She began to move them toward the bed and Alec followed, helpless to resist. He, who never gave an inch during such intimacies, was suddenly at her mercy. Utterly. Completely. At some point he had lost his control—no. He knew exactly when. It had been slipping away since he’d beheld her once again. Only it was so gradual he hadn’t realized until it was all gone from him. Until it was far too late.

Alec laid her down gently on the bed and smoothed his palms over the feather-soft skin of her shoulders and arms. He dragged one fingertip slowly along the curve of her collarbone, and she let out a light laugh. “That tickles.”

“Does it?” He gave her a devilish smile even while his heart ached. How badly he wanted to know everything that made her laugh. One hand cradled the nape of her neck, his thumb drawing back and forth across the sensitive skin below her ear, while his other hand slowly journeyed lower. All the while he watched her face for any sign of reticence, of regret. She could still change her mind, and if she did he would halt. But as his fingertip moved from tracing her collarbone to the lacy edge of her chemise, she arched up. His hand automatically opened as she pressed her breast into his waiting palm.

It had been over a decade since Alec first lay with a woman and yet, based on the whimper that escaped his lips, he might as well have been a virgin once again. His fingers closed greedily around her small but shapely breast. As he gently cupped and caressed the firm flesh, a glazed look came over Lottie, and she pulled him down for another succulent, plundering kiss—all lips and teeth and tongue. He wanted to move slowly. To spend hours simply kissing her, but his overwrought body would not heel. Alec jerked down the front of her chemise and plucked the tip of her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. Lottie began to writhe beneath him, and a series of increasingly urgent cries vibrated against his mouth. As they continued to devour each other, he pulled up the hem of her chemise in rough handfuls and nearly ripped off her drawers. His hand then skimmed over the supple flesh of her thighs and along the lacy edges of her stockings to the tuft of feminine hair. He wrenched away from her lush mouth to brush a featherlight touch over her most intimate place. Lottie canted her hips forward in response and he rewarded her eagerness with a long, lingering caress that slowly turned deeper. More insistent.