Page 29 of Lady in Ruby
“You have?”
“Not just that.” He dropped his hands and leaned in, appeal in his eyes. “If you permit me.”
“You didn’t ask permission before, under the bed.”
“I was a little preoccupied then. But let me kiss you now.”
“I thought you said the previous kiss was a mistake,” she protested, but without any spirit.
“And you believed me?”
Caroline leaned forward, bringing her mouth to his. Unlike the first time, it began gently. But now Caroline was the one in charge, and he seemed quite content to let her lead. She tentatively nibbled his lower lip, remembering he’d done that to her. His response was a sudden intake of breath, and his hands rose to cup her face, encouraging her to go on.
She opened her mouth, not entirely sure what prompted the urge. But when his tongue darted in and slid along her lips, she realized that her body knew far more than she did. Every glide and slip was a revelation. Her nerves tingled with anticipation of more, and he delivered more. His mouth tasted hers a dozen times, and then he moved his attention to her cheek, her ear, her neck.
A soft moan escaped her, and then she was encircled in strong arms, held firmly as he continued to kiss his way over the skin bared above the neckline of her loose night rail.
“My lord,” she whispered. “Is it wise to continue this…this…I don’t know what to call this.”
“Not everything needs to be named,” he said, his voice rich and low in her ear. He followed that with a kiss just below her ear, a place that she was finding so sensitive that it stirred feelings in entirely different parts of her body. It would be an interesting thing to examine…if she could put two thoughts together. Unfortunately, her mind was far too consumed with the pursuit of these new pleasures in the arms of a man she barely knew.
His embrace warmed her far more than the formula ever had. Caroline closed her eyes, and let all the lovely, flickering feelings pour over her. Perhaps someday she’d find kisses to be unexciting, the novelty over. But not now. Now she wanted to revel in every detail so she could recall it later…after he was gone.
The intrusion of reality soured the sweetness of the kiss. She pulled away, frowning. “You’re leaving here soon.”
“That’s true, sadly. Why? Would you like me to return?” His smile set her heart fluttering.
“I think that before I answer that, I need to know why you’re here in the first place.”
“Hmm. I suppose that I can’t just say it’s because I can’t resist you.” He kissed her again, his mouth brushing against hers in a way that sent her thoughts flying away like leaves in a storm.
Caroline was lost for another long, delicious moment. But then she pulled away again. “You didn’t know anything about me when you arrived. So there was nothing to resist.”
“Not then.” He ran a finger along the underside of her chin, as if deciding where he wanted to kiss her next.
She pulled his hand away, only to find her fingers twining with his as if of their own accord. Holding his hand was an entirely different kind of wonderful. What if this was a thing I could have every day? The thought blazed up in her mind. She tamped it down, for the moment.
“My lord, why is it that whenever I have doubts about what you’re here for, you find it expedient to kiss me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never had my kisses described as expedient. I’m a little insulted, to be honest.”
“How about you focus on being honest rather than insulted. You took something from my parents’ room, and not long afterward, my father reported his notes missing. Yes, he thought they were in the lab, but it’s quite possible they’d been taken into the bedchamber by accident, where you found them, because you were searching.”
“No.”
“No? You’re still pretending that you weren’t in the room? That you didn’t take something?”
He looked up at the ceiling, then, surprisingly, smiled.
“It’s not funny,” she said. “The papers are missing.”
“So they are. But that’s not what I took from the room.”
“What did you take?”
“Presents.”
Caroline blinked. “What?”
