So, he simply waited, his hands dangling awkwardly at his sides, and after a long silence, she took a step toward him— one, then another, until she was so close he could see the frantic flutter of her pulse in the hollow of her throat.
“I never thanked you for the dance tonight, my lord.” She stepped closer, her hand coming up to cradle his cheek. “I’ve come to thank you now.”
He didn’t move— he couldn’t have, even if he’d wanted to. He could do nothing but wait as she rose to her tiptoes and brought her lips to his.
Yes.This was what he wanted. Her mouth, her shuddering breaths warm against his lips, her body pressed against his as she kissed him with a passion that swept everything before it, leaving only her.
He needed to taste her, would die if he didn’t taste her.
“Euphemia.” He teased the tip of his tongue against the seam of her lips, and she opened to him at once, her mouth wet and needy. She was so sweet, so perfect, but he’d had only a fleeting taste of her desire before she drew back.
“I’ve never… I don’t know how to… I’ve never?—”
“I know, sweetheart.” He traced her jaw, catching his breath at the soft glide of her skin under his fingertips. “We should stop, but first, I…” How could he put into words what he wanted to say? His head was spinning, his heart a frenzied, wild thing in his chest.
Never had his heart beat as wildly as it did now, forher.
“I would never hurt you, Euphemia. Not for the world.” It wasn’t what he’d meant to say, but the words had tumbled from his lips before he knew he’d thought them, as if they’d been torn from his very soul.
She gazed up at him, her eyes two wide pools of dark, endless blue.
A shared breath passed between them, then another, and then she raised her arms, twined them around his neck, and melted against him. “Show me, James.”
A low, pained groan left his lips.
He wanted to take her apart, to see inside her, touch every part of her with his hands and his mouth until he’d uncovered her every secret, revealed every part of her. He wanted to holdher in his arms, kiss those beautiful pink lips again and again, caress her soft, pale skin, and memorize the dozens of different shades of blue in her eyes.
But when he kissed her, it was soft, tentative— a question, rather than a demand. He traced his tongue over her lips, playing and teasing until the tension drained from her body. “Open your mouth for me, Euphemia.”
She sighed as he dropped a tiny kiss onto one corner of her mouth. It was a small sound, the gentlest puff of air against his lips before she sank her hands into his hair and dragged him closer, her mouth parting under his.
“Yes, love. Please.” He didn’t know what he was begging for. He knew only that his entire body leaped to aching awareness as he surged inside, and, oh God, her mouth was so hot and sweet against his, and he was kissing her as if his life depended on the breath in her lungs, and his heart could only beat in time with hers.
“James.” She stroked her warm fingers over his neck, then slid them down to his chest. His stomach muscles tightened as her hands drifted lower, over his abdomen and under the hem of his shirt before coming to rest on the bare skin of his waist, her fingers leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
Too much…
He wanted her too much. Her sweet caresses were driving him to the edge of his control, but she was innocent, and he’d been telling the truth when he’d said he wouldn’t hurt her for the world.
He caught her hands in his and drew them gently away from him. “Wait, Euphemia. We can’t?—”
“Please, James. Please don’t send me away. I… I want to stay here with you tonight.”
He caught her to him with a helpless groan, his every gentlemanly instinct abandoning him in the face of her softpleading. “Come here, love,” he whispered, wrapping his hands around her waist.
He stumbled backward toward his bed and dropped down onto it, pulling her into his lap. “So sweet, Phee. So soft and beautiful,” he murmured as he slid one hand under her skirt to caress the impossibly soft skin on the inside of her knee.
“Oh, that tickles.” She let out a soft laugh and buried her face in his neck.
“Hmmm. Is this better?” He traced his fingertips over the silky skin of her thigh, angling his head to trail his lips down her neck.
She shivered against him, and brought his mouth back to hers with a firm tug on his hair that made his cock leap against her soft curves.
She made a low, needy sound in her throat and opened her mouth under his, chasing his tongue, coaxing it into her mouth, and, God above, she was stroking her tongue against his, her shyness falling away as she wriggled closer, her backside dragging over his throbbing cock, and it was too much, too good, and he was one moment away from clamping his hands down on her hips and rolling her beneath him.
Instead, he tore away from her with a groan and deposited her on his bed before jumping up and crossing to the other side of his bedchamber, far enough away from her that he couldn’t snatch her back into his arms again.
“James?” She sat up, tugging her skirt down over her legs.
