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Jane wetted her lips and leaned over him. She kissed him as she’d wanted him to kiss her—long and deep and laced with the words that she couldn’t yet say out loud. She tasted the ale they’d drunk together on his lips. He felt soft and warm under her and smelled of a heady, contradictory mix of fresh rainwater and the musty smoke of the Pritchers’ fire. In a word, he was perfect.

She pulled back just a little bit, a sigh escaping her lips. It wasn’t everything she wanted, but it might be enough to keep her body under check for the night.

She lifted her splayed fingers from where they’d rested on his chest and made to stand, but Nicholas’s hand darted out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her back to her knees. In the darkness, she could just see his eyes snap open.

“Jane. That kiss. Did you mean it?” he asked in a tone that shot heat straight to the ache between her legs.

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Thank God,” he growled before he crushed her lips with his.

Chapter Eight

Oh, God, yes. It was all she could think as his mouth worked over hers. He kissed her deep, pushing her to open for him, letting her taste him as he slid his tongue over hers. His fingers dove to her loose hair, tugging a little at the roots in a way that made her gasp with pleasure. He was going to undo her, giving her exactly what she craved, and all she could do was hold on, gripping his shirt and digging her short nails into the hard muscles of his chest.

Nicholas pushed up to sitting and hauled her into his lap without breaking their kiss. Free from her preponderance of petticoats, she could easily feel the hard ridge of his cock under her skirts, and she sent up a little prayer of thanks that her married friends had taken it upon themselves to educate her in exacting detail about what to expect if she was ever in this situation. Elizabeth and Mary had told her about the heavy hardness of a man’s arousal, about how her own body could become slick and hot and urgent if she wanted him too. She knew that it might hurt when he first pushed into her, but that—if he was skilled and patient—it could be just as pleasurable an experience for her as it was for him. That it should be, and she shouldn’t be afraid to ask for it. She’d blushed a little as her friends gently teased her about her relative innocence, but now that her hands skimmed down Nicholas’s chest to dip below the hem of his shirt, she couldn’t have been happier for the education.

“Jane,” he moaned against her mouth as she danced her fingers over the muscles of his abdomen.

“Yes?” she asked as she pressed a kiss to the crook of his neck.

“You’re killing me. You know that, don’t you?”

She grinned against his skin, drunk on the power she had over him. “I’d hoped as much.”

Her thumb brushed his hard, flat nipple, and he hissed in a breath. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I’m determined.”

“I’ve always liked a woman who knows what she wants.” He cupped her face with his hands, stilling them both. “Are you sure about this?”

She held his gaze steady, determined to show him just how serious she was. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

“Good,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief. “If you’d hesitated, I would have gotten up and walked out. I’m not sure how I would’ve managed it, but I’d have done it.”

And that was Nicholas—always caring for her no matter what. She’d instinctively known she was safe with him when they’d met. She had put her vulnerable self into his hands. He’d protected her as best he could, acting as her knight in rain-drenched armor that afternoon and spiriting her away from the danger of discovery without complaint.

Her hand covered his. “You’re a good man.”

“Not good enough for you.”

“Certainly good enough for me.”

It might have been a trick of the dark, but she thought she saw a touch of tension around his eyes. Before she could think too much about it, he traced the line of her lips with his thumb.

“Open,” he ordered.

She parted her lips, and he slid his thumb into her mouth. She closed her lips around him and sucked hard, letting the saltiness of his skin wash over her.

His head fell forward so that their foreheads touched. “You have no idea how much you’ve tempted me. All I’ve been able to think about has been kissing you. How badly I’ve wanted to do it again.”

She swirled her tongue around his thumb and then let go of it with a pop, feeling bolder than ever before. “Then show me.”

His head snapped up. “Clothes off. Now.”

She untangled herself from him and shucked off her garments as fast as she could undo the clasps, ties, and buttons. Nicholas yanked off his shirt and undid the placket of his trousers. She turned around to loosen the laces of her corset, and when she glanced back, he was naked and undeniably gorgeous.

His hands stilled hers on her laces. Gently, he nudged her fingers out of the way to take their place, loosening the corset until she could undo the hooks at the front.