neck with his thumb. Slow, steady swirls over her skin.
And she moved, it was true.
But not away from him.
In the next breath, she tugged his head down to hers and their mouths met at last.
Chapter Five
At last.
Felicity felt as if she had waited an entire lifetime for this man’s lips on hers. Which was ludicrous, because she had only met him a scant few days ago. She scarcely knew him. And yet, she could not shake the sensation, deep and ingrained, that there was something inevitable about him. About this moment. About this kiss.
Not her first.
She had kissed a handful of gentlemen before. No easy feat, with watchful chaperones and the care she took with her reputation. But she had kissed several of her suitors. Each of them had left her feeling pleasant but hardly transformed.
None of those kisses compared to this one.
Blade Winter was a rogue and she knew it, but he kissed like an angel.
A wicked angel.
His lips moved over hers, parting them, his tongue slipping inside her mouth. He tasted like pineapple. He must have sampled one of the pineapples from the Abingdon House orangery at breakfast. Such sweetness, mingled with temptation.
She should stop this. Push him away. He held her as gently as if she were Sèvres porcelain. Felicity knew without bothering to try that she could slip away with ease. That was the problem. She did not want to slip away. She had been waiting all her life for this, for him.
Or so it seemed as his mouth worshiped hers.
She forgot about reaching for the naughty book that belonged to Lady Aylesford, which she had been tasked with rescuing from the salon by the lady herself. Forgot about propriety, all the reasons why she should be running as far from this room and this man as possible. All she could think about, all she could feel, all she wanted, was Blade Winter’s kiss.
Her arms wound around his neck. She pressed her body to his in shameless fashion. Hungering for him. Longing for him, quite desperately. Not even common sense or the fear of her future could stop her now. His lips were too potent. His touch on her nape—that incendiary graze of his thumb pad over her skin—enough to drive her mad.
She inhaled, and all she breathed was him. Decadent, forbidden, everything she should not want. Everything she wanted anyway.
Somewhere, a thump sounded.
The book, mayhap?
She should put an end to the kiss and fetch it. Certainly she ought to remember she had come to this country house party with one purpose in mind: to find herself a husband.
But then, his taunting, tempting words came back to her.
Why not enjoy yourself before you sell your body and soul to save your sisters?
She could not summon a single argument against his query just now, with his lips moving over hers. Melding to hers. Possessing hers. Good heavens, he kissed with such mastery, she could well understand why a married woman would go chasing after him.
Why not enjoy herself, just for a moment? Just for this kiss?
He kissed the corners of her mouth, then nipped her lower lip between his teeth. A startled moan tore from her. He was fierce. Savage. Wild.
Everything she should not want.
Everything she wanted anyway.
“You taste so bloody sweet.” He traced the sting of his tender bites with his tongue. “Damn it, I could kiss you all day.”
Yes, if you please.
But that was wrong. She could not kiss him all day. Or at all. Indeed, she had to stop this dangerous nonsense at once. And she would, just as soon as he…
“Oh,” she whispered as his knowing mouth traveled from hers at last, finding her throat. Latching on to the place where her heart beat so frantically. Sucking. Licking.
Her knees trembled.
She clutched him.
This was… No kiss had ever been so… She had no words.
None.
He kissed his way to her ear, his hot breath grazing her, making her shiver. And then he kissed the space behind it, his tongue roaming over the hollow she had never realized was so sensitive until this moment. This time, her knees did not just tremble. They turned to pudding. She would have collapsed had he not caught her with a strong arm around the waist, drawing her more firmly against him.
So firmly the undeniable ridge of his manhood pressed into her belly. Felicity was not entirely ignorant—she had paged through the secret book Lady Aylesford had requested she retrieve. And it had been…informative. Interesting.
Not nearly as interesting as Blade