of her buttocks and the dip of her waist—as she replaced one volume above her head.
“I could teach you a few words.” The words running through his mind now would not be deemed appropriate for common usage. But in bed….
She smiled at him over one shoulder. “I’m doing better at the clinic, picking up a few phrases. I’m sure the more I’m exposed to the various languages, the more I’ll learn.”
Marc wanted to expose her to more than words. He wanted to expose her to his hands, to his mouth, to his body.
He tried to relax on the floral sofa that now felt as hard and uncompromising as his escalating erection. With every move Kate made, his muscles clenched with the effort to maintain control. But when she turned to him and began pulling the tails of her blouse from the skirt’s waistband, he was as hard as he’d ever been in recent memory.
“I think I’ll take a shower now,” she said.
Marc thought he should show himself to the door before he showed her how much she was affecting him. “Are you feeling well enough to do that?”
“I feel fine.”
How well he knew that. “Perhaps I should stand outside the bathroom door in case you should become dizzy.”
She strolled to the sofa and stood above him. “Perhaps you should join me in the shower.”
He groaned. “I thought you were going to behave.”
“I thought you were going back to the palace.”
“I am.”
“What are you waiting for?”
He waited for his mind to commandeer his libido. Waited for her to toss him out. Waited for logic to come forth and issue a protest strong enough to stop the overpowering need to touch her.
When none of those things happened, Marc caught her wrist and pulled her forward between his parted legs. He slid his hands up her sides, relishing the feel of her curves against his palm, needing to feel more of her, and soon, duty be damned. His reputation be damned. They were alone, and no one would have to know. If he couldn’t have all of her, he could at least give her what she needed. He could gain some satisfaction from satisfying her—if that was what she wanted—and he assumed it was, considering her eyes held the cast of desire.
He ran his palms up her thighs, this time beneath the skirt. “I believe I have some unfinished business.”
She brushed his hair away from his forehead. “What unfinished business would that be?”
“What I started in the car.”
She smiled. “Really? I thought you said—”
“I know what I said. I’m tired of fighting this.”
“Then don’t fight it.”
Marc pulled her down on the sofa into his lap, effectively cutting off all conversation with a kiss that was as intense as the one they’d shared in the car. Kate released an unmistakably sexual sound against his mouth that encouraged him to keep going. She tightened her hold around his neck as he nudged her legs apart and slid one hand along the inside of her thighs, contacting the frustrating barrier bent on keeping him from his goal. Whoever invented panty hose should be bound and gagged with nylon for at least a week.
But that did not deter him. Barriers were made to be broken, and he sufficiently broke through this one with a tug and tear at the seam, revealing she wore nothing beneath them. Kate’s gasp didn’t stop him either; the press of her hips toward his hand indicated she wanted this as badly as he wanted to give it to her.
Her legs opened more, leaving her completely open to him. Yet as he broke the kiss to watch her face, he considered stopping. He had her at an unfair advantage, and she had him at a crossroad where he greatly questioned his determination not to take her completely, right there, on a sofa. But to stop now would be unimaginable. Not until he gave her the release she deserved, even if he could not have his own.
He found the small bud that blossomed beneath his touch as he caressed her. “Does this feel good?”
Her eyes drifted closed. “It feels…great.”
“I cannot argue that,” he told her, even as a myriad of arguments against this very thing warred within his conscience. He chose to ignore his concerns and focus only on Kate and her pleasure.
Marc claimed her mouth again as he slid one finger inside her and stroked her, inside and out. He burned to know how it would feel to have her surrounding him when the orgasm claimed her. He settled for only imagining when she climaxed in strong, steady spasms much sooner than he’d expected. But why should that surprise him? They had engaged in enough foreplay to keep them both balanced on the brink of spontaneous combustion.
Had Marc not been resigned to giving Kate only this much, the feel of her might have been his undoing, literally, because in a matter of moments, he could have his slacks undone and his body seated deeply within her heat. His mind insisted he stop now, stop with just this prelude. Instead, he kept touching her, wringing out every last pulse of her climax as he considered giving her another, this time with his mouth…until she said, “I want you, Marc. All of you. Now.”
His strength fractured in that moment, even as his mind warned him not to give in. His resistance evaporated completely when Kate moved to his side, released his belt, lowered his zipper, then pulled his slacks and briefs down his hips. She kissed him as she explored him, drove him to the edge with hands as fine as velvet. Marc needed to stop her, that much he knew. He needed to put an end to this madness before it was too late. Before they couldn’t stop.
But it was already too late, so at the very least, he needed to make certain he protected Kate against pregnancy.
He caught her wrist and brought her hand up, temporarily ending the torture.
Her eyes narrowed with frustration. “I want this, Marc. So do you.”
“We should go to the bedroom, Kate.”
“I don’t want to wait.”
She wrested from his grasp and fumbled with the buttons on her blouse, then slipped it away along with her bra. Marc wasn’t sure he would make it to the bedroom when Kate stripped out of her skirt and ruined panty hose, then tossed them away. Now she was beautifully naked, and completely his. After tearing off his own shirt and kicking off his slacks, he bent, reached into his pants’ pocket and withdrew the condom he’d brought with him, knowing all along this would probably happen. Hoping all along that it would.
After he had the condom in place, Kate stretched out on the sofa and held out her arms to him. He gladly eased into her embrace, eased into her body and experienced a freedom he hadn’t known in years. It had nothing to do with the length of time since he’d been in a woman’s arms. It had everything to do with Kate Milner and the hold she had on him. For a moment, the guilt tried to come forth, but he pushed it aside as he put himself at the mercy of nature and his need for Kate.
Marc moved in a slow cadence at first until the chemistry that had been flowing between them exploded in a wild, reckless rhythm. He slid his hands over Kate’s body as if he could not get enough of the feel of her. She raked her hands down his back and molded
