Chapter 19

If there was one thing that Alice Barkley hated, it was losing. No challenge was ever too small for her—she simply found ways to achieve victory, whatever that may look like to her. It was this fiercely competitive side of her that had her rushing headlong into pursuits that often landed her in trouble.

The very same character flaw that had her sneaking into Blackthorn Estate to steal a book.

In hindsight, she could have just asked its owner if she could borrow it. He might have been surprised at first, or he might have vacillated, but it was the most prudent course of action.

Alice, being Alice, simply could not resist the temptation of misadventure.

Her eyebrows knitted as she followed Colin into his study. She noticed that it was far less imposing than the one she had seen in Blackthorn Estate. A country estate study, after all, was only used for business that might interrupt a leisurely sojourn in a more rural residence. Still, the stark masculinity could not be dismissed in the dark wood furnishings and the great oaken desk that took up a place of honor.

"Are you sure we can find it here?" she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yes, of course," he replied almost dismissively as he searched through the shelves.

Alice hated it when anyone used that tone with her, and she made her displeasure known with a slight scoff as she walked towards the desk. She took note of the various writing implements neatly arranged on one side of the desk, within easy reach of whoever sat before it. Several documents were tied up in strings, some of them in leather folios—all of them stacked neatly.

The Duke of Thornsmust be a terribly fastidious person.

She turned away from the documents she had no business of perusing and watched as Colin moved over to another shelf, rifling through the books in his collection with a pensive expression on his handsome features. She admired the elegant line of his shoulders and his back, biting back a sigh that such a fine masculine specimen was possessed of the most ornery temper known to mankind.

"Please stop looking at me like that."

She frowned and raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly am I looking at you?"

"Like you are begging to be kissed," he muttered darkly, striding over to her.

"I beg your pardon!" she sputtered. "I am not begging to be seduced by you!"

"No," he murmured. "You are doing the seducing… and you're far better at it than I had ever hoped for."

She gawked at him, simmering with rage and an inexplicable sense of feminine pride that she had somehow unconsciously enticed this man before her—not that she had any intention of the latter!

"Are you insinuating," she hissed at him, "that I am behaving in a thoroughly inappropriate way like a… like a…"

She dared not say the word as her cheeks bloomed with livid fire. She stomped angrily past him, carelessly pushing past his shoulder as she made her way to the door.

"You can keep searching for whatever treasure you like," she declared. "We are not going to win anyway!"

"Why the hell not?" he retorted angrily, following her to the door. He reached her in no time at all, his strides being far bigger than her tiny steps.

She rolled her eyes. "Clearly, because we cannot possibly work together amicably, Your Grace. Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to be let out of this room. Your ill temper is suffocating me!"

She turned towards the door and yanked at the knob, only to find that it refused to cooperate with her. She frowned and twisted it again, but it was unyielding as a boulder.

"Do not tell me that you have lost the ability to open a door?" he drawled sarcastically.

Alice pursed her lips. "I have not," she stated primly. "The door is locked, Your Grace. From the outside."

* * *

"What do you mean it is locked from the outside?" he demanded.

Colin frowned as he reached for the door. To his surprise, she was right—the door did seem to be locked from the outside.

But who would do such a thing? The servants would never dare approach his study, not even to just clean it, without his direct supervision.

"Wonderful. Just wonderful," he heard Alice mutter.

She looked thoroughly displeased by the whole situation and yet absolutely tempting. That petulant pout she wore only made her lips even more enticing, calling to mind that kiss they shared in the Salisbury gardens.

The same kiss that had haunted him and kept him awake for many nights. If she had known how many times he had pleasured himself just thinking of that kiss, she would have been appalled.

In fact, if she had been privy to the many fantasies he had of her—in his bed, bent over his desk, draped over his sofa—she would be horrified, and rightly so.

Alice was nothing at all like the other ladies he had before her. She was an innocent seductress, a bewitching temptress whose every little movement sent desire coursing through his veins.

And right now, she was here with him. Alone. In his study.

"Please do not act as if this is only unpleasant to you," he shot back through gritted teeth, intensely aware of the growing hardness between his legs.

He watched as she bristled, her breasts straining against the neckline of her dress as she glared up at him in absolute indignation.

"Well, I would not have participated in these games if you had not dragged me here!" she snapped. "I could have retired early in peace, away from you and your… your?—"

"Majesty?" he supplied with a smirk. "My absolute perfection?"

"Your sheer arrogance!" she hollered. "And your insufferable male?—"

Of course, his ‘insufferable male' whatever was not going to allow him to merely stand there and allow her to heap abuse on his head. Colin roughly pulled her into his arms, his lips descending upon hers in a punishing kiss that silenced the torrent of insults she had planned to unleash on him.

Alice, he had learned, could be quite creative in that department, but he had also found an exceedingly effective way to halt her once she was in the middle of a particularly scathing tirade.

Almost immediately, he felt the anger seep out of her, and she melted into his arms, her lips molding into his as she subconsciously pressed her softness into him with a soft moan, further obliterating what was left of his self-control.

His fingers delved into her hair, sending pins raining on the carpeted floor as he angled her head to deepen the kiss. His tongue traced her bottom lip, tasting her sweet surrender as she opened up to him, her arms going around his neck as she clung to him.

Lady Alice Barkley was going to be the death of him—he was sure of it.

He trailed his lips along the delicate line of her jaw to her ear, reveling in the subtle shudder that coursed through her. He nipped her earlobe, drawing a sharp intake of breath from her that trailed off into an unmistakable moan.

She tasted so sweet, far sweeter than his fantasies. Her soft fragrance wrapped around him, ensnaring him, drugging him until all he could think about was her.

"Colin…" he heard her sigh.

He halted at that, his lips hovering over the spot where her neck met her shoulder. Alice had tilted her head to the side, exposing herself to him like an offering—and he took it.

He kissed her softly there, glorying in the soft mewling sound she made when he lightly sucked her skin before laving it with his tongue. He was certain he was going to hell for this, but there was something about the sounds she was making that seemed to urge him on.

His hand spanned across her chest, and her body bowed in an unmistakable response—she wanted this. Wanted his touch. Wanted him.

He groaned and squeezed the soft flesh through the trappings of her dress and her stays. She called out his name once more.

"Patience, little lamb," he crooned, even as his every instinct called out for him to simply pull her skirts up and drive himself into her sweet warmth.

"Oh God, I feel like I am burning," she moaned through her slightly parted lips.

He chuckled hoarsely and plucked at the buttons at her back, effectively loosening the front of her dress. His gaze hungrily devoured the soft swells of flesh above the lacy neckline of her chemise. He would have a taste of them, too, he decided as he swiftly did away with the laces of her stays.

Never before had he been so thankful for his past experience with undoing a woman's undergarments. He could not have gotten rid of Alice's stays quickly enough.

He dropped her stays carelessly at their feet before sweeping her off the floor entirely, earning him a surprised squeal.

"Colin! What are you doing?" she demanded as he stalked over to the great desk.

"What I have been dreaming of since that day you broke into Blackthorn Estate," he muttered huskily. With a single sweep of his arm, he sent the piles of documents crashing to the floor before setting her on the table. "Now, where were we?"

To his surprise, she threw her arms around him and kissed him as hungrily as he had kissed her. She was vastly inexperienced compared to him, but what she lacked in skill, she made up for with sheer passion, and that, in itself, was a far more heady drug than anything he had ever encountered.

She touched her tongue shyly to his, and the fire within him roared. He responded to her kiss, his tongue seeking hers out and tangling with it until she was gasping under its onslaught.

His hand wandered to her breast, squeezing it through her thin chemise, his thumb running gently over its tightening peak. When she cried out, her body arched into his touch, pushing her breast into his hand.

Colin smirked as he toyed with that rosy peak through the thin fabric, watching her slowly unraveling before him.

"You like this, little lamb?" He gently tweaked that rosy bud between his thumb and forefinger, drawing out a soft moan from her. "You like it when I touch you like this?"

"Yes, oh my… yes!"

He smiled as he pushed her down to lay on the table, her legs dangling over the edge as he stepped between them. He cupped her other breast in his hand and fondled it as he did its twin, watching in satisfaction as Alice surrendered to the pleasure of his touch. When he touched his tongue to her turgid flesh, she let out a soft gasp.

"Oh my…" she moaned. "I did not know… ooh… ah…"

There are many things you do not know, little lamb, he thought to himself as his tongue flicked her nipple, enticing an outpouring of moans from her. And I shall teach them to you…

As he lavished her breast with kisses, alternating between lightly sucking and stroking her sensitized flesh with his tongue, his hand wandered down to her thigh, grabbing a fistful of her skirt and dragging it up her legs.

"Colin?" Her eyes were glazed and slightly unfocused.

"Shh…" he murmured over her quivering flesh. "Let me show you pleasure, little lamb."

He felt her stiffen a little as he trailed his fingertips along the inside of her thigh, higher up to the thatch of curls that guarded her most intimate part. Alice instinctively closed her legs, her eyes wide as she looked at him in shock.

"I am going to touch you here," he told her, allowing his fingers to lightly play with the curls on her mound. "Will you let me in, little lamb?"

She bit her lower lip, hesitation shining clearly in her eyes. Then, slowly, she relaxed, and he grinned triumphantly.

"That is better," he crooned. "Now, I am going to touch you…"

He slid his finger through her folds, his eyes nearly rolling to the back of his head as her wetness coated his digit—the clear evidence of her desire.

"Oh God, little lamb," he groaned. "You are so wet, it is driving me insane."

He moved his fingers along her slit, dragging it upwards ever so slowly to circle the nub at its peak. He watched as her eyes fluttered shut, her lips parting in a gasp that hinted at her surprise, and Colin found himself in awe once more.

She was a true innocent, her body so deliciously ignorant of the pleasures that abounded. To be the first to touch her so intimately, to tease these sensations out of her only made him harder for her.

As he stroked her gently, he watched her inhibitions slip away. Her legs fell open to welcome his touch. Her hips bucked to meet him.

It was the most breathtakingly sensual sight he had ever had the privilege to witness—and the knowledge that he was the one who had caused it caused her to feel so much pleasure for the first time, filled him with a fierce masculine pride.

He held her hip down as he continued to coax it out of her, drinking in her wild moans and reveling in his little lamb coming unbound. He could sense her nearing her peak in the way she began to thrash, her breaths coming out in soft, little gasps as she called out for him.

"Yes, little lamb," he murmured huskily. "You can feel it… building inside you…"

"Yes!" she gasped. "Oh, Colin… it feels so… so…"

His teeth flashed in a grin of supreme male satisfaction as he continued to pleasure her with his hand, his finger plunging into her wet core as she began to sob on his desk. When his thumb pressed on that little bundle of desire, she burst out into a wild scream, her body bowing off the wooden surface. Still, he continued to stroke her mercilessly until she was gasping his name, her body wracked in delightful little shivers as he let her ride out the waves of pleasure.

It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen—Alice enraptured, desire blooming all over her skin like a flower opening up to the spring sunlight.

Moments later, she slumped onto the table, panting. Her hand brushed against a vase on his desk and toppled it over, sending a few pebbles and a folded note tumbling to the wooden surface beside her.

It was the "treasure" they had been searching for all this time.