Willa nodded, sinking down on the bed. She removed her kid slippers. It had bothered her to stand on the coverlet in them. “Mother suggested it. She said that way it will be all over before I know it.”
Matt burst out laughing. He sat on the bed beside her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Count backward?”
Willa wasn’t certain what was so funny. Should she not have told him? She nodded warily.
He caught her mood. “Please, I’m not laughing at you. I’m just...” He paused as if looking for a word and found it. “Charmed. I’m charmed to hear you say that. Your honesty, Willa, is a gift.” He leaned back, resting on one arm, and gently pulled her with him. “You were told to count to a hundred?”
“Backward,” Willa added. She caught her hair and pulled it over one shoulder so it wasn’t beneath her.
His gaze met hers. He sobered. “My hope is that you are enjoying yourself so much, you can’t remember how to count.”
Her mother had not said anything about enjoyment. However, Cassandra had. “Is that why everyone claims you are a good lover?” An hour earlier she wouldn’t have dared to say such a thing. However, being with him—like this—seemed completely right. Why, they both were still dressed.
“Now the pressure is on,” he said in mock dismay followed by a self-deprecating smile. “That ‘lover’ gossip is stuff and nonsense. They prattle on like that because they have nothing else to talk about. The only opinion I am interested in is yours and, together, we’ll find what pleases us both.”
That was a very nice promise. Especially the word “together.”
He stroked her hair, watching it flow through his fingers. “So lovely,” he murmured before lifting his gaze to meet hers. “Willa, kiss me the way you did in the coach.”
How could she refuse such a simple request?
Willa leaned toward him. Their lips met.
And she was kissing him.
It was a perfect kiss, or so she thought—until his lips parted and she felt his tongue trace the closed line of hers.
That tickled. Her startled lips parted and then he taught her something about kissing. Pressed lips had nothing over being able to drink the breath of her partner.
He didn’t force. He waited until she moved toward him. The kiss took on a new life. Their mouths fit in a way she’d never imagined. With a soft sigh, Willa gave herself over to him because he knew more than she did, and she was liking the lesson. He drew her down to the bed, his arms gathering her close.
As if from a distance, she heard him slip off his shoes and let them drop to the hardwood floor. He eased her on her back so the kiss could deepen. She liked what he was doing with his tongue. She tried to copy his movements, catching his tongue and lightly stroking it with her own. He reacted by making their kiss fiercer, and Willa felt everything inside her rise toward him.
Shetingled.
Every inch of her.
Just as Annie predicted.
It was Matt who broke it off. He was practically on top of her, but the weight of his body didn’t bother her. In fact, like his kiss, it felt good.
He smiled down at her. His breathing had gotten heavy and she was conscious of their legs tangled together, their feet dangling off the edge of the bed. “I want to make love to you, Willa.”
Love. There was that word again.
“But I will not do anything you don’t like,” he said.
She reached back and lifted her hair so that she wasn’t lying on it. “I know you won’t. I also believe you are right.”
“About what?”
“The counting. I’m not going to bother because I don’t want to be distracted. Not right now.”
Camberly was handsome, that was true. But when he laughed, he was impossible to resist.
Before she knew what he was about, Matt rolled to his back, bringing her with him. She found herself astride his body, her bum on his abdomen. His hands pushed her skirts up to her thighs. She liked the feeling of him beneath her. He pulled the ribbons on her stockings, loosening them.
“The dress is beautiful on you, Willa. But I’d like to see you without it.”
