He grasped the desperate thread of hope like a lifeline.
“Tell me why you’re here, Kitty,” he demanded in a harsh whisper.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zeke waited, tense and desperately aroused, his body pressing hers into the mattress. If Kitty told him what he wanted to hear, everything would change. If not…He swallowed hard.
Kitty gazed up at him. “I snuck here to your chamber after everyone was abed because of your injury—”
“That doesn’t explain your presence in my bedchamber. Not really.”
Her hands stilled on him. She lowered her lashes, shielding her eyes from his view. “I don’t want to talk. Kiss me, Zeke, please.”
He didn’t want to talk either, but he forced out the words. “Kitty, last we spoke, I made you a proposition. You promised to think on it. Did you?”
She nodded.
His heart hammered into his ribs hard enough to crack bone. Longing and fear threatened to choke him. Fear she might not give him the answer he so desperately needed to hear. “And?”
She lifted her lashes and gazed up at him with inscrutable eyes. “You must know the answer, Zeke.”
Blood roared through his ears. He could hardly breathe as lust and satisfaction converged within him, flooding his senses.
She was his. His to do with as he pleased, from this moment forward. He lowered his head and pressed his mouth over hers, his lips moving slowly and deliberately, claiming her.His.
She clutched his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin, while her body arched against his. He had never wanted a woman so badly.
“Kitty, tell me you want me,” he said against her lips, her cheek.
“I want you,” she whispered.
“Again,” he murmured into the column of her throat. His hand came up and cupped her breast through her bodice, then retreated enough to skim one tight nipple with his palm.
“I want you,” she said, panting as he rolled her nipple gently between his thumb and fingers. She let out a low mew, then said in a voice barely audible, “I love you, Zeke. I’ll always be yours.”
***
She closed her eyes and pressed her burning face into Zeke’s hard shoulder. She hadn’t meant to profess her love for him. The words had simply fallen from her lips, pulled from the depths of her being as surely as his hands were coaxing the most delicious sensations from her body.
She pressed up into his palm, shamelessly encouraging his caress. This was all that mattered. Her, Zeke, their bodies entwined.
While his fingers played over her breasts, his lips traveled to the base of her throat where his tongue delved. She sucked in a breath.
He nibbled his way to her ear. “You love me, do you?” he breathed, before taking her earlobe between his teeth in a gentle nip.
In answer, she angled her chin upward to give him greater access.
He gave a throaty chuckle and hefted his weight off her to rest on his forearms, bracketing her upper body. His rumpled hair fell forward, tickling her nose as his face hovered inches above hers. His choppy breaths fanned her fevered skin as he gazed down at her.
She drank in the sight of him. The flickering, golden candlelight, played over the hard line of his jaw, the contours of his full lips. But it was his eyes that caught at her heart. They burned with desire and a tenderness she’d never hoped to see from him.
He brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “I know I should tell you to go. You deserve roses and champagne and a wedding night for your first time. But—” He shook his head. Using the lightest of touches, he cupped one of her breasts through her gown, then smoothed his palm down her ribcage to her hip. He squeezed. “I have one small problem. I want to touch you everywhere. Taste you. Everywhere.”
“I want to touch you, too.” She cupped his cheek.
A look akin to pain crossed his face. “Kitty, I’m not sure you understand.” He gave a shaky laugh. “Hell, I don’t even understand this madness.”
Sobering, he traced her collarbone with his fingertips. “What I’m trying to say is… What I mean is…” He emitted a low curse. “If you don’t extricate yourself from my bed this instant, I’ll use everything in my arsenal to coax your legs apart, and sink myself into you.”
