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“I’ll lock it,” she offered, gliding across the room to turn the key. “There, now you needn’t worry.”
“Oh yes, I have every need to worry. Katherine, you don’t know what trouble you’re courting. You say you want me to kiss you again, but do you know what you’re asking of me? How difficult—” He broke off.
“Difficult? What’s difficult about kissing me? You seemed to enjoy it the last two times we did it.”
He made a noise of frustration and knotted the piece of linen more firmly about his waist. “You are an innocent, Katherine. The truth is, so am I, but I just happen to know more than you. And what I do know is that for a start, if we were discovered alone in my bedchamber, with me all but naked, your marital chances would be severely compromised.”
Katherine shrugged. “I don’t see how that’s even a concern. For a start, the door’s bolted so no one is going to know we’re in your bedchamber together. And second, you didn’t seem the least bit concerned the last time you kissed me.” Leisurely, she took a step towards him and put her arms about his waist again, pressing her nose into his chest and breathing in. “You smell very nice, Jack. Comforting. And manly. Not at all like Lord Derry who smells of cigarillos. He makes me want to sneeze. So, are you going to kiss me? And if you then feel like doing all those other things you’re so worried people will think we’re doing, I give you complete liberty to go right ahead and do them.”
He unclasped her hands that were laced about his stomach as if stung. “Good God, Katherine; I don’t think you even know what you’re saying.”
Although the look she sent him was knowing and self-contained, the beginnings of a great excitement were now churning in her chest and belly. “I know exactly what I’m saying. I felt some of it when you kissed me, Jack. So I asked Aunt Antoinette, and…she told me everything. It’s not only because of Mama’s pearl earring that I’m here.”
Jack had turned away and was now at the foot of the bed where he’d laid his coat. After fishing in the pocket, he turned, brandishing the earring. “Here you have it. Mr Marwick was not too happy to relinquish it, but I can be a persuasive fellow when I need to be. And now I need to persuade you of what’s good for you, which is to leave my bedchamber right this moment and go back to your own bed. Before any damage is done,” he added.
But Katherine was not to be dissuaded.
She took the earring with a smile; her eyes fixed level with his chest. “Thank you, Jack.” Experimentally, she touched his right nipple and felt it harden. She gave a soft gasp and raised her eyes, gripping his wrist and forcing his hand to cup her breast. “I had the same reaction. Oh, please kiss me, Jack?” she asked urgently. “Please. If I’m to be married, I want to know what to expect, and you’re the dearest person in my life. I feel safe with you. And Aunt Antoinette knows everything to make it all right—whatever that means. I just want to know what being married feels like so I can make an informed decision when the time comes. Kiss me, Jack.” Again, she tipped up her head. “Just start with one little kiss. Please.”
He looked as if he might resist, but when Katherine closed her eyes, it was only a second before Jack’s lips were on hers, and she was twining her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her.
Her heart began to race, and blood heated the surface of her skin. Her breath came in short, sharp bursts and, barely breaking the kiss, she dragged him to the bed, scrambling onto the counterpane where he joined her a moment later.
“Katherine.” She stopped whatever he was about to say with another kiss, kneeling by his side and bending over him.
His arms reached for her, and he pulled her down so that she was against his side. The candle flickered, then suddenly went out, and they were plunged into darkness with only the feel of their bodies to guide them.
“Katherine, we mustn’t do this.”
“We must. Aunt Antoinette told me it’s an important part of choosing one’s future husband.”
“But that’s not me, Katherine, much as I would like—”
“You would?” she asked, delighted.
“Yes, but I’m going away, and I can’t take a wife, and you’re in London to choose a husband befitting your station in life. We both know that.”
She stroked his cheek, thinking. “But you’d help me if I ever needed help and you could provide it, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would.”
“So that’s what I want you to do now. Offer me your help. You’re kind and safe and gentle, and I’m asking you to show me what to expect and what to feel so that I’m prepared when I make the hugely important decision regarding my future husband.”
“But it won’t feel the same, Katherine, so it’s not a good enough excuse to do what I would love nothing more than to do with you, but which could ruin you.”
“It won’t ruin me. Nobody will know.”
“There might be…consequences. It’s too dangerous.”
Jack sounded like he was determined to find an excuse for everything but Katherine was more determined to have her way. Jack had been the most marvellous kisser. That had been very helpful to discover. Now she needed to know about that other, more intimate aspect of marriage and what to expect. How terrible if she didn’t like it. She really had to know before she committed herself to a lifetime of it.
“Aunt Antoinette said she knew how to ensure there weren’t consequences, so it’s not dangerous. Oh, please, Jack. I do love you, you know.”
Katherine had never felt greater excitement in her life as she pinioned Jack beneath her, rolling against his side once she’d established his exact position and that they were not in danger of falling out of bed.
“I love you, too, Katherine.” He sounded sad and regretful. “That’s why I don’t think this is a good idea.” He hesitated. “I couldn’t bear the idea of hurting the person I love most in the world.”
She loved the feel of him, the contours and soft, springy hair of his chest, the responsive nipples beneath her fingertips. And she loved his words. Jack was making her feel like the most precious woman in the world right now.
