Would she let it come to that?Those things two people did in beds?She truly could not say.She wanted it, but it was entirely against the rules.But she existed outside of the rules now.And she wanted it.Wanted him.
But instead of laying her back on the mattress, he sat her down and stepped away, running shaky hands through his hair.
Cold air rushed across her body, and in it, her control wavered.Denied of what she wanted—him—she could barely suppress the urge to take it.
“Kiss me again,” she demanded.
“We are alone.In your bedroom.And I do try to be a gentleman.And you have rejected my proposal twice.”
“Once.We can’t count the first one.”
“I do,” he grumbled.
And oh, his petulant, sulky expression made her want to laugh.She held out a hand in invitation.“Kiss me againplease.”
His eyes narrowed.“Do I dare propose first?”
She gave a frustrated sigh.“Kiss me, Temple.Please.”That last word less plea and more bedraggled lamentation.
“Temple?”he said as he stepped toward her, situating himself between her knees.His knuckles landed beneath her chin, and he lifted.Oh, he was pleased.“Temple, is it?”
“That is how you signed your letter.”Her hand flicked out toward the discarded paper on the bed somewhere beside her.
He nodded, slowly, satisfied, his hand opening to cup her jaw as his body arched closer to her.“If I am Temple, then I am a temple to Diana.”
How could any woman resist?Her magic jerked at her control, and instead of this man suddenly finding himself glamoured into nakedness, she curled her hands behind his neck and pulled him down to her, kissed him hard, unskilled, and demanding.
He had been her first kiss, and this was her second, and he seemed to be every kiss that ever was and ever would be.
Thank heaven he gave in, surrendered entirely, his big, hard body covering hers, pushing her back into the mattress.She knew of men’s bodies.Had nursed her grandfather through the ignominy of illness when every part of his body had been in revolt.She’d seen him drop the glamour of a strong man in old age for the doctor every week.She’d been able to count the bars of his rib cage and compare his graying skin to an old, stained washrag.
How different Temple was.Not an inch of him glamoured but every bit of him perfection.His body not the lithe and lightly muscled kind preferred by titled transcendents.His body a deeply honed tool.Labor had shaped him with a loving and brutal hand.
She let herself discover that shape, coasting over bulging biceps and down a back as wide as the world.She dragged her fingertips over his chest, the silk of his waistcoat straining with each heavy breath, with each expert press of his lips to hers.
More to discover.An abdomen so taut.She wanted to feel it.Not the waistcoat, not the shirt.The skin.His skin.She tugged.
But she was not alone in her actions.And the caress of his tongue between her lips yanked her attention away from his midsection.
“Oh,” she moaned as he slipped his tongue into her mouth.Anohof surprise, anohof delight, andohof pain because he was stroking pleasure through her like a fire, and she did not know what to do with it, what it would do with her.
Between her legs.A hot, pulsing point.One she’d long known about, one she’d discovered before after reading a particularly revealing chapter in a book she likely had not been supposed to have.
But it had never felt like this before.Like a need, like a promise.Like a dream come true, a glamour become reality.
She rolled her hips against him, and he lifted from the kiss with a gasping inhale.
His eyes were storms, and she’d conjured them.
“You smile as if pleased,” he murmured, nudging her nose with his own, his chest heaving with every attempt to catch his breath.
“I am pleased.Almost.”She moaned and wiggled her hips, her breasts feeling full and… as of yet unsatisfied.
He licked his lips, his gaze roaming down the high neck of her practical gown and catching on her breasts.Then his hand was there, exploring the contours and seeking the pebbling nipples between gown, corset, and shift… and him.
“It is a good thing you are so firmly dressed.”
“You can undress me.”Shocking thing to say.Even more shocking—she meant it.
