“Well, you might have said so this afternoon, Kay,” he replied, feeling quite nettled all of a sudden. “I said it first, and you didn’t say it back, leaving me in an agony of suspense, wondering if you were ever going to fall in love with me again.”
“I didn’t want to say it unless I was sure, and when you said it, I wasn’t. But as I watched you walk out of the hotel, headed for Cook’s, I thought of how it would be, me here and you thousands of miles away for weeks or months or maybe even years, and how much that was going to hurt. And I knew I was in love with you. Fourteen years ago, we had the chance for a night like this, Devlin, and we let it pass by. Are you really going to make us wait any longer for a second one?”
Like a dam breaking, all his resolve crumbled to bits, and he caught her in his arms, pulling her hard against him. “Hell, no,” he muttered. “I never make the same mistake twice.”
With that, he bent his head and kissed her.
19
Desire was clawing at him already, but he kept the kiss soft and tender as he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He lifted his other hand to stroke her hair.
It felt like liquid silk, and he lingered a moment, toying with it, twisting strands around his fingers, then, wrapping tresses around his fist, he tilted her head back and deepened the kiss.
Her mouth opened at once in surrender, and as he tasted deeply of her, his heart began to pound hard in his chest. But even this luscious kiss wasn’t enough. He wanted more.
He broke the kiss, pulling back enough to slide his hands between them to untie the sash of her robe. When he pulled the edges of the garment apart, his knuckles brushed her breasts, and just that was enough to send sharp shards of sensation through his body and threaten to break the precarious hold he had on his control.
But he knew he could not let that happen. It had taken them fourteen years to get to this moment, and he wasn’t about to ruin it by rushing things. He had to slow down, so he reluctantly slid his hands away and took a step back, letting her go and earning a cry of dismay from her.
“You’re not stopping?”
Her anxious voice was loud enough that he cupped her face and pressed his thumb to her lips.
“Believe me, Kay,” he said, his voice unsteady to his own ears, “I couldn’t stop now if my life depended on it. But we’ve got to keep our voices down. We’re in a hotel, remember? There’s probably guests on both sides of us.”
She nodded, but when she lifted her hands as if to remove his robe as he had done hers, he grasped her wrists to stop her. “I want this to be right for you, and while I realize that you are no longer a girl of just eighteen, but a very sophisticated woman of thirty-two, I also know that when it comes to lovemaking, I know a bit more than you.”
“Oh, really?” she whispered, frowning a little. “And just how did you acquire this knowledge, hmm?”
“I knew about this before we ever even met,” he assured her, wisely steering clear of the fact that he hadn’t exactly been celibate for the past fourteen years. “Because of that, it’s important that you let me lead.”
“A bit like dancing, then.”
“Very much like dancing.”
“Oh, very well,” she said meekly, but when she flashed him a wicked smile, he feared remaining in charge of this from start to finish was going to prove a Herculean task, and her next words confirmed the fact. “But if you dance too slowly, Devlin, I’m taking over.”
Despite her threat, he let her go and drew back, then raked a hand through his hair and took a moment for a long, deep breath. Having already spent most of the day in a very acute state ofunsated sexual arousal, he willed himself to keep his own desires securely in check and concentrate on hers.
“All right, then,” he said at last and reached up to push her hair back from her shoulders, a move that showed the outline of her hardened nipples beneath the thin fabric of her nightgown, requiring him to take another slow, deep breath, then he lifted his hands and cupped her breasts through the fabric.
There was no corset to get in the way, and he gave a groan of appreciation as he felt her breasts in his hands. She might be slimmer now than she’d been as a girl, but her breasts were lush and full, and he relished the fact as he toyed with them for a bit, embracing their shape and brushing his thumbs over her nipples. Unable to resist, he bent his head, and through the thin muslin of her gown, he took one of her nipples into his mouth.
She gave a sharp gasp, and her knees buckled. Instantly, he wrapped his arm around her waist, but he did not stop. Holding her upright, he suckled her, relishing the quickening of her breathing and the way she shivered in his hold.
After a few moments, he pulled back, but only because he wanted more. “I want to see you,” he said, grasping folds of her nightgown in his fists. “Lift your arms.”
She complied, raising her arms to the ceiling, and he pulled the gown upward and over her head, baring her body completely.
Her skin was flushed a delicate shade of pink, making the freckles scattered across her face, shoulders, and bosom look more like brown sugar than ever. Her breasts were every bit as perfect as his explorations had told him they would be. Her nipples were turgid, showing her arousal, and he once again took her in his arms and bent his head, pressing kisses to her hot cheeks and her chin, thenlower, along her neck and across her clavicle, then lower still to those exquisite breasts, but to his surprise, she stopped him.
“Wait,” she gasped. Pulling free of his hold, she reached for the sash of his dressing gown. “My turn to look.”
He groaned and grasped her hands. “I’m leading this dance,” he said sternly.
“But I want to see you,” she whispered. “Fair’s fair.”
He hesitated, for he was fully aroused, and he had no idea what she’d make of that, but she had as much right to see his body as he had to see hers. “Well, when you put it like that,” he muttered and let her go.
