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He chuckled and playfully slapped her bottom. “Such a passionate little minx,” he growled. “I should have known.”

Her shoulder blades pressed against something cool and hard. Beatrice raised her head only to realize he pressed her against the wall.

He didn’t give her a chance to look around, to assess the situation, to feed her eyes on the sight of him. No. His lips covered hers and he continued his gentle onslaught.

Oh, God. This—his kiss—was the best thing she had ever experienced in her life. And she couldn’t get enough. Her fingers sifting through his hair, she pulled him closer, sweeping her tongue inside his warmth, claiming him the way he had claimed her.

She was hungry for him. There was no other way to describe it. She wanted him. All of him. And she wanted him to fill her entire being.

Adam lowered his mouth, kissing her chin, then tracing his tongue down her throat, and Beatrice couldn’t help but whimper at the sensation. Her back arched, she rubbed her pelvis against his body, craving the contact.

Adam kissed his way down to the edge of her shift and licked the tops of her breasts, biting ever so gently in between.

He paused, his eyes staring at her dark nipples that were straining against the wet and therefore transparent fabric of her shift. Then he moved, shifting her higher around his waist, rubbing her center with his body as he did so. The sweet contact of their bodies sliding against each other made her moan.

This seemed to break the last of Adam’s resolve. He put his hands on her shift and ripped it in two.

Beatrice squeaked and stared at her bare flesh as the fabric slid against her skin and heaped at Adam’s feet on the floor. Her instinct was to cover herself from his gaze. And her hands flew to her chest, to do just that, but Adam tsked and shook his head. “Put your hands on my shoulders.”

Beatrice’s hands shook as she complied, baring herself completely for his perusal.

No, not completely. She still had her stockings on… Although they felt inconsequential. All of her parts that should have been hidden were now on display, and Adam devoured every inch of her flesh with his gaze.

Beatrice’s heart raced so fast, she was afraid it was going to beat right out of her chest. The blood that ran through her veins felt like molten lava. Yet, chills ran up and down her skin.

Adam met her gaze, and without breaking eye contact, he gently, tenderly cupped her breasts.

Beatrice moaned, her entire body squirming with need. The need for him to touch her more. Everywhere.

She had known that he would be gentle with her. That his touch would be that of worship, not possession. And she was ready to be possessed now.

He ran his thumbs over her nipples, and Beatrice gasped. Her nipples turned into hard pebbles, painful, yet blissful at his every touch. Her entire body was one big nerve. No matter where he touched her, the feeling of it traveled through her entire being.

He ran his hands down the sides of her body and stopped just under her bottom. Squeezing her buttocks, he raised her even higher until she was towering over him. Then, still looking into her eyes, he leaned in and covered her nipple with his lips.

With a gasp of surrender, Beatrice’s head lolled back and her eyes fell closed. He traced his tongue around her nipple, and all she could do was push her pelvis closer to his body.

Her hands moved up from his shoulders and got lost in his hair again, pulling his head closer to her aching breast. And if she’d felt that his kiss on her mouth was the best thing before, this feeling quickly overpowered it.

No, this was too much—

She cried his name as he pulled more of her breast inside his mouth and sucked. This was a pleasure the likes of which she hadn’t even imagined before.

She had read about marital acts in anatomy books; she had read about them in forbidden fiction. But the clinical descriptions in encyclopedias had never explained the feeling she felt now. And the flowery prose of the fiction books hid the true meaning of this beautiful act under indecipherable metaphors.

Indecipherable until now.

Now she understood all those poets and writers and what they had talked about when writing about the blooming flowers that opened within the heroine and let out the floods of passion.

Literally.

But she had no time for flowery words or even any words, for that matter. All she could do was moan and whimper as Adam’s mouth brought her more pleasure than she’d thought possible. In the meantime, his hand played and pinched and circled her other nipple, not pausing the tender exploration of her body.

He traced his tongue to her other breast and continued driving her mad with his skillful fingers and mouth until she couldn’t take it anymore.

Beatrice tugged on his hair until he looked up, dazed, his eyes dark and hooded, his lips wet and puffy.

“What, my love?” he whispered and pressed a hot kiss to her throat that traveled up to claim her mouth.