After the meal, he brought her a piece of angel food cake on a small glass plate. “Would you like a bit of champagne?”
In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought to herself. “Just a little please.”
He walked over to the sideboard, opened the bottle and poured some of the golden liquid into a lovely crystal flute and set it beside her cake plate. After pouring himself a portion, he returned to the table.
“The way the candlelight is playing over you in that beautiful white blouse makes you look like an angel.”
She’d never been paid such a compliment before.
“My thoughts are hardly angelic, however.”
“You’re being incorrigible again.”
“A beautiful woman does that to a man. How many buttons are on your blouse?”
She looked down at them and then across the table at him. “Ten, maybe eleven.”
“Would you undo the first four for me, please?”
Fork in hand, Eddy paused and studied him.
“This is about the desire you wanted to learn more about.”
Realizing she’d set her own trap and hoping he didn’t see the slight shake in her hands, she put the fork down. Singed by the heat in his eyes, she slowly honored his request, feeling her body bloom with each button she freed.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I’m going to place kisses there when you finish your cake.”
Eddy dissolved. He was way too good at this. She’d expected kisses, not this pure seduction.
Although she had enjoyed the angel food cake in the past, she barely tasted it because she was too busy thinking about his stated plans. In need of bolstering, she took a moment to sip her champagne. She then set aside the plate holding the remains of her cake.
“Done?”
She nodded.
He stood. “Bring your champagne.”
On shaking legs, Eddy did as asked. He took her hand and led her the short distance to a wingback chair upholstered in a beautiful jewel-like dark blue.
He sat and coaxed her to sit on his lap. “Hand me your champagne.”
Having never sat on a man’s lap before in her life, she handed him her flute, and he set it next to his on a small table near the chair. Gathering her in, he eased her close to his chest. The heat of his body melded with hers, and the light scent of his spicy cologne wafted gently to her nose. “I’ve never sat on a man’s lap before. Can you feel me shaking?”
“I can, so just relax. We have all evening.” He kissed the top of her hair, and after a few moments of being held by him, her tension eased.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Good,” he whispered. “Now, about those kisses I promised.”
As his mouth descended to hers, Eddy tried to remain in control and not be swept away as she had been a few days ago in the kitchen of the boardinghouse, but she was still as new to passion as she was to the sweep of his fiery hands and lips. His mouth left hers to blaze a trail over the skin exposed by her opened blouse, and her pleasure-filled moan rose in the silence of the otherwise silent room. The tip of his tongue slipped over the edge of her new lace-edged shift, grazing the tops of her breasts, and for a moment she inanely wondered if he thought less of her for not wearing a corset. When his thumbs teased her already berried nipples and he slid the garment aside just enough to take the bud into his mouth, she was glad she refused to wear the constricting garment. Apparently he was, too. Rising up, he held her eyes and husked out, “Undo more buttons for me.”
Eddy felt hot, scandalous, but gave him the boon. He rewarded her by easing the soft cotton down to free her breasts. He feasted in earnest, and a smoldering took root between her thighs. He claimed her lips again, and as his tongue played invitingly with hers, his large hand slid up and down her skirt-shrouded thigh. When that same hand slipped beneath to explore her stocking-encased limb, soft gasps escaped from her lips.
She heard him say, “I want to touch you, Eddy.” Her skirt was rucked up high past her garter, and his palm was mapping the bare skin above it.
He asked huskily, “Yes? No?”