He laughed as his fingers made quick work of the button and zipper for my white jeans.

“This is unfair.” I gasped as his mouth followed my jeans down over my hips, his breath hot against my fast dampening core.

“Is it?” he asked, pausing to slip my heels off. At his prompting, I stepped out of my jeans. His hungry gaze on the tiny pair of panties I was wearing was going to burn them right off me, showering us in floating sparks of burned silk. His hand ran up my inner thigh and then a single finger ran over the center of me.

“Oh, God,” I moaned. “Yes. Yes, it’s unfair. How can I think straight?”

He hooked into the side of my underwear and peeled them down my legs. “I don’t hear you asking me to stop.”

“Just don’t bite me again.”

“I can’t promise that,” he said with a dark chuckle.

He stood then, and his mouth took mine. I surrendered to the kiss, winding my hands around his neck and sliding into his hair. His lips moved over mine, urgently, nipping and tasting. I parted my lips, sneaking a taste with my tongue against his.

A guttural groan came from his throat, and his tongue came back for mine, hungry and demanding. He tasted of tart wine, sweet sin, and lifelong promises.

“Joséphine,” he uttered in that unique way of his.

If my heart were a ribbon, it would be swirling up and up and wrapping around his. “You were wrong, you know,” I managed between kisses.

“What about?” An arm locked around my waist, and his other hand tilted my head so he could take more. He drank and sucked and licked into me. I was being devoured, and I loved it.

“That I’m a woman who doesn’t need anything,” I said into his kiss. “I need you.”

Then suddenly I was airborne and deposited on the ice-cold kitchen counter. I squealed in shock.

He drew back, breath sawing in and out of his chest, lips glistening. “Mon dieu. You make me lose my mind! I’m sorry. I was ready to taste you right here. And we’ll wake Dauphine.” He pulled me off the counter as quickly as I’d landed on it and scrubbed a hand down his face. His hair was tousled and sticking up in five directions.

My heart squeezed and my body throbbed. “Go put the fan on in her bathroom. Let’s … let’s take this to your room?” My cheeks heated.