Even while telling himself that he shouldn’t do it, he stretched out on the bed beside her and pulled her into his arms, her head on his chest. When she looked up at him as though she meant for him to kiss her, he moved her head back down.
“Why won’t you kiss me?” she whispered.
“I am afraid of what will happen,” he said.
“Afraid I’ll fall so hard in love with you that when you leave my heart will break?”
“No,” he said. “Afraid my heart will break.”
“But today you said you wanted to seduce me. You don’t seem to be making any progress.”
“You are here now, in my arms, there is moonlight and darkness. Is that not success? Or would you prefer that I ride a horse up the stairs?”
Toby snuggled against him. “I like this better. I find you very attractive. Do you know that?”
“Yes,” he said.
She ran her hand over his chest, putting her fingertips inside his shirt to touch his warm skin. She moved her leg over his. “I’m here and it’s now.”
He pushed her leg off his and kissed her fingertips. “You are most tempting, but you have consumed a great deal of alcohol. You might regret this in the morning. In my country we take the losing of a maidenhead very seriously.”
“In my country it tends to be in the backseat of a car.”
“But not for you,” he said. “You are different.”
She relaxed against him. “Why have you stayed?”
“I don’t know. It’s as though something is compelling me to remain here. As though there’s something I need to do.”
“No time like the present,” she said suggestively as she ran her leg against his.
Graydon laughed. “You are a very happy drunk, are you not?”
“I’ve been happy since you came into my life.”
“Except when you were shouting at me.”
“Did I hurt your feelings very much?”
“No,” he said. “It was wonderful. I’ve been afraid to be myself, afraid that you were such a fragile, delicate little thing that I could easily break you, snap you in half.”
“Ha!” Toby said. “My mother has hardened me so much that nothing anyone says to me gets through my skin.”
“At least your mother doesn’t wear a crown and rule a couple of armies.”
Toby drew in her breath. Never before had he said anything so personal. “Does she demand a lot of you?”
“More than I know how to give,” Graydon said.
Toby slipped her fingers through his, intertwining them. “We’re alike in that.”
“I think perhaps we’re alike in many ways,” he said softly.
When Toby put her face up to his, he couldn’t resist. He put his lips on hers, meaning to kiss her sweetly and gently, but at the first touch, the kiss deepened. His hand went to her head, burying in her hair.
He kissed her lips, her eyes, her cheeks, then back to her lips. His tongue touched the corner of her mouth, a tantalizing bit that made her want more.
Toby’s hands went around his chest and pulled him on top of her.