“Oh no, when I’m funny, it’s entirely accidental, I assure you.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not entirely sure where we go from here.”
“We can kiss a little more, if you like?”
“That’s an excellent suggestion. Yes. I really like that, hmm…”
He was still mumbling when he stepped towards her and claimed her mouth with his. His kisses had a soft, yearning reverence, and his body—which had once seemed like such a smooth, elegant thing—now felt solid next to her own, liquidus form.
Gods and gears, she could kiss him forever.
You want to do more than kiss him…
I am not having sex for the first time in a parlour.
Whyever not?
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down onto a nearby chaise. Within seconds, she had rolled him over and slid her thighs either side of him. Pip let out a short gasp.
“I’m sorry, am I crushing you?”
“A little bit in an extremely delightful way,” he murmured. His hands slid to her cheeks. “Dome above, you’re beautiful.”
“I have never felt beautiful before.”
Pip stared at her, and she wondered if she’d said too much, revealed too much. “I want to help you believe it,” he said, and brought her mouth back down to his. “Elena,” he murmured in between kisses, like no other word, no curse or prayer, could match it. “Elena, Elena, you have taken my heart.”
“Mine is yours, if you want it,” she said, and her hands slid beneath his shirt, above his chest. His heart beat frantically beneath her palm.Hers, hers, hers.
Mine, mine, mine.
Pip swallowed, shifting himself up to kiss her neck, to line a trail of kisses against her throat, down to her breast. “I am wondering if I should have worn a different waistcoat,” he murmured. “This one—it’s a little hard to take off.”
Elena froze, both excited and terrified. She wanted him to take off his clothes. She wanted to see him—all of him. But the idea of taking off her own… of being naked before someone else… of being touched in a way she’d never been touched before…
Too much. All too much. Even for him.
Pip paused. “Are you all right?”
“Can we… just keep to kissing for now?” she asked. “Maybesomehands in… certain places.”
Pip raised an eyebrow. “Which places?”
She took his hand and placed it against her breast, stifling a laugh when his eyes widened.
“Gears, you’re divine,” he said, brushing the flesh beneath her dress.
Elena giggled, sliding her hands along his arms, over his neck, down his back. His skin against hers sent a thrill racing through her. She wanted to tear through his fabric, to take him apart and put him back again, having explored every inch of him.
Pip kissed her neck and cupped her breast in his hand, murmuring against her. His other hand slid to her thigh. She laced her body against his, drawing him closer, and kissed him until her thoughts turned drunk and delirious.
Atlast,somehow,Pipuntangled himself from Elena and they sat down to dine on the midnight feast. Elena’s lips were red and bright from the kissing, and he couldn’t stop staring at her as she ate, watching the food press against her mouth. He was amazed he’d survived it. He’d been kissed before, but never likethat.
It was going to be very, very hard to let her go back to her own room, when all he wanted to do was drag her back to his, throw her down on the bed, unravel her out of her gown and kiss her in all the places he had yet to before…
He downed his wine, refusing to indulge any further in his fantasies.
After they ate, he pulled her into a dance. Elena was surprisingly good, slightly clumsy on her feet though, like someone out of practice.
“Did you dance a lot, back in Navarra?”