‘You hear voices?’ Now she was all concern. ‘You must have hit your head the other day and not realised.’ She stepped back, caught his hands in hers and tugged him towards the seat. ‘You shouldn’t be in this noisy place drinking alcohol. Rest a moment and then get a footman to call your carriage. You should see your physician in the morning. Or perhaps tonight.’
‘No, Sophie – ’ On the other hand… Cal kept hold of her hands as he sat and she perched close beside him, anxiously scrutinising as much of his face as she could see.
‘Take your mask off, that cannot be helping.’
Obediently he untied the strings and put it down beside him. ‘Perhaps I have a fever.’
‘Oh, yes, you have. You are very warm.’ Her hand, cool and gentle touched his forehead, heated by the mask he had been wearing for over an hour. Her fingers trailed down his temple, under his jaw and rested lightly his throat. ‘And your pulse is beating very strongly. Yes, that’s right, close your eyes, Cal, rest a little. Perhaps we should loosen your neckcloth.’
Bliss. Her fingers worked at the knot and she pulled the ends loose. Cal could feel her body pressing against his as she worked, the warmth of her breath against his cheek, the cool of the night air as the fabric came free, the scent of her… The choking sensation as the ends of his neckcloth were drawn sharply together, strangling him.
‘Sophie!’ Cal hooked his fingers into the tightening fabric and pulled enough to get some air into his lungs.
‘You, Your Grace,’ she said, giving the ends a little jerk with each word by way of emphasis, ‘are a rake and a flirt and I know exactly what that voice in your head was talking about to produce that smirk.’ She released the ends of the neckcloth and treated him to a smug smile of her own.
‘You baggage,’ he said. Clever, clever baggage. ‘I do take no for an answer, you have only to say if you do not want me to kiss you.’
‘But I do want you to kiss me,’ she said demurely. ‘I just wanted to make it clear that I am not one of those silly girls who let themselves be lured into the shrubbery and cannot deal with the results.’ That ended up sounding rather grim, he thought. Perhaps a friend of hers had experienced… results.
‘Just a kiss?’ Cal enquired, setting his hands around her waist. There were no stays under the shifting, slippery layers of silk. Just warm, curving female flesh. ‘You have made an excellent beginning on undressing me that it seems a pity to waste that effort.’
She went deliciously pink. ‘Just a kiss. One kiss.’
One kiss can last a long, long time, Cal told himself as he settled Sophie against him. She was pliant, responsive, not at all tense. She has done this before, he thought as he bent to her lips, his tongue sweeping along the lower curve to taste. She opened to him at once, her mouth sweet and soft, her tongue making a small, but confident, sweep over his in return. She tasted of the strawberries and champagne from the buffet and something tart, perhaps lemon, and she tasted of Sophie, just as he had imagined she would taste.
Cal smiled against her lips as she made a little purring sound and wriggled closer. I’m doing this to your satisfaction am I, Madam? Yes, she had been kissed before, but there was still an innocence, a freshness, about this caress. She was tasting him, just as he was tasting her. She was exploring the man, he sensed, not simply wanting sensual satisfaction. And when he slid his hands up until his thumbs brushed against the underside of her breasts, she pulled back a little. No wanton, Sophie.
He took the hint, slid his hands down again, focussed on making love to her mouth and enjoying her increasingly bold responses. His body nagged at him for more, but he ignored the pulsing, building pressure, the insistent thrust of his erection beneath the thin knitted silk of his breeches.
A kiss, one kiss, could last all evening. The resulting arousal could last a week at this rate, but he would worry about that, take care of that, later. Cal sucked on her lower lip, nipped, laved the tiny bite with his tongue, and was not surprised when she nipped in return, then slid her lips across his cheek to nibble his earlobe.
Perhaps this couldn’t last all evening after all. Much more of this and he would either spend like a randy youth or have to go and throw himself into whatever water feature was tinkling on the far side of the garden. A wicked, pointed tongue ran around the curve of his ear, then her teeth found the lobe again.
And the world exploded.
For a second Cal thought it was the most violent orgasm he had ever experienced. Then Sophie’s teeth closed painfully on the tender flesh of his ear and she jerked free with a startled yelp.
Cal found himself on his feet, Sophie pressed to him protectively, his hand reaching for where his sword would have been if he had been wearing one, and the sky above crackled and banged and trails of stars cascaded across the darkness.
‘Oh, fireworks!’ She was laughing in his arms, the minx, shaking with amusement.