Robert drew her close, his cheek against her hair. “I want to make love to you, Kate.”
“I want that, too. Very much,” she murmured, sliding her hands around his waist. “But are you strong enough?”
Robert’s tilted up her chin, his eyes sensual and meaningful. “Shall we see?”
Thrilled, she tried to urge caution. “You must not set back your recovery. I couldn’t bear it if you did.”
“Trust me,” he said kissing her. “I’ll be gentle.”
His fleeting kiss filled with promise left her breathless. How gentle and considerate he’d been with her that first time. Now it was solely for his sake she wasn’t sure he would be.
“Kate, I want you so much I fear I’ll go mad from it.”
Robert drew her by the hand and they returned to the house. James stood at the door. “We don’t wish to be disturbed, James.”
“As you wish, milord.” James bowed, managing to remain poker-faced.
Kate prickled with embarrassment. Did Robert have to say such a thing? To state their intention to make love in broad daylight? Still, the servants would know soon enough. As she ascended the staircase with him, the heated promise in his eyes made her heart skitter.
They had made love only once, and although every bit of it was etched on her memory, she felt as if this was the first time. They had been almost like strangers back then. And now she had grown to know him and understand him. And he knew her.
Robert closed the door and slipped an arm around her waist, drawing her to him. He tipped up her chin and lowered his head to brush his lips lightly over hers. “I love you, Kate,” he said in a husky whisper.
Kate trembled. He loved her. She waited so long to hear him say it. And now she was glad he hadn’t said those words when they were in London. She might have doubted he’d meant it. She was finding it hard to breathe and looped her hands around his neck, drawing him down to her.
Robert kissed her, he plundered her mouth, their rasping breaths loud in the room. He raised his head. “And we shall make love the way married couples do.”
She smiled. “And how is that?”
“In the bed, where I know you won’t dash off and leave me.”
She wouldn’t leave him now if he made love to her here by the door. She was his for the taking, and her body was demanding he do it soon.
They separated to pull off their clothes. She removed the pins on her bodice with trembling fingers, while he stripped and tossed his shirt and coat onto a chair. She stepped out of the pool of skirts and lace-frilled underskirts at her feet, shivering at the touch of his quick fingers unlacing her corset. His hands slipped round to cup her breasts through the thin material of her shift, then he pulled it over her head.
“You are beautiful, Kate,” he said, his voice husky with need.
He moved away and undid the buttons on his breeches. His manhood leapt free.
She admired the evidence of his rampant desire for her, and his manly beauty, the long length of his thighs, and the muscular curve of his backside, especially the way his muscles rippled across his back at each movement. No trace remained of the invalid beyond the puckered red scar on his shoulder hidden by the bandage.
She had to touch him, and her hands roamed over his broad chest, his skin like satin beneath her fingers. “You don’t have much chest hair.”
His eyes gleamed. “Compared to whom?”
Kate paused and glanced at him and saw he was laughing. She grinned. “I caught sight of my father’s chest once when I was small. I thought he looked like a bear.”
Robert stilled her hand as she moved it across his chest. “Why don’t you explore more of me.”
She caught her breath when he urged her hand lower through the trail of soft black hair below his navel down to… She blushed but allowed her fingers to take hold of the hard length of him. Hot and hard yet velvet soft.
“Don’t you wear anything under your breeches?” she asked in a tight voice to counteract the emotions flooding through her.
With a laugh, Robert kneeled at her feet to untie her garters. He rolled the silk stockings down over her legs. Sliding his hands upward, he grasped her bottom, and pulled her closer, then kissed that special place at the juncture of her thighs.
“Oh!” Hands to her mouth, Kate attempted to back away, but he held her close.
Her knees buckled, and she emitted little cries, holding onto his shoulders. “Oh, Robert.” “Take me to bed,” she whispered.
