Page 42 of Elizabeth Bennet Says Yes to Mr. Darcy

His voice had dropped to a murmur.

I looked at his mouth. This time, I did not look away.

“What you want to know.”

He drew closer still. His hand rose, stopped near my cheek.

“May I touch you?”

“Yes.”

His fingers brushed my temple and pushed back the wet strand clinging there. That light touch traveled through my entire body. His palm slid along my cheek, then stilled beneath my chin.

“May I kiss you?”

I could have answered with a jest. No words came.

I simply tilted my face toward him.

His lips touched mine with an almost painful restraint. A cautious, brief kiss that ended before I understood what it awakened. Darcy drew back at once.

I remained still, my breath short.

He had waited. He had asked. And now he left me to decide what followed.

I placed a hand on his cravat and drew him back to me.

The second kiss was not cautious.

His mouth opened on mine. His arm encircled my waist, drawing me closer to the warmth of his drenched body. I felt beneath my fingers the tension in his shoulders, the strength he still restrained. When he grazed my lip with his tongue, an unfamiliar sensation passed through me so sharply that a sound escaped me.

Darcy stopped.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

“If you ask another question, I might change my mind.”

A breath like laughter brushed against my mouth.

He kissed me again.

I did not know what I was doing. I knew only that his hands remained at my waist and on my back, that he did not seek to cross the boundaries I had not named, and that his restraint made my own desire bolder. I slipped my fingers into his damp hair. He inhaled sharply.

His body pressed against mine.

I understood then, with a clarity that made me blush beneath his mouth, the physical nature of his desire. He drew back at once, his face taut.

“Forgive me.”

“You have imposed nothing on me.”

“We must stop.”

“Because you wish it?”