With speed, Luke moved his hands again. Annie was still thinking of that touch to her neck when she suddenly felt his hands upon her waist. He moved her toward him all the more, until her knees collided with his own.
Somehow, he pulled her over his lap and her knees fell on either side of his hips, and she was straddling him. She broke off from her kiss with a smile, looking down at where their bodies were, with her hips sliding toward his.
“You seem to have a habit of putting me in positions I never thought I would end up in,” Annie whispered.
“Oh, do not say that, Annie,” Luke said with a chuckle, “for you make my mind run wild with thoughts of other positions!” He reached up and kissed her again, silencing her before she could laugh at his words. In this new position, it was easier to press her body to his, and Annie didn’t shy away from it. Something about being with Luke alone made her bold and think of things she never allowed herself to think of before.
She slid her body closer so that her body was flush with his. Her hands lifted from his chest and wound themselves in Luke’s hair, clinging tightly to him. That was when she felt his hands pull at her gown again. It was raised so quickly across the tops of her thighs that she felt a brush of the cold night air against her skin.
He broke off from their kiss as he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her from him.
“Where are we going?” she whispered, practically against his lips.
“Trust me,” he said with a playful smile, “the position I am thinking of next I hope will make you smile.”
She giggled, too thrilled to even think much of what they were doing. He turned the two of them and laid her down on the settee, their lips so close that a new kiss was thrillingly close. Annie reached up toward him, ready to take that kiss, but he moved away before she could take it. She groaned in sadness, making him chuckle as he inched down her body.
“I hope you won’t be disappointed for long,” he murmured and kissed the neckline of her dress. Those lips across the top curve of her breast had her shuddering, no longer thinking of missing his kiss.
He moved all the way down her body until his hips were no longer between her parted legs, but his shoulders were. Annie raised her head a little, the better to see what it was Luke was doing. He flipped up the hem of her skirt, revealing her centre to him, then he leaned down.
“Luke—oh!” Annie didn’t manage any other words as his lips found her core.
It was a more intimate kiss than she had ever thought was possible. Even the maids on the backstairs had never whispered aboutthisbeing a thing.
He moved his lips slowly at first, before he became bolder, pleasuring her with his tongue where his fingers had been the other day. Annie felt her head flung itself down to the settee as she gripped the cushions beneath her, anchoring herself to that surface as the pleasure shot through her body. It was somehow sharper and greater than when he had used his fingers, perhaps from the knowledge that he was pleasuring her in such an intimate way.
When he softly placed his hands on her thighs, holding her open to him all the more as he kissed her deeper, Annie lost all control. That peak of pleasure came quicker than it had arrived the other night. It left her bucking toward him with her back arching up off the settee. His name fell from her lips as he pleasured her through the wave.
When he raised himself up, he had such a smile on his face that Annie giggled through her panting breaths.
“You look very pleased with yourself,” she teased him, earning a laugh from him too.
“I am rather,” he confessed. “I was looking forward to hearing you say my name in such a way again.” He moved his lips to hers and kissed her, his hips brushing the sensitive spot between her legs that had her quivering.
They stayed there some minutes kissing before they softened in each other’s hold. That embrace meant as much to Annie as their excitement had done, for he clung onto her, with their foreheads pressed together.
“I’m reluctant to disturb this moment,” Annie whispered, “but I fear if we do not return to the assembly rooms soon, our absence really will be noticed.”
“I fear you are right. One more kiss then, before we go.” He kissed her again.
Annie indulged in that moment, holding onto his arms for fear of disturbing it. Earlier that night, she had vowed when she saw Luke to tell him of what the Duchess of Bannerman had said to her the other night at the dinner party, but that now seemed merely a way to spoil a perfect night.
Surely the Duchess never shared these moments with Luke?
Annie hoped not, but she was unwilling to ask the question, for there was a small part of her that feared the answer.
***
“This is a risk indeed,” Luke murmured as he looked to Annie’s house. He was tired of sneaking around out of assemblies and dinner parties. It had been two days since he had last seen Annie, and his body was tense with the need to see her again.
Knowing Annie to be an early riser, he had crept off to her house, watching as the sun rose over the horizon.
“Come on, Annie, take that morning walk,” he whispered, looking to the windows, hoping for a single glimpse of Annie. His prayers were soon answered, for through the morning sun, he saw a figure pass by one of the windows, appearing to move toward the back of the house.
Luke took his chance and crossed the street, stepping out of the shadows of where he had been hiding. With his top hat pulled low, he prayed no one would recognise him, even if someone else in this street was an early enough riser to see him. He took a narrow lane that passed down the side of the townhouse and crept toward the back garden.
Annie had told him at length before of how she was fond of a walk in the morning before breakfast. As her mother liked to sleep long into the day, Annie had described these morning walks as freedom.