Vulnerabilities

I took her from the crowded Ballroom. Sweeping open the door of the isolated Parlor. Closing the door behind us.

Retrieving one of the candles I wandered the room to light the rest until the room danced with the orange glow.

"Are you cold?" I rounded on her. Admiring the way, she looked in the dim light. Making her eyes seem even larger.

More vulnerable and beckoning. I wanted her.

I want to possess her. And I doubted I was the only one. I was very certain that every man that looked on this little creature likely wished for the same thing.

How could we not?

***

"Have you brought me here to get me alone?" She looked from one candle to the next before to me.

"Would it be so awful if I did?"

"Not in the least." She rounded a low table to draw near me. Dangling her arms around my neck.

She does desire me. I recognized the signs. Her already puckered nipples beneath that dress that meant she was likely already wet.

For me.

"What are you after tonight, Sweet Thing?" I asked her.

"What would you like me to be?" She crooned in a soft alluring voice. Dizzying my senses.

I caught her waist and drug her against me, so our bodies were molded together. "I'd give you anything you asked for."

"Anything?" She lifted a fine brown brow. "Are you so certain of that?"

"Absolutely."

"Rather bold of you."

"Bold of me?" I straightened. Looking down my nose at the tiny thing. "You're the gorgeous scrap of a thing who dares be alone unchaperoned in a dark Parlor with a man you barely know."

***

"Perhaps." She smiled softly before dragging her arms down my chest and stepping back to walk behind the settee. Dragging a finger along the seam on the top.

How is her every movement so seductive? I was duly entranced.

"Have you heard of women who victimize men."

"No. But I'd dearly like to..." I smiled. My lips quirking in what I'd been told was a rather roguish half-smile.

She could certainly victimize me.

"There are such things, you know. Lore about women that can steal the beating hearts of men."

"Well, you're certainly working on mine."

"Oh, you've no idea..." She said in that softly purring voice that made me want to throw her down and have her moaning in my ear.

"What do I call you?" I asked her.

"Call me Beautiful."

"You are. And I certainly will." I vowed.

"And what do I call you?"

"Anything you want." I grinned. Willing to play her game of mysterious characters.

It certainly adds to the fun.

"I'll call you..." She continued walking. Trailing a finger down her chin thoughtfully. "My Lord."

"So formal?"

"Would it be, if I were on my knees?" She rounded. Fluttering those dark lashes.

***

Good God, the images she conjured with those words!

"You best take care, Woman. You're dancing perilously close to being ravished." I growled.

"Where?" That brow arched again.

"Here?" She caressed the back of the settee more firmly. "Or there." She pointed to the window seat. "Or there?" She gestured to the expansive divan.

"With so many options, how could a man possibly decide?" I wondered if she was taunting me. Planning to say the most erotic things than vanish from my dim parlor without ever letting me have a taste of her.

I won't be so easily dismissed. I rounded that settee and caught her shoulders. Turning her to face me and then dropping my head to take her mouth. Smoothing along her hip to pull her pelvis to me and cupping the back of her head to hold her in place while my tongue delved into my mouth to taste her.

I'll not be the only one getting aroused here. I promised myself.

Tasting her until she was fair melting in my arms. Her muscles relaxing and her weight dropping against my arms and chest. Putty in my hands.

***

At length she tugged from my reach and danced around the furniture teasingly. Leaning forward as she smiled at me.

"You didn't let me finish my tale."

I blinked and shook my head in an effort to banish the fuzz of arousal washing through me. And to concentrate on her words rather than the fierce pulsing beneath my breeches.

Yearning to be inside her.

"Do tell?" I slowly began circling the settee in pursuit of her. Willing to play her flirtatious little games.

As long as it ends with me filling her.

"They're women that are designed to lure men. Their bodies perfectly shaped to peak his desires. Their skin soft to the touch like rose, petals. Shimmering like the purest trap. Their lips, so full," She reached up to finger her own lush bottom lip. "A man can fair envision them wrapped around his staff."

Her gaze slipped down my body to where I strained my clothing.

I let her look, unashamed.

It's clearly a view she expects.

"And what makes her seem so tempting?"

"You mean the science of it?"

"Indeed?" I was trying hard to keep up with her wit, as it felt that all the blood was flooding to my nether regions.

"Well, it's all the excess blood she has flooding through her."

"From the hearts she's stolen?"

She nodded solemnly. "And the thousand heartbeats."

"How intriguing..."

"Are you afraid?" She walked close. Beginning to circle me as she trailed a fingertip along my chest, around my shoulder, and from one shoulder blade to the other.

Her mere touch sending shockwaves through me.