Suzette released a little sigh of mingled relief and pleasure into his mouth, her hands creeping up around his neck of their own accord now as the most amazing feelings washed through her. She had the strangest urge to pull him closer and yet she was sure their bodies were already as close as they could possibly get. Suzette also had the strange yet irresistible urge to stretch her body, as if just awaking from a long slumber. Giving in to the temptation, she did so, moaning softly as she found that perhaps they hadn’t been as close as she’d thought. The arching and stretching bore her upper body back, forcing him to curve over her to continue the kiss, but it also pressed her hips firmly against him, bringing on a new assault of sensation to join the others.

Now Suzette thought she understood about that warm and wonderful commotion she’d read about. Certainly, she was experiencing a warmth that seemed to be pooling between her legs like liquid heat and spreading outward, and it did feel wonderful as his mouth continued to slant over hers, his tongue lashing her and exploring with a delightful thoroughness.

It was the sound of voices that forced them to end the kiss. Though, truthfully, Suzette was deaf to the voices and even had she heard them would have happily ignored the sound and risked her reputation to continue kissing. However, Daniel appeared to retain more sense than her and broke the kiss to set her firmly away.

“We should return to the ball,” he said gruffly, taking her arm to urge her back along the path.

Suzette went docilely at first, still too overset by their kiss to think clearly. She walked silently along, unable to resist running her tongue over her still tingling lips and thinking that those visits for procreation purposes shouldn’t be a problem at all. The next thought to strike her, however, was that he hadn’t actually agreed to marrying her . . . or anything else.

Frowning, she slowed, and asked, “Are you going to marry me?”

The question brought an immediate frown to his own lips and he muttered, “This is highly irregular, my lady.”

“Yes it is,” she agreed solemnly. “And if it is too irregular for you, please say so now so that I can move on to finding someone else tonight.”

That made him halt abruptly. “Finding someone else? Tonight?”