She was breathless. “Never?” Oh, how she hoped he was notmerely wooing her with meaningless praise.
“Never.” He turned her hands over and dropped a kiss to herpalms, then her wrists. “It’s bad of me, but I’m deuced glad I trounced yourgown.”
A shiver of pure desire skittered down her spine. “It seemsfortuitous,” she agreed, all her earlier bravado failing her. She was desperateto know what was about to unfold and yet simultaneously terrified.
“Am I overstepping my bounds, my dear?” he asked, stillholding her hands in his. “You’re trembling. I wouldn’t dream of frighteningyou.”
“No,” she hastened to assure him. “This is all new to me, Ifear, and rather daunting.”
He stilled. “Am I to be your first lover, then?”
“Yes,” she admitted, so embarrassed that she longed to crawlbeneath the lovely carved oak bed taking up the opposite wall. Somehow, shehadn’t imagined as much conversation.
“I’m honored,” he said, his voice deep and velvety. Hereached up to touch the corner of her mask. “Do you wish to keep it on?”
“Yes,” she said again, “if you don’t mind, sir. At leastuntil the lamps are out.”
“If it pleases you,” he murmured. His fingers lingered onher chin, tipping it upward. “May I kiss you now?”
She placed her hands upon his broad shoulders. “Please do.”She closed her eyes, waiting. The other kisses she’d experienced had beenchaste and flat, a mere perfunctory brushing of lips over hers. Jonathan hadbeen the perfect gentleman.
But if she’d expected the same sort of brief peck now, she’dbeen entirely wrong. Delightfully so. His mouth pressed against hers, hot andfirm. He drew his arms around her waist, anchoring her body to his. Thehardness of his long, lean form was a pleasant surprise. She leaned into him,hungry for more, gasping when his tongue teased her lower lip. The moment sheopened to him, he swept inside her mouth. Tentatively, she ran her tongueagainst his, gratified when she heard him moan.
The warmth she’d been feeling all evening escalated into afire that began in her belly and went decidedly lower. Her skin tingled. Asteady ache thrummed between her legs. She’d never experienced a more heady mixof pleasure and longing. At last, she thought as she mimicked his kiss.
He dragged his mouth from hers, his breathing ragged, beforedropping tantalizing kisses over her bare neck. He made a path to the hollow atthe base of her throat where her pulse galloped at a frantic pace. His silkmask scraped against her, equally exciting. She tilted her head back to granthim greater access. His fingers went to the shell buttons on her cottonnightgown’s bodice, unhooking them from their moorings one at a time.
Dear heavens. For all the times she’d lain awake in her bed,imagining taking a lover, she’d never had any idea how thrilling and horridlyfrightening it would be all at once. He was disrobing her. She didn’t even knowhis name. Somehow, impossibly, that heightened the allure.
He worked his way to the button between her breasts andpaused, glancing up at her. The intensity of his stare nearly made her kneesgive out. “Are you utterly certain, my dear?”
He was giving her the opportunity to change her mind, sherealized through the dizzying desire clouding her rational brain. Of course shewasn’t certain. She’d never been more hopelessly uncertain of anything in herlife. But that was part of what made sharing heated kisses with a maskedstranger so enticing. She felt free for the first time, empowered by heranonymity. She could be anyone she wanted to be in the magic of the night. Shecould do anything she wanted.
“Yes,” she murmured. “I’m certain.”
“We shall go slowly,” he said, his hands cupping her breaststhrough the fine fabric of her nightdress. “I want to make you mad with wantingbefore I take you.”
His words sent a delicious sluice of heat to the apex of herthighs. The thought of him making her his nearly sent her into a swoon. Histhumbs rubbed in lazy circles over her nipples, hardening them into achingnubs. She wanted desperately for him to touch her without the barrier ofcotton. She reached between them, attempting to help undo the endless line ofclosures with fumbling fingers.
“All those damn buttons,” he muttered, giving her nipples asoft pinch that made her moan. “What do you women think when you purchase theseblasted fripperies?”
She’d certainly never thought of a sinful stranger peelingit from her body. Maggie freed a few more buttons until her nightgown was opento her waist. She pulled her arms from the long sleeves, baring her bosom tohis heated gaze.
“Do you find this preferable, sir?” she asked, her voice lowand throaty, almost as if it belonged to another woman entirely.
“Hell yes, I do,” he growled. He took her plump breasts inhis palms. “This is a vast improvement.”
His touch was pure sin and purely wonderful. She arched intohim, looking down at the seductive sight of his large hands cupping her. Theirgazes clashed and he kissed her again, his mouth open and voracious. Claiming.She kissed him back with all the pent-up passion within her. Their tonguestangled. He tasted of champagne. She wanted more.
He teased her nipples again as their lips fused. She placedher hands on his chest, longing to feel his masculine form without his formalevening clothes. He broke off their kiss before bending his dark head andshocking her by sucking the peak of her breast. A powerful stab of pleasuresnaked through her, wetness gathering at her core. He flicked the bud gentlywith his tongue in quick, sweet strokes. She found the act of watching him suckher nipple incredibly arousing.
He paused and looked up at her, a mischievous smile curvinghis lips. The contrast between her pale skin and his black silk mask was asseductive as his glittering gaze. “Do you like my tongue on you?” he asked,shocking her with the boldness of his speech.
No one had even referred to limbs in her presence before.Bodies were things to be covered and hidden, not meant for unveiled adoration.But she rather liked this naughtiness, the venturing into the forbidden. “Can’tyou tell for yourself?” she returned, joining in on his game of teasing.
He suckled her other nipple, dragging deeply until he wrunganother moan from her. “I want to hear it from your proper, lovely lips.” Helaved her with his tongue, bent, it would seem, on reducing her to a completewanton.
“I like it,” she admitted on a sigh, her fingers sinkinginto his too-long, midnight hair.
