“Your mouth truly is a masterpiece,” Warrick remarked.
“Are you telling me to keep it shut? What if I don’t want to?” She grinned, a smile that hit him dead center in the chest.
Warrick dragged a hand through his hair. He thought he could remain calm in her presence, but he couldn’t. The nerves all over his body were sparking with aggravation from her teasing.
Well, he wasn’t the only one that could be on the receiving end...
He leaned toward her until their noses were almost touching and their breaths mingled. “Then I have no choice.”I’ll shut it for you.
“What are you doing?” she breathed.
“Hell if I know.” Then his lips found hers, swallowing any and all words that might have followed his. Madness claimed a man many times over the course of his lifetime, but this was probably the maddest thing he had ever done. And this kiss... her lips molding beneath his, so much softer than he’d imagined...
Sharp teeth clamped down on his lower lip. The pain sent a jolt through him. Warrick pulled away to meet two stabbing eyes.
“I asked, what are you doing?”
Warrick brushed his lower lips with a finger. He tasted blood. “I’d have thought the answer was obvious.”
“You cannot think on an empty stomach, but you can kiss on one?”
“Hunger can make a man lose his senses, so please forgive me.” His lips pulled up in a smirk. “Just this once.”
Chapter Six
The next day ~ Theodosia’s Garden Party
Selena latched ontoher prey and marched straight toward the person her gaze had fixed upon. While her and Warrick’s little adventure to the “doctor” had provided her some amusement, the consequences had led to a kiss! Did her friend realize what influence that had on her sleep?
Of course not!
“Theodosia!”
“Ah, Selena, you’ve arrived.”
Selena grabbed her friend’s arm and pulled her off to the side so that they were out of earshot of the rest of the attendees. “Have you gone mad? Sending us to that doctor’s house! You knew very well the earl is not sick.”
Theodosia laughed. “I see your visit had the intended effect. Aren’t you happy? You got back at Warrick for all the trouble he’s caused.”
Yes, then he got her back in a much more striking way. A kiss which had kept Selena up all night. What sort of man muttershell if I knowand then kisses a woman? What sort of woman enjoys it before realizing she shouldn’t and then ends the kiss with a bite? Though, quite frankly, it had been thoroughly satisfying.
But now, she was stuck with the knowledge that a real kiss from Warrick was even better than a dream kiss from Warrick!
However, the true problem wasn’t so much the kiss itself but rather that it had come so naturally to accept his kiss. Perhaps because he had kissed her in her dreams already. She couldn’t rightly say.
“Who is that doctor anyway?” Selena asked. “He said his niece mentioned us. That is you, isn’t it?”
Theodosia waved a dismissive hand. “He is a distant relative. A bit of a hermit. Everyone finds him strange, so they just avoid him.”
“I see crazy is a family trait of yours.”
“Everyone has odd relatives, I’m sure. Our family just has a bit more than our fair share.” Theodosia waved at Leonora, who stepped onto the lawn. “Was the earl very angry?”
“Yes.” But he was also hungry and hungover.
“One a scale of one to ten, how much did his temper flare?”
“I’m not sure.” How annoyed must a man be to kiss someone out of vexation? Selena couldn’t even begin to measure that. “I cannot say it was high, but it certainly wasn’t low. Rather average, I suppose then.”
