She took that as permission to slide her hands along my chest gently, glancing along the contours. I left her to her own exploration as long as I could withstand. I took the opportunity to run my hands through her curls. Now that they were free from their pins, the curls were even softer than I remembered. At length, I was forced to leave the lure of her silken hair for the temptation of flesh. First fingers, then lips, followed by tongue sought the sweet surface of her throat.
“Michael…” Her voice was a soft whine, and I needed to hear my name in that tone a thousand times again.
“Yes, Duchess?”
“I can’t think when you do that.” My answering chuckle was just shy of wicked.
“You’re not supposed to.” I nipped the delicate freckle dusting her collar bone. “May I remove your stays?”
Her breath caught before she offered a tentative “Yes.”
“You can say no. Tell me to stop.”
“I know, but I want you to keep going. I’m just… nervous.”
My heart swells with that, and I pulled away from her neck to press a comforting kiss to her forehead before delicately turning her away from me to face the laces of her stays. Nerves I could manage.
“Alright, nervous. Are you feeling anything else?” I whispered in her ear while sliding her hair back over her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her nape.
“My heart. It skips when you do that.”
“Do what?”
“The kiss. I like it.”
“So more of this…”
I demonstrated with tongue and gentle teeth while sliding a hand gently down her spine, catching on the lacing of her stays.
Her “yes” was more of a moan than a word and it burned low in my stomach.
“When you draw your hand down my back, I can almost feel the path you’re taking before you get there, anticipate it.”
That sparked an idea. I pressed a kiss higher up, just beneath her hairline at the top of her spine before moving to the next vertebra. By the third, she was shivering in my arms. The fourth elicited a whimper.
“How is that? Do you like that?”
There was a slight movement beneath her shift, her thighs rubbing together. I couldn’t suppress a groan at the sight.
“So much…”
“What are you feeling now?”
Far from trying to draw her from her nerves, I was just desperate for the answer now, to hear confirmations of her desires.
“I… That place, between my legs. Every time you touch me I feel it there, even though you’re not touching me there.”
“Arousal?” I was desperate for a yes.
“I don’t think that word is sufficient, but it’s the best I have.”
I reached the place where her shift met her spine now.
“That’s good. That is how I want you. Too desperate for words.”
She whimpered.
“Still nervous?”
