enthusiastic kiss.
‘You are glad that Anneslea split my lip?’
‘I am glad that you left the house in daylight, and spent time in the company of true friends.’ She stretched to kiss both of his damaged eyes. ‘And that you told them.’
Adrian pressed his lips on the top of the head. ‘It is your fault, you know, with your continual prodding that I do something with my life. And you were right. It was time. A little past time, I think.’ And then he kissed her on the mouth. But although it started as a gentle kiss of thanks, it soon became something different.
His hat and gloves fell to the floor, and he gave them a kick that sent them across the hall, clear of their feet. Then his empty hands found her body, moving from her shoulders down her back, crushing her breasts to the front of his coat so he could feel them, and lower until she could feel the first stirrings of his erection pressing against her belly. Though his injured lips were soft on hers, his tongue moved in her mouth, rough and hungry. The brandied taste of it made her drunk with answering desire.
It would take little seducing to gain her ends tonight. He would make love to her, if she asked him to. For there was no sense of playfulness in his kiss, only the demand for swift release.
And as her body readied itself to succumb, her mind whispered that more had changed than this. In the new world he was creating, there would be no place for secrets. And no way to hide his mystery lover from his friends, or his illness from his wife. Now that he had moved into the light, he was poised on the brink of yet another decision. And there was a chance that she might lose him for ever, if she did not talk soon and tell him everything. She broke from the kiss and freed herself from his grasp, then grabbed his arm and tugged. ‘Come. You may tell me all about your plans, over dinner.’
‘I have already eaten,’ he said, pulling her back and running his hands over her bare arms.
‘A glass of wine, then.’
He kissed her again, and said, ‘You know what I want. And it is not food or wine. Do not deny me.’ With one hand, he locked her hips to his, and with the other he pushed her breasts high, until they strained at the neckline of her bodice. Then he gave a yank on the fabric that covered them. She heard a button pop and her dress gaped. And he bent her back over his arm, and took her nipples in his mouth by turn, sucking hard upon them, biting them, leaving the exposed breast marked with his kisses, plain to see by anyone who might wander into the entranceway of the flat.
He was holding her so tightly that she had no breath to resist him. But the helplessness felt right. This was her husband, after all. And he was so overcome with desire for her that she doubted he’d have heard an objection, had she made one.
And then he paused, raising his head from her aching breasts. ‘Last night, and this morning, when you said—’
‘Let us pretend I said nothing.’ She answered hurriedly, for she did not want him to stop again. ‘Do not punish me for what I feel.’
‘I do not mean to punish you. I only wish to be sure that your feelings have not changed.’
‘They will never change,’ she swore, panting, eager for him to resume. ‘No matter what might happen between us, I will be steadfast.’
He seemed to flinch a little at this, as though he had hoped for some other answer. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Because otherwise, I would not …’ And then it did not seem to matter, for he was kissing her again, undoing fastenings, pushing her dress farther down her body until he could stroke the tops of her hips above the fabric as he nibbled her shoulders. ‘Say whatever you like. Nothing stands between us.’
She gasped, and said, ‘I love you.’
He made no effort to answer with a similar sentiment. Instead, he said, ‘Show me.’ Then he pulled her, as sure as if he could see the way, through the sitting room and towards her bed.
She closed the door behind them. And before it was shut, he had pushed her gown to the floor and was tearing at his cravat to loosen the knot. When he tossed the fabric away and reached for the buttons of his vest, she stayed his hand. ‘You will not be able to find things again, if you are so careless.’
He gave a strange laugh. ‘Tonight, I am quite past caring.’
She stepped clear of her own clothing and kissed his bare throat. ‘Then let me. I have watched you, these last nights. I will lay them out, just as you have. There will be no mistakes. But do not deny me the pleasure of undressing you.’
He gave a chuckle that was half sigh. Then he stood still, his arms a little apart from his body, as though he were standing for a valet. She felt a tremor go through his body at the first touch of her hands.
First, she took his coat, feeling the weight of her own picture and the purse in his pockets, and set it on the back of the chair. And then the waistcoat, and the cravat that she’d picked from the floor, one on top the other, folded and draped over the coat.
She paused to touch him. Broad shoulders, straight back, trim waist—she had seen him in bed, and touched every inch of him. But it had never been like this, with his body half-hidden by clothing. She pressed her lips to the opening at the throat of his shirt, spreading her fingers over the linen, feeling. Then she pushed the cloth out of the way and kissed his chest.
‘You are a most interesting valet, madam,’ he said, stroking her body before cupping his hand to the back of her neck and urging her to take his nipple into her mouth. ‘A man could grow used to this.’
And she thought the same. He made her feel safe and cared for, even as he allowed her to care for him. And it was good to feel the hair on his chest brushing against her cheek, a hint of softness over muscles that were strong and sure. She stripped the shirt over his head, shook the wrinkles from it and laid it carefully with the cravat, then went back to him, rubbing her hands over his bare chest, before pushing him the few steps back to sit on the bed behind him. She sat on the floor to pull off his boots and stockings, stroking his calves, working her way up his legs and undoing buttons, pulling trousers aside and finding him fully awake to her touch.
She set the rest of his clothing by the chair. Then she went to the night table and doused the last candle so that they could lie in darkness.
As she did, he called out to her in surprise.
‘Does it bother you to have no light?’ she asked.
He reached to take her hand as she climbed up on to the bed with him. ‘You will think me foolish, but I have a fear of the dark, when it comes on me suddenly. I am never sure if the last of my sight is leaving without warning, or it is merely a guttering candle.’ He gave a nervous laugh. ‘With the lights extinguished, we are both equally blind, are we not?’
‘Yes,’ she said, surprised that she had not thought of it. ‘It will teach me to use my hands to find my way, as you do.’
‘In darkness, we could be anyone. We could imagine anything. Fulfil our darkest wishes,’ he whispered. ‘And no one will see.’ He kissed, long and hard, full of need, holding her so tight against his body as he did it that she could scarcely breathe. It was another proof of how easily he could dominate her, should he choose, and it made her shudder with anticipation. Then he relaxed back upon the bed to prove how utterly she had tamed him, giving her leave to explore him further, waiting to see what she would do with the freedom.
She straddled
