“The game is played when I designate one beautiful part of your body to touch, and if you allow it, and I am going to touch it, and only it, for five minutes, without stopping.”
“Oh,” she said against his throat. This sounded... promising.
“But please be aware,” he went on, “I will not grope. I will not tussle or fondle or tease. It will simply be my hand. Gently there. The pressure. The warmth. The steadiness. It will be a slow and steady warming up.”
“Will you touch me on the outside of my clothes? Or beneath?”
He considered this. “What do you think?”
“’Tis your game.”
“Well, some parts that I have in mind are not obscured by clothing. Others are. Considering our ultimate goal and the reason we play the game—”
“My panic,” she provided.
“Yourfreedom,” he corrected. “I should think we will beginoutsideyour clothes. But not your heavy winter coat. I mean more like this beautifully thin night rail.” He grazed the silk on the curve of her hip with the back of his finger. “How does that sound.?”
Tessa thought about this. “Honestly? It sounds... boring. Not what I expected at all.”
“Yes,” he mumbled, nipping her bottom lip. “It will be ever so boring.” He kissed her in earnest.
“You will simply touch me, unmoving, while I lay still for five minutes?”
“Well, if you are a very good girl, afterfourminutes, the steady touch may evolve into something like a caress. But this is not guaranteed. We will have to see.”
“What if I say you may move? What if my mind has drifted, or I’m overwarm, or I have an itch?”
“Yourdistressis the only reason I will move away—which we both know to be a possibility. Less possible will be boredom or an itch. Heating up, I’ll wager, is guaranteed.”
“Oh, how very sure of yourself you are,” she teased, but she would be lying if she said the notion of his game did not thrill her.
“Quite sure,” he said. “And, after a time, likely when I cannot endure a moment longer, I will slide my hand away. Only after these minutes of my touch, and only if you wish, may we revisit the area with any movement that might, er, interest you.”
“And after that?” asked Tessa, her voice was a rasp.
“After that we shall go to sleep. Or we will carry on with our morning. Or our carriage ride. Until the next bit of your body is called into question.”
“Thecarriage?” She raised her head.
“When we are alone, of course.”
She thought about this. If she was excited by the prospect of making love in the bedroom, she was positively fascinated by the notion of a moving carriage. She glanced at Joseph. He was sprawled casually across the bed, playing with a lock of her hair. So very cool and collected. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Did she see a jumping pulse in his throat? Was he breathing heavily? She walked her fingers across his bare chest and flattened a palm over his heart. The beatthundered.
“Will we... kiss during this exercise?” she asked.
“If you like. But that isallwe will do while I touch you. Or that is allIwill do to you. You may do with me as you please. I invite you.”
Now the game was taking shape in her mind. She thought of Joseph’s large, calloused hand, the heat, the pressure. She thought of him working to hold very still—this had been his rule—while she kissed him. She smiled to herself and nuzzled her body against him.
“Alright,” she said softly, swiping a kiss across his bicep.
He cleared his throat and shifted.
She pulled closer still, nuzzling again. “But shall we begin now?”
Another noise in his throat. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter Thirty
