“Ever since William Shakespeare kissed me in the moonlight, I have not felt myself,” she said, shattering his composure and his restraint both. “Your rash is looking much better. I can scarcely see it now.”
Her fingertips gently glided over his philtrum, lingering there.
Do not take her in your arms and carry her to the bed, he cautioned himself.
You are still a man of honor.
But the rampant ache in his ballocks suggested otherwise, as did the rise of his cock. His promise to himself that he would not indulge in any further reckless kisses with her fled.
He kissed her fingers instead, absorbing the warmth of them, the silken smoothness. “The cream worked wonders. Thank you.”
“My lord?”
He delivered another chaste press of his lips to her bare skin. “Do you think you might call me Neville?”
“Neville, then.” She traced the periphery of his mouth, then trailed her touch around the back of his neck, her fingers dipping into the hair at his nape.
Why did his given name in her husky voice make him catch fire?
He sucked in a breath, daring to place a hand on the sweet curve of her waist. “Yes, my dear?”
“Kiss me.”
Her boldness was not at all repellent. It pleased him.Shepleased him.
With his free hand, he cupped her face, marveling at the softness of her skin. She was so feminine, so perfectly imperfect. He slanted his mouth over hers. There was something inherently decadent about kissing her in her chamber, alone, a bed not twenty paces away. Something about the forbidden that heightened his awareness. She threaded her fingers in his hair, grabbing a fistful and tugging, moving his mouth to where she wanted it.
He shifted as she wished, and when her tongue teased at his lower lip, he sank his tongue into her mouth in turn. Desire was furious and hot, rushing over him, licking him with the force of a thousand flames. He was burning from the inside out.
She made a sweet sound of longing, and that spurred him on. The fine thread of his control snapped. He had to have this woman. She was meant to be his. She was nothing he thought he wanted, and yet, she was everything he desired.
They kissed and kissed, tongues and teeth mingling and mating and nipping. They kissed until his lips grew tired. Until his longing for her had his cock rigid and pulsing in his trousers with the need for release. His reaction to her was stronger than it had been that day in the gallery. Stronger than it had been in the gardens and the library. Far stronger than it was when he lay awake at night, gripping and stroking himself to thoughts of her.
All the flowery phrases he might utter had fled his mind. So, too, any attempts at courting. Something else had taken over. His base lust and Charity herself.
She was the first to break their kisses and reach for his hand.
“Come,” she said, tugging him across the chamber.
He should deny them both. Neville knew where she was leading him. But his feet were moving. He was not thinking clearly. Indeed, he was not certain he would ever be capable of clarity again. Not with all the desire for this woman fogging his mind.
Something deep within told him a lifetime with her would be worth the trade.
They reached the bed as one. More kisses, his hands everywhere, traveling over fabric and barely shielded curves. He grasped her rump in his hands and lifted her to the bed. She caught his necktie and pulled him atop her. What could he do but go where she wanted, do as she wished? She made him mad with wanting her.
Pulling his lips from hers, he told her so.
She rolled to her back, and he went with her, atop her, his hips sliding with ease between her parted thighs. He braced his arms on the counterpane, taking a moment to drink in the sight of her, golden hair fanned out in a luxurious cloud, lips swollen and dark from his kisses, eyes drunk with desire.
“You make me mad as well,” she said, breathless. And then she kissed his neck above the collar of his shirt.
Ah.
He liked that.Morethan liked that.
“Mmm,” he groaned into her throat as he kissed a trail of his own there.
She was so delicate, so soft. She smelled delicious. He needed to end this before things progressed too far. And he would, he promised himself. But first…
