She kissed him, tasting the sweetness of his mouth. It wasn't enough. Every encounter between them had been rushed and hurried, a mad scramble in the darkness. This time she wanted to take her time.
She pushed his coat off his shoulders, and found the buttons of his shirt. Kincaid made a growling sound deep in his throat as he helped her remove it. "Miss McLaren," he breathed, dancing her backward as she slid a hand up his bare chest. "I like this side of you. But I think we're unfairly positioned."
Gentle hands found the buttons on the back of her dress, and he turned her around, kissing the slope of her shoulder as he began to tug them free.
"It's cold," she whispered.
"I'll warm you up." The dress slipped from her arms and shoulders, curling around her feet. "And if you're thinking about the cold, then I'm clearly not doing my job correctly."
Helping her to step out of the discarded dress, he turned her around with an appreciative little twirl. "Mmm. This needs to go." Crinoline and petticoats both fell prey to his deft fingers. Ava shivered as he captured her waist and kissed the smooth slope of her upper breasts. Her corset clasped at the front, and he laid waste to it, tossing it aside and running his hands up to cup her unbound breasts.
Finally, all that remained were her chemise and stockings. Ava could feel chill fingers of wind sliding straight through her chemise, but the look in Kincaid's eyes heated her within. Her nipples were cool, hard pebbles behind the fabric. He circled her slowly, fingertips trailing across the back of her hip. "Strip," he told her.
A thousand doubts sprang to mind; her scar, her small breasts, the way she'd be completely vulnerable to his gaze. What if he found her lacking?
"I believe I gave you an order," he whispered, moving behind her and tugging the pins from her hair.
Ava slowly slid her chemise off one shoulder, trembling a little. This was Kincaid. He never made her feel doubt, but her breath caught. "Are you certain?"
"I want to touch you all over," Kincaid breathed, capturing her waist and pressing against her so she could feel the steel of his erection. "I want to taste every inch of you. So yes, Ava. I want you naked. I want all of you. I want you to be mine, and I intend to claim you."
Her chemise ghosted down her body, and Kincaid sucked in a sharp breath. His hand slid up her stomach, capturing her breast. Ava moaned a little, and then he was pressing a kiss to the back of her neck, biting her there.
Suddenly she was no longer so shy. All she felt was need, her vision going dark as the hunger roused.
Kincaid gathered her in his arms and laid her upon his fur-lined cloak. Lantern light gilded his shoulders, and Ava ran her hands up his chest as he knelt over her, pressing a kiss to her collarbone, then her breast, then her nipple. The shock of his mouth made her cry out, and he made good on his promise to taste her all over, spreading her thighs and dipping down to spear his tongue into the thatch of blonde hair there, until she was no longer thinking about her nakedness or vulnerability, lost to sensation as he lapped and teased at her until she screamed.
"How do you do that to me?" she gasped, running her hands through his hair as he kissed his way back up her body, tracing his tongue over the long scar between her breasts. It was so unbearably sensitive, she had to pull his face away.
"I love hearing you cry out," he whispered.
Cool air kissed her skin. Ava dragged her fingertips along the hard line of his jaw, tracing that familiar stubble. She could see the stars over his shoulders, though most of Kincaid was a shadowy outline now. One of the lanterns nearby had faded. Without his expression, she was limited to communication through touch, or whispered words.
But she didn't feel like speaking right now.
"You frightened me," he whispered, nipping at her fingertips. "I've been trying not to think about it, but seeing you like that... coming so close to losing you-"
"You didn't lose me." Ava captured his face in both hands, a glint of light turning his eyes silver. She couldn't read his thoughts in them. "But it frightened me too. There's so much I haven't done. So much I haven't seen, or felt." Ava brushed her lips against his, a sweet caress. "And thank you, I needed this. I wanted it to be you. I wanted you to be my first."
She didn't dare say, and last.
He wouldn't like that, and she didn't want to complicate things-they'd agreed, damn it-but there was a little part of her that could imagine a life with Kincaid by her side.
Long, slow kisses every morning when they woke; a man who championed her at all times, encouraging her to speak her mind and step outside the laboratories where she felt her safest; seeing his face light up in a smile when she first stepped into a room; having him tease her and whisper naughty words in her ears.