His hands loosened.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Finding a candle. The dark...’
And then she understood. Even now he thought of her fear; she hadn’t given it a thought. ‘I’m not afraid. I can’t be—not with you here.’
‘Alice.’ He bent his head and kissed her cheek, her temple.
She felt the warmth of his breath, the heat of his body.
‘You told me to see the light in the dark.’ She wrapped her arms around him. Held him tightly. ‘Thisis the light in our dark.’
She lifted herself to kiss his jaw, his cheek. Felt the scratch of his beard, the heat of his skin. It was Hugh she touched, whom she brushed her kisses against.
‘This moment is for us. This is our light.’
Upon a groan he captured her lips with his. His mouth slanting, parting her lips, tasting her. Brutal. Claiming. Her hand twined around his neck, pulling him closer even as he pulled away. She locked her fingers into his tunic.
‘Alice...’ he said in warning, his breath hot against her skin.
‘Please, Hugh.’
‘Not like this. Not when I know—’
‘This may be all we have.’
A sound choked out of him. ‘There’s a fire over there—let me make the flames higher.’
She didn’t want to let him go. She moved the only thing she could—her lips, her breath. Her heart thumped against his.
‘I don’t need to see you,’ she said.
A sound of disgruntlement or a sound of approval as she continued her kisses, as she caressed and stroked along the cords of his neck, the blades of his shoulders.
‘I want to seeyou.’ The darkness of the room heightened his voice, heightened the raw emotion there.
She’d let him go and he’d leave. She knew it.
‘Not yet,’ she whispered.
She skimmed her palms along his face, her fingers clumsily caressing the soft wet heat of his lips. When they had pressed against hers they had felt firm with intent, with purpose. She wanted that purpose and intent again, but he was holding himself away from her even as her thumb caressed the fullness of his bottom lip. More touches along his jaw, below the curve of his ears...
‘Don’t make us wait, Hugh. Not any more. I won’t have it.’
She felt the tension in him increase, felt his control burn hotter. ‘But here, Alice? Now? There is so much more for you.’
‘Shh...’ she said, pressing against him until his body shuddered. ‘There’s no more than this.’
‘Is it enough?’ He clenched her tighter, closer, dipped his head. His lips hovering over hers until they shared breath.
She didn’t need her eyes to know that this was real.Hewas real. Here...holding her. She’d seen him enough in her dreams, but never to touch. Their touch was the truth for her.
‘Is it enough?’ he repeated.
‘This is all that matters.’
He lifted her, and his lips captured hers. Not in desperation, but in a slanting of lips, of effortlessly pressed desire. And she felt everything between them, waiting for them both.
