Kisses and hands and scent and breath, and how had they come to be lying back on the bed with their clothing half off? Her robe was open, revealing the translucent shift underneath. “You are so beautiful.” Her nipples were visible so he bent to kiss one through the thin muslin. It stiffened under the heat of his mouth and she gasped as she arched against him.

After giving due attention to one magnificent breast, he shifted his mouth to the other, delighting in her eager response. Her warm hand was sliding down the front of his body, reaching....

She touched him and he turned rigid, wanting nothing more than to complete this lovemaking in the most profoundly intimate way. And yet . . . huskily he said, “I’m trying to remind myself of all the reasons we shouldn’t be doing this, but my memory and good judgment are dissolving.”

“Perhaps tonight we should forget memory and good judgment,” she breathed as her hand circled his straining erection.

Desire burned ever hotter and he could barely manage to speak. “We shouldn’t . . . be fools for pleasure!”

“Why not?” she said with sudden fierceness. “I have been battered and betrayed for years. With you, I feel young and cared for and full of life. No one knows us here, we are traveling without servants, so why not share passion, even if it’s only for one night?”

In a dim corner of his mind, he knew they shouldn’t take this irrevocable step, but he couldn’t resist her. He needed to be skin to skin with her, breath to breath. He stroked down her body with his palm, savoring the feel of smooth skin and underlying muscle and bone. When he reached her knee, he slowly reversed course, sliding his hand upward between her thighs, pushing aside the delicate fabric of her shift.

She was hotly ready when he touched her most intimate flesh. Moaning, she separated her legs in welcome and tugged at his body to bring him closer. He was equally ready, wanting desperately for them to join together. He shifted to between her legs, preparing her for his entry.

She gasped and gripped his hips as he slowly pressed into her, ravished by the pleasure that saturated every fiber of his body. Her heated hands were under his open robe, skin to skin. Her tightness was proof of her many years of celibacy, just as it had been many years since he’d known the joys of a woman’s flesh. But those occasions had been the playful learning of youth, without the deep caring he felt for Kendra.

“Lucas,” she moaned. “Lucas!”

She began convulsing around him, her arms crushing around his waist. He was falling, falling . . .

No! With his last shred of control, he withdrew and his seed spilled over her leg as they locked themselves together in shattering rapture. Skin to skin, breath to breath . . .