Rare and Precious Things Read Free Page A

tiptoes and planted a kiss on the side of his bearded neck.
    “Oh, I have no doubts about that.” My lips felt the vibration of his growl as he spoke his thoughts. “Everything you do is worth my while, baby.”
    I released him and looked back to where the glow from the en-suite bathroom showed me the way. “Where will you go to get ready?” I felt more than a little guilty about kicking him out of the bedroom, even if for just a short while.
    “The adjoining bedroom is also very nice.” He gestured toward a door in the wall to the left of the bed. “These old manor houses always had lord and lady connecting bedrooms so they could meet up for the really important, private stuff that happened in the night.” He drew a finger across the low neckline of my bodice, moving especially slow over the swell of my breasts sitting against the lace of my gown.
    “Oh? The important private stuff, you say?”
    “Undoubtedly, baby. The shagging…is…very…very… very …important.” He gave me soft, seductive kisses between each of the words.
    “W hich room are we in right now? Lord’s or lady’s?” I asked breathlessly, feeling like all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room.
    He shrugged. “No idea. Don’t care, either. I shag and sleep wherever my lady is, and I always will. Pick a room, Mrs. Blackstone.”
    He picked up my hand and kissed the back of it in his gallant way, his eyes slipping up seductively to capture another slice of my heart. Who was I kidding? He already had the entire portion…and he always would.
    I sighed with need and forced myself to take a step backward, creating some distance between our bodies. My arm stretched out as I slid back, my hand still clasped in his much bigger one. “Okay…how does this room in fifteen minutes sound?” I stepped backward again, moving closer toward the bathroom door, my eyes never leaving his blues as they tracked my movements.
    Those same beautiful blue eyes also glittered with all the shuttered heat of a man who would be ravishing me very soon. He allowed my hand to be released from his grip; the heat of his skin noticeably absent the second contact was lost.
    He gave me the serious Ethan-stare, the one I’d seen many times and was well familiar with by now—the one raw with male prowess…and the overpowering sexual dominance that made me burn.
    “Like fifteen minutes too fucking long, my beauty.”
    I had to suppress the slight moan that escaped my throat at the effect his words had on me. I was just a mortal woman after all. Ethan was the one who looked and acted like a Greek god to me.
    He seared me with another look dripping with the promise of the molten sex to come, before turning away, walking through the door, and closing it with a soft click.
    Once he was out, the room was instantly quiet and I felt more than a little bereft without him. I just stood there and absorbed the reality of where I was in the moment. I’m getting ready to make love with my husband. The idea jolted me out of my stupor and sprung me into action pretty fast.
    I fled for the bathroom and worked myself out of my dress, which gratefully was not difficult at all with its easy access placement of a side zip. I hung it up care fully on the boudoir hanger which had been arranged, for what I assumed, especially that purpose. I would have to remember to do something nice for Hannah. She’d thought of everything.
    I set my veil aside while I br ushed my teeth and drank a glass of water. I stripped out of my lingerie, except for the stockings and garter belt in pale lavender silk, and looked at my side profile in the mirror. I had a bump. Not much of one yet, but it was definitely there. I gave our sweet little peach a caress and reached for my veil again. I reattached it and stepped back out into the bedroom. I climbed up onto the raised bed and sank down into the downy softness of the duvet on my knees. I was careful to arrange myself with my back facing the same door