She sent him an arch look. “I hope you’re not planning to wait until after we’re married to make love to me properly, James Cashell. Because I’ll tell you right now, I don’t want to wait. It’ll take weeks to arrange, even if you get a special license.” She went up on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “We’ve already wasted so much time.”
James tugged her into his arms. “I don’t want to wait either. I want to make you mine, body and soul.”
“Then what about tonight?” Kitty suggested, her heart pounding wildly at her own daring.
“The tower bedroom at midnight?”
She pretended to consider. “Was there a bed? It was so dark the last time I was there I couldn’t even see who I was kissing, let alone see whether there was any furnit?—”
She squeaked as James swatted her playfully on the bottom. “There was a bed, vixen. I’ll have a word with Lord Locryn and ask to move up there. I’ll say I can’t sleep where I am because Willingham’s snores echo down the hall.”
He caught her hand in his and gently guided her out into the sunlight, and together they started along the path that wound through the trees. Kitty inhaled a contented breath of warm, flower-perfumed air.
“It’s going to be agony, pretending to be just friends all afternoon, when all I want to do is kiss you,” she sighed.
James slanted her a wry smile. “Oh, I’m sure we’ll manage for a couple more hours. We’ve been practicing for years, after all.”
Above them, quite unnoticed, the honeysuckle burst into bloom, and a tinkle of joyous laughter echoed on the breeze.
Chapter Eleven
Kitty’s heart pounded with excitement as she pushed open the tower door. The room was less dark than before; moonlight spilled through a gap in the heavy velvet curtains, and she smiled as James stepped out from the shadows.
He was dressed in just a shirt and breeches, and he caught her wrist and pulled her inside, closing the door behind them before gathering her into his arms.
“Good evening.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, and she threw her arms around his neck, returning the embrace with fervor. The heat of him bled into her. It felt like coming home.
She’d been a jittery wreck all afternoon, ever since the two of them had returned from the folly. They’d kept their distance in public, trying to appear as if nothing had changed between them, but every time James caught her eye across the garden, or during a conversation at dinner, it was as if a thrilling secret passed between them. Anticipation had made her stomach flutter like pebbles tumbled by a wave.
“Changed your mind?” James murmured.
“No!”
“Afraid, then?”
“Maybe a little,” Kitty admitted, glad the gloom hid her blush. “Gwyn confessed that she and Lord Locryn have already anticipated their vows. She told me it can hurt a bit, the first time.”
To her relief, he didn’t laugh or brush away her concern. “I’ve heard that too, but only for some women.” He brushed her lips with his own. “I’ll do everything in my power to make it good for you. And if you want to stop at any time, we’ll stop. Just tell me, all right?”
“All right.”
Emboldened, Kitty kissed him again. “I like that I can see you now. But I’d like to see even more. Can you take off your shirt?”
His lips curved in a sly grin. “Liked what you saw when you were spying on me in the woods, did you, Miss Worth?”
“I did indeed.”
With a laugh he kissed her again, and together they tugged his shirt from his breeches, and over his head. Kitty let her hands rove over the sleek muscles of his chest, then traced lightly over the different texture of his scars.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” she whispered. “Do they still hurt?”
He shook his head. “Not anymore. They’re just unsightly.”
Kitty pressed her lips to the smooth skin of his sternum. “I think you’re beautiful. I always have.”
James slid his hand to the back of her head and tilted her face up. “If I had to have them again, just to get to this moment, then I’d do it gladly. It’s like you said about the honey; a little bit of pain is worth it for so much sweetness.”
This time when he kissed her it felt like a promise, a soul-deep vow. And then he deepened the kiss and urgency took over. Kitty fumbled with the clasp on her cloak and shrugged it from her shoulders and he groaned as he realized she was wearing just her knee-length chemise. Together they stumbled to the bed, and when the back of her legs bumped the mattress, Kitty fell back onto the sheets with a laugh.
