The whole story of her mother’s debt tumbled out, though it took some time because Wolfgang kept stopping her to praise her, and to mutter dark little asides about the damage different calibers of rifles could inflict, and at certain points his body went tense, which gave Charlotte the good idea of patting his muscles until he cursedand had to pry her hands off him so he could concentrate. At other points she got teary again, which made him dissolve completely until he settled them both by wrapping himself around her and clucking at her softly to tell her howwellshe’d done. The candle was burning low before she’d finished and Wolfgang had asked the last of his questions.
He tucked his chin into her hair. “I wish to God you’d felt you could tell me. I’d have written a thousand bank drafts to—”
“But I’m proud I solved my own problem—I feel capable of anything now. Did you ever think—”
He nipped her ear. “Not for weeks. I fear my brain is scrambled.”
Charlotte shifted to look up at him. “Did you ever think I’d run to you for comfort?”
“A vast improvement on running away from me. How’s it possible for one so little to be so quick?”
“Little! I’m tall as a willow. Perhaps you didn’t notice, because you’re the size of a draft horse?”
His eyes flared. “I notice everything about you.”
That shut Charlotte up, particularly because she was noticing, too. Her hand spread experimentally on his chest. How could the man have muscles that were hard as oak and yet so warm andalive, as if they were preening for her? She spread her fingers even wider, holding his gaze, and his muscles pressed into her hand.
Good Lord, could she doanythingto him?
The thought made her feel quite drunk, so she twisted around to straddle him, lifting up until his mouth was just in reach of hers.
“Charlotte!” Wolfgang grunted.
It seemed to be a warning.
She wound her arms around his neck. “Yes, Wolfgang?”
It seemed to take some effort for him to reply. “You’re alone with me. In my bed.”
“Am I?” She considered. “I’d say rather that I wasonyour bed. Or, more precisely, on you.”
Wolfgang made a savage noise low in his throat, which gave Charlotte the excellent idea of inspecting the area more closely, perhaps with her mouth. But just as she was about to put her plan into action, Wolfgang leaned abruptly forward. Suddenly, instead of being perched on his thighs, she was tipped backward and clinging to him. The breath whooshed out of her and her lips parted on a gasp.
“Damn it, Charlotte, if you don’t watch out, you’ll be flat on your back and panting my name.”
Her stomach swooped and her legs went liquid. “What if you’re pantingmyname?”
“Even better. Shall I begin?”
Wolfgang lifted her hand, fitted his mouth to the base of her palm, and sucked. “Charlotte,” he muttered into the cup of her hand.
She felt it like an ache.
Her head tipped back and her hips rocked forward, and Wolfgang turned his attention to her neck.
“Charlotte,” he groaned, and gave her throat a small, rough lick.
She gasped again, which made him mutter, “Christ, Charlotte!” and tip her farther over, one hand tight on her ass and the other forming a cradle for the back of her head as he dropped his mouth to hers and kissed her hard.
God, she loved his tongue in her mouth. She sucked him deeper as she clung to him, clutching his jaw, tightening her legs around him, and rubbing her breasts against his chest. He gripped her harder, one big hand frantically kneading the globe of her ass as her insides melted and everything went swollen and slippery.
“Fuck.” Wolfgang wrenched them both up straight and lifted her firmly off him, planting her in the middle of the bed.
Charlotte could only sway unsteadily. Where there had once been acres of man, there was now nothing but night air, too cold after the heat of him.
“Wolfgang?” She was appalled at how weak she sounded.
But he was sitting on the side of the bed, his arms on his knees and his face buried in his hands.
