“When he bent down and swept her up in his arms and carried her to the divan, she did not protest. Shefumbled with the buttons of his waistcoat, eager to touch his flesh and feel his heart beat against her hand.He moved over her and looked down at her with eyes dark with passion. “I have missed you,” he said.“God, how I have missed you.”“Show me,” she said, and sighed with happiness when he put his hand on her ankle and began to slide itup her leg.”

“He took her hand in his, caressed her palm with his finger.“Duin an doras,” he whispered hoarsely, feverishly.“Fuirichidh mise.”Close the door. I’ll stay.Ellie flushed dark, her lashes fluttered shut. “I…I don’t know what you say,” she murmured.Liam dropped her hand, gently laid his at the base of her bare neck. Her skin was soft and warm against his callused palm, and he whispered in her ear,“I know.” He moved his head; his lips whisked across hers, shimmering like a whisper of silk.He breathed her in once more, made himself remove his hand from her heated flesh.”

“That was the moment Anna felt something inside her trip and fall, something come clean away from all the snares and traps and tangles of the propriety in which she’d been steeped all these years. And as he began to move, she pressed into him as he had shown her, looked up at him from beneath her lashes as he’d directed, and said, in a purring voice, “My, my, sir, how well you move us about the dance floor! One can’t help but wonder if you move as well in other, more intimate circumstances,” she said, and let her lips stretch into a soft smile.It worked. Grif’s grin faded; he slowed his step a little and blinked down at her for a moment. But that dangerous smile slowly appeared again, starting in his eyes and casually reaching his lips. “If ye were to pose such a question to me, lass, I’d say, ‘As fast or as slow, as soft or as hard as ye’d want, leannan. Pray tell, how would ye want?’”The tingling in her groin was a signal that she was on perilous ground. Anna looked into his green eyes, so dark and so deep that she couldn’t quite determine if this was a game they were playing or something far more dangerous. And her good sense, shaped and controlled from years of living among high society, quietly shut down, allowing the real Anna, the Anna who yearned to be loved, to be held and caressed and adored and know all manner of physical pleasure, to slide deeper into the circle of his arms.“I don’t rightly know how I’d want, sir, other than to say…” Her voice trailed away as she let her gaze roam his face, the perfectly tied neckcloth, the breadth of his shoulders, his thick arms. And then she lifted her gaze to his, saw something smoldering there, and recklessly whispered, “… that I’d most definitely want.”He said nothing. The muscles in his jaw bulged as if he refrained from speaking, and she realized that they had come to a halt. But then his hand spread beneath hers, his palm pressed to her palm, and he laced his fingers between hers, one by one, and with the last one, he closed his hand, gripping hers tightly. “Tha sin glè mhath,” he whispered hoarsely.Anna smiled, lifted a curious brow.“I said, that’s very good, lass. Very good indeed”

“Is this the happiness you seek?” he whispered hoarsely. “Tell me now, and I will give it to you.” Hemoved down her body, his mouth on her bosom, his breath hot on her skin, and his hand freeing herbreast. Phoebe ran her fingers through his hair, thrusting her breast forward as he took the peak into hismouth.This was insanity!“Only a profligate would confuse happiness with desire—Oh!” The swell of pleasurehis mouth on her breast gave her was startling, and she cried out.“And only a fool would try and separate the two,” he responded hotly before he closed his moutharound her other breast”

“As his hands moved to his trousers, he saw that she was pulling the bedsheets over her. "Don't," he said, barely recognizing his own voice. Her eyes met his, and he said, "I'll be your blanket".”

“She put her arms around his waist and looked up at his face. “I did? What did I take?”He bent down to kiss her. She stood to meethim halfway. His lips softly touched her lips and her neck as his hands became tangled in her hair.“I believe it was my heart.”

“His hand was on her arm, and he could feel her skin, feel the soft warmthof it, and then when he looked down, her face was tilted toward his, and her eyes, deep and bluebut so completely unmysterious, were gazing up at him, and in truth there was no way—simplyno way—he could do anything in that moment but kiss her.Anything else would have been a tragedy.”