But his lips were soft. She couldn’t resist touching them with her finger. They were pliant and yielding, so unlike the rest of him.
The longer she looked at those lips, the more she wanted to press her own against them, to taste him one more time.
The last time.
She stared at his eyes, listening for his even breathing. Satisfied, she leaned forward and pressed her lips gently against his.
It was a sweet kiss, light and innocent and quick. Maddie allowed her mouth to rest on Blackthorne’s for only a moment, then made to pull away. But it was too late.
His hand on her back tightened and pulled her closer, and his lips came alive under hers, pressing hard against her mouth. His eyes opened. “Nice to know I wasn’t the only one with that idea this morning. What else do you have in mind?”
Maddie tried to move away. She tried to shake her head but was pressed so tightly against him, she couldn’t escape.
“Nothing,” she said against his lips, and it was almost as though she kissed him again without intending to. “I—I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
He rose on one elbow and looked down at her. “I’m glad you did.”
“Me, too,” she whispered. As soon as the sun rose, she would behave as she ought. But in the few precious moments before, she wanted to behave as she desired.
Her heart was pounding now, beating so hard that she was afraid he could feel it. She waited and wondered what he’d do next. She should have known this would happen. She should have expected him to awake and respond.
And perhaps that was what she’d wanted all along. Perhaps she had tempted fire because she wanted to be burned.
He raised a brow at her. “You touched me,” he said, voice low and incredibly sensuous.
All the tiny hairs on her body stood up, and she couldn’t stop a shiver from running through her body. No doubt he felt it and knew what it meant.
She prayed the sun would never rise. She loved being held in his arms. She relished the feel of their bodies pressed together. She wanted to be closer. She wanted to do more, and she didn’t want to think about all the reasons that she shouldn’t. That she couldn’t.
In the gray darkness, it was just the two of them, alone in the world. Nothing else mattered.
“I won’t touch you again,” she said, “not if you don’t want me to.” But even as she said it, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She couldn’t tear her eyes from his, and so she saw the way they darkened at her touch.
Touch me, Jack. Quick, before the sun rises.
“And what if I want you to touch me again? What if I want to touch you?”
Yes, please. Hurry.
Maddie licked her lips. “I suppose it’s only fair.”
“Fair?” Jack chuckled. “Oh, I’m not going to be fair.” And he dipped his mouth to hers.
Chapter Ten
She tasted like candied plums. Her mouth was ripe and sweet, and Jack couldn’t get enough of it. He couldn’t get enough of her, and she must have felt the same because she pulled him tighter against her.
He was already hard. He’d wakened when she had, felt her stirring beside him, felt her breathing change, and he’d instantly left sleep behind. His cock must have wakened even earlier. No surprise, considering that he was pressed against a warm, female backside, his hand cupping an ample breast.
Jack’s first instinct had been to move closer to her, come as near to burying himself in her soft flesh as he could without divesting her of her clothing. His second instinct was to fondle the flesh cupped in his hand.
He did neither. Instead, he lay unmoving and waited for the urges to pass. He tried to think of something innocuous and boring. He attempted to focus on tax reform then the price of corn and had turned, desperately, to the war in the former colonies, when, much to his surprise, she turned toward him and touched him.
He could handle her touch, if he concentrated on someone unappealing like Oliver Cromwell, but when those sweet, candied lips latched onto his, that was the end of his self-control. Oliver Cromwell be damned.
He had to have more of Maddie. He’d been wanting more of her since the first moment he saw her, his need poking him like a jutting spring in a worn chair.
Now, he slipped his tongue inside her mouth, expecting to be rebuffed, expecting resistance, but she offered none. She opened for him, invited him in. No time to question, Jack accepted the invitation and stroked her tongue with his. She shuddered again, and he felt his own arousal double at her excited response.
