He twined one finger about the hair. “That night at the masquerade I kept hoping your hair would fall out of your hat, and I would finally get a glimpse of it unpinned.”
With a catch in her throat, she looked up at him. He sat so close now, his eyes shimmering in the fading light of dusk and his breath wafting over her.
Then he added, in a husky voice, “I would give anything to see your hair down.”
She swallowed convulsively. “I’m sure that can be arranged,” she managed through a throat suddenly gone dry.
With his gaze boring into hers, he took the automaton from her and placed it on the seat behind him, then began to remove the pins from her coiffure.
“You mean to do it now?” she asked. “What will the servants think when I disembark from the carriage looking like a trollop from the streets?”
“They’ll think we’re newly married. Which we are.”
When he tugged at a pin that stubbornly resisted his efforts, she said, “Stop that. Let me.”
As she took out her pins, he caught the locks that fell, twining them loosely about his hands, rubbing them between his fingers. “Your hair is like gilded silk thread.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “When did you become so poetic?”
“When my wife told me I had to learn how to pay a woman compliments.” He kissed one of her curls. “I’m not very good at it yet.”
“You’re good enough,” she said softly.
His gaze played over her face, searching, drinking in. Then he clasped her head in his hands and brought his mouth down on hers.
Oh, heavens. This kiss was decidedly different from the one they’d shared in the church—sweeter, hotter . . . more intimate. She parted her lips for him, and with a groan, he plunged his tongue deep.
That’s when everything got more interesting. He kissed like a marauder of old, plundering and taking and turning her into mush with every long, hot thrust of his tongue. She caught him by the neck; he caught her by the waist. He swept his hand up to thumb her nipple through her gown; she swept hers up to fondle his beautiful raven hair that cascaded luxuriously over her fingers.
His free hand skimmed her as if looking for chinks in her armor. And there were many; right now her armor might as well be made of paper.
Burying his mouth in her neck, he gave a sort of sucking kiss to the delicate skin that sent a thrill down to her toes. When she gripped his head, he said, “Do you like that?”
“I’m not sure. It’s different.”
“I want to touch you beneath your skirts.” He nuzzled her jaw with his whisker-rough face. “Will you let me?”
Beneath her skirts. Oh no. That was how things started to go awry. “I . . . I don’t know.”
He must have sensed her alarm, for he stilled. “What if I just kiss you, then?”
“Yes, oh yes.” Relief coursed through her. “Kissing is good. I like kissing.”
“So do I.” To her surprise, instead of seizing her mouth again, he slid off the seat and onto the floor of the carriage.
When he started pushing her skirts up, she grabbed his hands. “Wait, I thought you were going to kiss me!”
“I am.” His eyes gleamed up at her in the thin light of dusk. “But here.” Parting the long slit in one pantalets leg, he pressed a kiss to the inside of her bare knee. “And here.” He kissed the thigh above it. “And definitely here.” He kissed the other thigh higher up.
An errant shiver swept down her. “I see,” she managed, though she didn’t see at all. It hadn’t occurred to her that kissing could be done . . . down there. Or that it could feel so intoxicating. The Vile Seducer had certainly never bestowed any kisses on that part of her.
Edwin’s head was practically in her lap now, and for some reason it felt less alarming than when he was sitting on the seat beside her. His privates were nowhere near hers, only his mouth. He couldn’t really hurt her with his mouth, could he?
Unless . . . “You’re not going to bite me, are you?”
He chuckled. “No, I swear.” Rubbing her linen-clad thighs with his hands, he said, “Open your legs for me, my sweet, and I’ll do things to you that make you feel good. Things that you’ll like. And naught else, I swear.”
Only the fact that he was kneeling and she was seated made her willing to let him try. She opened her legs a little and was rewarded with a series of soft, delicate kisses to her inner thighs inside the long openings in her drawers.
To her shock, that excited her quite a lot. It frightened her a bit, too, but beneath the fright simmered a hot thrill that made her heart race.
Then he placed his mouth right upon her privates.
“Edwin!” she squeaked. “Are you . . . sure about this?”
Ignoring her question, he began to kiss and lick her down there. Inside her pantalets. Between her legs. His mouth covered her soft flesh, teasing and stroking her tenderly. It felt shockingly good.