was, Nell gave him that. He should have kissed her yesterday. He should have never gone away. He should have spent every day for the last three years laying siege to her with poetry and seduction. But he had been prideful and hurt and stupid. And young, as they both had been. He liked to think himself wiser now.
Certainly, he appreciated this woman in his arms in a way he had not. He was like a starving man laid before a banquet, and he could not get his fill. Her lips were soft. The sweet, surprised mewl of acquiescence she made sent a bolt of lust to his cock. And her arms looped around his neck then, instead of pushing him away.
It was glorious.
Incredible.
He deepened the kiss. She opened for him, her tongue gliding against his.
Time had passed, but this, the connection they had always shared, had not changed. She kissed him back with a furious, ravishing intensity. And he kissed her with the same voracious fervor. He was ravenous for her. Feasting upon her lips and tongue. His hands were on the small of her back, anchoring her to him.
He wished he were not wearing gloves.
He wished they were not standing in the midst of the road.
But he was greedy, and he had been too long without her, and he would take her any way he could have her. She tasted sweet, so sweet. He could kiss her like this forever. Kiss her in the warmth of the dying sun. Kiss her with the air humid and perfumed all around them. Kiss her until his mouth ached, until her lips were swollen and red with the force of his claiming.
He deepened the kiss, his hand sliding up her spine, to the skin at her nape. His fingers plunged into her hair. He wondered if it was as silken and smooth as he remembered. Through his thin gloves, it was warm from her heat, from the day. He cupped her skull, angling her head the way he wanted, so he could kiss her harder. Deeper. So he could kiss her the way he wanted to fuck her: erasing all the memories of anyone else who had ever known her lips, her body.
Jealousy hit him, sharp as a blade, sinking into him.
His fingers tightened in her hair, and he sank his teeth into the fullness of her lower lip, punishing her in this small way. But she did not seem to mind the sting. Instead, she made a low purr in her throat, and then her hands were in his hair too. She was grabbing fistfuls, tugging.
The pleasure was on the verge of pain.
And he was fine with that. They had always been explosive together. Now, there was anger and enmity to accompany the passion. They were older, not wiser. They were embittered, embattled.
With the hand nestled on the small of her back, he dragged her closer to him, until his rigid cock was pressing into the softness of her belly. He wanted her to feel how much he wanted her. To recall all those wild nights they had shared. And the days, too. The mornings.
He had taken her in nearly every chamber of their London townhouse. It had not been enough. Never enough. On the long lonely nights without her, he had thought of those frenzied moments, those heated assignations. They had sustained him.
But now, he had her. He had her mouth. Her taste. Her tongue.
He needed more. Her skin, her body, her surrender.
He would settle for her skin. He tore his lips from hers and kissed her jaw, her ear.
“You are mine,” he whispered. He kissed down her throat, finding the tender cord that had always elicited a reaction in her and nipping. “Mine.”
“No,” she told him. “Never.”
But she made no move to extricate herself from his hold. Instead, she tipped back her head. Her hat fell to the gravel at their feet. He inhaled sharply, the scent of her here: lovely, floral woman and Nell. Beloved. He was going to mark her here. Lay his claim upon her.
He was going to leave behind evidence for bloody Tom of whose wife she was. Whose wife she would remain. His. Mayhap the instinct was a barbaric one, but from the moment it arose, he could not shake it. He opened his mouth on her throat, sucking her creamy skin. Sucking until he was certain her skin bruised.
She was salty and delicious.
She moaned, pressing closer to him.
His cock approved, nestled against