“I cannot command you,” Philippa stammered. “Can I?”

Tommy smiled. “You might find you like it very much.”

Philippa’s cheeks flushed and she hurried to the armchair. “I’ll take them off myself. I am not completely helpless, no matter what my clothes might suggest.”

“Asking for help doesn’t make you helpless.”

“Not even if it’s something I could do myself?”

Tommy arched her brows. “Could you boil your own water for tea, if you wanted to?”

Philippa made a face.

“Before you tell me that’s different,” Tommy said, “ask yourself why. How will anyone know what you want, and where, and how, unless you tell them?”

“It’s that simple?” Philippa said doubtfully. “I just say ‘kiss me’ and you’ll kiss me?”

“Every time.” Tommy grinned. “Try it.”

Philippa stood, set her boots beside the fireplace, and turned back around with determination. “Kiss me.”

Tommy strode to meet her but did not reach for her. “Where shall I kiss you? On the top of your head? On your elbow?”

Philippa’s eyes widened and her lips parted.

“Ah,” Tommy said softly. “Your big brain just had the most magnificent ideas. I very much want to kiss you in all of the secret places that just crossed your mind. Where shall I begin?”

This time, Philippa did not wait for Tommy to cease her teasing. She reached for her and kissed her deeply. Tommy, in trousers and stockings.

Desire rushed through her—the heady sensation of being wanted exactly as and for who she was.

Tommy’s arms wrapped tightly about the pretty bluestocking who never left her mind.

“I’m glad you came,” she murmured between kisses. “Great-Aunt Wynchester adores you and Baron Vanderbean is smitten by you, but it is Tommy Wynchester’s heart you hold in your hands. I want you to know that whatever happens tonight means just as much to me as every other moment we have shared.”

Philippa pulled back just far enough to meet Tommy’s eyes. “I like you, too. All of you. The roles you put on and the person you always are inside.”

Tommy touched her cheek. “I would court you openly if I could.”

“Court me in private,” Philippa said. “Court me here and now. You’ll find you’ve already won me.”

“No, I haven’t.” Tommy kissed the corner of Philippa’s lips. “We’re just getting started.”

“Show me.” Philippa’s gaze did not leave Tommy’s. She bit her lip, her eyes twinkling. “I command you.”

Tommy pulled Philippa back into her arms. “Watch this.”

30

30

Dizzy with sensation, Philippa wrapped her arms about Tommy’s neck and lost herself to the kiss.

She had thought there was nothing she loved more than learning. As it turned out, what she adored most was learning Tommy. How her body felt, how her kisses tasted, the little sounds she made when Philippa stroked her tongue against Tommy’s.