He kissed her again, but this time with heart-stopping urgency. Harriet melted beneath his touch, her heart taking wing and soaring with her spirit. His lips trailed delicate fire down her throat to her neck, and lower. She arched as his mouth closed over one nipple, then the other, before he returned to her neck and the delicate spot behind her ear.

“Do you know,” he asked as he nuzzled her neck, “my favorite place to kiss a woman?”

It was difficult to think clearly enough to talk with her heart racing so. “Where?” she managed to gasp.

He lifted on one elbow to gaze down at her. “You’ll have to turn over.”

Turn over? A raw shiver traced over her skin. Without a word, Harriet turned onto her stomach.

For an instant, she felt exposed in some way that she hadn’t before. Perhaps it was because she could no longer see his face. Perhaps it was the newness of the situation. Whatever it was, her entire body trembled. She could feel him moving to one side, and then down.

His voice brushed her lower back. “My favorite place to kiss a woman…is here.” His lips brushed her back at the base of her spine.

Harriet arched at the sensation. It was unsettling to be naked before a man, especially like this. She couldn’t help but feel vulnerable, exposed. But he didn’t slow down long enough to let her react to that feeling; his lips were traveling a delicately tortuous path, leaving a trail of heated kisses all the way from her lower spine up to her shoulder, to her neck.

His weight pressed against her and she could feel his hardness pressing against the backs of her legs.

“My beloved Persephone,” he whispered in her ear, “I want to show you something.” His lips trailed down the side of her neck.

Harriet could barely think. She wanted him so badly, her entire body was aflame now. She wanted to roll over, to lock her legs about him and let him fill her. But instead she was held, stomach down on the blanket as he tortured her with long, slow kisses in the most indelicate places.

“Lift your hips,” he whispered.

Harriet frowned. “How can I turn over if—”

“Lift for me, sweet.” His hands about her waist, he tilted her hips up.

She did as he asked. If she’d felt exposed before, now she was indecently lifted, her butt cheeks arched in the air.

Chase lifted himself above her and found her wetness. She was moist, swollen, squirming ever so slightly beneath him in a way that was driving him mad with lust.

He splayed his hands over her back, marveling at the muscles that were displayed there. She was beauty and feminine strength, delicacy and exotic enticement. He lifted himself and pushed into her wetness, his mouth never leaving the back of her neck as he nipped and teased.

“Oh my—Chase!” She arched beneath him, lifting her hips higher, pressing back against him. God, but she was hot and tight and ready for him. Her hot wetness held him in a velvet-sleeved grip, tormenting him mercilessly. Beads of sweat dotted his upper lip and brow as he moved into her, slid deep, then withdrew to the tip.