you said, what’s done is done.”
He nodded slowly. He couldn’t argue with her. There was nothing left to say.
“Even if we wanted things to be different,” Julianna continued. “There’s no way my father would allow me to cry off.”
Rhys swallowed the guilt and shame that had lodged in his throat. “No, Julianna. You couldn’t leave him for me. Even if your father would allow it. It would be the wrong thing to do.” A vision of Lady Emily Foswell’s face floated through his mind.
“I know, Rhys. I know.”
He reached out and cupped her cheek, sliding his thumb across her smooth skin. “The one thing that’s never changed is how much I want you.”
Julianna lifted her chin. Their eyes met and Rhys leaned forward, closer, closer, until his lips brushed against hers. It was soft, chaste; a kiss between two people who both wished they’d done things differently.
And then the kiss shifted.
Rhys’s tongue tentatively explored the line between her lips, and she opened to him. He pulled her into his arms as their tongues met and a groan sounded deep in the back of his throat. He pushed up the skirts on her yellow riding habit and she wrapped her legs around his waist, sitting atop his lap.
Rhys tried to steady his breathing. Dear God. This was wrong and they both knew it, but if Julianna was to be consigned to a life of unhappiness married to a man she didn’t love, Rhys could give her one afternoon of passion, if that was what she wanted.
His hands were in her hair and her hands were wrapped firmly around his neck. His mouth trailed to her ear, her neck, her décolletage. Her fingers worked at the buttons of the shirt he’d put on only minutes earlier, and she pulled it over his head.
His fingers worked at the buttons of her habit, which were undone in a matter of seconds. He gently leaned forward, so she would fall back on the heap of blankets. He helped her to pull her habit off and then she was clad only in her shift and stockings.
She quickly divested herself of the shift too and Rhys sucked in his breath.
“Julianna,” he breathed, “you’re gorgeous.” His eyes traveled from the tips of her toes, up her long, slender legs and soft thatch of slightly darker curls between her legs, her flat belly, her perfect, full breasts. His gaze came to rest on her beautiful face.
“Kiss me, Rhys,” she begged.
He divested himself of his breeches and she gasped when she first saw him. He didn’t want to frighten her with his nudity. He quickly covered her with his body and pulled one of the furs over both of them to keep them warm.
The storm continued to rage outside, while Rhys took his time exploring every part of Julianna. First, he kissed her lips again, long and languidly, savoring the taste of her, the feel of her naked beneath him.
Then he lowered his mouth to her neck and nuzzled her, licked the shell of her ear. Her body bucked beneath him. He moved even lower. Cupping her full breasts in his hands, he lavished the attention of his tongue on first one, then the other. He sucked a nipple into his mouth and flicked it back and forth with his tongue. Her head was thrown back and her hands were moving of their own accord through his hair.
When he lowered his mouth even further and began kissing between her breasts and then down her abdomen, Julianna’s belly tensed. Her hands clutched his shoulders and her legs spread as he settled himself between them.
The first lick made Julianna moan. He cradled her hips in his hands and pushed his tongue against her sweet core again. Her fingertips dug into his shoulders. He used the tip of his tongue to nudge at the spot between her legs that he knew would give her maximum pleasure. She moaned again.
He sucked the sensitive little nub into his mouth and flicked it ruthlessly with his tongue.
“Rhys,” Julianna called. Her hands had left his shoulders to tangle in his hair once more.
He licked her again and again until her hips lifted off the blankets and he held her there, his hands cupping her warm buttocks while his mouth continued its gentle assault on her most intimate spot.
His tongue flicked her again and again until her legs tensed, and she cried out a final time before sinking back down into the blankets, her body trembling.
Rhys emerged from