“Fascinating timing,” he drawled.
“What are you doing here?” Kitty felt her voice tremble with rising panic. “Leave at once. This is entirely inappropriate.”
“I was just speaking with Eleanor. She tells me you’ve been prying into my affairs.”
Kitty had carefully broached the subject with Eleanor during the picnic, weaving her questions between bites of lemon cake and idle chatter about the weather. She’d asked if he had courted any women before, feigning nonchalance as she brushed crumbs from her skirt.
Eleanor had beamed with sisterly devotion, telling her Norman had never been one for dalliances. Eleanor’s glowing account painted him as a man of impossible virtue.
How disappointing. She’d hoped that her questions had remained on that blanket.
Kitty’s stomach flipped, though she forced herself to hold his gaze.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Norman stepped forward, closing the distance between them. “Oh, I think you do.”
Kitty gripped the fabric at her chest more tightly, heat creeping up her neck. “So, what if I have? You expect me to just marry you? Knowing nothing about you?”
He released a low laugh, tilting his head back to consider her. “You wish to learn more about me?”
“I—” She tried to snap out of it, but he stopped her.
“And what of you, Kitty?” He leaned in, close enough so that she could sense the heat of his breath on her damp skin. “What if I wish to learn more about you as well?”
Her throat tightened. “I?—”
“Tell me, what do you feel when we’re like this, hmm?” His fingers traced over the fabric of her shift, outlining the curve of her shoulder before pushing it down just so to bare the skin beneath. “Do you want more than this?”
And then his lips were burning on her throat, his tongue tracing over the delicate skin.
Kitty’s pulse thudded, her breathing turned into shallow gasps. She had to escape, shake him off, but she was frozen—captivated by his words and the dark depths of his eyes.
She shut her eyes, his lips against hers sending waves of excitement through her, a sensation she had never experienced before.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she gasped.
“Mmm,” he mused against her, his hands finding her waist, pulling her firmly against him. “Perhaps I shouldn’t.” His voice was muffled as his lips brushed lower, grazing the damp fabric clinging to her chest.
Heat coiled in her belly, an unbearable ache tightening inside her.
She couldn’t believe this feeling—this bliss—had been kept from her for so long. She had never known such pure excitement before. The warmth of him enveloping her sent shivers through her entire body as his touch lingered.
She wanted more, needed him to keep going.
But reason tugged at the corners of her mind, reminding her of the very reasons she found herself in this situation with him to begin with.
She flattened her hands against his shoulders, attempting a weak push. “You… should… stop.”
He stilled. Then, slowly, he lifted his head, his electric-blue eyes dark and unreadable.
“Do you want me to stop?” His voice was rough, tightening the muscles inside her even more. Before she could even gasp, he trapped her wrists in one hand and pinned them against the wall. Her heartbeat roared in her ears.
Her breath hitched as she felt it—his fingertips, tracing up the inside of her leg.
Her body opened up to him before she could so much as think she should have fought it. His fingers explored the wet warmth between her legs, stroking along her entrance with maddening gentleness. “Do you like it?”
“Norman,” she gasped, vision blurring. Her back curved, her chest heaving with every strangled breath.
