She wrapped her other arm around his waist and tucked her face into his chest. This moment wasn’t about passion or lust or wantonness. This was a moment to acknowledge love.
Michael embraced her fully.
Holding her was madness, insanity, but also the most natural thing in the world. Since the moment he’d heard her voice in that damned inn, his heart ought to have known it would come to this. Like the tides and the moon, they’d existed apart from one another, in different worlds. But also, like the tides and the moon, neither could escape the strength of their attraction. Michael dipped his head, not moving his hands, and kissed her temples, the corners of her eyes, her cheeks. She tipped her head back so he could find her mouth.
And once he tasted the sweetness of her lips, she parted them hungrily. Her hands were in his hair, clutching, exploring. His own boldly explored her softness.
Starved for one another, they both laid claim to what they desperately needed.
THE INEVITABLE
It was heaven to feel his touch, his masculine hardness pressing into her. All along she’d wanted this; she’d hoped for this. And if she admitted it to herself, even before leaving Beauchamp manor, she’d dreamed of being with him again.
But she’d never thought it would come true.
Was she fool enough to give in to it now? Was she fool enoughnot to? His leg had managed to push through the material of her dress and petticoats so she straddled his unyielding thigh. These feelings were primitive, uncivilized…inconceivable. Heat blossomed in her center as she pressed closer into him. In mad desperation, she clutched at his hair. Teeth cut into flesh. She tasted blood. Was it her own? Was it his? She didn’t care; perhaps it was both.
Letting out a gasp, she did not protest as Michael caught her up in his arms, carried her off the path and then lowered them both to the ground in a sheltered grassy cove. All of this, he managed without moving his lips from her person. He was tasting her again, nipping, sucking, kissing.
“No love bites,” Lilly said, suddenly remembering the red marks he had left on her after they had been together at Vauxhall Gardens.
Michael was in a haze. “What?” He looked at her questioningly. He lay on top of her, his muscles straining as he protected her from his weight with his arms.
“Love bites,” Lilly said with lips that felt tender and swollen from his kisses. “Those little red marks you left on me before. It took a week for them to go away, and my maid told me they were evidence of lovemaking.”
The expression on Michael’s face made him look like a child who’d raided the cookie bin. Suddenly, the years they’d been apart melted away. “I never meant to leave them, love. I’ve never been able to control myself around you.” He bent down and kissed her neck tenderly, softly. “I never meant to hurt you, love. I promise I’ll be careful.” His kisses trailed lower as his hands pulled down her bodice. Exposing her breast, he feathered kisses all around the rosy tip. He lightly ran his tongue over the soft, sensitive skin along the underside before capturing the bud in his mouth. Arousal coursed through her core.
“Hurting you is the last thing in the world I ever wanted to do.” He spoke between kisses. His voice was gravelly, choked with emotion.
Michael was greedy, and Lilly reveled in it. How many times had she dreamed this?
And then she realized he was trembling. Her Michael. Her love.
He lifted his face and searched her eyes. “I want you so badly, and yet I am tormented by the thought of hurting you again. You must know I love you. I never stopped loving you.” His eyes glistened as he implored her to understand. “Even now, honor compels me to run. To run away from you.” Hetook her hand, reached down with it, and placed it on the evidence of his arousal. “But you are the master of my heart, of my body. Tell me to stop and I will. God help me, but I will.”
Lilly’s hand pressed into him and wrapped around his thickness through the fabric of his falls. She would not deny him.
She would not deny herself.
Her thumb worked up and down, touching him from memory. Loving the knowledge that he needed her touch as much as she needed him. And then he pulled her hand away. “Not so fast, love. I’ll make a fool of myself.” The uncertainty she’d seen in his eyes before had transformed into wicked desire. “Let me love you first.”
He had changed, and yet he had not. No one else ever saw this side of him. His passion, his insecurity, his sense of humor. His hand reached down to the hem of her skirts and his fingers gathered them into his fist. Tantalizingly, he exposed her ankles, her calves, her knees, and most of her thighs. Lilly wore no drawers. There were no barriers beyond her skirts.
Long ago, with just a hint of light from the moon, she’d undressed in his presence. She’d given him full access to her body as they’d frolicked in the spring-warmed waters. But he’d never seen her body in the daylight.
There had never been any daylight when Lord Beauchamp had taken her either.
She pushed thoughts of him from her mind. She did not want him intruding on this time with Michael. Michael slid down her body and began kissing the sensitive skin on the inside of her knee.
A tension grew inside her womb when she looked down and saw his dark head bent over her thigh. One of his hands had reached up and was touching her low on her abdomen. His other hand supported her leg. His mouth travelled along thetender skin of her inner thigh now. New whiskers scratched at her, and she jumped when she felt his breath upon her…
“Michael?” she asked, uncertain as to what he was doing. Well, she thought she had an idea as to what he was doing, but surely not!
His mouth was very close to the apex of her legs. He growled softly and then wolfishly looked up to smile at her. “Yes, love?” he said. “Is something the matter?”
“Um, are you quite certain you want to do…that?” It was difficult to speak, what with all the twitchy neediness he’d ignited. Her hips rose slightly, of their own accord, reaching for that elusive feeling she hadn’t experienced in years.
She nearly cried out at the vibrations of his laughter. He paused for the briefest of moments and met her gaze. His lips were wet, and his eyes hooded. “Quite certain.” And with that, he dipped his head and found her opening with his very devilish tongue. Lilly’s hips jerked again as Michael licked and sucked and pulled at the swollen skin at her opening. Her knees were bent, and her heels pressed into the ground.
