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“We have to go slowly,” he breathed against her lips, not saying why, but she knew. “We have time. I want to taste you, lick you.” He ran his tongue along the inside of her lips. “Touch you.” He moved his hand up to just below her breast but did not raise it any higher. He just left it there, against her ribs, but the fact it was there, so close to the nipple, which was already yearning for his touch, made it feel excruciating. Now, he took his time, touching her so softly, so gently, she felt as if their lips were merging into one. He ran his free hand more slowly up and down her body and into her hair until she groaned.
“We should not be doing this,” she said against his mouth.
“No,” he agreed.
“But it feels so good.”
“Agreed,” he laughed. “And if a girl can’t be thoroughly kissed on her birthday, when can she be?”
He was nipping at her lips as he spoke. He brought his hand around to touch the locket at her throat.
“It is so beautiful,” she said. “I shall treasure it forever.”
The look in his eyes darkened, but he did not say anything.
They were coming closer to Arundel. It was still light, and there were other carriages on the track coming out of town. Reluctantly, they pulled apart, and he moved to sit on the seat opposite her. Still, below the level of the carriage windows, he reached across and put a hand on her knee over her gown. He moved his fingers very gently to caress her there, and then, almost as if he was not speaking to her at all but to himself, he said, “You are intoxicating.”
His fingers were tracing the contours of her knee, making her whole leg tingle.
“You have a very destabilizing effect on me,” she admitted.
He grinned devilishly. “Good.”
As the horses pulled the carriage up towards the castle gate, with Will’s horse still trotting behind, he said, “I have something else for you.”
She turned a quizzical glance on him. “More?”
“I will get Dante put away in the stables, and then I will bring it to your bedchamber.” Then, even before she could frame a protest, he presented his palm to her. “No arguments.”
Jennings met her at the door.
“Did you have a lovely time, Your Grace?”
“You knew,” she accused him, smiling.
“Of course, Your Grace,” he smiled widely back.
After placing all of her gifts on her dressing table, she moved to the chair next to the fire that was already lit in her bedchamber. Her hand went to the locket around her neck. She never expected him to buy her such a lavish gift.
Will did not arrive right away, and the activities of the afternoon had worn herout. She closed her eyes and fell asleep while sitting there waiting.
Will sat and watched her as she slept.
He had let himself into her bedchamber after she had not responded to his light tap on the door. She was fast asleep in the chair when he entered. She had her legs extended in front of her and her hands crossed in her lap. The glow of the fire made the scene pretty enough to paint. He set what he was carrying on the dressing table, then took her dressing table chair and moved it over to place it by the fire, then sat down too.
In the orange glow, her skin appeared even more ceramic. Her hair was still pulled back in a French plait, as it had been all afternoon, but tendrils were escaping and she appeared less pristine. He much preferred her wild look.
He had an overwhelming desire to unravel it, but doing so would wake her, which he didn't want. So he sat and watched her chest rise and fall with her breathing, allowing himself to relax as well.
Rose groaned in her sleep and moved slightly in the chair. He got up and went to the dressing table to collect the bottle of French Claret he had bought in London before he left, two glasses, and a corkscrew.
When she finally woke, about an hour later, he was half-sitting, half-lying, on the dressing table chair, with a half-drunk glass of claret in one hand, studying her.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” She asked, stretching languorously in the chair.
“I was enjoying the view,” his eyes twinkled. “And drinking my way through your present.”
He watched as she noted the label of the expensive wine. She lifted her arms above her head to stretch, and the rise of her bodice went upwards with the movement. He feasted his eyes on the curves visible above the empire bust.
