Although never alone, she and Howard had spent a lot of time together at Cambridge. She wasn’t about to add fuel to a smoldering fire and held out her arms. “I don’t believe you’ve kissed me.”
Nathaniel still frowned but rubbed a finger over his bottom lip. Did she detect a slight lessening of his resistance?
“Has this man ever kissed you?”
“What a question.” Laura remembered Howard’s defiant goodbye kiss in the breakfast room at Grisewood Hall before he left to catch the train. To admit it now would be disastrous. “Don’t you trust me?”
Thankfully, Nathaniel didn’t pursue the question of a kiss. “You’ve not seen him again until now?”
“Only the time he climbed into my window at Wolfram and ravished me. Really, Nathaniel.” Laura twitched a fold of her skirt to cover her legs. The sight of him always made her breath catch. Her gaze wandered over him, admiring the way the light from the window shone on his thick, coal-black hair. “Please, darling, you’re making my headache worse.” Not feeling up to a dramatic scene, relief threaded through her when he rose and came to the bed. He held himself away from her, longing in hiseyes.
“I’ve missed you.” His voice soundedstrained.
Laura understood that was a huge concession for him to make. She was reminded of the young boy who had suffered the loss of his mother at a tender age. Visualizing him, long legs like a young colt, his mother dead and his father vengeful and grief-stricken, filled her with love and compassion and a need to have his arms around her.
“I have missed you too, darling. Every minute.”
She coiled her arms around his neck and drew his lips down to hers, delighting in his closeness, his familiar smell, his masculine strength. “Have you come to take me home?” she asked breathlessly when he drewaway.
“Yes.” He held her chin in his hand, his concerned gaze roaming her face, a slight frown on his brow. “You look tired, Laura. What has made you faint?”
“I caught a chill at Gateley Park, but I’m fine now. I can’t wait to go back to Cornwall.”
A warmer light sparked in his eyes. “You have missed Wolfram?”
“Most dreadfully. It’s my home. But not as much as I’ve missed you.”
He bent and kissed her again, a scorching kiss that made her body hot withyearning.
Nathaniel lay down beside her and pulled her against him, his hand sliding down over herbottom.
“Nathaniel!” Laura flicked an anxious glance at the door. “Dora’s bedroom is next door. The house is full of guests; anyone might come in.”
He rolled her over on top of him and murmured into the hollow of her shoulder. “Dora has too much sense. Just let me hold you.” He kissed the tender spot on her throat below her ear. “I want you so much.”
“I want you too,” she whispered, filled with a burning need for him. It had been a torturously long time without him. But voices erupted out in the hall, and there was no key in the lock. Nathaniel’s hand slipped under her skirt and stroked her leg. She’d almost reached the point where she would throw caution to the wind. Her skin tingled at his touch. She gasped when she felt him hard against herthigh.
He took her mouth again, deepening the kiss until they both gasped. She pulled away with an eye on the door. “Nathaniel—”
“Hush. Or someone may well come in.”
Laura giggled. “We can’t—”
Nathaniel reached under her dress and eased down her bloomers. With another quick glance at the door, she slipped out ofthem.
Tucking her underwear beneath the pillow, he rolled off the bed and held out his hand to her. “Come here.”
Laura stood. “Where on earth…?”
He led her to an upholstered chair set in an alcove. Sitting down, he gathered up her skirts and pulled her onto his lap. In the long mirror hanging on the opposite wall, from the waist up they looked like a marriage portrait of a well-dressed couple. She held her breath as he guided himself insideher.
“Oh, yes, darling, yes…” She put her hand to her mouth to quiet herself as his hands cradled her bottom beneath her gown and moved her against him. He groaned softly, his lips against her neck as he thrust into her. Their panting breaths filled theroom.
“You don’t want that Farmer chap, do you?” he demandedfiercely.
“No! I chose you,” Laura gasped, as her body clenched, and heat radiated to her aching nipples. She teetered on the edge of glorious oblivion. “Because I love you, Nathaniel. I think I did from the day I met you.”
“Is that true?” He soundedincredulous.
