Page 88 of A Much Maligned Miss

What? Though familiar with Vance Park he had never made an inventory of its furnishings and fixtures. “The very one,” he improvised.

“Meet me there in five minutes.” She lifted the bedsheet over her head.

Gervaise followed immediately. “Five minutes have passed,” he said, planting his hands on the mattress beside her shoulders, leaning in close and looming over her. “And now I must ask if you, Miss Halperston, have ever been kissed.”

“At the Christmas party? Well, no,” she admitted regretfully. “We have already established, have we not, that I have been very deprived in life.”

“We have established nothing,” he reminded her huskily. “Save that you are an errant flirt.”

She looked more intrigued than indignant. “How did you make that out?”

“A modest maiden would not be behind this curtain with me right now.”

“You are right,” she agreed. “And I should tell you that very soon I will be kissed in the corridor of a common inn, so I am on the cusp of some experience, however trifling.”

A smile curved Gervaise’s lips. “Well, then I don’t need to worry about shocking you too unduly, do I?”

“I thought we had agreed already that I am quite unshockable.”

He brushed his lips across her jaw. “You keep forgetting, Caroline, that we met mere moments ago near the punch bowl.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “Oh, yes. Well, in that case, I should warn you, my lord, that it takes a good deal to shock me.”

“I don’t know about that, my dear Miss Halperston. I fear you go a little far.”

“Yes, people do say that about me, sometimes,” she sighed, turning her head so he could kiss down the other side of her face.

“Do they indeed?”

“Yes, they say, Miss Halperston, you go too far. You need to rein it in.”

He smiled against her cheek. “Rein what in exactly?”

“My wild woman ways, of course.”

He gave a choked laugh. “Don’t rein them in on my account.”

35

Caroline gave a smothered laugh, but at this moment he leaned in and sealed his lips to hers in a gentle, probing kiss, and her eyes drifted shut to appreciate the sensation. He had kissed her before, of course, but last time he had been almost daring her to call a halt to it. This time it was sweeter, though it still involved more tongue than she would have expected in a ballroom. She found herself relaxing in spite of herself.

One hand descended to her waist, then drifted down to the swell of her hip, making out her shape there as his kiss deepened and turned coaxing. Tentatively, Caroline reached up a hand and let it hover undecidedly next to his face. Gervaise stopped and drew back, glancing at her hand and then her face with a quizzical expression.

“Is this—? May I—?” Gently, Caroline touched her hand to his face. Gervaise’s expression surprised her. He almost looked as though she had slapped his cheek instead of caressing it. “Do you not—?”

“No, no,” he interrupted her swiftly. “Touch away. You may touch anything you like of mine. I give you full permission.”

Was it just that she had surprised him? Carefully, she cupped his face and stroked her thumb along the line of his jaw, making him catch his breath. Her gaze darted to meet his again, but it was hard to ascertain what he was feeling exactly. His eyes held such a peculiarly arrested expression in them…almost as if she had shocked him.

She did not actually dislike the idea, if she was entirely honest with herself. He must be pretending they had only just met. It would be rather shocking for her to be so familiar and lay hands on him at a first meeting.

Emboldened, she slid her hand into his black hair, enjoying the feeling of the glossy strands shifting through her fingers. He had lovely hair, she thought dreamily, closing her fingers tight about it and using her grip to bring his face back to hers.

When she kissed him, Gervaise gasped into her mouth, startling her, though not unpleasantly so. Touching the tip of her tongue to his, she felt him shudder. He must like this, for it was exactly what he had been doing to her. She was simply turning his own technique back on him.

She wrapped her arms about his neck and felt Gervaise grasp her rather more tightly in turn, though strangely, his own hands slid down to grasp her buttocks in a firm grip. What an odd thing to do! He would hardly be able to do that if she had been wearing her green silk gown! This time she drew her face back to regard him quizzically.

“What?” he asked huskily.