"Yes?"
"I should probably say goodnight."
"Probably."
"I should probably go back to my rooms like a proper gentleman."
"That would be the sensible thing to do."
"I'm finding it difficult to be sensible right now."
My heart was beating so hard I was sure he could hear it."That makes two of us."
He stepped closer, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes.This close, I could see the way his pupils had dilated, could see that whatever I was feeling, he was feeling it too.
"I'm going to do something that might be a terrible idea," I said.
"What's that?"
Instead of answering, I rose up on my toes, slid my hand around the back of his neck, and kissed him.
For a heartbeat, he went still, and I thought maybe I'd misread everything.Then his arms came around me, pulling me closer, and he kissed me back like he'd been waiting for permission.
It wasn't a polite kiss.It wasn't careful or restrained or anything like the performative peck we'd shared at our wedding.This was real, his lips warm and firm against mine, one hand splayed across my lower back while the other tangled in my hair.He tasted like wine and tiramisu and something underneath that was just him.
I pressed closer, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, and when his tongue traced the seam of my lips, I opened for him without hesitation.The first real taste of him sent heat cascading through my entire body.A small sound escaped me, something between a sigh and a gasp, and he smiled against my mouth.
"Terrible idea?"he murmured without pulling away.
"The worst."I kissed him again."Absolutely catastrophic."
He walked me backward until my shoulders hit the door, his body a warm, solid presence against mine.My head fell back, and he took the invitation, trailing kisses along my jaw, down the side of my neck.When he found the spot just below my ear, I made a sound that would have embarrassed me if I'd had any brain cells left to feel embarrassment.
"We should stop," he said against my skin, even as his hands traced patterns on my waist that suggested he had no intention of stopping.
"We should definitely stop."
"Anyone could walk by."
"Captain Steiner probably has this hallway under surveillance."
He pulled back just enough to look at me, his eyes dark and his breathing uneven."That's not actually a deterrent for you, is it?"
"I'm discovering I have an exhibitionist streak I didn't know about."
He kissed me again, softer this time but no less thorough, his thumb tracing circles on my hip that made it very difficult to remember why we were supposed to be stopping.
"I should go," he said finally, pulling back with obvious reluctance.
"You should."
"If I don't leave now, I'm not going to leave at all."
"Would that be so terrible?"
His eyes searched mine, and I saw the war playing out across his features.Want versus propriety.Desire versus duty.Whatever he was feeling for me versus whatever complications he was still carrying.
"Not tonight," he said, and the roughness in his voice told me how much the words cost him."When we do this properly, I don't want it to be in a hallway where anyone could interrupt."
