forearm to the wall, and rest her forehead on her forearm, and wait for the world to end.
She felt rather than heard Joshua come in and lock the door. She didn’t move, but every one of her senses tracked his presence.
Three glissades of her dancing heart later, he enveloped her in his solid heat. His arms were strong and sure around her waist, and his chest made a safe, sturdy wall against her back. How lovely to be wrapped up in him like this. If someone attacked her, he would shield her. If her legs gave way, he would catch her before she fell.
His lips brushed over her jaw. “You outdid yourself tonight, my sweet,” he murmured.
“Are you laughing?”
“Only on the inside.”
He nuzzled her again, half caress, half tickle, and she tilted her neck for more. His scent filled her senses and his caress rippled out over her body, cascading over her skin like warm water.
“Are you planning to stand against the wall all night?” he asked.
“For the rest of my life, I think.”
Oh, how she loved his soft chuckle. It belonged to her alone, to their intimate moments together.
When he detached himself, she kept her face to the wall and mourned his absence, but he did not go far: He tugged the pins from her hair and let them fall. His fingers combed through her hair, lifting its weight, letting it tumble down over her shoulders and back, languidly as if he had all the time in the world and nothing better to do than play with her curls.
“Where is Ruth?” she managed to say.
“With Lucy. I shall be your lady’s maid tonight.”
He gathered her hair over one shoulder and, with nimble fingers, unbuttoned her gown. She lowered her arms long enough for him slide the sleeves over her shoulders. He chased the gown down her body with his fingers, his hands grazing her waist, her hips, her legs, all the way to the floor. Every touch injected new vigor into her body, as though she were a doll in a story and he the magician bringing her to life. Doll-like, she lifted one foot and then the other so he could pull the gown away.
Still she had not looked at him. Hope shimmered through her but it tangled with the dark fear that if she looked at him, this would end and he would leave her again. She replaced her arm on the wall and rested her forehead on it again.
A few tugs of his nimble fingers and her corset also fell away.
“I make a good lady’s maid, don’t I?” he said.
Once more, his body enfolded her. His nibbling lips at her throat sent new invitations to pleasure that her body was eager to accept.
“My lady’s maid never did that,” she whispered.
He responded by cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples with his thumbs.
She leaned back into him. “She never did that either.”
“What would you do if she did?”
“Give her a raise, probably.”
Another intimate chuckle. How she loved the way she could feel his laugh with her body. She arched her back and rested her head against his shoulder, and enjoyed his enticements.
“Will you dress me in all my nightclothes now?” she asked. “My shift and bed jacket and nightcap?”
“I shall dress you in your nightcap and absolutely nothing else.”
“Oh, you are wicked.”
“I’m wicked? You’re the one who’ll be running around in nothing but your nightcap.”
Desire and joy spiraled through her. And his teasing! If only this moment were a solid thing that she could embrace and keep forever. His desire, his kindness: She did not know if they were enough. But she needed him now, and he was there, and that would have to do.
“I want to feel you everywhere,” she whispered. “I want my world to be nothing but you.”
All at once his caresses stopped and she thought: There, now I’ve done it, now he will go. But he did not move away. He drew a deep, shuddering breath and rested his lips on her shoulder.
“Joshua?”
“I’m here.”
He was less leisurely this time as he tugged up her shift and she helped him pull it over her head. When he came back to her, he had removed his clothes too, and his hot skin melded to hers, the promising length of his erection pressed against her. He squeezed her inner thighs and she whimpered.
“Hold on to the wall, sweetheart,” he growled in her ear. “Let me take care of you.”