Chapter Twenty-One #2
“Unfortunately, it has its limitations.” He feathered light kisses along the column of her throat.
“With more time, I’d unwrap you layer by layer like a gift,” he added before his mouth found hers again, all the while keeping up the steady pressure of his fingers to the back of her neck—a point of contact that was necessary for sharing his invisibility.
It took her back to five years ago, when Arden had done the same thing to steal a few kisses in the hidden alcove of a busy ball or to delve his hands beneath her skirts in a dimly lit opera box while everyone around them was focused on the show on stage.
Mavis wasn’t sure they wouldn’t have ended up in the same situations without the added security of Arden’s magic, given how desperately they’d wanted each other, but she was every bit as grateful for it now as she was then.
When Arden’s mouth wandered from hers down her neck, Mavis couldn’t help the moan that slipped out, her grip on him tightening like he was the only thing keeping her upright.
“Gods, I missed you.” Arden’s words were little more than hot breath against her throat, punctuated with open-mouthed kisses. “Those sounds you make haunt my dreams, you know. But even when I thought they’d drive me mad, I’d rather have died than forget the way you gasp and moan.”
As if to prove his point, Arden moved up to her ear, nibbling just hard enough for Mavis to let out a gasp, followed by a moan when he worried at the same spot with his tongue.
She could barely pay attention to his words, only let them wash over her as she tunneled her hands through his hair and pulled his mouth to hers again, sinking into the kiss until she was dizzy with him, no thoughts in her mind other than how it felt to have him touching her like he knew every inch of her by heart.
All too soon, he pulled away again, his kiss-swollen mouth curving into a slow, wicked smile that Mavis hadn’t seen since the night before she’d left him—a night she’d replayed in her mind more times than she could count.
“Do you know how often I woke up swearing I could taste you on my tongue?” he asked, his voice a low growl.
The words unraveled her every bit as much as his kisses did, but two could play at that game.
“I hope it was at least as often as the nights I touched myself and pretended it was you,” she murmured against his throat, then sucked at the place where his neck met his shoulder.
Arden’s body went stiff, and he let out a low curse.
The next thing Mavis knew, he had one of her hands in his, pressing her palm to his cheek so he could shrug off his linen jacket without shattering their invisibility.
He dropped it onto the sand and then lowered Mavis to recline on it as he came down on top of her, kissing her again.
When Mavis kissed him back, cupping her hand to the back of his head to hold him close, Arden covered her hand with his and pulled away, staying close enough that Mavis could feel the low rumble of his voice in her own chest.
“Don’t let go.” It was all the warning Mavis got before he moved down her body, settling in the cradle of her parted thighs.
It was a warning Mavis didn’t need. She could have sooner jumped over the moon than let go of Arden in that moment. Her fingers trembled against the back of his head as he slowly lifted the hem of her silk gown, taking the layers of petticoats with it and revealing her bare legs inch by inch.
A low rumble started in Arden’s chest as he kissed the skin of her knee, so reverent that Mavis felt like some Goddess of Old being worshipped.
“No stockings—I might think you were trying to drive me to madness,” he said, as much to himself as to her.
In truth, the extra layer of clothing had seemed too cumbersome for what she’d heard about Horatio Benitez’s infamous parties, but the way Arden looked at her made Mavis consider never wearing stockings again.
When Arden pressed another kiss to the inside of her thigh, then another even higher, Mavis stopped wondering about anything altogether, instead tightening her grip on his head and shifting her legs wider to give him more room.
“Let’s see if my memory managed to hold a candle to the real thing.
” He hooked his arms around her thighs and laughed when Mavis used her grip to try to guide him to where she was so desperate for him.
A heartbeat later, he obliged her, finding the slit in her drawers and parting it.
His breath sifted through the curls covering her mound, then he gave a long lick over her opening, finishing with a swirl over the bundle of nerves nestled at the top.
Stars fractured across Mavis’s vision, and she couldn’t help but cry out.
She dug her other hand into his hair and held him to her, though he seemed to have no plans of going anywhere.
He groaned, the sound reverberating through Mavis’s core, making her lift her hips—an invitation he eagerly took, lowering his mouth back to her with a muttered curse.