A pulse fluttered at her throat, a rapid, tiny beat. He traced it with his thumb, and her lips parted on a soft involuntary sound that nearly undid him.
He leaned in until their breaths mingled.
“We shouldn’t, because neither of us are thinking clearly,” he whispered against her lips.
Her hands came to rest lightly against his chest, palms burning through the thin fabric of his shirt. That single, tentative touch broke something inside him.
“Eliza.” He whispered her name as she had his.
He cupped the back of her neck, his thumb sweeping along her jaw as he drew her the final inches toward him. She rose up on her toes, and their bodies aligned.
Their lips met, soft at first, barely a breath of contact, as though either one of them might still run.
She didn’t.
He couldn’t.
Mungo slowly took the kiss deeper, desperate for more of this woman, but not wanting to scare her. Eliza’s hands slidhigher to wrap around the base of his neck. The moment she pressed her body closer to his, all restraint shattered.
He drew her into him with a low, guttural groan, his hand splaying across the small of her back. Her lips were warm and opened beneath his.
She gasped softly as his other hand slid to her waist. Her fingers tangled in the hair at his nape, tightening when he deepened the kiss again. Mungo was drugged with smell and taste of Eliza.
He broke away only to trail his lips along her cheek and down to the delicate length of her jaw. She shivered violently, her breath catching.
“Mungo… this is wrong…. We shouldn’t….” Yet she tilted her head, offering him more.
“Tell me to stop,” he murmured against her skin.
But she didn’t speak.
He lifted his head to look into her eyes. They were shining with longing and lust.
“You terrify me,” she whispered.
He brushed her lower lip with his thumb. “Good. Because you terrify me too.”
He kissed her again, slower, sweeter, as though memorizing the shape of her mouth. Her fingers stroked the back of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine.
He wanted her. God, he wanted her.
But wanting and taking were not the same.
Breathing hard, he forced himself to loosen his grip. She stayed close, her forehead resting against his for a moment longer, their breaths mingling as if neither wished to break whatever spell held them suspended.
“Eliza…” he whispered.
Her voice trembled as she replied, “Yes?”
“If I don’t step back now, I won’t be able to.”
She swallowed. “Then step back.”
It cost him more strength than any battle he’d ever fought, but he did.
Barely. Just enough space for air to move between them again.
But the heat remained.
