We have the place to ourselves. But who knows for how long?”
    He gave her no warning before he took her in his arms and kissed her. No sweet kiss of friendship either, but a sealing of something, a taking, though what he took she had no words for.
    Except maybe he stole her heart.
    Aurelia lifted her hands, pressed them against his chest with every intention of pushing him away, but somehow she ended up flattening her palms against him. His arms banded around her, dragging her close, forcing her hooped skirt to crush between them. Not close enough, but closer than she’d been to any man.
    She’d never felt this way before; safe and yet in the greatest danger. She was in danger of losing everything to this man.
    He kissed her sweetly, but deeply, touching her lips with his tongue so she opened her mouth and gasped as he deepened their embrace. He licked the inside of her lips and she shuddered. She’d never realised that was such a sensitive area before. Then he withdrew and gently sealed their mouths.
    After he finished the kiss he didn’t release her and she didn’t force the separation. He gazed down at her and cupped her cheek. “You feel it too.” It was a statement rather than a question.
    “Do I?” Felt what? She wouldn’t admit what she felt. She was too vulnerable to allow any more than he’d taken already.
    “I needed to kiss you more than I needed my next breath, Aurelia.” He murmured her name like a prayer. “Don’t look at me that way.”
    With a groan, he kissed her again. His lips moved over hers with soft insistence while he held her close and ravished her senses. He smelled of pure male, overlaid with a sharper scent, akin to an exotic fruit. She breathed it in while he kissed her with a command she was powerless to resist.
    He stroked the bare skin exposed above her gown, the slopes of her upper breasts. She shivered, arching into his touch. One part of her stood back, lifting a warning finger, telling herself she should not do this, but the rest of her didn’t care. Warmth enveloped her inside and out, as if he’d thrown a protective shield around them, one created for them alone.
    When he moved his mouth slightly, she followed, and that opened her lips enough for him to plunge his tongue inside her mouth. She responded by stroking her tongue against his, letting instinct be her guide, for he had now moved her into a place she’d never been before. A feverish moan reverberated in her mouth and throat—his. Even the notion of him tossing her down to the stone floor and throwing up her skirts didn’t alarm her. She trusted him, something reason told her she should never do with Lord Stretton.
    His body rocked as he shuddered and drew a sharp breath in through his nose before he withdrew and finished the kiss with a gentle caress. Planting his hands firmly at her waist, he pulled back quickly, the movement shocking her from her trance. She jerked back, her breath coming in short gasps, and lifted one hand to her heated cheek.
    “I