“May I?”
Linley rolled over onto her stomach, her mouth only a breath away from his. “No.”
Patrick tried not to let his disappointment show. Without a word, he turned his focus back to the moon and the stars.
“You cannot kiss me,” she said. “Because this time I want to kiss you first.”
His eyes shot back down to hers. This was turning out not to be a disappointment, after all.
Linley bent down and pressed her mouth to his. She was timid and a little unsure. Their first two kisses had been so different that she did not know which way was best. In the room with Elgin’s Marbles, the kiss had been soft, fast. Upstairs in Kyre House, the kiss was rough and lasted for a very long time.
Because he knew she would never do it on her own, Patrick dipped his tongue into her mouth. Linley pulled away at the sensation, but the warm hand resting on the back of her neck kept her from escaping too far. His fingers danced up and down the skin there, threading loops of brown hair between his knuckles. Gooseflesh traveled in their wake.
As their mouths moved against each other, as his lips slid back and forth over hers, the hand on her neck began to travel. It fluttered across her shoulder blades. Played against the ridges of her spine. Spread out in the shallow space just before the curve of her bottom. And then moved lower.
He pressed his palm hard against her backside, squeezing her. Groping her. At Patrick’s insistence, Linley ground her hips against his. Without her corset on, her breasts rubbed against the thin fabric of her blouse. There was little to protect them from the heat coming off Patrick’s body, which radiated through two layers of cotton and burned against her flesh.
Patrick used the hand clenched to her bottom to push Linley upward. He wriggled beneath her just low enough to find her breasts, and drew one of her nipples into his mouth, fabric and all. Sweat, mingled with jasmine water, combined with the natural taste of her body flooded his mouth. Patrick drank it in, tugging on her nipple with his lips, and teeth, and tongue.
Perhaps a little too roughly, because Linley let out a whimper.
He released that breast and moved to the next one. This time he remembered to be gentle. After all, she had never experienced such things, and Patrick had no idea what was going through her mind at that moment.
For her part, Linley’s mind went blank. As she buried her face in his crisp dark hair, she thought of nothing at all. As if her brain could work at a time like this. As if anything else existed in the world except the pleasure he gave her.
As if she would want anything to.
Linley continued to grind against him, only this time she did it because her body could do nothing else. To writhe on top of him seemed to be its only function. She marveled at the attention he paid to her bosom. What would he want with those little breasts that, up until that night, had been nothing but a disappointment to her?
And then she felt it—something growing hard between his hips and hers. She pulled away from him, shocked at the intrusion. And then she realized what it was.
“Oh!” she gasped, partly embarrassed and partly intrigued.
Patrick moved his hand to cover his erection. “I—I’m sorry.”
She jumped up, dusting off the knees of her skirt. For some reason, she could not help but laugh. Patrick wanted to make love to her! She knew it, and now he could not deny it!
Patrick rose to his feet. His erection subsided, and he felt he could face her now that it was gone. “Linley,” he said, turning her around to face him. “Linley, stop laughing.”
She pursed her lips together to fight off another fit of giggles. “You’re blushing!”
Patrick’s face was indeed hot. “You’ve embarrassed me.”
“I’m sorry,” Linley said, composing herself.
“No, I am sorry. That should never have happened.” He shifted from one foot to another. “I hope I haven’t shocked you.”
She smiled at him. “Honestly, I’m a little flattered.”
“Flattered?”
Linley took a step forward, sliding her arm around his waist. “I had no idea I had that sort of effect on you.”
“It has been longer than usual since I held a woman. Naturally, I would be a little…overeager.”
She kept smiling, refusing to be dismissed. “Oh, so you are blaming it on your celibacy, and not at all on my feminine powers of seduction?”
Patrick pulled her hand away from his waist. “I’m not going to stand here and stoke your vanity. I’ve already apologized, and I think we should leave it at that.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Patrick awoke to rain. Not the driving, relentless downpour he experienced in the jungle, but a steady, misting drizzle. As he listened to it spatter against the roof of his tent, he lay there and thought of the night before.
How could he let himself get so carried away? He hadn’t acted like that over a woman’s touch since university.