“Why?” Tess huffed out a little laugh and then her breath caught as he reached up and began removing the pins in her hair.
“I didn’t want to get too comfortable in any one place. I wanted to force myself to keep moving.”
As soon as he had her hair down, Tess reached up to push his suit coat from his shoulders. Then she reached for his neckcloth, but he was already removing it.
“Do you still want that?” Tess’s fingers stilled on the second button on the front of his shirt. Her heart seemed to stall in her chest as she waited for his answer.
“No, not at all,” he told her with a smile. Then he stroked her check, running the backs of his fingers down along her jawline and then to the buttons of her bodice. “I want a home. I think I always did, but I wouldn’t allow myself to have it.”
“Did stopping for a while frighten you?” Tess had a sense he’d done all he could to keep chasing his father’s reputation.
“Yes.” He worked her buttons deftly, so quick it left her breathless. “I thought I’d lose the chance to be like my father. He wasn’t a man who ever sat still for long.”
Tess had gotten to the final button of his shirt and even as he worked the last one, she couldn’t resist kissing his chest. His skin was golden in the dusk light filtering through the curtains.
“And now,” she breathed against his skin before kissing it again, flicking her tongue out to taste him.
He pulled her up and took her mouth in a searing kiss that made her clutch at his shoulders, moan as he cupped her backside and pulled her flush against him.
“Now,” he said when he lifted his head, breathing as hard as she was, “I only want to be where you are.” He reached out to unfasten the hooks on her skirt and petticoat and slid them from her hips. “I only want to be as close to you as I can be.”
He immediately pulled up her chemise, then found the opening of her drawers. “God, I’ve missed you,” he told her.
Tess pulled his head down and kissed him again as his fingers found her, wet and warm and aching for him. He stroked her until she was begging, so lost in sensation that she continued kissing him, hungrily, more demanding than she’d ever been, as he freed her from her corset, chemise, drawers.
Then he broke their kiss and lifted her into his arms.
She made a little sound of protest, and he chuckled in the near darkness.
“My impatient siren.”
He laid her back on the velvet coverlet and then shed the rest of his clothing. Tess’s blood pounded in her ears, and every part of her body felt as if it was stretched, waiting, desperate for him to touch her again.
Then she felt the bed shift as he climbed atop it. Tess reached for him, wanting him in her arms, but he knelt before her, stroking lines of heat along her thighs before pushing them gently apart and settling between them.
“Oh,” Tess gasped when his tongue swept against her, then again and again. She reached for him, fingers in his hair, hips bucking of their own volition.
He murmured against her core. She didn’t catch all of it. Just individual words. Hot gusts of his breath before his tongue made her tremble. Sweet. Delicious. Mine.
Theminemade her shudder. Pulled her toward that peak that he’d taken her to before. He stroked a finger inside her, curling to find that spot that made her shatter.
She cried out. Sparks flickered behind her eyes, and she wasn’t certain if she was saying his name or if it was simply repeating over and over in her head.
“I’m here, love,” he whispered as he lifted over her, then settled between her legs. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He bent to take her aching nipple between his lips as he thrust inside her, setting a rhythm that made her gasp with each stroke. He filled her completely, his body fitting against hers as if they were two pieces of a puzzle finally put back together again.
Tess grasped at the shifting muscles of his back, gripped his nape to pull him down for a kiss. That’s when his perfect rhythm faltered and his strokes became more wild, pushing them both to the edge.
“I love you,” she told him against his lips.
Their eyes met, his body straining against hers. “I love you, Tess.”
He let go. His mouth crashed onto hers, his groan of release echoing through her as he lost himself in her.
He held her close as they came down, their breath returning to normal, their heartbeats easing into a steady pace.
Then, to her great shock and dismay, he eased himself away from her and got off the bed.
