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Rising on her toes, she stretched toward those beguiling male lips. “You’re talking too much.”
Still he held apart. Curse him. Did he mean to drive her mad? “Now you’re getting the idea.”
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
“Excellent.” Except he no longer looked in charge. Instead he looked as dazed as she felt.
“Kiss me, Giles.”
One more excruciating second of delay, before his grip on her waist tightened with unmistakable purpose. “Damn it, Serena,” he groaned as his mouth crashed down on hers.
Chapter Four
* * *
Through the rush of blood to his head, Giles heard Serena’s shocked gasp. Before he could tell himself to move away, to treat her with the respect she deserved, she curved so close that he felt every inch of her warm, lovely body.
Ridiculous that in all his years of fantasizing about kissing Serena Talbot, Giles had never imagined that he’d ever have the real woman trembling in his arms. Yet as she pressed against him with such eagerness, waves of shivering combed through her.
It was poignantly moving to know that he was the first man to taste those luscious pink lips. He took his time, letting her grow accustomed to the kiss. Yet still the doors of heaven remained closed against him. Although at least now, she made some attempt to join in. Greedy hands closed around his arms, and her lips moved with subtle interest against his.
Too subtle.
He trailed his lips along her cheek, and his hold on her waist firmed. Essence of Serena filled the air. Flowers. Lemon soap. A tinge of feminine warmth that was new. “Open your mouth, Serena,” he murmured.
She started with surprise. “Open? That seems…odd.”
He smiled and nuzzled her silky hair, tied up in its usual loose knot. If fate ever granted him a moment’s true privacy, he’d tug every pin free, until that golden mass cascaded over his hands.
“I know what I’m doing.”
“I don’t,” she said shakily. Despite her fears, she turned to glance her mouth across his with a beguiling mixture of hesitation and boldness. His heart crashed against his ribs. Heat seared away all thought of where he was, including the knowledge that the village church wasn’t the most discreet site for a tryst.
Their lips, barely parted, clung, and he tasted her sweet, humid breath. He slipped his tongue into the honey interior, letting her rich flavor flood his senses. She made a soft sound—protest or acceptance, he couldn’t say. Then with beguiling enthusiasm, she angled up, and her mouth flowered under his. He tasted her deeply, as darkness invaded his head and desire gushed through his veins.
She was delicious, glorious, marvelous. Better than his dreams.
Her tongue fluttered against his, and it was his turn to groan in wordless encouragement. The kiss took fire, and he caught her up against him, lashing his arms around her, wishing to hell that he never had to let her go. A tiny glimmer of reason warned him that he went too far, too fast.
The angels who watch over foolish girls too trusting for their own good must have been listening. He became aware of a sound that didn’t belong in this paradise.
Serena must have heard it, too, because she stiffened without, he was pleased to note, moving away. “Someone’s trying to get in,” she said on a mere breath of sound.
“I locked it. I told you,” he said into her ear and couldn’t resist biting her earlobe.
“Giles…” she protested on a sensual shiver. “People will talk.”
“Let them. Nobody knows who’s in here.”
The heavy iron handle rattled again, then fell silent. Serena stared up at Giles with an expression he couldn’t read.
“See?” he murmured. “I said they’d go away. Shall I kiss you again?”
A pretty blush, visible through the gloom, colored her cheeks. “You know, I’ve never really…seen you before.”
Satisfaction flooded him. What a long way they’d come in an afternoon. For once, she wasn’t thinking about Paul. She was thinking about Giles Farraday.
How could he bear to send her away? He might go back to being invisible.
