“This is too slow,” she blurted out, her heart pounding in nervousness and excitement. “I want to be in the bed. With you.”

“As you please.”

Tommy removed her waistcoat. Three small buttons, wrapped in the same emerald fabric. She slipped the waistcoat from her shoulders and dropped it atop Philippa’s discarded stays. It landed with the faint rustle of one fabric kissing another. Her breasts were small and unbound, the dusky nipples visible through the thin cambric. Tommy slipped off her trousers and tossed them aside. She was now clad only in silk stockings and a billowing gentlemen’s shirt that fluttered to mid-thigh.

Philippa had never imagined that seeing Tommy dressed in nothing but a man’s shirt could be so erotic. It felt daring, like everything Tommy did. Reckless and free, she was at her most attractive when she was just being herself.

Tommy’s lack of inhibition made Philippa feel bold, too. She grabbed Tommy and pulled her close. Their hips came together. Their mouths met in a searing kiss. This time, there was nothing but soft linen separating their bodies. The tips of Philippa’s breasts brushed the underside of Tommy’s, touching with her nipples where she had not yet caressed with her hands.

Tommy’s smile was slow and seductive. “The bed, you said?”

Philippa nodded breathlessly. She unwound her hands from Tommy’s neck and scrambled backward up onto the mattress, not wanting to divert her gaze for even a moment. She wanted to learn everything there was to know about Tommy’s body. Its silhouette against the orange firelight. The hills and valley of her breasts visible above the gapping neck of her men’s shirt as she climbed atop the bed to join Philippa.

Tommy’s mouth caught hers, but only briefly. “Stop or continue?”

“Continue.” Philippa’s head fell back against the pillow.

Tommy slid beside her. Her lithe, warm body touched Philippa’s from shoulder to toe. Tommy bent her top leg, resting her smooth thigh atop Philippa’s. The welcome weight of Tommy’s leg felt possessive and intimate. As though they were branding each other with their bodies. Tommy hooked an arm around Philippa’s midsection, just beneath her breasts. Not quite sexual…but adjacent. As though her touch could be sexual, if Philippa wanted it to.

“Stop or continue?”

“C-continue.”

Tommy shifted so that she was atop Philippa. Not lying on her, exactly. Their legs were entwined and their pelvises touched, but Tommy’s arms propped her up so that there was a gap between their breasts.

Philippa stammered, “What are you…”