“Just play.”
Feeling as if he’d been punched in the gut, he hissed out a breath. And here he thought she had had some sort of revelation that included a lot of kissing and a bed. He just couldn’t win, could he? “I should probably confess something to you here and now. Before another minute passes.”
“And what would you like to confess, Thornton dear? Hmm?”
“I hate chess. Loathe it, actually. With a passion. I always have. So there. Now you know everything there is to know about me. And I don’t want to play. I have something else in mind for us. Something that involves you, me, brandy and a bed. Because this simply doesn’t meet my level of approval. At all.”
She smirked, keeping her dark eyes locked on the board, leaned in and said matter-of-factly, “This is where you lean over the board, Thornton, and kiss me. And this time, I promise not to smack you. Not even for disliking what I consider to be the best game known to humanity.” She hesitated and added, “So play. Play knowing that all you have to do is kiss the queen to, uh…checkmate.” She eyed him. “You do know how to checkmate, don’t you? Or has it been too long for you to remember…how?”
A knot rose in his throat as the air of the study seemed to grow hot. Everything he had ever wanted had miraculously become his in a single night.
There was no more Anne.
There was no more Adam.
There were no more regrets of what could have or should have or might have been. There was just this. Them. Friends turned lovers and soon to be husband and wife.
He leaned over the chess table, rising slightly from his chair, and closed the remaining space between them. His pulse thundered as she strategically angled her mouth toward his. His mouth edged toward hers and their lips connected.
Yet again, the room spun and fell over on its side.
Her hands jumped to his face and held him in place. Yet again. Their lips instantly parted and the heat of their wet tongues connected. As before, it was slow and teasing and rhythmic and delectable. And as before, it turned into a pulsing mess and savage need that made his very lips sting from the eager pressure they both applied.
His cock swelled with a vengeance.
Checkmate. And how.
Knocking over the entire chess table with a solid sweep of his arm, he grabbed her. He yanked her against his body, molding the heat of that softness against his arms and chest.
They kissed harder and harder, without taking any breaths, until it turned into a blur.
Her hands slid up his chest and paused at his throat. Unknotting his cravat, in between kisses, she whipped it aside. She unbuttoned his vest. Button by button by button.
He released his hold on her body and lips and shrugged off his evening coat, letting it drop to the floor. She pushed off his vest with it and then jerked his linen shirt out of his trousers.
Grabbing each other to kiss again, they stumbled over to the large writing desk set off to the side and hit its edge hard. His hands jumped to her face to steady her and himself as he sucked on that tongue, pulling it deeper into his own mouth.
Releasing her mouth so he could look at her and assure himself that this was real, he slowly pushed his fingers up into her gathered hair.
Her eyes fluttered open, revealing those smoky eyes.
He drew in a shaky breath and gently tugged at her coif, causing pins and ribbons to cascade out of it, and dug his fingers in and out, in and out, unraveling as much of her hair as he could. It cascaded down onto her shoulders, framing her face in a way he’d never had the pleasure of seeing.
He couldn’t breathe. She was so beautiful.
Her hands wedged between them, her fingers furiously unbuttoning the flap of his trousers. Her warm hands pulled his hard length out. He groaned in anguished bliss as she moistened her hand with her own tongue and stroked him.
Her sultry eyes never once left his.
She seductively and erotically and masterfully stroked him. His chest tightened in disbelief as he pushed his hips toward her hand, demanding more. He rippled beneath his skin, pushing toward climax.
He grabbed her hands, overwhelmed. In between ragged breaths he managed, “We need to stop. This is going far beyond—”
“I’m not exactly a virgin, Thornton.”
He swallowed again, his entire body pulsing. As much as he wanted this and her, he couldn’t help feeling as if he were going about this wrong. “We were supposed to court… You deserve a wedding night. Not…this.”
She turned toward the desk behind them and swept off papers. “I did it traditionally the first time and there is no need for me to do it again. I’m going about this the way I want to, Thornton. I’m done living with regret. And so are you.” She leaned over the desk, pushing out her backside toward him and planted both hands on the wood surface. Glancing back at him from over her slim shoulder, she met his gaze.