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Chapter Nine
When Thaddeus kissed her with hunger, it awakened something inside Perdie. Something desperate. Something that craved his kiss and his touch. If this was what being ravished felt like, she should have kissed him that day by the river. He licked slowly across the parted seam of her mouth. Then he kissed her, hard and deep.
As he pulled her closer, fitting her body against his, she threaded her fingers into his hair. The silken strands poured over her skin. Perdie fisted her hand, anchoring herself there, and he groaned into her mouth. A shiver swept through her, but not one of fear. At the moment, she felt anything but fear. She felt as though she could conquer the world. She could certainly conquer him.
A faint alarm rang in the back of her mind, urging her to pull away. However, a sweet ache trembled low in her belly, and a weak feeling assailed her. Only a moment more. Perdie gave herself up to the feel of his mouth moving over hers, to the seductive thrust of his tongue and the press of his body. All of him was rock-hard, solid. A lucky thing, for she felt as though she might melt in his arms.
The rain drummed against the roof and poured down the sides of the folly. She was still damp and ought to have been shivering from the cold, but Thaddeus’s touch was like a brand. It chased away all chills, all discomfort, all thought. Her world narrowed to the press of his fingers against her hips. To the breaths they exchanged.
He lifted her, but her sodding wet skirts got in the way. They broke apart, almost feverish. And Perdie thought the moment might have slipped away. But Thaddeus ran the pads of his fingers along her cheek.
His touch brought on that temporary insanity, the devil-may-care attitude she wanted to embrace, for once. There was no one there to see them. He didn’t even know her full name, nor Perdie his. This moment was only for the two of them. Perdie could kiss him over and over, indulging in all the carnal wonder sweeping through her.
His thumb traced her lower lip. “You make me forget myself.” His Scottish burr was thick in his voice, as hot as the look in his eyes.
“Don’t recall yourself now. I feel like I never want to stop kissing you.”
He groaned and swept her up in his arms to kiss her. A delightful shiver of want ran through her, and she moaned into his mouth. Without releasing her from his drugging kisses, Thaddeus carried her two strides farther into the folly before lowering onto his knees and laying her gently on the chaise longue. Thaddeus pressed hot along her side as he stretched himself up to kiss her once again. The damp cloth clinging to her skin was an afterthought, an added sensation as he ran his palm down her side toward her hip. As he passed her breast, his thumb grazed along its side, and something primal overtook her body. She chased the sensation, arching her spine, but he didn’t linger where she most wanted him.
He touched her mouth with a finger, the caress almost unbearable in its tenderness. “You’re so beautiful,” he muttered, his voice hoarse with desire.
His head was very near hers, and his hair fell in a curtain between them and the world beyond.
“Kiss me.” It was a breathless plea. “I never knew kisses could make me crave…except I am not sure what I crave, Thaddeus, but I suspect you know.”
He kissed her. A gentle butterfly of a kiss, barely gracing her lips before he pulled away. “Like that?”
Perdie gripped the nape of his neck and pulled him closer. “No, like this.”
This time, the mating of their mouths turned hot, urgent. She let him bear her down on the wide chaise, more of his weight settling over her.
He held himself poised above her, his chest moving in swift breaths as he surveyed her. She didn’t look away, even as mortification started to settle across her cheeks and make her want to squirm. She was asking for something she didn’t quite know how to attain; she needed him to lead the way.
In one swift move, he pulled the sodden shirt over his head. It had concealed precious little of him, the white linen having long since turned transparent, but somehow seeing his bare skin left her speechless. He rolled the shirt into a pad and eased it behind her neck.
“Better?”
She didn’t have the words to answer.
He shifted his weight onto one hand, waiting for something. She didn’t know what. His abdominal muscles rippled as he held his weight off of her.
“Have I overstepped?”
“No.” The words slipped free of her lips, freeing her of the paralysis that had overcome her upon seeing his naked body. She reached for him, grazing her fingers over the shape of his collarbone. He swallowed and closed his eyes briefly. As if he savored this light touch from her. “You’re gorgeous, Thaddeus.”
She had never thought of a man as beautiful before, but at this moment, he was. He was supremely fit, the muscles of his shoulders and chest begging for her touch. Thaddeus looked powerful, his chest broad and muscular. Perdie trailed light fingers over his hot skin and returned her gaze to his face. He hadn’t moved. He seemed almost in pain.
“Is this too much?”
“It isn’t enough,” he ground out. And then, losing a battle with himself, he lowered himself onto her once more to kiss her slow and devouring, leaving her mouth burning with fire.
Perdie reveled in this kiss. She ran her hands over his bare skin. Shy at first but growing bolder each time his breath caught in his throat or he groaned under his breath. The smooth skin of his chest, back and shoulders made her want to press herself to him, especially when he readjusted the angle of their kiss to wedge himself between her thighs.
What had been languorous and exploratory turned urgent and passionate. She caught his lower lip between her teeth. He leaned back, and she didn’t let him move far, following him so they didn’t break their kiss.
One of Thaddeus’s big hands slipped to her lower back. He splayed his fingers. The other hand moved frantically behind her, undoing her buttons and the laces of her stays beneath.
“I didn’t realized you had breeches under your dress.”
