“The last of my blunt, too. I’ll have to rely on my name and credit from now on.” Jack winked at her. “Come here.” He tugged on her arm, and she stumbled into him. It was an awkward tangle of limbs for a moment as Maddie tried to move away without touching him and Jack tried to pull her closer. Finally, he took her shoulders and held her still. “Calm down. You’ve got straw in your hair.”
“Oh.” Maddie giggled. Her stomach felt like it was in knots, and she couldn’t stop trembling. “Straw.” She felt like a silly schoolgirl before an examination.
Except her tutors had usually been women. Clothed women.
Jack reached out, slowly, and Maddie felt his hand caress her hair. He pulled a piece of straw from the mess and then reached for her again.
“More?” she asked, her voice high-pitched and nervous.
“Mmm-hmm.” His hand cupped the back of her head, fingers entangling in her long curls. “More.”
He bent to kiss her, his mouth cool and moist from his earlier swim. He was still dripping wet, dampening her own clothing, but as soon as she felt his body press up against hers, she forgot about keeping her clothing dry.
She was hungry for him, hungry to feel that skin she had so admired against her own skin, and hungry for the taste of his mouth. She had gone too long without his lips on hers.
And when she finally got her first taste of him, it was like coming home. It felt so right and so wicked and so . . . shallow. She wanted more. She wanted to kiss him deeper, more thoroughly, until she could not get enough.
She responded to his kiss by devouring him with abandon. She would have been embarrassed at her enthusiasm if she’d been able to think of anything other than the sleek skin of his chest beneath the pads of her fingers and the strength of his arms as they pulled her closer.
They stumbled, Jack pulling her forward so that her shoes were soon wet and mired in the sand of the pond. But she didn’t care. His hands had slipped the shoulders of her gown down, and his lips were teasing her ear, her neck, the spot at the base of neck and shoulder.
Maddie shivered when his hands cupped her breasts, kneading them and pulling her gown down to reveal her to his gaze and the cool morning air.
“Wait,” he said.
She had closed her eyes, and now opened them and stared at him. Wasn’t she supposed to tell him to wait?
He ran his fingers through his wet hair again, and Maddie had to restrain herself from wrapping her arms around him and stepping back into the circle of his naked arms.
“Slow down,” he said. “In a moment I’ll have you on your back, waterlogged, your skirt up around your neck.”
The idea didn’t sound unappealing, as long as he kept rubbing his warm skin over her and touching her with those talented fingers and that persuasive mouth.
But then he stepped back and she saw that what she had assumed was his hip pressing against her abdomen was actually quite another part of him entirely. Hard, swollen, and thick, the sight of his manhood sent a tremor of fear shooting through her.
“Perhaps you are right,” she said, moving back farther. “We should take this slow.”
Jack took her elbow, halting her retreat. “Not that slow,” he said, mischief in his eyes. “I want time to undress you. See you. Savor you.”
“Undress me?” Maddie said, trying to step away again. “But—” She gestured helplessly to the open space around them.
Jack gestured to his own naked form. “It’s only fair.”
Maddie didn’t have an argument for that, and yet, she felt she needed to argue. It was one thing to kiss Jack and become swept away in the moment, quite another to allow him to make love to her outside, in broad daylight. In the sunshine, she couldn’t even pretend she wasn’t Lady Madeleine. And though Lady Madeleine would certainly do her duty by her husband, that did not mean she would do so with wanton disregard for propriety.
“I know that look.” Jack reached out and stroked her forehead. “Stop worrying. In fact, don’t think at all. Just feel.”
He caressed her cheek, touched her chin, and then moved his hand to run his fingers along the sensitive skin of her collarbone. Maddie shivered as he drew her in and kissed her lightly, his hands reaching back to unfasten her gown.
“Jack,” she murmured. “I don’t know about this.”
“Shh,” he said, bending to kiss her neck as he slipped the gown farther down. “You can’t bathe fully clothed.” His breath was warm on her ear, and his hands had worked her gown down over her hips and were lingering there. “You do want a bath, don’t you?”
She dearly wanted a bath. She couldn’t wait to rinse off all the grime from their journey.
But a bath with Jack watching?
He removed her stays, then reached for her chemise, and Maddie’s hands caught his. “I should keep this on.”
