Callum gave a painful laugh, and in the next instant they had reached their crescendo. She trembled, her eyelids fluttering as he tried not to shout out aloud to the world just how wonderful this was.
She was quicker to recover than him. She was already climbing off him, smoothing her skirts, pushing at her hair, which he was glad to see was no longer looking so severe. With trembling hands, he buttoned himself up and then stood, a little shakily, trying to get a grip on his emotions.
“Penelope,” he began, not knowing how to contain the words clamoring to be said. He thought he might be going to tell her how much he admired her—because God knew he could not say theLword. Nor could he say that he wanted to marry her and take her back to Bonnyrigg and have his way with her several times a day.
His strong urge to say all of those things filled him with horror. Penelope would cancel their lessons immediately and send him on his way. Perhaps it was just as well Selina knocked on the door at that moment and entered.
She froze in the doorway, the tray full of teapot and cups rattling violently in her hands. Her gaze went from Penelope to Callum and back again, but she said nothing. After a pause, she continued into the room, chattering about the cake she had made and how she hoped Callum would like it. After setting the tray on the table, she straightened, looking rather flushed, and she hurried to the door. It closed quietly behind her.
Penelope put her hands over her face. “You see what you have done,” she said in a muffled voice. “Now I will never hear the end of it from her. After all my promises never to allow one of my clients to step beyond the boundaries I have set.”
Callum thought he should be insulted. Was he really just one of her clients? He had been believing himself to be more. Deciding to take a lighter approach, he reached for a cup and poured in the tea and added milk.
She had dropped her hands and was watching him, and now she glared. “You should add the milk first,” she said. “You must always add the milk first.”
Confused, he froze with the cup halfway to his lips. “I never add the milk first!”
“It is the rule,” she continued, eyes sparkling with righteous indignation.
“There are no rules!” he said stubbornly. “I like to add the milk last, and I willna change.”
“MacKenzie, what use is it to tell you things if you refuse to do them?”
Now they were shouting over each other, and suddenly Callum had had enough.
He leaned over the table and kissed her.
She seemed to be about to push him away, and then instead she caught hold of the lapels of his jacket and held him there. Their kiss grew more heated, and when she tugged him closer,he knocked against the table and the tea tray, and there was a crash as everything fell to the floor.
He didn’t care, and neither, it seemed, did she. Once again, they were too insatiable for each other to stop.
Even when he heard the door open and Selina’s, “What on earth...?” he couldn’t bring himself to behave like the gentleman he was supposed to be. Anyway, Selina left again immediately and they were once more alone.
“We truly are insane,” Penelope said with quiet amazement, pausing their frantic kisses to look up at him. He was on the settee now, lying on top of her.
“I am happy with that,” he replied. “Insanity suits us.”
“Callum . . .”
“No, I will hear no more from those lovely lips. I am going to take you now, and this time I am going to make it last.”
“Oh God,” she moaned. They were the last coherent words she spoke.
*
After Callum hadgone, Penelope could hardly bear to look at Selina. The other woman seemed about to burst with excitement. And laughter.
“I knew it!” she kept saying gleefully. “As soon as I saw him, I just knew it!”
Penelope wasn’t sure what it was Selina knew, but she was certain that at some point she would have to hear all about it. Right now she preferred to be alone with her wildly racing thoughts. One moment she was castigating herself for her stupidity, and the next she was remembering Callum’s kisses and his touch, and his handsome face flushed with desire as he looked down upon her.
His eyes... She could look into his eyes forever.
Madness or not, neither of them could stop themselves. But shouldn’t Penelope be the one to stop? Wasn’t she supposed to be in charge?
“You have a right to enjoy yourself,” Selina reminded her quietly.
Penelope looked up and found the other woman seated opposite, watching her challengingly.
