She’d wondered if time had romanticized her memory of their kiss in the bell tower. Of that toe-curling feeling she’d had of being worshipped. But, no, she hadn’t imagined it: the tender drag of Cull’s lips, the way he courted her mouth with gentle pressure, made her feel special. Wanted.
Yet she was no longer the innocent girl she’d once been. She was a woman who’d been through too much. Who’d gambled on love and lost. While she’d lost faith in that fickle emotion, however, a different kind of desire remained. A desire that her marriage had never assuaged, even though she’d tried to find pleasure with her husband.
“Pippa, whatever is the matter with you?”Edwin’s appalled tones pierced her to the quick.“Lie still; such forward behavior is unbecoming of a lady. You really ought to watch your wine at supper.”
She remembered her stammering apology. As she unearthed that buried trove of shame, what she felt wasn’t embarrassment: it was a wave of strange and uncontrollableanger.She was tired of denying her needs. Of denying herself.
If Cull doesn’t like me the way I am,she thought darkly,then he can take himself off.
Spearing her fingers into Cull’s thick hair, she jerked him closer. She felt his start of surprise…and was ready to bolt the moment he rejected her. His response was a low growl that sent a tremor through her. The next instant, she was arcing through the air, and when she caught her breath, she was flat on her back.
On the cot. Pinned beneath Cull. His tongue wasinsideher mouth.
When he delved deeper, a bold and aggressive thrust, she answered with a moan. No one had ever kissed her this way before, and in case no one would again, she was determined to make the most of it. She let her instincts take the lead, licking him back, and his groan told her he liked that. She liked it too; the slick rub of their tongues released a cascade of sensations. The tips of her unbound breasts stiffened against her shirt, and damp warmth bloomed between her legs.
Cull plundered her mouth. She kissed him back, letting him sweep his tongue into her tender cove and doing the same to him. Abandoning herself to the dizzying discovery that a kiss could be so much more than a pressing together of lips. Tenderness gave way to hunger, and they ate at each other’s mouths. She buzzed with energy as if she’d suddenly come awake after a lifetime of sleeping.
This is passion,she thought dazedly.What I have always dreamed of.
“Jesus wept, you’re even sweeter than I remembered,” Cull said in a guttural voice.
He trailed kisses over her cheek and nuzzled the curve of her ear. She shivered as he tongued the sensitive lobe before sucking it deep. Need pulsed from her ear to her breasts to her woman’s place until she was throbbing everywhere. Needing everywhere. She ran her palms over Cull’s shoulders, marveling at the thick ridges of muscle beneath the rough linen, the strength of this man whose lips were now fastened upon her throat.
Sucking, licking. Nipping.
She was light-headed, floating in his scent of soap and sea. He unbuttoned her waistcoat and cupped her breast. When he thumbed her nipple through the fabric of her shirt, she moaned. He licked a path from her collarbone to her ear while strumming her sensitive nub. When he pinched lightly, she felt that sweet throbbing between her legs. Poised on the precipice of pleasure, she was ready to leap.
He raised his head, and her heart stuttered at the ravenous desire in his eyes.
“You are so bloody beautiful,” he rasped. “I’ve waited so long for this.”
Mesmerized by his yearning, she felt an answering recognition. A sense of rightness. When he reached for the buttons of her shirt, she put her hand on his.
“Wait,” she said.
He was motionless, his gaze questioning. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No, but please take off your mask.” Feeling oddly shy, she said, “I want to see you.”
His large body tensed above hers. “Pippa, I…I don’t think that is a good idea.”
She blinked. “Why?”
He sat up on the edge of the cot. Away from her.
Raking a hand through his hair, he said, “I don’t take my mask off in front of outsiders.”
A chill pervaded her. All of a sudden, she was thrown back to a year ago when Livy had informed her of Longmere’s death and his heinous and clandestine activities.
Secrets and lies. Longmere had specialized in them. If Pippa had learned anything from her marriage, it was to avoid a man like her dead husband. A man she could not trust. Who would shower her with compliments, make her feel special, then pull the rug from under her feet. Yet here she was with the dashedPrinceof Secrets…
Who already left me hanging once. Why am I such a fool?
Furious at herself, she surged to her feet. “I have to go.”
“Pippa—”
“Don’t, Cull.” She cut him off with a glare. “This was a mistake. If you come near me again, I vow you will regret it.”
