“They should be on public display,” she mused. “As they were at the Louvre.”
“If Prinny has them, they practically will be. He has so many parties, anything in his homes is widely seen.”
“I suppose.” Uninvited, she lifted the lid on another crate and peered in. It was one of the few statues he’d secured and also had a sheet over it.
Drawing this aside, she ran a finger over its marble arm, making him lusty again.
“That’s rather splendid,” she proclaimed.
She was splendid!But he came to stand beside her and raise the other edge of the sheet.
“I think so, too,” he said. “No one has seen it outside of Paris or Prussia, except for me and you.”
She glanced at him and gave her saucy smile. “I’m honored.”
He wanted to kiss her, and the honor would be entirely his.
A fiancé,he reminded himself, dropping the sheet and moving as far from her as he could.
To his amazement, she followed him, getting too close, looking at his face with the same attention she’d given the pieces of art.
“Shall we?” she asked, and he would vow her voice had dropped to a purring tone.
“Shall we?” he croaked, repeating her words, unable to take his gaze from her upturned face.
Chapter Sixteen
Hauling her againsthim by her upper arms, James swiftly took her mouth under his.
“Mm,”she murmured, but he couldn’t tell if she said actual words or just hummed with pleasure.
In the next instant, he sank his fingers into her hair, just under her jaunty hat at the back of her head so he could apply more pressure to the kiss. When she gasped softly, he swept his tongue between her lips and plundered to his heart’s content.
Exploring, sucking, caressing, James fervently wished they were horizontal. He also wished his breeches were looser as his shaft had risen to a great length with painful rigidity.
“Mm,”she managed again. However, she didn’t try to step back or put her hands upon his chest to push him away. Yet nor did she encircle her fingers into his hair the way she had before. He liked tremendously when she did that.
