“Are you alright?” he rasped.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. She broke the kiss and tucked her face into his neck.
“Am I hurting you?”
She shook her head against his cravat.
“Have I shocked you?”
She nodded.
“Come now,” he teased, his voice raspy, “making love... on a stump... in a bower... astride my lap? This is less shocking and more... more...”
“Illegal?” she whispered, still tucked against him.
He blew out a pained laugh, fluttering the hair at the nape of her neck. “Likely itisillegal. I, for one, embrace my life of crime.”
He shifted, just a little, and she felt a thin sliver of that feeling of uttergoodness. It hovered on the periphery of her senses. She inhaled, wiggled.
“I didn’t mean to corrupt you,” he whispered into her hair, “but I did mean to make love to you. Not when I sought you out, but from the moment I sat beside you on this stump.” He kissed her behind her ear. “You have that effect on me. I suppose I am wicked, just as you said. Last night, you were a virgin, and now...”
He shifted again and this time she let out a happy, encouraging sort ofwhimper. The good feeling had pulsed again and she rode it. She hitched her knees higher on his hips. Her breathing became fast and labored.
Very softly, whispering into his neck, she said, “Tell me what to do, Your Grace. I...I want.”
Lachlan hissed out a curse, low and guttural. His hands found her waist, tightened, and he lifted her and dropped her; lifted her and dropped her. The movements were small, discreet, but very fast, repeated again and again; the rhythm immediately found, immediately right.
She heard another of her delighted whimpers. She sounded delirious with the building pleasure, and shewasdelirious, she supposed. He nosed her face from his neck and kissed her, devouring the sound.
If she’d been in her right mind—and most certainly she was not, she was as close to mindless as ever she’d been—the rocking thrusts of their joined bodies would have shocked her. His strength would have astounded her. Their flagrant disregard for their location in a public park would have appalled her.
Later, she thought idly, she would examine this encounter for shock and astonishment, and she would be very appalled.
I will love it, she corrected. I love lovinghim, breathless with the excitement and careless of the rest of the world.
“I cannot hold out,” Lachlan huffed, speaking against her teeth. “I’m slayed. You sla—”
He was cut off by the sound of Drew’s sharp sigh; it was surprise and delight bubbling up and escaping her body. She slumped against him, her muscles and bones spent, even while her insides exploded with ricocheting pleasure. Her thoughts were reduced to a swirlingyes-yes-yes. Breathing shut down, vision shut down, hearing—all of it dimmed to nothing but the feeling of flight.
Beneath her, Lachlan let out a guttural moan, drove into her one last time, clamped her body down on him. He gasped, ground up, and dropped his head onto her shoulder. After a beat, his hands roved from beneath her skirts. He slid them up her back and he pulled her against him in an impossibly tight embrace.
Drew burrowed into his shoulder, loving the embrace as much as she loved the coupling. She was limp, barely able to lift her head from his shoulder, and yet his endless strength seemed to fuse them. They were so close, she could feel his heartbeat knocking against hers. Beneath her skirts, they were still joined.
“Are you alright?” he asked gently. Their breath came in labored pants.
She nodded. “I... I had no idea.”
“Quite,” he agreed. “Bird-watching is exhausting. Especially that bit at the end.”
She laughed and, without thinking—indeed without even realizing the words left her mouth—she said, “Oh, I do love you.”
She’d not said it loudly, not a pronouncement, nor softly, not a vow. She’d simply chuckled it out. It had been a realization, like, “I do relish a brisk swim,” or “I do hope there’s cake with tea.”
Not that tone mattered. The words had been the thing. Too significant, too revealing, too needy.
Too soon.
Lachlan’s heavy breathing seemed to dissipate. He made absolutely no reply.
