He tensed, and she had the distinct feeling she’d spoken precisely the wrong words.
“Ah.”
He pulled away. She experienced loss the instant he separated from her.
How was it she was now only whole when he was inside her?
He tugged her skirts down over her knees, the fabric dropping to her shins.
“Ah?” She’d said something wrong, but couldn’t understand what.
He buttoned the fall of his trousers, his chest still bare. “You are new to this.”
“This?”
“Tupping.”
Her brow lifted as she waited in silence for him to continue.
“You’re not yet acquainted with the particular feelings that flow through the body and mind after a good?—”
“Tup?” She was, however, familiar with the particular feeling that was currently flowing through her.Pique.“Would you care to explain it to me?”
He spread his hands wide. “It’s just that sometimesit provokes people to express emotions that they likely won’t feel as strongly in an hour or so.”
She nodded slowly. “So, you’re saying that in sixty minutes I won’t find you quite as magnificent as I do now?”
“I might’ve sunk to middling by then.” He hesitated. “Or worse.”
“Or worse?”
Darkness flashed behind his eyes. “You might think me a rake by then,” he said, low and sincere.
“I’ll never think that about you, Rory.” It was only the truth. Besides… “Perhaps I’m the rake.”
“Can a lady be a rake?”
“Perhaps.” She considered the question. “It depends on how the power is balanced between the two people.”
“And how is the power balanced between us?”
A good question.
One she wasn’t prepared to answer.
It was this desire that kept spiking through her. She wanted him again. His mouth upon her. Hers upon him. Their sexes joined. The intimacy of that union.
She wanted to test the balance of power between them with their bodies.
He slid his shirt over his head and made quick work of dressing. She took the opportunity to straighten the twist of her bodice and reassemble her hair into a knot at her neck.
“Will you be attending the village assembly tomorrow evening?” he asked.
“I’ve promised Delilah. She would like to invite the village to our performance.”
“And how do Mr. and Mrs. Dalhousie feel about that?”
“They are completely under her spell.”
