Caro had kissed before. But she had never been kissed quite likethisbefore. Gavin Winter’s lips on hers…Oh, she could not find the words to describe it.
Her mind was racing, tumbling over itself, her emotions colliding with sensation, reason and doubt and duty crashing together. She should not be kissing him, and she knew it. She was deceiving him. Their families were operating under a tentative truce which would be destroyed when the Winters discovered the Suttons had been keeping their lost brother from them.
Yet, Gavin’s lips on hers were smooth and knowing, teasing and gentle, worshipful and masterful all at once. He kissed like an angel and the devil. He tempted and promised. Longing swept over her, so sudden and ferocious she trembled beneath the force of it.
When his big hand splayed over her lower back, drawing her nearer to him, there was no mistaking the disparity between them. He was tall, all sinew and corded muscle, his chest a wall against which her breasts crushed. But there was another part of him that was equally hard. The same part of him she had done her utmost to forget about.
He was thick and long, pressing into her belly with a prominence she could not deny pleased her. Caro knew an aching, tingling, unbearable answering need between her thighs. He traced over the seam in her lips, seeking, and she opened for him. His tongue dipped into her mouth, claiming and yet sweetly tantalizing.
Weakly, she tried to summon some resistance. To remind herself of the myriad reasons why she should not be kissing this man. Why she should not be holding him close instead of tearing herself away.
But all she could do was feel.
Feel his hand gliding up her spine to caress the nape of her neck. Feel his lips delivering slow, tender kisses to the corners of her mouth. Feel the wet glide of his tongue against hers. Feel the sparks of passion lighting into roaring, uncontrollable flame.
Everything else ceased to matter.
Her heart raced. No kiss had ever been better. Nor had she ever hungered for another as she wanted this man. This man who did not know his name, who had no memories. This man she had found beaten and broken and bloodied in the cobblestones.
Yearning unfurled. He kissed down her throat, and her head fall back of its own accord, giving him more of her skin. Surrendering to the passion blazing so brightly between them.
He kissed his way to her ear. “Sweet Caro.”
She became aware of her body in a new way. Her breasts were heavy and full, her nipples hard beneath her stays. Caro could not keep the sigh from fleeing her as he pressed a kiss to her throat, his tongue flicking over her skin.
“You taste as good as you smell,” he whispered against her flesh.
The room felt as if it were spinning around them. Everything was a tumult of sensation and color and light. She caressed his shoulders, needing more of him, needing to touch him everywhere.
“Caro?”
Her panic was as sudden as it was acute at the unexpected voice of her sister at the opposite end of the room. She tore herself from Gavin’s arms and turned to face Pen, who stood at the threshold of Caro’s work room, her expression slack with shock as she took in Gavin.
“Pen,” she said quickly, smoothing down her skirts as she sought something to do with her hands.
That was when she realized there was ink upon her fingers, and she had smeared a great deal of it over her gown. In horror, she glanced back at Gavin to see smears of black ink on his coat, cravat, and shirt. Everywhere she had touched him, there was the evidence of her wickedness.
“A Winter?” her sister asked.
More shock hit Caro, for she had not expected Pen to recognize Gavin. And now that she had—if she were to reveal Gavin’s identity before him—
“Please go, Pen,” she said, imploring her sister with her eyes.
But Pen was undeterred. She remained where she was, her gaze narrowing as it flicked over Gavin with blatant curiosity. “Is he the secret, then? I heard—”
“Get out!” Caro blurted, startling herself with the vehemence in her tone.
But what was she to do? She was conflicted, torn between the promise she had made to her brother and the newfound emotions roiling through her. Gavin Winter’s kisses had utterly ruined her. She could scarcely make sense of anything.
Pen blinked. “Caro.”
“Please,” she entreated, more softly this time.
“Forgive me,” Gavin said, flicking a cautious gaze from Caro to Pen, then back to Caro again. “I should not have overstepped.”
Yes, she wanted to tell him.You should have. And you should do it again.
But she tamped down the unworthy sentiment. Had she learned no lessons at all after Philip? It would seem not.
