“Bram . . .”
“It’s all right,” he said. “It’s all right to want this.”
His words soothed her nerves. Still, her fingers trembled as she drew her arms out of her sleeves. Once she’d freed them, the violet silk bodice fell slack at her hips. From the waist up, she was clothed only in her corset and chemise.
His hands went to the small of her back, where her corset laces were secured in a tight knot. He fumbled a bit as he picked the tapes loose, as if his hands were unsteady. That subtle hint of uncertainty was comforting.
The laces slid free of their holes, and her corset fell away from her body. Air rushed into her lungs, dizzying and fresh. He let the garment fall softly to the grass. With it went all her confidence. She might as well have been stark naked, considering how vulnerable and exposed she felt.
“What shall I do?” Her voice shook.
His breath caressed her ear. “Just breathe.” He pressed a kiss to her jaw. “Just be here with me. Just be you.”
Warmth bloomed in her heart, suffusing her entire body.
Just be you, he said. He didn’t want her to be different. He didn’t wish she were someone else. He just wanted her to be herself.
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him full on the lips. Because those precious words deserved a kiss. But most of all, because she was being herself—and kissing him was what she most wanted to do.
They sank into each other, deepening the kiss by slow, sensuous degrees. His tongue teased and coaxed, and she responded in kind. They kissed in an unhurried, almost playful fashion. For a minute. And then matters became serious indeed.
“I need to see you.” His hands tugged at her gown, pushing it down over her hips. “All of you. Now.”
She helped him, shimmying in place until the fabric gave way and slipped to the ground in a shimmering pool. He took both her hands and helped her step free. Then he stood back from her a pace, angling her to catch the best light. His gaze roamed over her. Every inch of her. Beneath the thin muslin, her ni**les strained for his touch. The longer the silence stretched, the more impatient she grew. Then more uncertain. Her shift was thin, but it was so dark. Just how much could he see? Did he like what he saw? How did she compare with all those other girls he’d seen in plain white shifts, so very long ago?
“Lovely.” A ragged sigh shook free of his chest. “So lovely. Thank you.”
He drew a single fingertip up the inner slope of her arm. As his touch swept over her scars, she held her breath. But her wounds didn’t give him a moment’s pause.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said, tracing over her shoulder and dipping his fingers to the neckline of her shift. His touch blazed a fiery trail across the tops of her unbound br**sts. “But there’s nothing in the world more enticing than a shift like this. Sweet and pure, yet so revealing. Lace, ribbons, silks, furs . . . Nothing can compare.”
His hand slid down, cupping her breast. She swallowed anxiously. But he stayed calm, kneading the soft globe with tantalizing pressure and rolling the taut nipple beneath his thumb.
With a thoughtful tilt of his head, he turned his attention toward her other breast. Now he cupped them both in his hands, plumping the left, then the right . . . as though he were testing and weighing them against each other. Men were so very strange. He pinched both her ni**les at the same time, and she gasped with surprise and pleasure.
She covered the noise with a nervous laugh. “Couldn’t you at least kiss me when you do that?”
“Gladly.”
His lips brushed the hollow of her throat. Again, and then again. Light, feathery kisses that tore apart her resistance, shredded any resolve. His hands roamed her curves.
“Bram . . .”
“Just kisses,” he murmured, his lips covering her racing pulse. “Just kisses. I swear, I’ll press you no further. I’ll stop the moment you say the word. Only let me kiss you, Susanna.” He trailed his tongue down her neck.
And she sighed her approval, tilting her head to aid his descent. Just kisses. What harm could a few kisses be? It was no more than they’d already done. In her desire-drugged mind, he made so much sense.
His bent his head, and his tongue made a sure, deliberate pass over her nipple. Then he drew the linen-covered peak into his mouth.
She cried out, shocked by the sudden burst of pleasure.
“Hush,” he murmured against her breast. “Just kisses. That’s all. Just kisses.”
Just kisses. Ha. Oh, certainly, these were just kisses. And the Great Pyramids of Egypt were merely little stacks of stone.