“Are you on your way to meet with my father?” Daphne inquired, turning those mesmerizing eyes up to his.
“Actually, the marquis and I have concluded our business. I was on my way home.”
“You walked to Tragmore?”
“No. But I asked my driver to await me by the main road.”
“Why?”
“Your father mentioned you were strolling the grounds. I wanted to find you.”
“Oh. I see.” Her eyes twinkled. “Your forthrightness again, Mr. Thornton?”
“Definitely.” Pierce hooked a finger beneath her chin, caressing her lower lip with his thumb. “Your naiveté again, Daphne?”
She smiled, her lips curving against his thumb. “Evidently, yes.”
“Do you know you have the most radiant smile I’ve ever seen?” Pierce’s voice grew husky, his gaze fixed on her mouth. “And lips that are even softer than I imagined?”
That faint pulse began beating in her neck.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
“Should I be?”
Pierce shook his head slowly. “No.” He smoothed his knuckles across her cheek. “Your skin feels like silk.”
“Mr. Thornton—”
“Hmm?”
“What business do you have with my father?” Daphne blurted out.
“Various dealings.” Pierce freed his other hand, looping his arm about her waist and urging her against him. “Do you know how badly I want to kiss you, Daphne?”
Her eyes grew wide with an intoxicating combination of fascination and uncertainty. “I—I don’t—”
“Very badly. So badly it’s unendurable.” He brushed her lips lightly with his. “I need to taste you. Will you let me?”
“You’re asking me?” Her breath was tantalizingly warm against his lips, but Pierce could feel her tremble as she balanced on this new yet exhilarating threshold.
“Yes, I’m asking you. I’d never take what you didn’t willingly offer.”
Wonder and something painfully akin to relief flashed in her eyes, softening Pierce’s hunger into something achingly tender as it melded with a wave of blind protectiveness. He wanted to enfold her in his arms, shield her from anything or anyone who tried to harm her.
“Kiss me, Daphne,” he whispered. “Let me show you how safe you can be.”
A soft moan escaped her, and she nodded, lifting her mouth to offer him what he sought.
She had no idea how much he sought and how much he found in that kiss.
Rich, deep, more profound than the mere act itself, the kiss ignited slowly, exquisitely, like the growing embers of a fire newly kindled, radiantly aglow.
A hard shudder racked Pierce’s body, and he wrapped Daphne closer, opening his mouth over hers in a poignant conveyance of desire, possessiveness, pain, and tenderness.
She was heaven.
That was his first coherent thought as the fire caught, spread, causing Daphne to lean into him, shyly pressing her palms to his chest, and kissing him back with an enticing blend of innocence and ardor more seductive than the intimate acts of the most practiced courtesans.