gazes of those who had chosen to remain indoors. For once, Lady Thrush seemed to have given up her pursuit of him, leaving Nick unencumbered by her presence. Which, incidentally, left him the opening he needed.
He halted in his tracks when he noticed Calliope breaking away from the others, hanging her mallet on a nearby rack before taking her skirts in hand and making a quick escape. Nick watched with bated breath as she began making her way toward the house, her steps swift as if she were trying to outrun someone, or something.
Realizing no one intended to follow, Nick left the sun room with as much outward composure as he could muster. His pace quickened once he reached the corridor to find it empty, and by the time he arrived at the side of the house where he was certain Calliope had entered, he was at an all-out run.
He found her breezing toward him, having just entered the house.
She faltered at the sight of him, lips parting as her chest heaved with labored breath.
He closed the distance between them as she stood frozen, as if she either could not flee or didn’t want to. He had her now, taking firm hold of her arm and pulling her into a room across the corridor and slamming the door shut behind them and turning the lock.
She gasped when he whirled on her, pushing her against the door and trapping her with both hands pressed to the wood. Their gazes clashed, the defiance in her eyes melting away as he dipped his head with a rough sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized how badly he’d needed this until she was in his arms, her lips soft and pliant, body melting in supplication against the hard press of his. But, he had needed it so badly that now he’d tasted her again he didn’t think he could stop.
What he’d meant to be a brief meeting of lips transformed into something else entirely. When she opened her mouth to him, her sweet tongue darting against his lower lip, he broke, all his good intentions falling away until he was left with nothing but the need to utterly possess her.
He deepened the kiss, sealing his mouth over hers and plunging with his tongue, tasting, teasing, claiming. She met him with equal fervor, whimpering against his lips and giving in to his assault. He grasped her arms and slung them up around his neck, and she obeyed his silent command, fingers tangled in his hair so tight his scalp stung. Then, he was caressing his way down her body, his touch skimming her arms, her ribs, her waist, the flare of her hips.
She wrenched her mouth away from his with a sharp cry, but he merely went on kissing her, nibbling his way down her cheek, along her jaw, down the slender column of her throat. Her pulse galloped against his tongue, and she sobbed when he latched on, drunk on the taste of her skin.
“Dominick,” she cried, hands holding fast to his head. “Please … I can’t.”
“You can,” he countered, nuzzling his way downward, clenching at her fichu with his teeth and yanking it free of her bodice, sending pins scattering to the floor. “You’re killing me, goddess. Every time you give him your smiles, your laughter, even so much as your hand touching his … I die a little bit more.”
Her fichu fell away, leaving soft mounds of golden flesh bare above her neckline. He’d gone mad, his knees weakening at nothing more than the sight of the tops of her breasts. He had seen countless women naked, had helped himself to the charms of so many he’d lost count. He’d experienced just about every pleasure there was to be had, from the tamest to the filthiest … and still, none of it compared to being allowed these tiny glimpses of her—her exposed throat, the wings of her collarbone, the swells of flesh at her neckline. If he ever managed to get her nude, Nick wasn’t certain he would survive it.
He literally ached for her, his cock painfully hard, his entire body wound so taut he feared a single touch would cause him to spontaneously combust.
Calliope gripped his shoulders, squirming and twisting away from him.
“If you are so desperate, why not take what Lady Thrush is so readily offering,” she snapped as he stepped away from her, albeit reluctantly. “I’m certain she, like every other woman you’ve ever looked at, would be more than