imminent. She gazed at the hero of the story. That seemed to rattle him.
“So, I’ll, ah, leave you to it.” He backed toward the doorway.
“You must undo my dress,” said Verity. “I can’t reach the fastenings. And no maid to help.”
“I can’t do that.”
“It’s not difficult.” She felt curiously powerful.
“I know, but—”
“I can’t mend it while it’s on me.” She turned her back and waited.
“Verity.”
Her name on his tongue excited her. “Just hooks and laces. You know how to undo hooks and laces, don’t you?”
After a moment, she felt his fingers on her back, a light touch but it sent a jolt right through her. As when they’d kissed, he woke her body. No one else had ever done that. It demanded more caresses.
The bodice of her gown loosened and slid down a bit. She let it. She felt him undo another hook, and after a pause, another. The dress slipped off one shoulder. It was astonishing how such a feather touch could rouse her. And then it was gone. “Don’t stop,” she protested.
His reply was choked. “I’m not made of stone, Verity. I shouldn’t have brought you—”
She turned and kissed him before he could say something fatal. How she loved kissing him! The more she did it, the more she wanted to. Each time she found that there was yet another dimension to kissing, some farther place to go in the realms of physical passion. She slipped her arms under his coat and pulled him closer.
He groaned. It was a marvelous sound. She wanted to make him do it again. And she ached for his touch. Perhaps he knew that?
He pulled away. “We can’t—”
She kissed him again to stop his talking. If he kept talking, all would be lost. She wiggled her shoulders, her hips, and her dress slithered to the floor. She laughed and reached for him.
And then he was pushing her backward to the daybed, and they half fell onto it. His hands were on her, and they did seem to know precisely where to go. They roamed to just the places she wished them to be. “Oh yes,” she gasped, arching up to him.
It felt wonderful. Riveting. Desperately urgent. She pulled at his shirt until she could touch his bare skin, exploring the lovely muscles of his back. She joined him in a flurry of kisses. She tried to match his marvelous caresses. Until she had to clutch him to ride out a storm of release.
As it shook her to the depths, he claimed her lips again and entered her. She held on through a bit of discomfort and into an intimacy greater than she’d shared with any other being. She felt the urgency claim his body and carry him away, delighting in their kiss as it shook him. When he came to rest, their pulses beat heart to heart.
Randolph rose above her, disheveled, murmuring her name. He dropped quick light kisses on her cheeks, her eyelids, her lips. Verity laughed softly, letting her fingertips drift along his ribs. And then they were separate once again. He shifted so that they were lying side by side on the narrow couch.
The house remained silent. They might have been alone in the world.
Lord Randolph groaned. But it was a different sort of sound, not one Verity wished to hear. He sat up, his back to her, and put his head in his hands. The fairy tale had ended, Verity thought. The real world came rushing back. And with it came a tumult of consequences she didn’t wish to consider.
He ought to have resisted, Randolph thought. Once he’d brought Verity here—which he should not have done—he should have made Quinn assist her. But he hadn’t thought, and then a point had come when he didn’t want to. She’d been so endearingly eager. That she’d wanted him, trusted him… She’d been irresistible, and he’d given in to temptation.
There was nothing wrong with desire or physical passion, of course. In its place. But this shouldn’t have happened in a stranger’s workroom, in a tumble of clothes. He still had his boots on, for God’s sake. He’d do anything in the world rather than offer Verity Sinclair an insult. Randolph pulled at his clothes, did up buttons, and turned back to her. She was half naked and delicious, and all he could think of was doing everything all over again as soon as possible.
Well, that wasn’t an insurmountable problem. As long as he was willing to take an irrevocable step into the