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Caroline shifted closer. “We probably shouldn’t be doing a lot of things this summer.”
“I don’t mean to protest all of them.”
“Simply the public ones?” She lifted her arm from behind her and clasped Arabella’s hand, moving their hands to rest in Arabella’s lap. “Are you sure? I could find a way to pleasure you right here on this swing, without anyone being the wiser.”
Arabella gasped. “Iwould be the wiser!” She could feel the flush starting to creep up her neck. “And you know that I am not able to keep quiet.”
“This is true.” She withdrew her hand from Arabella’s grasp and inched up her thigh until the edge of her hand was gently pressed against her lower belly. “But who would hear? Matthew and Rachel are not home. You have no neighbors to the left of you anymore since thatdreadfulReeve family left. The hedge around the garden is high enough to shield us from anyone’s view. Are you sure you don’t wish to indulge?”
Indulge.
Arabella was certain that she was ready to come apart at the merest brush of Caroline’s hand. She craved to give in, to allow her legs to fall apart and to beg Caroline to press with urgent fingers against her center, to muffle her scream against her shoulder as she felt pleasure wrack her body like a shipwreck as the swing swayed beneath them, suspending them somewhere between heaven and earth.
She wanted it. The sunlight beating on her face, the sea air in her nose as she shattered, as natural and wild with abandon in the sexual act as any of God’s creatures that roamed the countryside.
The naughtiness of it made her ache in all the right places, and even now she wanted to arch her hips to meet Caroline’s hand, giving her unspoken permission to touch and stroke and press and caress.
But it wouldn’t be enough.
She didn’t want to give in to persuasion, and she wanted more than a furtive encounter. More than a kiss or a come on a bench, a hurried embrace, no time to even take off her dress.
“Come with me to the attic,” Arabella said instead. “We can be private there.”
Caroline stepped off the swing and offered her hand to help Arabella step down. “I would be delighted to take a tour of your studio.”
Arabella harbored a hope that Caroline was watching her bottom as she ascended the stairs and was rewarded by her sly smile when she glanced behind her. She flung the shutters open to let the afternoon light stream in.
“I had forgotten how sparse it is up here,” Caroline said.
The studio ran half the length of the attic, the other half being the servants’ quarters. The desk with her painting supplies was pressedagainst the wall beneath the window. There were stacks of papers and canvases, and a chair with a deep cushion where she liked to sit when she wanted to escape from the rest of the household.
Furniture and wooden chests for household storage were stacked in the far end of the attic. Arabella grinned. She strode over and opened the chest nearest to her.
“Sparse, but we can make it comfortable,” she said, holding up a thick winter quilt and a down-stuffed pillow. “These could use a good airing, but I daresay if we were game enough to roll around in the grass outside, we can make good use of this.”
Caroline took one end of the quilt and they spread it on the floor together. “Very snug,” she announced. “We shall want for nothing.”
How could Arabella ever work in here again, with these new memories to clutch so close to her chest?
Arabella kissed Caroline, her hands roving over her hips as she traced her lips with her tongue. She fumbled with the laces at the back of her dress, unwilling to forgo the pleasure of her lips to undress her, and finally the frock was undone and slid from Caroline’s lithe body to pool on the floor at their feet. Arabella removed her stays and shift, and then Caroline stood naked.
Sunlight highlighted the planes and slopes of her body, leaving shadows in her hollows and valleys that Arabella craved to explore with her mouth. She wanted to grab her pencil and commit every beautiful line to the page so she could marvel at perfection any time she wished.
Caroline was elegant in nudity and was made even more beautiful by the mole on her left shoulder, the scatter of freckles across her collarbone, and the charming asymmetry of her breasts, the left being slightly fuller and lower than the right. Her breasts were a perfect handful, her nipples a mouthful, and her hipbones had an angle to them that Arabella stroked with her thumbs as she held Caroline’s hips against her own.
She sucked one of her nipples into her mouth and revelled at the feel of Caroline’s body beneath her mouth, warm and responsive, the faint scent of her lemon soap now the most erotic thing that Arabella could imagine.
“You are rather too clothed,” Caroline murmured, laughter glinting in her eyes.
The most surprising part of lovemaking was that not only was there the endless joy of discovering Caroline’s body, but there was also Caroline’s evident interest in how hers worked too. She had been so caught up in wondering how it would feel to have another woman in her arms that she hadn’t given much thought to how the woman in question would handleher.
It turned out that Caroline handled her like expensive jewelry. Careful, but firm enough that she wouldn’t slip and break apart—unless she wanted to.
She slipped Arabella’s clothing off and then drew her down to the floor. Their legs tangled together as they kissed, and Arabella couldn’t think of a better use for the winter quilts than as a makeshift summer bed.
She ran her hands down Caroline’s body, learning her angles and how she fit against her like they had been made to cleave together. She slipped a hand between Caroline’s thighs and found that she was ready for her, slick with need, encouraging her to slip her finger inside her. Arabella claimed her mouth again as she moved her hand against Caroline’s center, rocking against her with the gentle force that she was learning that Caroline liked.
She stroked another finger inside her and was rewarded with a sweet sound of pleasure that sent a thrill through Arabella. She moved her lips to Caroline’s breast and kissed her nipple as she pressed her fingers against her sensitive nub in a rhythm that soon had Caroline gasping and shuddering beneath her.
