She twined her arms about his neck and pressed her lips to his before he could continue.
He immediately enveloped her in his warm embrace and returned her kiss with passion.She felt her heart melting.He tasted of sugar and nutmeg and long, cozy nights.Each kiss was a promise of something more, something better.He did not want to change her into someone she was not.He wanted to bring her pleasure, exactly as she was.And she absolutely intended to let him.Starting with—
The experiment, she reminded herself with a start.This was a trial forDuchess, not a fantasy for Penelope.She’d almost ruined it by kissing him, instead of waiting for him to kiss her.
It was too late to stop now.But to keep the results pure, she could not allow herself to be the aggressor, even in something as simple as a kiss.If their physical interactions were to progress further, he would need to instigate each step from his own free will.
Pleaselet there be additional physical interactions, she begged the fragrant drops of perfume on her pulse points.His every kiss incited a whirlpool of emotion, a surge of desire so intense it took her breath away.And when his tongue touched hers…
Every molecule of her body wanted this man more than she’d dreamed possible.It was as if she was hydrogen and he was carbon and together their irresistible chemical bond had joined to form ethylene, a substance so flammable that any spark could cause it to combust.
At this rate, her entire kitchen was going to ignite.
Each delicious, drugging kiss caused an instant reaction of subsequent sparks from her mouth to her core.Her pulse raced for him.Her body begged for him.Her—
He lifted her waist and swung her onto the edge of the table.Her heart pounded in excitement.The sudden arrival of her derrière knocked one of the eggs off the other side of the table and to the floor.
Penelope did not care a button about broken eggs or melting butter or the puff of flour that her skirts had sent flying.From this angle, her hips were now at the same height as Nicholas’s, aligning their sexual organs perfectly.
She couldn’t wait to find out what he intended to do about it.
Without breaking their kiss, he slid his hands over the curve of her hips, up the dip in her waist, coming to rest so close to her bodice that the edge of his fingers brushed against the curve of her breasts.
Her nipples immediately responded.The pad of his thumb stroked the side of her breast.She held her breath.Her skin tightened in anticipation, yearning for a touch that did not come.
He lifted his lips a fraction from hers.“May I—”
“Yes,” she gasped.“Immediately.”
His mouth once again claimed hers.
Slowly, inexorably, his hand at last cupped her breast.Her entire body came alive at the touch.His fingers teased her nipple lightly, devastatingly, flooding the pleasure regions in her brain with a strong urge to rip her clothes from her body in order to give him greater access.To give him anything he wanted.
She couldn’t say so aloud.All she could do was respond to his kiss.
He hiked the hems of her skirts up just high enough to allow his hips to nestle between her thighs.Her breath caught.Even though several layers of clothing still separated them, there was no mistaking the hardness pressing against her core.
Experimentally, she rubbed against him.
He gasped into her mouth and grabbed her hips tight.“Good God, woman.”
“I liked it,” she whispered against his lips.She should not have done that.“Should I stop?”
“I like it, too.”His voice was scratchy and tortured.“Do it again.”
As his kisses once again robbed her of thought, she gave up on tally-marks for the experiment.This was so much better.His talented hands caressed her breasts, her trembling legs were locked tight about his hips, and the throbbing of—
A deafening clamor rent the air as the mechanical alarm sent hundreds of nails pounding against sheets of metal.
He leaped back and glanced wildly about the kitchen in desperate search for the switch.“Where do I…?How can we…?”
She slid from the table and raced to the switch, sliding perilously on a patch of runny egg in the process.Her hand slapped at the control until the racket finally stopped.
Unfortunately, so had their intimate moment.
“I should’ve set it for twelve hours,” she muttered.
His eyes twinkled.“I don’t know what you’ve heard… but the middle eight hours would probably be me sleeping.”
