With This Kiss

in her body. And yet, she didn’t know what to do.
    “Would you order me to do something else?” Colin asked. His voice was low and inviting. “I’m at your service, Grace.”
    She shook her head, feeling desperately embarrassed. It was different, making love when the sun was streaming in the windows. She was overwhelmed by a feeling of impropriety.
    Colin made a stifled noise and then surged up, hauling her into his arms. A moment later she found herself tucked under his body, and all the anxiety and embarrassment drained out of her.
    Her legs were spread, pressed to the bed by his weight, and her silk gown was up around her thighs. “I want you,” he growled.
    Grace’s heart thumped at the wildness that entered his face. This was the Colin only she saw: the one who existed only for her. “I’m yours,” she breathed, reaching up to give his ear a little bite.
    In response, he pushed down the bodice of her nightgown. His mouth at her breast drew a cry from her. When he added in a hand, kneaded and suckled and caressed her, she bent her knees and began to plead… Instead, he moved back and lowered his head between her legs.
    Grace stared at the ceiling, hardly seeing the boards over her head while Colin licked and petted her, making her writhe and cry out, over and over.
    Finally, he said, voice dark and lust-filled, “Fair warning. I’m going to give you an order, Grace. I want you to come.”
    So she did.
    And then he put her on her hands and knees and tucked her under his big chest, and touched her again until she was whimpering, and finally, finally slid into her.
    It was wild and fierce and a bit out of control. By the end, they were both panting and covered with sweat and altogether improper.
    After bathing, they ate breakfast in their room. Thankfully, the carriage sent by the duchess arrived, along with some clothing. Grace’s maid reappeared, broken wrist in a sling. They sent her and Ackerley back to London, and continued on to Arbor House by themselves, with no more escort than the coachman and a groom.
    “We’ll send him to the village, and we can be alone in the house. I’m sure the servants have all been sent home; that’s what my mother always does when they are not in residence.”
    Grace laughed. “And what shall we eat, Captain Barry?”
    “Mr. Barry now,” Colin said. “I will find someone to cook. I will provide for you always, Grace.” She gave him a kiss. “And I will be your maid,” he added.
    In the carriage, he decided to practice unlacing her gown. But one thing led to another… “Maids never rip their mistress’s clothing,” Grace informed her almost-husband. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t terminate your service.”
    He laughed, but his eyes were still hungry, and then he reached up and banged on the roof of the carriage, and shouted, “Find an inn, Grimble!”
    “We’re only six or seven hours from home,” Grace pointed out.
    “We’re stopping for the night. I want you again, Grace. And I’ll be damned if I take my wife on these bloody carriage seats one more time.”
    “I’m not your wife yet!”
    “You will be tomorrow morning.” He hauled her onto his lap and tucked her against his chest. “We’re stopping in the next village, and in the morning we’ll be married by the vicar.”
    “Colin!” Grace said, laughing, and trying to ward him off. It wasn’t fair that he merely looked at her, and a melting heat swept down her body.
    “Grace.”
    His eyes were dark with fierce passion, and she couldn’t resist him. Any more than she could later that night, when they were ensconced in the bedchamber at the Rose and Thorn in the village of Piddlepenny, and Colin took out the blindfold again, and she found herself face down over his lap while he…
    And then she found herself doing things that would make an experienced courtesan blush.
    They both loved it when she begged him for more, her voice husky, imploring him with broken whimpers and throaty moans.
    But toward the end he pulled off her blindfold, so he could look into her eyes while he stroked into her. Colin had never felt more grateful for his recovered vision than when he met Grace’s eyes and saw the trust and abiding love that would be his for all the days of his life.
    “I love you.” His words came out in a husky whisper. “I love you so much that I wouldn’t want to live if you leave me, or die before me, Grace. The earth would be dark without you. You are everything to me.