at least welcomed as a good person to know, a man of unexpected—to them—knowledge and humor. They had surrounded her, too, jostling each other for who sat next to her. At one level, she had truly enjoyed the impromptu family party, more than she had enjoyed any such gathering for years.
But what she had really wanted, what she still wanted, was just a few moments alone with Dragan. To be sure those wild, possessive kisses signified more than relief in her survival. But mostly, just to see him, just to take one more moment to bed with her.
The best guest bedchamber was where Monkton had used to sleep before he set up his own establishment when he married Augusta. It was only across the passage.
She brushed out her hair, listening to the growing silence in the house, knowing if she truly meant to say goodnight to him in private, she would have to do it soon, or he would be asleep. Perhaps he already was.
She dropped her hairbrush and rose, fetching her dressing gown from the back of the door. Her heart thundered as she struggled into it, tied it, and opened the door a crack.
All was in darkness. The servants had gone to bed. As she opened her door wider, the light from her room fell across the landing to his closed door. She didn’t need light to find her way, so she closed her door behind her, walked through the darkness, and tapped lightly.
She didn’t know now if she would be glad or sorry if he did not answer.
The door glided open silently, and Dragan stood there bathed in the warm glow of a single lamp. He was half-undressed, in his shirt-sleeves, tieless, shoeless. And not appalled at all.
The tenderest smile curved his lips, flooded his eyes as he drew her inside and closed the door. And then he took her in his arms, kissing her as she longed to be kissed, with deep, aching sensuality.
“Griz…Griz, do you love me?” he whispered against her lips.
“Oh, you know I do. Would I be here if—”
His mouth fastened tighter, drowning the rest of her words. “Will you marry me?” he asked an instant later. “I have nothing, but will you?”
She cupped his cheek to draw his mouth back to hers. “Of course I will.” Lost in his wild kiss, it was some time before she caught at his head, pushing him back. “Wait… you have not… Do you love me?”
“Insanely,” he whispered, seizing her mouth once more. “It is too soon, too mad, but I always knew.”
“So did I,” she said in wonder and kissed him again.
His hands swept down her body, making her gasp, and then her dressing gown was on the floor, and he was pulling her nightgown up over her head. Her glasses went with it, and she didn’t care, for she was in his arms with a dizzy sense of flying, and then there was cool linen at her back, and hot, male flesh covering her front.
Excitement soared. His hands caressed everywhere, sweet and tender, arousing a hunger she only half-understood. How could there be such intense pleasure in the moment, along with such blinding need for more?
The skin of his shoulders and back was heated velvet beneath her greedy fingers. And below the soft skin, hard muscle thrilled her. So strong, so lean and flexible as he kissed her throat, her breasts, and his fingers stroked between her thighs, making her gasp with wild, new bliss.
But there were more than fingers there, and it seemed so right, so desirable that she wasn’t even shocked when he slipped inside her. It helped that he was kissing her lips, that his rippling back and rear distracted her until there was only him, only tides of wonder and pleasure. And rocking, shattering joy.
***
“Did you just take my virginity?” she asked. One had to be sure.
Breathless laughter shook him. “Yes. Now you have to marry me.”
“Now you have to marry me.”
“I’ll settle for that.” He shifted his weight, drawing her with him, still joined. The sheen of sweat stood out on his golden skin, catching the glow of the lamp. “When we are married, I will take a lot longer about it. We have so much to share.”
“I like the sound of that,” she said, suddenly shy, despite the current intimacy.
“Your family still won’t like it,” he warned.
“They will learn to,” she said comfortably.
For a while, they lay in sweet silence, in each other’s arms. There had never been