He didn’t know how to take that. “Are you saying you…want me to leave…now?”
“No!” She was incredulous and he smiled. “Don’t go. Stay. No one…no one has ever stayed afterward.”
He hugged her. “I could remain until I’m old and grey.”
She kissed him with purpose. “Neverleave if you will do me the honor to dothatagain.”
He noted she did not focus on him remaining in her bed for years to come, but on the way he’d made love to her. For now, he let go the promise of a future together and explored the other more pertinent issue. He narrowed his eyes on her. “Do you tell me that none of your husbands has ever…”
The color on her cheeks went to bright pink. “Not what you did. Never.”
Oh. Well! He stifled his pride that he was the first to taste her and sought her approval to seduce her with the novelty she craved. “So you’d like that again?”
She rose up on her elbow and searched his expression. Her hand went to his brow to comb back his hair. Then she pushed up and straddled him. Her moist center poised above his rising cock, she nestled downward and drove him insane with her body’s hot invitation. “I’d like all of you again. Like that. Like this. Any way you’d desire, so would I.”
He ran his hand up into her flowing hair and brought her down to give her a maddeningly wild kiss. He was stiff as a rock and ready to take her again.
But she shifted, took him in hand, then guided him inside her.
She flung back her head. He groaned that the long bountiful curves of her body were his to ogle and caress, to kiss and seduce.
And he did. Then and again.
Before dawn, he pushed back his unruly hair and rose to greet the sun darting through her window. Penn called to him from the bed and he raised a finger, walked away and brought back two biscuits, coated in orange marmalade. Penn ate hers with haste and brushed the crumbs from the bed. He had a better idea. Pulling her flat to the sheets, he retrieved the jar of marmalade and scooped out a sticky portion with his finger. Then he coated her large nipples with the sweet stuff and licked it from her skin. Once more as the sun’s rays streamed over her flawless beauty, he made love to her very thoroughly.
And before he was tempted to stay the day, he left her with a promise of more. “Tonight.”
Chapter 6
The day was Christmas Eve and the house was abustle. The guests tippled all through the morning and afternoon. Gaiety was the order of the hour. And everywhere Penn went—to breakfast, luncheon or afternoon card games—there was Theo. Staring at her with those turquoise eyes that could make mush of her knees. Winking at her from far down the dining table. Brushing his finger against her palm as he passed her to enter the card room.
“How many soloists must we endure?” he asked her, eyeing the house guests as they all filed into the salon for the after dinner entertainment.
“Four. Five?” She threw him a baffled look.
“I’m leaving early,” he said, extending a hand toward the window and pretending that they spoke of the snowfall.
“Going home?” She was stricken.
“No, my love. Upstairs and then to the library.”
“Good.”
Lady Bridgewater appeared at their side. “Ready for tonight’s delights?”
Theo stared at her.
Penn’s mouth dropped open.
“I see you are!” she cooed and stirred up a gale with her fan. “How charming!”
Penn waited until the woman had passed them by, then confided. “Is she a mindreader?”
“My mother used to say she divined everyone’s secrets.”
“How?”
“She claims her grandmother was a gypsy!”
