Chocolate Kisses by Judith Arnold Page A

her shoulders.
    “I
almost invited you to dive in,” she admitted.
    He
smiled, his teeth gleaming in the moonlight that filtered through the curtains
by the bed. “We should have done it,” he said, tugging his bow tie until it
hung in two narrow red ribbons. “We should have forgotten all about the
cotillion and spent the rest of our lives in the tub.”
    “No.
In fact, I should be downstairs right now—”
    “Edie’s
taking care of everything,” he said, sliding his jacket from his shoulders. He
removed the onyx links pinning his cuffs and then the matching studs adorning
the front of his shirt. Claudia recalled her little fantasy of him stripping
off his tuxedo. The reality was much more enthralling.
    “Are
you sure? I don’t want anything to go wrong. And Edie doesn’t like me.”
    “As
long as she’s in charge of the kitchen, she loves you,” he reassured her.
“Running the kitchen is all she ever wanted to do.”
    “She
wanted to destroy my cakes,’ Claudia muttered, her gaze fixed on the crisp
white front of Ned’s shirt as he removed the last stud. “I don’t know why she
suddenly turned nice.”
    “I
gave her a kiss,” he explained. At Claudia’s startled look, he grinned and
tugged his shirttails free of his trousers. “One of your chocolate kisses. A
single bite and she understood why I’m crazy about you.”
    “My
kisses, huh.” Claudia was aware of the tightness in her voice as her vision
filled with the magnificent sight of his naked chest, a plane of streamlined
muscle accented with a dart of black hair. “You want me for my kisses.”
    “For
starters. He tossed his shirt aside, then reached for her. She automatically
lifted her hands to his head, combing her fingers through the mop of his hair
and tracing the warm, responsive skin of his face. His deep sigh caused his
chest to vibrate .
    He
took the kiss he wanted, sliding his tongue deep, filling her mouth as he
sought and found the zipper at the back of her dress. She felt a brief chill as
he drew it down to her waist, then a flash of heat as he returned to undo the
clasp of her bra. If there was a cotillion going on downstairs she didn’t know
about it. If the future of her company was at stake she didn’t care. All that
mattered was Ned’s hands on her back, his mouth on hers, his kisses sweeter and
more complicated than anything she’d ever concocted in her kitchen.
    Her
dress tumbled to the floor at her feet, and then her bra, her slip, her
stockings. Ned guided her hands to his trousers and she opened them, refusing
to think beyond the moment, the power of his hardness bulging against the
smooth gray fabric, the ragged tempo of his breath as she eased his briefs over
his hips and down his long, well-toned legs.
    Ned
scooped her into his arms and carried her to the grand four-poster. He joined
her on the crisp linen sheets, stretching out on his side and gazing lovingly
at her body as it lay in the spill of moonlight. “You’re so beautiful,” he
whispered before setting his hand loose on her skin, exploring the lines of her
collarbones and then the hollow between her breasts, the concave stretch of her
abdomen.
    Her
hips shifted uncomfortably; her nipples grew taut in anticipation of his touch.
“You’re beautiful, too,” she said, skimming her hand along the ridge of his
shoulder and then roaming forward into the wiry hair that darkened his upper
chest.
    “Oh,
God.” It was half a groan, half a growl. “I’ve been wanting this all day. I
don’t know how much longer I can wait.”
    With
a mischievous smile, she moved her hand down across his abdomen, curious to see
if his condition bore out his words. At her glancing touch he groaned again.
She did, too.
    He
grabbed her hand and pulled it away. Rising above her, he pressed her arms to
the mattress and bowed to kiss her breasts. “Everything about you tastes so
good,” he murmured, swirling his tongue over the beaded tip of one breast.
“Peppermint pink