“It would be a gallery for rich people?” she asked slowly.
His gaze snapped to hers. “You don’t approve.”
“It seems like there are plenty of places for the rich. White’s, Boodle’s, Almack’s,” she admitted. “But if your goal is to share art with as many people as possible, then being a ‘Vauxhall’ is better than being an ‘Almack’s.’ Your gallery would attract both sectors and triple the potential exposure for the artists.”
The corner of his mouth curved up. “Perhaps you should promote the gallery, and I shall concern myself with procuring its specimens.”
“I hope you do it,” she said, hoping he could see the sincerity in her eyes. “I think you’d be perfect at it.”
He slid his hand into her hair and cupped her cheek. “Do you know what I think is perfect?”
Heart pounding, she shook her head.
“I’ll show you.” Without another word, he lowered his mouth to hers.
His lips were familiar now. She’d dreamed of them every night. And yet his kiss moved through her like lightning streaking across a thunderstorm. Bright, powerful, electrifying. Each brush of his mouth, each lick of his tongue, sent shockwaves of pure desire through her core.
There was no need for discussion. Nora could no longer deny that she belonged to him in every way that mattered.
His kisses drugged her like wine. She laced her fingers behind his neck and pressed her body into his. There was nothing between them but a few layers of cloth, yet she did not feel close enough. She wanted more.
As if reading the direction of her thoughts, he shifted her onto his lap. The movement broke their kiss. Before she could complain, his parted lips grazed her aching nipple through the sprigged muslin of her gown. She gasped at the sensation.
When he lifted his head, she slid her fingers in his hair to stop him.
“Do it again,” she begged.
He gave a wicked smile. “I’ll do it even better.”
His warm, strong hands traced her curves over her hips and up her waist to the ribbon just beneath her bodice. With a few deft tugs to loosen the laces at her spine, the puffed sleeves of her gown tumbled down her shoulders.
Cool air sent shivers of anticipation down her skin. Nothing covered her breasts now but the thin linen of her chemise, billowing above her stays.
Her breath caught as he gently lowered the bodice and allowed her breasts to spill free. This time when his lips grazed her nipples, nothing was left between them. She gripped his hair tighter. When he opened his mouth to suckle her breast, pleasure and longing jolted through her.
Thiswas what she wanted. This, and something more. A growing restlessness stirred within her. An ache that only he could fill.
“We should stop,” he murmured against her breast.
She had no interest in letting go. Soon the banns would be read, and they would be husband and wife. They didn’t need to hide their true feelings any longer. She could finally let herself admit how much he meant to her. Show him that she was his.
She touched his cheek. “I don’t want to stop.”
“Neither do I,” he admitted raggedly.
In relief, she arched her back to offer him her breasts once more.
As he teased her bosom with his mouth and tongue, her heart pounded in anticipation. He carefully, deliberately, ever so slowly lifted the hem of her gown. It slid up her ankle, up her calf, up her thigh, giving her every opportunity to halt him before they went too far.
Still, he lifted his mouth from her breast to ask, “Do you want—”
“Yes,” she begged, and gasped as his finger entered her.
The twin sensations of his tongue laving her stiff nipples as his fingers played between her thighs pushed her over the edge into weightless bliss. Her breath was choppy, her mind empty of everything but him as her muscles spasmed against his fingers.
When at last he pulled his hand away, her body longed for him to fill her once more. But this time, with no substitutes for the real man before her. She was his completely, and she wanted him to take her.
She lowered her hand to the flat plane of his stomach and released one of the buttons of his fall. His shaft sprang free to greet her fingers, hot and hard and ready.
