Page 95 of The Trouble with Tigers
She returned his stare, brave creature that she was. Though she tried to mask it with that defiant tilt to her chin, he could see the shadows lurking in her ice-green eyes.
“You looked as if you’d seen a ghost in there. What’s James said to upset you now?”
She drew a shaky breath. “His writ of summons arrived. It’s nothing I hadn’t expected.”
He nodded. “I guessed that had something to do with it. But there’s more you’re not telling me.” He smoothed his thumbs over her cheeks.
She covered his hands with hers, before pulling them from her face. She moved to the railing and looked out over the night-dark grounds. “It wasn’t so much what he said, as how he said it. I probably imagined things.”
She didn’t believe her words any more than he did.
Cursing softly, he shoved a hand through his hair, and followed her to the railing. Grasping both of her shoulders, he turned her to face him and surprised even himself with his gruff words. “Kitty, I can’t stand that madman looking at you, much less speaking to you. If I had my way, he wouldn’t come in spitting distance of you, ever again. I could make that happen—and yet you refuse to see reason.”
Rather than argue, a small smile played at her lips, throwing him further off kilter than he already was. “If I didn’t know better, Ezekiel Thurgood, I’d mistake you for a—” She lowered her eyes.
“A what, damn it?”
“A man who cares,” she finished on a whisper. She lifted a hand to trace his cheek with her fingertips. Her scent, lavender, rosemary, something uniquely Kitty teased his senses. Every thought in his head vanished, save one.
“You make me crazy.” He pulled her into his arms. “I’m beginning to think you do it on purpose.”
“Maybe just a little,” she said, sounding breathless. She grasped his collar, lifted herself onto her tiptoes until her nose brushed his cravat. “You smell divine.”
“You see?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “There you go again, driving me out of my mind.”
She tilted her head back to gaze at him, and his meager resistance crumbled. He took her mouth in a desperate kiss.
When she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself into him, his meager restraint vanished. His hands, as if they had a mind of their own, roamed over her, imprinting her shape on his brain.
“Kitty,” he breathed against her lips. His mouth traveled over her cheek, seeking the sensitive area below her jaw.
She tilted her head back, giving him greater access as she clung to him.
A low groan sounded in his throat. Every fiber of his being burned for her. He needed her naked beneath him, her legs tight around him as he sank himself into her.
She made a soft mewing sound, drawing his lips to hers again like a magnet drew steel.
He slanted his mouth over hers, seeking entrance. The tip of his tongue played at the corners of her mouth, teasing, prodding, ’til her lips parted on a sigh.
Sweet Jesus. His tongue slid home. She tasted like heaven.
She touched the tip of her tongue to his, and a helpless shudder went through him.
He pulled her closer, holding her to him as one of his hands cupped her buttocks, lifting her slightly off her feet to bring their hips in line. His pulsing erection strained against the restraints of his trousers and layers of her skirts, and he silently cursed the fabric separating her sweetness from him.
She whimpered with need, rocking against him.
He hadn’t thought he could get any harder, any more desperate. He was wrong. He scooped her into his arms, ready to carry her off to—where?
She whispered his name, her lips grazing his neck. He bit back a roar. Now. He wanted her now. The conservatory? It was just west of the manse.
Somewhere in the house, the gong sounded for dinner.
Reality crashed in, tearing a groan of pure frustration from him. Calling on all his will, he set her on her feet though he didn’t release her. He couldn’t take his hands off her. Not yet. He rested his forehead against hers and gulped the cool night air.
Kitty gazed at him, looking delightfully dazed and thoroughly kissed. She took a shuddering breath. “Did you…did you bring me out here for that?”
“No,” he replied. “Maybe,” he admitted a moment later, as much to himself as her. “I don’t know. I just wanted to get you alone.”
