Amusement sparked his dark eyes to starlight as he glanced at her. “Good God, madam, you sound like a wife.”
She met his gleaming gaze, shadowed under the curling brim of his stylish hat. He looked like a buck of the ton. Impossible to reconcile this elegance with the rumpled, satiated man from a few hours ago.
“I am a wife,” she said softly. For the first time, she almost felt like one. His eyes changed, focused, and her heart shifted in her breast. “I wish you’d kiss me,” she whispered before she reminded herself what trouble her propensity for blurting out her thoughts had already caused.
A taut silence fell. She waited for him to retreat as he had so often before.
The humor drained from his face, replaced by a concentrated sensuality. His gaze dropped to her mouth. Her breath escaped her parted lips on a sigh.
Her senses sharpened. The sounds around them suddenly seemed unusually loud. Birdsong. The sea’s distant roar. The jangle of harness as one of the horses shifted.
Then her heart’s furious pounding drowned out everything else.
Slowly, so slowly she thought she’d die with waiting, his face moved closer. His warm, moist breath feathered across her lips. She made a choked sound of yearning.
If he stopped now, she’d scream.
He closed his eyes and brushed his lips across hers. A glancing contact.
She growled with impatience and strained toward him. There was no sign of his usual reluctance for physical contact. She silently whispered a prayer of thankfulness.
“You’re teasing,” she said hoarsely.
Those lips she wanted on hers quirked. “A little. Take off your bonnet, so I can do this properly.”
Even through her yearning, she recognized how promising that sounded. With shaking hands, she untied the yellow satin ribbons and ripped the hat from her head. It was new and very stylish. Without hesitation, she dropped it to the curricle’s floor.
In a fever of anticipation, she watched him secure the reins, although the horses seemed happy to laze in the waning sun. He swept his hat from his head.
He must hear her heart’s furious beat, it was so loud. Her palms were moist. Nervously, she wiped them on her skirts. “Hurry,” she said in a shaking voice.
He laughed softly. The deep sound shivered through her. She squirmed restlessly on the seat.
Slowly—why, oh, why was he so slow? Couldn’t he tell she was in a lather of desire?—he lifted one hand to cup the back of her head. His gloved fingers speared through the hair at her nape.
“You’re so fierce,” he murmured.
“Don’t you like it?” She hardly knew what she said. All she knew was that he touched her as if nothing else in the entire world mattered.
“I didn’t say that.”
He lifted his other hand and placed it under her chin, holding her face angled up. Absurd when he must know evasion was the last thing on her mind.
“Gideon…”
An invitation. A protest. A plea.
“Shh.” A tender smile hovered around his lips.
He dipped his head and gave her another fleeting kiss.
Still he played with her. In spite of his own need. An inferno of desire raged behind those black eyes. Heat radiated from him. She shifted, trying to get closer to that blaze.
Very gently he placed his lips on the corner of hers. A kiss on her nose. On her chin. Between her brows.
“Kiss me,” she said almost tearfully. This delay was more than mortal flesh could stand.
“I am kissing you.”