Page 24 of Raven's Rise
It had been a terribly, terribly long time since she’d kissed a man, and the initial touch of his mouth to hers sent a shock through her whole being, as if she’d been brushed with fire. She leaned closer, deepening the kiss as she laid her hands on his shoulders.
She didn’t know what she thought he would do in reaction to her wanton advance, but she expected something faster and fiercer than what he did.
Rafe slipped one work-roughened, calloused hand behind her neck, teasing the soft skin there. He took his time tasting her, running the tip of his tongue along her lower lip. Angelet moaned a little as she pressed herself closer to him. The dusk surrounding them weakened her inhibitions, allowing her to indulge in this unwise but most tantalizing folly.
He drew out the kiss slowly, as if they were the only people in the world. Angelet desperately tried to remember how she was supposed to kiss, but with every passing second, her mind spun further and further from reason, lost in the maelstrom of sensation caused by Rafe’s mouth on hers. No need for her to remember how to kiss…he knew what to do. When she felt his tongue flick against hers, she gasped and pulled back for a second, but Rafe didn't let her go far—by now he’d somehow wrapped both arms around her, and she was molded against him, kissing him over and over.
Only when the cry of a night bird pierced the air did she recall exactly where she was, and why. She pushed herself away from Rafe, breathing hard. “A moment,” she gasped. “I need to…I don’t know what I need…” She shook her head, too embarrassed to look him in the eye. “Forgive my behavior.”
“Nothing to forgive, Angelet. I liked it.” His voice was warm, easy. “If that's how you show pity, maybe I do want to be pitied after all.”
“It wasn’t pity,” Angelet confessed. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m not like this normally.”
“Or you are, and you just needed to get free of your prison to know it.”
“I’m not in any prison,” she objected, remembering all the details of what brought them both here. “Remember, I’m going to join a nunnery.”
“That’s another word for prison, if the going isn’t your choice.”
“Idowant to go there,” she insisted. And indeed she did, if that was where she could be cured of her affliction and if it meant she would see her son again.
“You’re hell-bent on a heavenly reward, even after a kiss like that. So you’re not going to invite me into your bed along this journey? You don’t need a lover, one last wild indulgence before you lock yourself away for the rest of your life?”
She gasped at the suggestion. “I can’t take alover!”
“Why not?” he asked, sounding far too reasonable. “Consider, my lady, that you have what—a week? two?—before you lock yourself away behind walls for the rest of your life. You might never see a man again. You certainly won’t see one as handsome as me.”
Despite everything, she bit her lip to stop a giggle.
He continued, “For a little while, you’re on your own. You can do anything you like, experience anything you like. Including some pleasures which are denied you by the circumstances of your widowhood.”
“You offer to be my lover,” she said, to ensure she heard correctly. She couldn’t have. His words were too bold and too scandalous to be real.
Rafe nodded, his eyes locked with hers. “If you like, Angelet. If you don’t like, I’ll never press you. You have my word. And if you do take me as a lover, you can rely on my discretion. I’ll never betray a confidence, not during, and not after. And while we’re together, it’s on your terms.”
“My terms?”
He gave her a little smile. “I’ll obey your every command, indulge your every whim, satisfy your every curiosity.”
“Oh.” Angelet had never heard an offer quite like that before.
Rafe took her hand in his. “I’m not modest—I admit that. But I also don’t boast about something unless I can back it up. If you take me as your lover, you won’t be disappointed.”
“Oh.” Eventually she’d have to start breathing again. Rafe’s proximity was making her feel distinctly light-headed.
“And what have you to lose?” he added. “We’re together a fortnight, at most. Then it’s over and we go our separate ways. You to your nunnery, and me to…wherever. Either way, soon we’ll never see each other again.”
“What if we spend a night together and I wish to end it there?” she asked, hardly believing this conversation was happening.
“Then it’s ended. I mean what I say about obeying your every wish.”
“Oh.”Sweet Mercy, stop sayingoh,you fool, she thought.
He waited, his eyes intent on hers. She waited for some hint that he was teasing her, or that it was a joke. But everything in his demeanor suggested he was serious.
At last, she whispered, “I must think on this.”
“Of course. It’s an unusual proposal, to be sure.”
