Some far-thinking soul had cracked her door, and a nudge with his foot was all it took to send the door swinging inward.
“Will I kiss you where?” he prodded, crossing the chamber with swift strides. Needing, wanting her to speak the words.
He dropped a kiss on her temple. “Here? Somewhere else?”
“You know where,” she blurted then, two spots of color appearing on her cheeks. “I want you to kiss me there, where you said you would.”
“Lady,” he said, his voice deep, “I shall kiss you there with the greatest of pleasure, and till the breaking of dawn if it pleases you.”
“It would,” she admitted, meeting his gaze.
“Then let us not delay,” he said as they reached her massive four-poster bed and he flung back its curtains with one hand before easing her onto the bed’s edge.
A bed already occupied by a four-legged contender for her affections.
“Be gone, little man, for your lady is mine this night,” he said, then snapped his brows together in his most intimidating scowl when his words had no effect.
The scowl worked.
With a grunt of displeasure, Leo hopped from the bed and toddled off to seek his own.
Some kind soul had stoked the fire and it threw off a fine reddish glow that, together with the wall torches, gave the room enough light and warmth so that his lady would be able to lie fully unclothed before him and not shiver.
He cleared his throat, his heart thudding. “Caterine, I mean to love you thoroughly this night.” He locked his gaze on hers. “I wish to absorb your essence, and give you all of mine.”
A union of our bodies to finish your ancients’ blessing, a joining to meld your soul, heart - and now your body – irrevocably to my own.
“But first I must tell you something.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, kneading them.
“Then do,” she said, her eyes earnest, accepting.
He touched the coiled plaits at her ears. “Shall I unravel your hair as we speak?”
“I would like that.”
“Good, then.” He nodded, a bit of the worry leaving him. “Lady, you must be made aware that when a man kisses a woman intimately,” he said, slipping the pins from her hair, “when he touches his tongue to her, or opens his mouth over her as I shall do to you, he becomes so enflamed, he may no longer be able to withhold himself.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened, but she held his gaze. Interest, not revulsion on her face, and for that, he knew true relief.
“Do you understand, my lady?”
“Are you asking if I am ready to take you fully?”
“I am,” he said, speaking true. “Until now, though duly wed, I have only pleasured you with my hands and my lips,” he explained, placing a handful of hairpins on the table beside the bed. “Once I’ve kissed you as I intend to this night, I shall want you in every way.”
He lifted her chin. “You must know that before we proceed. I am asking your consent.”
“I will welcome you,” she said, and the heat simmering in her eyes assured she would.
“Then all is well.” He smiled at her, wondered if she knew what a gift she was. “Let us begin.”
When she returned his smile, he pulled the remaining pins from her hair, allowing it to spill free in silken waves to her hips. Enchanted, he twined his hand in the golden mass, let the silky waves stream through his fingers.
Thoroughly besotting him.
He lifted brimming handfuls to his face, nuzzled his cheek against the cool, satiny skeins. “A man could lose his soul in your hair, lady, but this night, you have other charms I would explore.”
And a heart I mean to capture.
