He stared at her for such a long moment, she began to fear something in him had broken.
“Luna,” he breathed again at last, and his head inclined toward hers. She closed her eyes, ready to surrender to all the possibilities of this night, and then . . .
He was kissing her.
Nigel Grimm.
Her boss, the Dark Sorcerer.
The man whose mouth she’d been fantasizing about for far longer than she cared to admit.
He was kissing her.
Kissing her like she was the most delicate, most precious thing in all worlds, in all realities.
Kissing her like an act of worship, a sacred, holy rite. He was the acolyte at the altar of her lips, here to make supplication. A kiss so careful. So respectful. So restrained. And yet, somehow, that tiny brush of his lips against hers ignited an explosion of heat which roared through Luna’s body and churned low in her belly.
He drew back. Just an inch, no more. His forehead rested against hers, and their shivering breaths mingled as he gave her a chance to pull away. But she didn’t.
Instead, with a little whimper in her throat, she let her lips seek his again, quivering slightly with uncertain need. He reacted at once, claiming her mouth more firmly this time. There was a sense of command, as though he was guiding her, molding her into the proper shape. His was a leadership meant to instill her with trust, and she felt her whole body and being opening up to him in response.
Her hand fluttered up, resting on his shoulder, while his hand, which had gripped her arm, slid down to her waist then wrapped around the small of her back, pulling her against him. Her heart trembled in response to that maneuver, and when his mouth slotted over hers more completely, she leaned in. He changed the angle of his head, deepened the kiss, and it must have been a work of magic, for an explosion of fiery butterflies sprang to life and thrilled on a million sparkling wings through her chest.
This!Luna thought, her head whirling with heady wonder.This is what Auntie Arabella’s darning-basket novels were talking about! Oh, it was this all along!
He still held one of her hands clasped tight, their interlaced fingers pinned between her breast and his waistcoat. She could feel her heart throbbing against her own knuckles. She released him and slipped her fingers to his chest, sliding up to the portion of skin revealed by his partially-unbuttoned shirt. Her fingertips grazed flesh, and he gasped, his mouth widening even as it remained pressed against hers. That widening caused her own lips to part and her eyes to open, and she found herself staring up into his burning blue gaze, so very close, as they panted against each other.
Then his hand, still caught between their two heaving chests, slipped up her sternum, up the column of her throat, and wrapped around the back of her head, fingers tangling in her hair. With a moaning sigh, Luna let her eyes fall closed, let him drag her in deeper, his lips plying hers with exhilarating pressure. He tasted like spiced tea and sugar, and she drank him in, clasping the back of his neck, pulling him closer even as she pressed her body flush against his and—
A rattling at the door sounded moments before it creaked open. A voice burst across Luna’s awareness, bewildered and desperate and so very alone, crying: “Mr. Grimm! I saw your light on across the way! Oh, Mr. Grimm, you simplymusthelp me!”
And even as Mrs. Goddard stumbled into the kitchen from the darkened alley, Luna sprang from the arms of her employer and fled to the far side of the table, hiding her swollen lips behind a trembling hand.
One moment she was there. Warm in his arms. Her supple mouth angled under his, soft and succulent. And he felt his very soul ascending to the heights of heaven, every long-suppressed wish fulfilled, every desire within his grasp . . .
Only to suddenly find himself blinking stupidly down into the wrinkled, careworn face of his landlady, who was boo-hooing loudly as she gripped the front of his waistcoat.
Hold on a second. Had he dreamt the whole thing? Had his mind cracked under the pressure of unfulfilled passion, creating a fantasy out of thin air? But no. No, for Luna was still present. His dazed and confused eyes spotted her on the far side of the kitchen where she’d fled. She stood with her back to him, her shoulders hunched, her hands up as though she might be covering her face. She was shaking like a leaf, and Nigel vividly recalled how she’d trembled beneath his mouth. Echoes of her delicate whimpers lingered in his ears, along with the memory of her yielding body responding to the pressure of his hands, molding against his torso—
“I don’t know who else toturnto!”
Nigel blinked hard as his landlady’s voice broke through the thudding in his pulse. Forcing himself to look down again, he watched her rough, rosy little face come hazily back into focus, upturned to his and framed by the laces of her old-fashioned cap. “Oh, Mr. Grimm!” she wailed. “There must besomethingyou can do!”
“Mrs. erm, Goddard. Yes.” Nigel shook his head, struggling to remember her name, struggling to remember how his own voice functioned, to recall how lips were managed when they weren’t applied to the glorious purpose of kissing Luna Talbot. “You, erm, you seem distressed. Please, sit down and, erm—”
“Oh, no, there’s notime!”Mrs. Goddard’s plump little fists gripped the front of his waistcoat, and she shook him with all the might in her aged arms. “You’ve got to get down to the harbor! You’re the only one who can stop him!”
“Wait.” Nigel blinked again, his mouth opening and closing stupidly. “Wait, what are we talking about here?”
“It’s me son!” The old lady sobbed and buried her face in the front of Nigel’s waistcoat. “He’s gone and thrown his lot in with them awful Brute Boys. That bootlegger gang, you know, what everyone says deals in sorcerous goods? My boy’s best mate, that wretched Rodney Rookshanks, was up at our house at supper, and he was telling my Tobias, he was, ‘It’s now or never, Tobe! Tonight’s gonna be real money. This shipment’s gotta be moved, and the Big Man himself is gonna be there. If you want in, I can get you in.’ Of course, I told that Rodney he was a disgrace to his mother’s name and he wouldn’t get any more pudding from me! But when I sent him on his way, Tobias grabbed his hat and said he would go too. I begged him not to, but he’sthatstubborn, is that boy! And now he’s gonna get himself mixed up withsorcerersdown at the warehouse district and . . . and . . .”
Luna, still standing on the far side of the kitchen, whirled around abruptly. Her cheeks, all delicately flushed, drainedsuddenly of color. “Wait!” she cried softly. “Did you say the warehouse district, Mrs. Goddard?”
Nigel’s gaze locked on her. All other voices and concerns of the moment were mere clamor compared to his need to read her face, to study in her features whether or not he’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. Whether or not he’d offended or hurt her in any way. He’d felt her responding to him with all the passion he could possibly hope for, but then she’d pulled away so fast. Was it mere shyness at being caughtinflagranti?Or did she actually want to get away from him? Gods above, he should have known better than to let his feelings get the better of him! He’d meant to be so careful, so chaste, to do nothing that might frighten her. But once he tasted her, once he felt her beating heart and the warm sweetness of her body in his arms then—
“Yes!” Mrs. Goddard cried shrilly, turning to Luna. “He’s heading down that way this very moment! Says he’ll be rich as blazes before the night’s over, but Oh! I just know my dear boy is going to get scooped up by the wardsmen. Or worse!”
Luna’s hand gripped the back of a kitchen chair, knuckles whitening. “I’m afraid you might be right, Mrs. Goddard,” she said and turned to Nigel, her dark eyes brilliant with fear. Fear of him? After what he’d just done to her? Or—
