“You like it?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
Ellen beamed at him as she coiled the short strand into the locket, then snapped it shut. “I love it. So, so much.” She passed it to him. “Put it on me?” She twisted her hair and turned her back to him.
Mark draped the chain around her neck, working at the clasp. She shivered at the brush of his fingers.
“Almost,” Mark murmured with a nervous-sounding chuckle.
She felt the latch close against her skin, but his fingers didn’t leave. Instead, he trailed his fingertips up her neck to her hairline. Heat pooled in Ellen’s belly in response. His breath warmed her neck, and she could feel him hesitating, not daring to kiss her. The hair on the nape of her neck prickled in anticipation. The heat in her belly unspooled and drifted lower, to between her legs. Ellen ached for him. And still he didn’t move, the fingers of one hand behind her ear and his breath just above the collar of her dressing gown.
She could bear it no longer. Ellen spun to face him, grabbing his face with both her hands. His stubble scraped against herpalms in a way that made her core throb with desire. Ellen looked at him, so very close, nearly sharing the same breaths, and yet so very far away. “Mark,” she pleaded.Kiss me.
He bent his lips to hers. Ellen closed her eyes. It made her bones jelly. He started to pull away, somehow content with a chaste kiss, but then she moaned in relief from finally having his mouth against hers, where it belonged.
Mark gathered her in his arms and pulled her in. Ellen twined her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so warm and desired and seen. This kiss felt like a hot bath after a long, difficult day. A chocolate cake after a week of fasting. A strained muscle finally healing. It was the most decadent thing Ellen had ever experienced.
Mark enfolded her lips in his, soft and pliable, yet so achingly sweet Ellen whimpered again. With that encouragement, he wrapped her hair around his hands, burying them in her loose tresses. “Ellen, oh, Ellen,” he whispered into her mouth, and his tongue swept across her lips in a hesitant, hopeful way.
A surge of electricity went down her spine at the heat of his tongue, and she tightened her hold around his neck. She opened her mouth, welcoming his presence, and met his tongue with hers.
Oh, I didn’t know how badly I missed this,she thought fuzzily. Ellen stroked his tongue with hers, then took more initiative and explored his mouth. His husky chuckle at her boldness made her insides quiver. He tore his mouth from hers, and she began to protest, until he nipped his way along her jaw and down her neck. Mark skillfully avoided the spot on her neck where she didn’t like being touched—the one that made her cringe and wriggle away—just as if he remembered, and gently bit the soft part of her shoulder.
“God, Ellen, you don’t know how I missed you,” he murmured against her skin.
Ellen ran her fingers through his hair and peppered his forehead and temple with kisses. “I was right here.”
“Fool that I was,” Mark got out as he nibbled the column of her throat. “I did regret leaving at night. I’d lie in my tiny, cramped cabin and think all sorts of lustful thoughts about you until I couldn’t bear it and had to use my hand.”
Ellen had trouble focusing on his words. She licked the shell of his ear and smiled when she felt his shudder.
“I,” Mark managed between kisses, “plan never to be away from such a rapturous woman ever again.” He brought his mouth back to hers and groaned into it. His hands left her hair and stroked down her back. “Do you know when I first wanted to kiss you?”
“No.” Ellen curled his hair around her fingers as she bit his lower lip. His hands gripped her, fingertips pressing into her lower back, at the sensation.
“When you slapped me.” Mark tucked his hands under her bottom and held her, massaging it as he had his way with her mouth.
“What?” Ellen was dazed.
“I knew,” Mark said, and nipped the tip of her nose. “That you were so much more than I remembered.” He pressed their foreheads together, gasping for breath. “God, I’ve missed doing that.” His chest heaved.
Her chest heaved too, and when it did her breasts pressed against him. Catching her breath, she looked down to see she was in his lap, straddling his waist. Her nightrail and dressing gown had rucked up enough to show her knees, and the hard length of him pulsed beneath her.
Embarrassment trickled in. Her cheeks heated. “I didn’t mean to get so carried away.”
Mark tilted his head to the side to flick her earlobe with his tongue. “I am glad you did.” He leaned back, hands still on her bottom, and surveyed her lazily, smugly. “This is the best Christmas I’ve had in years.”
Ellen loosened her hold on his hair and wrapped her hands around the sides of his neck. “I’d forgotten how wonderful yousmell.” She had half a mind to take him back to bed right then. Or maybe even there, in front of the Christmas tree.What has gotten into me? On the floor, in front of thetree?
Mark gave her arse a squeeze then slid his hands out and smoothed down her hair with a tender smile.
“I’m sure it’s a rat’s nest.” Ellen raised a hand to comb through it but he batted her hand away.
“Exactly how I like it. Mussed because we couldn’t keep away.” There was a spark of male pride in his eyes, but Ellen didn’t miss the sweet affection in his voice. “We weren't the right people for one another back when we wed, Ellen. But maybe we are now.”
Was he right? She didn’t know. Not yet. Ellen allowed him to pet her, and had to admit it was heavenly to have someone else care for her. “The locket was perfect,” she told him shyly. “Especially because I shan’t be having any more children.”
His hand froze on her head for a split second, then continued to comb her hair down her back. “Should we see what Cook set aside for us for lunch?”
Ellen was confused. “Are...are we not continuing this?” The heat between her legs had turned wet and slick, and his arousal still throbbed against her thigh.