“I just wanted to get that dreadful anticipation out of the way,” she said with a nervous laugh.
“Do explain.”
“I knew I would go mad confined with you for two whole days or more in this small cottage.” She held up two fingers for emphasis. Her throat worked on a swallow. “I would go mad from wondering what it would be like. Can you imagine the awful anxiety of wondering and not knowing? But now I know.”
He stared at her as if he did not know what to make of her, and a flush worked itself through her.
“What do you now know, then?”
“Why…what it felt like to kiss you properly, of course.” Yes! She sounded perfectly nonchalant and worldly. But how her belly flipped as a million butterflies—or more like eagles—took flight inside.
“What an injustice,” he murmured. “It almost borders on criminality.”
She frowned. “What is?”
“That you truly believed that bit of slobbering was a kiss.”
Kitty gasped her outrage. “Slobbering?”
“Hmm. My dogs greet me in the same manner.”
The low growl from her throat shocked her with its ferocity. “How do you dare!”
Amusement fired in his eyes. “Forgive me for teasing. I suspect I’ve injured your pride.”
She sniffed derisively, but mortification burned the tips of her ears. “I suppose you believe you could do better? Do not answer that! For I recall our meeting in its entirety, and that nip was hardly worth mentioning.”
“Ah…an invitation? I accept, Miss Danvers. I accept.” Chuckling, he drew her near and kissed her.
She bit his lip, hard, and with a muttered curse, he released her.
“Impudent hellion!”
She pushed aside the blanket and scrambled from the bed. With an indignant scoff, she flounced toward the armchair. Slobbering. If she possessed any wisp of rationality, she would ignore him and try to get some sleep. The man had said he would never marry, and she did not desire ruination, but he’d lit a fire inside her. Or perhaps she relied on that excuse too quickly. But Kitty spun around to see that he, too, had left the bed and was standing.
She marched over to him, grabbed his shoulders, tipped on her toes, and mashed her lips to his. There. She would show him. Slobbering? Odious man!
A muffled sound of surprise came from him, and then they were tumbling onto the bed. She landed on him with an oomph. Their foreheads bumped, and with a cry she reared up, rubbing the bruised spot.
“Your tough head has fairly cracked my skull,” he muttered darkly.
“Why, you—”
He caught her lips with his. The second their mouths met, it was as though the hunger, which had been carefully contained, escaped with an intense rush. This time their kiss was slow…indulgent, and oh so wickedly thorough.
“Part these pretty lips for me,” he murmured against her mouth.
Kitty gasped, parting her lips and giving him the entry he sought.
Fire blazed through her body, glorious, wanton heat at the first touch of his tongue against hers. A soft bite at her lower lip. A nibble. Then another deep kiss, their tongues mating with carnal enticement.
His moan resonated with longing. Her heart jerked with joy.
Their lips parted, and he spun with her so she was beneath him. Kitty felt faint at this new, provocative, and intimidating position. She knew it would likely break her heart, but she couldn’t steel herself against this unknown passion he roused.
I’m being foolish. His reputation and title had been a means to an end, nothing more. And for him she was a dalliance…a mystery that needed to be dissected and then forgotten. Then why…oh why do I feel so? Kitty hated that she was falling headlong into something elusive, and she could not stop it.
This man…this duke, who was so far removed from her in everything, would break her. She saw the knowledge in the gaze that peered at her. Yet…she was helpless against his pull. She almo