Page 24 of If a Lady Lingers

When he leaned in to kiss her again, she stopped him with a glance over her shoulder at the door. “We really shouldn’t—not here—the children might come back and catch us.” And how on earth would they explainthat? Or ever live down the embarrassment?

“Those stairs creak like an old ship.” He lowered his head and nipped at her jaw. “A cat can’t sneak up them on velvet paws without alerting the entire house. Our own built-in burglar-proof hue and cry. We’ll hear them coming from two floors down.”

She wasn’t at all certain of that, yet she didn’t stop him when he kissed her again. Her breath fled when his mouth captured hers in a kiss that turned from affectionate to heated in a matter of seconds. But then, didn’t he always do this to her—make her lightheaded and breathless with his kisses, which were always so unexpectedly wonderful? If only the rest of the world could know him the way she did, she’d have no hesitations about letting him court her formally and openly. But when he drew so much attention to himself with the way he dressed and laughed, she couldn’t risk that the same attention would also fall onto her.

At that moment, though, all she cared about was the way he was kissing her.

With a soft sigh, she melted against him and parted her lips, inviting him to kiss her in that wonderful way he had of swirling his tongue inside her mouth. He made her tingle and ache and long for his mouth to kiss other parts of her, just as his hands sliding down her back to cup her bottom made her long for his hands to find other ways to please her. When his tongue slipped between her lips in a delectably silken glide, a soft sound that was part sigh, part whimper, and all need rose from the back of her throat.

He pressed her hips against his as the tantalizing swirls and licks of his tongue became pulsating thrusts, relentless in their desire to ravish her mouth. She eagerly let him and tightened her arms around his neck. She could feel the ridge of his manhood pressing against her lower belly, and shamelessly, she rubbed herself against him in wanton curiosity. He groaned an incomprehensible warning.

With a devilish suck of his tongue, she rasped out a playful laugh and wiggled herself against him again. He squeezed her bottom in teasing retaliation.

Her book and pencil dropped to the floor with a soft clatter, and she clasped tightly to his neck as he turned her in a circle and stepped her backward against the teacher’s desk. She leaned back over the desk, and he followed down on top of her. His hands swept up her body to her bosom to caress her through the layers of her clothing as he’d done before. This time, though, he lowered his head and brushed his lips over the top swells of her breasts.

She arched beneath him, lost to the glorious feel of his mouth on her upper chest. But when he tugged down her neckline and slipped his hand inside her bodice—

“Hugh!”

She shivered when he freed her left breast from its stays and placed a soft kiss to her exposed nipple, only for his name to fade into a moan when his lips closed around it and sucked.

Oh, the sensation was exquisite! Each hard pull that took her deeper into his mouth was accompanied by a teasing swirl of his tongue around her nipple, and she grasped the back of his head to pull him down even tighter to her. When he finally lifted his head for breath, her breast slid from between his wet lips with a soft pop that shot an ache straight out the top of her head.

“You have no idea how wonderful you are,” he whispered, staring at her breast while he circled his fingertip around her nipple, which was wet and warm from his mouth. The wanton woman he was awakening inside her wanted his mouth back on her.

“I’m…truly not,” she panted out with an excited tremble when he placed his hand on her leg and began to slowly move his way higher.

“The most wonderful woman I’ve ever known.” His hand stopped on her hip, and the heat of his palm seeped through her dress and into her flesh beneath. He lifted his gaze to stare deeply into her eyes. “You make me feel so happy whenever I’m with you.”

He madeherhappy, too. When they were alone. It was when they were around others that he made her nervous and uncertain. If only it could be just the two of them, just like this, she would have no doubts.

“You have so much life and brilliance inside you.” He placed a kiss so tender to her nipple that she shivered beneath his lips. “Let me share that with you.” His hand slid down between her thighs and rested there. “Please.”

“Yes,” she whispered, knowing she was agreeing to far more than this touch.

He kissed her as his hand began to caress her, and she relaxed against the desk with a deep sigh. The layers of her clothes prevented him from touching bare flesh, with no way to circumvent her skirt the way he’d done with her bodice unless he pulled it up to her waist, which he would never do. Not here. Not like this. But the muslin gave just enough to allow him to stroke down between her thighs and tease over that aching place at her core, just enough for him to press his palm hard against her.

The heat of his hand seeped deliciously into her, and she whimpered softly against his mouth in protest when he didn’t move to stroke her again.

“If we continue,” he warned, knowing what she wanted, “I’ll wrinkle your skirt.”

Her decision came easily. “Then wrinkle it.”

She wiggled her pelvis beneath his hand, cajoling him with her body to continue. She felt his happy smile against her mouth as his hand began to stroke between her legs.

She gasped, not at how intimately he was touching her but at the delicious pleasure. No man had ever done this to her before, and that Hugh Whitby was the man she’d given permission to touch her like this stunned her. But she wanted his touch—no, she craved it, just as she craved his mouth back on her breast and longed for his hand to somehow explore even deeper between her legs.

His caresses grew in intensity, slowly and affectionately, and each one came harder against her until she was panting and trembling. He massaged her breast with one hand while continuing to stroke between her legs with the other, and the dual sensation spun through her like a whirlwind until all she could do was cling to him and let the mounting ache blossom inside her.

“I only want to make you happy,” he murmured against her cheek as he moved his lips away from hers to catch back his own breath. “To bring you pleasure and joy however I can.”

As if reading her mind and knowing what she craved, he ground the heel of his hand against her, exactly at the place that ached the most. Pleasure shot through her, and she felt her body begin to throb wantonly beneath his hand. For a fleeting heartbeat, she worried that he’d be able to feel it, and an embarrassed flush began to heat her cheeks—

Until he did it again, and she no longer cared.

His lips returned to hers. He whispered so softly against them that she barely heard him, “I want to be part of you.”

But her heart understood every word, and the foolish thing soared with happiness.