Sweat beaded on his forehead and the cords of his neck. One particular droplet caught her attention as it slowly traveled from the center of his throat between the small valley of his pectoral muscles and down those rigid abdominal muscles until it disappeared from sight at the part in his shirt.
Beatrice inhaled, trying to remember how to speak, but as she did so she caught the most sinfully delightful scent. Something deep and masculine that made nipples harden and her mons pulse with want.
If that was not bad enough, the sight of him made a twinge set off in her lower belly as her palms tingled; as if by their own volition, they wanted to reach out and explore such rigid planes of surprisingly tanned flesh.
How was he so deep of color?
“What is it? I heard a crash?!” he demanded, his eyes wide and wild as he took in the room and Beatrice.
Beatrice blushed deeply as she drew her bottom lip between her teeth and forced her eyes up to his.How on earth was she supposed to explain this?
“Beatrice!” Algernon snarled, and her attention snapped back to him.
“I asked if you are all right?” he added with vehemence. “What happened? Did you trip? What is this mess?”
Suddenly, for a reason Beatrice could not identify, she felt angry with him. She drew her arm behind her head and with all her might, flung the book at Algernon’s head. He caught it with a grace that did odd things to lower belly, and she grew more frustrated that he had not been hit.
“What in God’s name was that for?” he demanded.
“What happened,” Beatrice bit out, “is that sinful book you are making me read! What I just read was so scandalous that it made me drop my wine and knock the bottle over! This is your fault!”
Algernon’s angered look shifted to one surprise as he looked from the book in his hand to the mess on the floor and then he drew his head back and laughed—laughed! A deep, truly amused laugh that came from very depths of his chest.
“This isnotamusing!” Beatrice yelled, pushing up from her chair. “This is filth!”
“Oh, if it has you reacting this way, I highly doubt that is how you truly feel about it,” Algernon replied, chuckling.
Beatrice wrinkled her nose as she glowered at him.
“Do not dare to presume to know me in this moment,” she warned. “And furthermore, if what I just read in that book is what is expected of me, then you can go ahead and call this plan of yours a failure, for I willnotbe doingthat!”
Again, Algernon surprised her as instead of taking on his usual commanding nature, he laughed once again.
“Ah, I see you have made it past the seduction stage and into actual play then,” he replied, smiling as he began to flip through the pages. “I am most curious to see which passage has so consumed with passion.”
Beatrice blushed deeply, feeling heat shoot not just into her cheeks but down her neck and over her chest.
“It is not passion, it is disgust,” she retorted. Then reluctantly she added. “I just got to the part where the knight was chastising the princess for using all of the water he collected to take a bath instead of using it for consumption.”
“Mhm,” Algernon murmured, flipping to the page. “One of my favorite scenes. He shows her another way she can be made clean.”
“Abhorrent!” Beatrice snapped.
Though even as she said so, heat prickled along her flesh, and her stomach tightened at the image the words had conjured.
Algernon slowly raised an eyebrow as he looked her up and down.
“You are many things, Beatrice, but at this moment you are certainly not abhorred,” he mused, snapping the book shut.
Even the sound made a jolt move up Beatrice’s spine, forcing her to gasp.
“Do not act as if you know me, Algernon,” she tried to warn, but her voice came out breathy, as if she could not quite catch it. “I… do not like that look in your eyes.”
He was staring at her with an intensity like never before, as if he were wolf and she was a mere bunny. One muscle moved on him making her feel as if she’d be caught in his teeth within the moment—and it excited her, despite her protests.
“Do you know what the word aroused means, Beatrice?” Algernon asked. He took a step. Not toward her but in parallel to her. Then another.
“I…” Beatrice stammered, her eyes on him as he began to walk a slow circle around her. She swallowed forcefully, trying to make her mind and mouth work.