Instead, she made an instant decision to go with her own desires. ‘Then … let’s.’ She leaned closer to his warmth to let their mouths touch, lifting her hands to his shoulders, closing her eyes to enjoy that first tingling brush of his lips and the heat that shot down her spine as they deepened the kiss. His breathing stepped up and his mouth opened in invitation beneath hers. She didn’t need his arms tightening around her to know he was in the moment as deeply as she was. She pressed against him and suddenly she was fighting for breath, not because he was one of those vacuum-her-up kissers but because her heart was doing the most extraordinary things in her chest. It seemed to beat the air from her lungs.

‘Wow,’ he breathed against her mouth. Then he lifted her onto his lap and homed in on her mouth again, lips softly seeking, tongue caressing, his stroking hands making her feel as if he were trickling handfuls of warm sand over her skin. She broke off with a gasp, overcome by sensation. His mouth travelled to her throat, the hollow of her shoulder, seeking out the sensitive spot beneath her ear, licking, nipping, kissing, nibbling. She nuzzled and kissed his collarbone and he groaned aloud. ‘Oh, yeah.’ His fingers were stroking her through the laces that criss-crossed her spine. ‘I hadn’t realised a back could be so sexy till I saw you in this dress.’

Her breath fluttered on a laugh. ‘You like it?’

His fingertips explored her spine. ‘I love it.’

They kissed on and on. She ran her fingers through his hair and liked the feel of it, liked the beat of his pulse against her lips, the way his tongue lazily explored inside her mouth as if nothing could be more pleasurable.

She turned around in his lap to straddle him, enjoying the deep rumble of appreciation in his throat as he took the opportunity to nibble and lick at the swell of her breasts above her neckline, drawing from her a tiny yip of pleasure.

‘Are we …?’ He stopped to groan as she shifted against him. ‘I mean, do you want …?’ His breath seemed about to choke him and she laughed in satisfaction that she could prevent him from forming entire sentences. He cupped her face, halting her from another nuzzle into the delicious area where his neck disappeared beneath his shirt’s open collar. He sucked in an audible breath. ‘I don’t want to take anything for granted but you’ve got me not knowing which way’s up.’

‘Well,’ she drawled enjoying a liberating feeling of wildness. It wasn’t because Brendon had forbidden it but there was definitely satisfaction in refusing to toe the line he somehow felt entitled to draw. ‘I’d like to if you would.’