A Royal Kiss and Tell

His arms circled tightly around her, his tongue seeking hers. Her desire enveloped her like a blanket of torment and pleasure—her heart ached and swelled and pounded against her ribs. She felt as if parts of her were cracking open, and the heat of him was seeping into her marrow. She clung to his body, to his lips, and her thoughts deserted her.

Leo groaned from somewhere deep. He lifted his head, gripped her arms tightly. “Don’t, Caroline. I have reached a point where I can’t continue like this, not without...”

“I won’t stop,” she said, and eagerly sought his mouth as her fingers tangled in his hair.

Leo suddenly lifted her off her feet and moved to the settee. He dipped down to the hollow of her throat. “I haven’t forgotten what you said. That you will defend your virtue until you marry,” he said roughly, and shoved his fingers into her curls, pulling some free.

She pushed against his shoulder and made him look at her. “That’s not what I said. I said I wouldn’t part with it unless I was in love.”

Leo’s blue eyes darkened in that low light and he sank back. “Are you in love?”

“Do you really need to ask?” She cupped his face with her hands. “I love you, Leopold. I ardently admire you. I adore you. If you were any other man, I would beg you to ask for my hand.”

Leopold’s expression turned wild. He grabbed her hand and pressed her palm against his chest so that she could feel his wildly beating heart. The force of it surprised her. He looked almost pained as he caressed her face, her shoulder, his fingers trailing over the swell of her breasts. “I love you, Caroline. I don’t know how it happened, how you crept under my skin and into my heart. I don’t know how you inserted yourself into my every waking thought. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was never meant to be like this.”

“I know, I know, but I don’t care,” she said breathlessly. “I know I can’t have you, Leopold, but I can’t let you leave and not say or experience these raging feelings for you. I’m desperate with want. Aren’t you?”

“Desperate,” he muttered. He stroked her face, his eyes searching hers. But then his gaze fell to her lips. “Close your eyes.”

Caroline closed her eyes and lay back on the settee, giving in to her desire and to him. He moved his mouth over her skin, his touch burning a trail in its wake. She felt white-hot inside, desire thrumming and pulsing in her, anticipation and such incredible longing shimmering out through her toes and fingers.

He slid his hands down to her ankle, then his fingers beneath the hem of her gown and on her calf, and then up, to her thigh, to her sex. She skated her hands over his shoulders and his chest, insistent. She kissed him and pressed her body against him, wanting more, wanting everything about him.

His kisses turned blistering, and his hands were between her legs, stroking her. But it wasn’t enough for her this time. Caroline slid her hand down his body and stroked his erection. Leo grunted and pressed against her, so that she could feel how hard he was, how he wanted her.

It was extraordinary that desire could burn so fiercely in her that she could abandon the barriers she’d erected to keep her virtue. He had easily torn down the doors of her defense and made her his. All that Caroline knew was that she’d never felt anything as urgent, as imperative, as the desire to have him.

He filled his hand with her breast, kissed her chin, her throat and the spill of her flesh above the bodice of her gown. He moved down her body, kissing her stomach through her dress and her corset, then moved up, sank his fingers into her cleavage and released a breast. He suckled it, then rolled the tip between thumb and forefinger. Caroline gasped with pleasure.

“You must be sure,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers, his breathing as ragged as her own. “You must be certain this is what you want, because God help me, I am not man enough to help you decide. I am but a breath away from ravaging you. Do you understand me, Caroline?”

He was a good man. A decent man. She drew up on an elbow and kissed his mouth. “I’m not asking you to help me decide anything, Leopold. I’m asking you to take me.”

The light in his eyes seemed to shimmer in the darkness. He muttered something in Alucian and lowered his head to hers, kissing her tenderly, reverently. But the tenderness quickly gave way to heat, and his hands and his mouth were everywhere. He ripped the coat from his body, grabbed the shirt and pulled it over his head. Her hands touched the flesh of his chest for the first time and Caroline groaned.

He reached his hand between her legs and began to stroke her, moving his fingers inside her, helping her body to open. She was wild and uncertain what to do, or where to put her hands. Her breath was so shallow, as if she’d run for miles to him. She could feel the inevitable release building in her, and she grabbed his nape, pulled his head to hers, kissed his lips and bit the bottom one. “It’s time.”