Marriage Plot, NEW EXCERPT

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Nicolas closed the space between them. He could think of only one way to make the questions stop until he could settle on a better explanation. And damn if the idea of kissing her into silence didn’t appeal to him.

Her eyes widened.

This close, he could see flecks of brown and amber streaking through the honey in her irises. Her lashes fluttered but he did not miss the wary interest in them, or the way her breath caught as he leaned toward her.

“I’d rather continue your instruction,” he whispered.

“You’re trying to distract me from my purpose.”

“Would that be so wrong?” He brushed his mouth across hers.

Sensation sizzled like water droplets on a hearth. The sweet warmth of her breath tickled the sensitive flesh of his mouth. He wanted her to kiss him. He wanted her to reach up on her toes as she had the first time, thrilling him with her forwardness. Would she know what he was after?
He cupped the side of her face, stroking her cheekbone with the pad of his thumb. His gaze lingered on hers until she lowered it to his mouth. There to the left, by the bridge of her nose, he found a faded freckle. Another below her right eye. Three along the slim line of her nose and a small, flat beauty mark at the corner of her lips. He’d not seen it before. Nicolas kissed it, reveling in the possessive curl of pleasure over her breathy gasp.

Had Puck seen these same marks up close? Did Puck know Caroline had played outdoors without a bonnet when she was a child, marking her perfect skin with nearly invisible spots? They weren’t invisible to Nicolas.

He would have expected the reminder of her youth to pull him away from his current longing, to fade the lust boiling in his belly. Instead it only served to distance her from childhood, to fade her immaturity as it had faded her freckles, and make her appear that much more the woman. A woman, not a girl, from whom he desperately wanted a kiss.

Why had he stopped? His slow scrutiny tortured her. His heated gaze searching and settling on each feature warmed her as much as his hand on her cheek. His lips brushed the side of her mouth. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until she gasped.

His face hovered over hers, too close for propriety, not nearly enough to satisfy her screaming senses. What did he wait for? Permission? Caroline rested her hand on his chest. The quick, strong beats of his heart were a metronome to the melody of her pulses. His lips parted, but still he did not move.

With a soft cry, Caroline rose up to meet him. Her lips claimed his since he would not claim hers. Their mouths bumped awkwardly in her haste but smoothed with heated flesh to heated flesh. Closing her eyes on sensation, she sighed against his mouth, wanting but not sure she knew how to take. It hadn’t been so complicated in the rain storm, when he had kissed her, showed her how to blend their mouths.

Shoving thought from her mind, she acted on instinct. Would he laugh at her clumsy seduction? The beat beneath her hand raced. Caroline’s lips sank into his, this time parting under him and capturing his bottom lip between hers.

He groaned.

Encouraged, she slid her free arm around his neck. Her legs trembled and Nicolas pulled her to him. His body supporting her, warming her, she drew back from his mouth, overwhelmed and uncertain.

But Nicolas wouldn’t let her.