Page 30 of Miss Dignified
The captain cradled her cheek against a warm, callused palm. “Go on reconnaissance, Lydia. Scout the terrain. Gather intelligence. Inventory the stores in the armory.”
She ran her fingers through dark, silky hair. “I can skirmish with you. I cannot allow you to take me captive.” Though she longed to surrender all, and the novelty of that sentiment did infuse her with a little caution. “I am your housekeeper.”
He brushed his thumb over her brow, and she wanted to purr. “Right now, you are the lady I hope will get to know me a little better.”
“Only a little?” That was some relief, also a disappointment.
“We are not the sort of people who seek a casual tumble and think nothing of it. I don’t recount my military history to just anybody. I don’t kiss just anybody.”
Lydia would certainly be much more selective going forward. “I like kissing you. Leaves me all muddled and warm inside.”
“Let’s muddle each other a little more.”
Dylan Powell should never be allowed to kiss a lady when both of his hands are free.That was Lydia’s last coherent thought before his mouth settled over hers, and all her previous kisses were revealed to be so much bumbling.
Kisses—real kisses—were a balance of patience and consideration with curiosity and desperation. Lydia settled onto the captain’s lap and realized that tasting was involved too—mutual tasting and flirtations too intimate to bear. At the same time, the captain’s caresses traveled farther afield, to her lower back and thighs, until she resented her clothing and positively loathed his.
This was kissing as kissing was meant to be. A dangerous, reason-stealing delight.
“Settle a bit.” The captain cradled Lydia’s nape and urged her against his chest. “Please.”
She cuddled close, her sigh entirely genuine. “I am… astonished.”
“Good word.” He rested his cheek against her hair and kept one hand moving over her back. “Once upon a time, a horse was shot out from under me. The beast lived, but the moment was disconcerting. This is… the most marvelous ambush imaginable.”
“I am ambushed too, Captain.”
“Dylan. Your kitten is in my bed, Lydia. You can call me Dylan.”
Oh, how she liked to hear him use her name. “My kitten and I should be going.”
“Not yet, please. I need to calm my animal spirits.”
He was being delicate. Lydia had been raised in the country, had caught any number of grooms and dairymaids frolicking. His animal spirits were pressed against her intimate flesh, and she liked how that felt.
The captain simply held her and stroked her back after that, and Lydia eventually succumbed to the temptation to close her eyes. Tomorrow was soon enough to make sense of this folly, if folly it was.
“I’m falling asleep.”
“Shall I carry you down to your bed?”
“I can walk.” Lydia could not think, though. She was too relaxed, too happy and amazed. Before she realized exactly what the captain was about, he had her sitting on the bed. He’d gathered her up as she’d straddled him, risen, and simply deposited her on the coverlet as if she were a stack of clean linen.
He sat beside her,on the bed, and when Lydia ought to have been alarmed, she was pleased.
“You will think this to death,” he said. “I will think this to death.”
“Brood,” Lydia said. “Men brood. Don’t brood, please. I am not, as you’ve noticed, a blushing schoolgirl.”
“Sensible,” he said, taking her hand. “But passionate. Interesting combination.” He kissed her knuckles. “I don’t know what to say, Lydia. I should probably lecture myself about overstepping and ungentlemanly behavior—I am your employer—but… we are fond of each other. Also attracted to each other.”
“That surprises you?”
“Bewilders me. You are all that is lovely, but I did not… Idonot bother with frivolous pastimes. Neither do you. I would also never impose myself on a woman in my employ.”
Kissing was all well and good—kissing Dylan Powell—but Lydia liked even more that he would talk with her, that he would hold her hand and speak what was in his heart.
“I had regarded kissing as some peculiar fixation men have, a little odd, sometimes pleasant, sometimes not, but with you…”
