of nothing beyond wanting to press against him and kiss him?
A dark figure over his shoulder drew her attention. Madam watched the proceedings like a hawk, with her gaze lighting on them every few seconds. Kat tightened her grip on Barrett’s shoulder. “Where were you all afternoon?”
He studied the top of her head. “Walking.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“I was careful.”
“That’s not the point. You’re always telling us we can’t go out alone. This isn’t the time for double standards.”
His gaze dropped to her face. Her mouth. The banked desire stirred once more in his eyes. “Worried about me?”
“Always.”
Tingles fanned across her skin as his hand brushed up her back and curled around her neck. Warm fingertips caressed the sensitive skin behind her ears, and her breath caught in her throat, threatening to explode from the pressure building within. She raised her hand and grazed a finger across his broad mouth, warm to her trembling touch.
“Kat,” he said, voice hoarse. “There’s something I need—”
A girl with a red feather yanked him from her arms. Kat was left standing in the center of the room with her hand still in the air, the impression of his warm lips turning cold on her finger. Heat flamed her face, threatening to set her ablaze right then and there. Turning, she ran for the exit.
* * *
None too gently, Barrett unlatched the painted woman’s arms from around his neck and headed for the door Kat had gone through. He’d come too close to letting her convince him that everything would be all right, that they belonged together. The desire burning in her eyes ignited the yearning within him. She’d pressed against him. Surely she’d felt the barely controlled erratic beats of his heart. And when she brushed her thumb over his lip, he could have claimed her right then and there.
But they didn’t belong together. Could never be together. Every obstacle blocked their happiness, not least of all this squalid place he’d been born to. She might be able to overlook that, but he never would, and he would never set such a decision to her. She deserved better than having to choose. But her father . . . She needed to know. And it was the ultimate betrayal from that that would seal their fate. That would set her to hating him and him to a lifetime of misery without her.
She wasn’t in the parlor, nor was she upstairs or in the kitchen. That left outside. He hurried through the kitchen, shoving the crooked bench aside, and threw open the door. Cool, night air hushed the courtyard. He’d told her and Ellie a million times to not go outside at night. German patrols often scouted the area, and just because Madam had closed her doors for the night didn’t mean one of them wouldn’t come sniffing around in hopes of a lark.
Pulling the blade from his pocket, he circled the corner and stopped. With her back pressed to the side of the building, Kat tilted her face up to the pale moon. Her skin glowed like smooth alabaster.
She turned her head to him, lips parted. Every thought and determination he’d had vanished.
Shoving the knife back in his pocket, he closed the distance between them in three unbearably long strides. Crushing her to him, he found her mouth without hesitation in a hard, fiercely possessive kiss. Her arms came around his neck and pressed him closer until there wasn’t a breath left between them. Her cool lips turned to velvet heat beneath his touch, branding him. He felt her intense desperation seeping into him, wrapping around his soul and pleading with it to join hers. His fingers tangled in her hair as complete surrender engulfed him like fiery darts hitting the ground and setting a blaze all around them.
It wasn’t enough. No matter how tight he held her, how hard her heart beat against his, it wasn’t close enough. His soul ached to cling to hers.
Her fingers dug into his hair, raking through it to send fire all over his scalp. She branded him. Hers for always. And he . . . he wanted her more than anything he had ever wanted in the whole world. More than his freedom, more than his next breath, more than his own life.
Slipping his arms around her waist, he tore his mouth from hers and kissed the satiny skin of her cheek, her ear, trailing the delicate sweep of her jaw and her offered throat. She smelled of lilac water, sweet