At least that made him smile.
“Are you coming to bed?” he asked, wondering what was taking her so long.
“I am.”
And then, nothing. No sound, not clothing or water or hairbrush.
“Pip?”
It happened before he was ready. No, he wouldneverbe ready. But suddenly there was Pip, standing to the side of the fireplace, positioned in the exact spot on the floor where the firelight would limn every curve and sweep of her body.
Her body. Hernakedbody.
No nightdress. No robe. No slippers. Just. Pip.
Sweet suffering…
He sat straight up. “What are you doing?” he demanded, knowing his voice rose with each word.
Her breasts were so firm and high, the nipples the color of peaches, already tightening into nubs he swore he could feel against his teeth, against the back of his mouth. Against his tongue. Her skin was pearlescent, her eyes huge and so dark. Her shape was so sweet, from throat to shoulders to waist to hips to toes, a symphony of light and shadow punctuated by a blonde triangle at the juncture of her thighs.
“What,” he demanded again, barely able to breathe, “are youdoing?”
She didn’t even look away, just faced him with the same expression of challenge she had worn when walking up the aisle to their wedding. It was all he could do to hold his position. He was rock hard and ready for pillaging just with just the sight of her, and he couldn’t move.
“Well,” she said matter-of-factly, only the smallest of tremors in her voice giving her away. “I imagine I am making a statement.”
“Unless it is I’ve lost my bloody mind, I can’t imagine what it is,” he rasped.
Still, she didn’t move. “It is this.” She pulled in an unsteady breath, which just brought his gaze back to her breasts as they rose and fell to taunt him. “When I took my vows,” she said, “I meant them. All of them, even the ‘til death do us part’ part. If you cannot tolerate that, I perfectly understand. I will not even stand in your way. But I will never marry again. Which means that it does not matter whether I am a virgin or not after this adventure. So…” She looked away finally. Swallowed. Blinked. Faced him again. “I would rather not be a virgin. If it’s all the same to you.”
Beau was out of the bed and on his feet before he knew it. Yanking the cover off, he stalked up to her, ready to wrap her in it, to shut her away from his eyes, from his desperately hungry body.
“That is not an option,” he said, beginning to lift the cover.
Too late he realized that she was stepping toward him. Before he could make good his threat with the cover, she had stepped right into his arms, her own around his neck so that her sweet, naked body pressed flush against his, her breasts pressed against his naked chest, and he forgot to think at all.
“It won’t do you any good,” he protested, dropping the blanket.
“I don’t care,” she whispered against his chest, the warm sweep of air tightening his own nipples.
Sweet God, a man could only stand so much.
“Idocare,”he insisted.
And then, because he wasn’t suffering nearly enough, she lifted her face to him, and he fell into the depths of her eyes, her beautiful night-sky blue eyes. Her heartbreaking eyes that those owlish spectacles so effectively kept hidden. Spectacles that she had conveniently left somewhere else.
“I should push you away,” he rasped, bringing his arms around her so that he couldn’t escape the delicious softness of her breasts. So they were close enough that he might simply bend his head and take one in his mouth, take that nub of a nipple into his mouth and taunt it with his teeth.
“Please don’t,” she answered, smiling. “If you push me away, I won’t be able to see you. I left my glasses on the bedside table.”
He slipped one hand down to cup her bottom, and God, if he didn’t get even harder until he thought his bedamned pants would strangle him.
“This doesn’t change anything.”
She nodded. “I know. I don’t care. Please, Beau. Just this once.”
She broke him atplease.
