Regardless, she seemed amenable to remaining for enough days for him to think, take stock, and evaluate the unexpected avenue that had opened before him. Time enough for him to decide whether or not it was even feasible—if she was even agreeable to remaining in his life.
Where the notion had sprung from, he wasn’t entirely sure, but the longer he spent in her company, the farther they traveled on this journey, the more solid grew the conclusion that his future needed her in it.
He stirred and offered, “I believe I can find sufficient activities to keep the boys, at least, entertained.”
She nodded readily. “Evelyn has fallen in love with the idea of becoming as good a cook as Giulia, so there’ll be no difficulty in keeping her amused.”
“Good.”
He continued to regard her as silence fell.
About them, the house had stilled, and night had closed in. Everyone else had retired.
He wasn’t sure which of them ought to make the next move.
Her hands, resting in her lap, fluttered, then she drew in a tighter breath and rose.
He came to his feet.
Her eyes on his, she inclined her head fractionally. “Goodnight.”
As she went to move past him, he reached out and wrapped his fingers about her wrist. “Wait.”
She halted. In the low light from the lamp, she looked into his face. “Why?”
A heartbeat passed, then her gaze lowered to his lips, and her tongue peeked out and swept across hers.
He didn’t smile, just shifted to face her, raised a hand, and with one finger, gently tipped up her chin. She allowed it, and he looked into her eyes, large, gray, and mysterious, then slowly lowered his head. “Because of this.”
He breathed the words over her lips, then sealed them with his.
The first kiss they’d shared had been tentative, careful—a first test, a first touch, an exploratory foray of uncertain outcome.
This kiss was nothing like that.
This was a kiss of awakening confidence, of rising certainty on both their parts. Still an exploration, yes, but this time, they both seemed determined to step farther, forge deeper, and define what might be.
Her lips met his, firm, alluring, matching the pressure of his.
He reached for her, his arms sliding about her to draw her nearer, and she came, pressing lightly against him in innocent and instinctive provocation.
Her breasts brushed his chest, her hips tantalizingly pressing against his thighs, and his heart leapt, and heat washed through him.
He drew her closer still, then angled his head and subtly sued for more, and on a silent sigh, she parted her lips and gave him what he wished for. When he surged inside the sweet haven of her mouth, she welcomed him with unfeigned interest, then joined with him in a long-drawn, sultry, intensely evocative exchange.
Experience told him she was merely following his lead, that she hadn’t been kissed like this before.
The realization was a heady encouragement, further stoked by the welling eagerness he sensed in her responses and underscored when her hands rose and her fingers speared through his hair and clutched, and she held him to the engagement he had no intention of cutting short.
Diana’s wits were whirling, and her senses were surging and sparking in an unbelievably pleasurable way.
In a way that called to something—some hunger, some compulsion—buried inside her. As if somehow, he had a connection to a side of her, to an element of her being, that no other had ever touched. A facet of herself that she’d never before had a chance to explore.
Never before had she had the opportunity to plunge into such a sensual landscape, to sup at a man’s lips and feel his tongue stroking hers. Desire and need were novel feelings swirling through her veins, and the heat of a passion she’d never felt before welled and pooled low in her belly.
The sensation of his arms holding her, caging her, wasn’t restrictive but enticing. The lure of his hard frame, of all that steely, muscled strength, was startlingly real.
Beyond tempted, she pressed still closer, and her senses sparked anew at the evidence of his desire signified by the solid rod of his erection pressing against her belly.
