Bea stared at him, her eyes shooting daggers.No doubt she was deciding whether to throttle him or set him aflame.
“I’ll forgive you, naturally,” he added.“Inexperience is nothing to be ashamed o?—”
He didn’t finish.
Because she launched at him.
Not delicately.Not ladylike.She seized him by the lapels of his coat, hauled him forward with startling strength, and crushed her mouth to his in a kiss that hadnothingof innocence in it.
Nicholas made a low, unguarded sound—half surprise, half delight—before his instincts surged, hot and unquestioning.He kissed her back with immediate intensity, hands sliding to her waist as he pulled her across the space between them.
She tasted furious…and delicious.
Her fingers tightened in his coat, tugging him closer still, and Nicholas responded with a deep, possessive groan.He shifted, guided her, and in one fluid motion drew her onto the velvet seat beneath him, bracing his weight above her without crushing her.
She gasped, and he took advantage of the opportunity, sliding his tongue against hers—slow, coaxing.Her back arched.Her hands moved up to clutch his shoulders.Heat curled low in his groin.
Hell.She was magnificent.
He dragged his mouth from hers only long enough to kiss along her jaw, then lower—his breath warm against the delicate skin of her throat.“Is thisadequate?”she demanded, breathless.
He smiled against her throat.“It’s a start.”
“Oh, I’ll show you a start?—”
But Nicholas didn’t let her finish.He caught her mouth again—slower this time, as if he meant to make herfeelthe difference between “serviceable” and ruin.His lips moved over hers in a measured glide, then deepened, coaxing a sound from her that went straight to his cock.
Bea answered with a rough little noise of her own, fingers fisting in his coat as she tilted her chin and met him without flinching—no hesitation, no doubt, only the fierce insistence of a woman who refused to be outdone.
He tasted her on his tongue—sweet and sharp and furious—until his control frayed at the edges.His hand slid up her side, thumb stroking along her ribs beneath the line of her stays, and her breath hitched hard against his mouth.
“There,” he murmured against her lips, voice wrecked.“That’s better.”
She kissed him again as if to shut him up properly.
Nicholas smiled against her mouth—aching, thrilled, undone by her—and kissed her harder.
She gasped, and he followed that sound, tracing the new line of her throat with his lips, letting his breath whisper heat against her skin.
“Adequate?”she demanded again, voice trembling with both anger and desire.
“A tragic miscalculation,” he murmured.
“You are impossible,” she whispered.Her breath caught.He felt it—everything—every tremor, every small intake of breath.
“And you,” he breathed at her ear, a shudder racking his body, “are astonishing.”
And then, just as quickly as it had begun, she pushed him away, rolled out from under him, and moved back to the opposite seat.“Oh, you are a complete rogue!”
“What?What do you mean?”He blinked at her, still quite undone by the kiss and the alacrity with which she had ended it.
Her eyes narrowed.“You did that on purpose…baiting me into kissing you.”
A sly smile touched the corner of his lips.“Oh, come now.You wanted to…a little…you’re far too intelligent to have been fooled.”
Bea sat there contemplating his words for a beat.Then she took a deep breath, the intense scowl back on her face.“Blast.You’re right.I am far too astute to blame all of this on you.”
He couldn’t help his laugh.God.She was refreshingly honest.It was not a trait he encountered much as a politician.
“You stay over there,” she insisted, pointing at where he sat, across from her.“There will be no more kissing.”
He bit his lip but remained on the opposite seat, where he adjusted his clothing.
Bea did the same, righting her coiffure and smoothing her skirts.“Now, I’d like to go to Lord Hillary’s salon,” she informed him as if they had not just been passionately kissing moments earlier.
“If you insist.”Nicholas knocked on the top of the coach, signaling to the coachman to change course.
“I do insist.”She folded her arms across her chest and didn’t speak another word until they reached their destination.
