Page 65 of How to Seduce a Duke this Autumn
He pushed them to the farther, darkened end of the bench as he swept his tongue into her mouth. And he didn’t hold back. She had kissed him. Charlene Fielding had kissed him. Kissed him first. Something he had dreamed only about in his deepest dreams but had hoped for beyond hope. And who would have known a comfort kiss could make a man lose his damn mind?
Chapter Fifteen
Charlene had neverfelt so alive as in this moment. Oh, there were certainly moments that were breathtakingly thrilling, and most of them with Adam, and she’d also felt alive in those, but in this moment, with this kiss, she felt alive.
In. Every. Sense. Of. The. Word.
A sense she had lost on that fateful night so long ago. Not even when David Cross had pushed himself on her, but afterward, in her bedroom when the shock of it all had died off. And while those senses had returned bit by bit over the years, and with each encounter with Adam, they were rushing back now. Practically exploding. Like the fireworks.
Her hands curled around his lapels.
She dragged him closer, needing—no, craving—more. He tasted like danger, and she found she loved it even more than their first time. A hundred emotions flooded her, but she pushed them all back, allowing only the moment’s excitement to exist.
Adam groaned softly, the sound so profoundly deep and masculine it found a home in her bones. The same bones covered by flesh and his hands, which didn’t seem content to stay in one place.
Each second that passed, she reclaimed a bit of something back that had been stolen. Her fingers slid from his jacket and into his hair, tugging just enough to make him respond with a growl that only made her bolder.
She gripped tighter.
Another groan.
Lord, she could get addicted to these sounds of him.
He broke the kiss, eyes lifting to lock onto hers. “You are determined to drive me mad, aren’t you?”
“What is mad if not mad about a kiss?”
His gaze darkened. “Then I must be raving,” he said, his voice a gruff murmur against her lips, “because I haven’t thought clearly since the moment I saw you again.”
“Do you mean tonight?”
“I mean since I returned to London.”
Charlene’s breath hitched. “That was weeks ago.”
“Yes, but even that doesn’t bring any justice to my madness. Try years,” he said, the soft stubble of his cheek against hers. “You think I ever forgot you for a second? That I didn’t wonder how you were, or if you were keeping safe, or if you ever spared a thought for me.”
Charlene didn’t know what to say to that or feel about that. “I did spare a thought to you, though,” her lips curled slightly, “they were never good thoughts.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“I said they were bad thoughts.”
“A thought is still a thought.”
She laughed. “That desperate?”
“You have no idea, love.”
“Desperation has never been a good look on a man, you know.”
He shrugged. “Don’t I look good now?”
Charlene arched a brow. “You’re still desperate?”
“Even more so at this moment.” He leaned closer, brushing his lips against hers. “Help me rid me of it, love.”
“I don’t know how I feel about this sudden endearment.”
