Page 54

Because he was in a hurry, he practically sprinted her across the yard, through the deserted stables, right to the tack room beyond where they had both privacy and a back door to escape out of if they needed one. He let go of her to close the door and then they just stared at one another.

She at one end of the small room and he at the other.

The air between them so charged with pent-up lust and anticipation it was a wonder it didn’t crackle. “Here we are then,” he said.

“Here we are.” Her cornflower eyes were darkened with desire. Her gaze dropped to his mouth and held.

Guy wasn’t sure who moved first, or if, like they did at the church gates, they did it together, but they collided on a mutual groan and a tangle of arms, legs, and hungry mouths.

They did not waste any time on preamble. Things were too far gone for that, so instead they picked up exactly where they had left off when Longbottom had interrupted. Guy’s hands filled with her bottom; hers in his hair.

When that proved to be nowhere near enough, their hands went wandering.

Hers explored his chest and shoulders beneath his coat, then when the coat got in the way she wrestled him out of it.

Guy smoothed his palms up her ribs, sliding them forward so that he could finally cup her breasts.

She sighed into his mouth as his thumbs teased her nipples over her clothes, arching her hips against his erection and sending him out of his mind.

“Touch me properly.” Lottie shrugged her arms out of her coat. “Touch my skin.”

It was an invitation he could not turn down, so with no finesse whatsoever he yanked the hem of her blouse from the waistband of her breeches and slipped his hand beneath.

Her skin was as smooth as satin, the soft swell of her breast slotted perfectly in the center of his palm.

He tested its weight before he allowed his fingers to tease her tight nipple tighter still.

“Don’t you ever wear stays, woman?” He tore his mouth away to watch the pleasure his touch was bringing her.

“I don’t exactly have much to put in them, do I?”

He growled at that unnecessary apology, sliding in his other hand so that he could cup them both.

“You are perfect, Lottie Travers. These are more than perfect.” He pinched both nipples simultaneously and watched her eyes roll back in her head.

“And so sensitive.” If they hadn’t been in the tack room, he would have peeled her blouse off there and then and worshipped them with his mouth.

“And you are so big,” she said as her hands splayed over his chest muscles before one of them snaked its way down his abdomen and boldly explored the bulge straining against his breeches. “So—”

They froze at the sound of footsteps in the stables behind them. His hands still filled with her breasts and hers still flattened against his throbbing cock. Foreheads touching as their breath sawed in and out.

“All the stalls need fresh hay, Tom.” Bill was clearly giving the lad his list of daily chores.

“The water troughs need filling and then you need to take Blodwyn to the blacksmith. She’s thrown a shoe and one of the ladies might need her this afternoon if they decide to ride rather than walk to the village.

But Hercules needs a good session in the training yard first.”

The footsteps retreated, meaning the coast was clear again, but the lull in proceedings seemed a good time to double-check that Lottie was still up for what they were doing.

“Do you want to stop?”

She gently massaged his crotch as her teeth nipped his bottom lip. “I want you to touch me some more.”

“Here…?” He squeezed her breasts, the unabashed pleasure she took from it killing him. “Or there ?” He flicked his eyes downward.

“Definitely there . I ache for you, Guy.”

Bloody hell, he was doomed. For how could any man resist such temptation?

“Oh, Lottie…” With clumsy fingers he undid the top few buttons on the falls of her breeches and then, because he wanted to remember every moment of this for the rest of his life, slowly edged his hand inside.

His fingertips had just discovered the soft curls between her thighs when she caught his wrist.

“Wait… I want to touch you too. Can I?”

He choked out a sound: half relief, half need but definitely a resounding yes as he kissed her hard.

“Yes! God, yes! For the record, Valkyrie, you never, ever have to ask.” She smiled against his mouth, her fingers already unbuttoning his waistband.

But as his dipped into the wet indent of her sex and she undid the final button of his falls, bloody Bill chose that moment to return and then thoroughly ruined everything.

“You’re right, Tom. It is market day and the blacksmith is always busy. Get Blodwyn saddled up and take her now before the rush.”

Guy glared up at the neat racks of saddles and tack and knew that their time was up. Lottie did too, because straightaway she severed all contact. “Oh, lord, we can’t be found here!”

“Don’t panic—there’s a back door.” But she was panicking and rightly so as two pairs of boots were headed their way.

As they had both shoved arms in sleeves, he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the door to escape into the yard before they were caught in flagrante.

As they sprinted across the yard, they were both in such a hurry to get out of the sight of Bill and Tom that neither of them noticed Miss Maybury staring at them agog from the stable doors.