Who was she kidding? She wanted to watch out for his tree.

A quick glance across his room confirmed her suspicions. Nobody else was in the room. She didn’t know why the other servants ostracized him, but it happened to be pretty convenient at the moment. Gripping the windowsill, she moved higher, stretching for the window latch. Thank God, it opened with the barest push. Third-floor windows were so much nicer than first floor!

She hoisted herself up onto the windowsill, tumbling into his room with a thump. Wincing, she glanced at him. Whew. He’d just turned over with the noise. Good to be a sound sleeper.

Her palms stung with the effort she’d used to grip the trellis, but she rubbed them against her skirt and ignored the tingling. What was a little discomfort? He’d obviously been through much worse in the past week or so.

Shedding her cloak, she moved toward him and knelt at his bedside. Her fingers trailed just above his chest, tracing the edges of greenish-yellow bruises. He’d been beaten severely, or had gotten in a bad fight.

Her throat closed, and her eyes stung at the thought of Avery in pain. God, what a hardheaded bastard. He got in trouble way more than he should. The memory of the time she’d bandaged him slammed into her. One man shouldn’t have to bear this much crap. But he did, and he’d never complained, not once.

It wasn’t pity or even compassion that moved her to lean over him and take his lips in a fervent kiss.

It was something much, much deeper.

Twenty-One

His lips were so warm. She lost herself in them, delighting in the stubbly texture of his five o’clock shadow against her chin. He shifted beneath her, and she curled her fingers into the muscles on his broad chest. The man was solid as a brick wall, and the feel of those firm muscles under her made her want to purr.

His mouth opened, and she capitalized on the opportunity. Her tongue slipped between his lips, tasting his warm mouth. She knelt on the narrow bed’s edge, wanting to lie atop him, stretch out, and feel every part of him touching her.

Way too soon, he pushed her away.

“Leah,” he rasped, eyes wide and confused with sleep. “What are you doing here?” He sat up. She made use of the extra space on the narrow bed, plopping down beside him.

“I came to finish what you started,” she said, hoping she sounded a lot more confident than she felt. She didn’t have much experience convincing men to sleep with her. Her list of conquests wasn’t nonexistent, but it was kind of on the short side. She leaned forward, hoping he’d take the hint.

“What do you mean?”

Well, shit. She bit her lip. Better to show than tell, right?

Crawling toward him, she braced her palms on either side of his lean, muscled abdomen. “This,” she whispered before kissing him again.

As kisses go, it wasn’t the best she’d ever had. Avery pulled away after their lips had touched for only a brief second.

“What’s wrong?” she said, raking her hair from her face in frustration.

“You must not…I should not…”

“Avery, please. I want you. Don’t say no.”

His face was tortured, beautiful even though the expression was heartbreaking and his injuries were plain. She had every intention of getting him to spill his guts about why he looked like the poster child for a new Rocky movie. But right now, there was something they both needed much more than conversation.

“Please.”

* * *

His brain lost every trace of sleep. He blinked, trying to clear the vision of Leah lying over him, hair falling like a curtain around them both. She could not be here. In his bed. Asking to lie with him.

But she was.

As gently as he could, he pushed her away.

“You do not know what you are asking,” he said, standing and lighting the candle at his bedside. She only looked lovelier in the dim light. “How can I ruin you?”

His muscles tensed, and he fought to keep their trembling secret. Excitement and willingness thrummed in his body, but he must deny it. He cared for her too much.

“It’s not ruining, Avery.” She unfolded herself and came to him. “I’m not a virgin, and I want you as much as you want me. And there are things that we need to settle between us, feelings that I need to explore.” She laid her head on his chest, and he did not resist the urge to fold his arms around her.

He rubbed her back and closed his eyes. All the reasons he should abstain pelted him. She was not of his time. She was not his wife. Prachett would use her against him, harm her.

But when he looked down into her open, honest, and beautiful face, he could not deny either of them.

“Leah,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers. Their kiss was filled with her enthusiasm and his barely contained joy. She’d accepted him. She could not know what that meant to him.

Bending low, he scooped her against his chest, bearing her back to the bed. Her hands curled around his neck and she nuzzled his chest.

“You have the best body,” she said as he lay her gently on his mattress. Her eyes glowed with desire as she traced his chest with a finger.

He smiled. “I would like to return the compliment, but I cannot see as much of you at the moment.”

Her laugh warmed his heart as well as other parts of his body. She sat up with a wink. “Let’s fix that then, shall we?”

His mouth went dry as she turned and presented her back to him. “Can you help me out of this?”

He was no fool. He knew what he wanted from her and what she’d expect from him. But faced with the reality of a warm, laughing Leah in his bed, he found himself frozen with an emotion he could not name. Not fear, or anxiety either. More the sense that the world around him was changing at a lightning pace, and there was not a thing he could do to stop it.

If he wanted to stop it.

“Are you okay?” She looked over her shoulder at him. “Avery?”

He shook off the thoughts and moved close to her. “All is well.” His fingers moved sure and strong, deftly loosing the buttons that flowed down the back of her dress. He concentrated on the task, doing his damnedest to ignore the throbbing ache in his groin that needed to be sated.

He pushed the gown from her shoulders, and it pooled around her torso. His moan of frustration at the numerous layers of underthings that lay beneath the gown wrenched a giggle from her.

“I know. It’s a crazy amount of underwear. We’ll get through it together, though, right?”

He pressed a kiss on her shoulder. “I cannot wait.”

He pulled her to her feet, and together they removed layer after layer of frilly, womanly undergarments. He’d not thought he could grow so hard at such a simple act as undressing her, but she was irresistible. She teased and kissed by turns, stoking his fires by touching him whenever and however she could. By the time she stood barefoot, wearing only her shift, he was ready to toss her onto her back and plunge into her. Control. He must retain control.

“Well,” she said, running her fingers beneath the waist of his breeches. “I think we’re even here. What do you say we get rid of the last of these clothes on the count of three?”

“I don’t think I can wait that long,” he said, gripping her shift and lifting it over her head. His breath caught deep in his throat.

“Good Lord.”

She stood naked in front of him, her arms at her sides, not bothering to hide her exquisite nudity. He did not know whether to stumble backward to look his fill or to press her full against him.

She was so lovely. Her full, high breasts pouted and teased him with their erect nipples. Her waist sloped delicately, flaring out to beautifully shaped hips. He could happily stare at her all evening, but she clearly had other notions.

“It’s your turn,” she said, stepping close and unbuttoning his breeches. “I want to see you too.”

He didn’t move as she bent to lower his breeches. He couldn’t. He was transfixed by the sight of her delectable bottom as she bent over in front of him. It was too much pleasure for a man, it truly was.

“Oh, Avery,” she whispered, kneeling in front of him. “You’re beautiful.”

Before he could ask to what she was referring, her soft hands had wrapped around his manhood. She pressed a kiss to the weeping tip, and he fisted his hands at his sides. Control.

“Can I suck you?”

The image of her sweet mouth wrapped around his rod nearly drove him beyond the brink. He shook his head, his hair tickling his shoulders.

“I would not last if you did.”

“Later, then,” she whispered, and pressed another kiss to the swollen head. He titled his head back, throat working.

Her hands ran up his body, from his groin to his abdomen to his chest, winding at last around his back. Her nipples dragged across his chest, her belly pressed against his erection.

“Touch me,” she groaned against his throat. He was more than happy to comply.

Starting at her hips, he indulged his fingers in the direction they wanted to travel, upward toward her breasts. His hands closed over the sweet, soft mounds, lightly flicking over their erect tips. She pressed against him, smiling as he touched her.

“Like that,” she whispered, rubbing her hips against his.

Something in his lust-filled brain snapped, and he stopped thinking. He acted.

“Put your arms around my neck,” he directed. Once she obeyed, he cupped her buttocks and lifted. Obligingly, she wrapped her thighs around his waist. He nearly wept when her slick mound made contact with his erection.

He moved backward and sat on the bed, leaving her straddling his lap. In this position, it was easy to lean forward and capture one of her beautiful nipples in his mouth.

She tangled her fingers in his hair as he sucked, his tongue flicking against the bud, his teeth grazing it. Her hips writhed against him, bathing his hardness in her sweet slickness. It would be so easy to slip inside her this way, to claim her as his. But he wanted to make this last.

He moved to her other breast as her hands roamed his body. He forgot all his bruises, forgot all the reasons why they should not be doing this. None of that mattered when her hands wrapped around him again, moving up and down in a rhythmic motion that drove him mad.

“Leah,” he whispered after releasing her nipple from his mouth with a soft pop, “I cannot last much longer if you persist in that.”

“I can’t last much longer either.” She seemed winded, her eyes dark and lips swollen. “Feel me, Avery. See what you do to me.”

She slipped from his lap and stretched full-length on the bed.

Could there be anything so beautiful on earth?

“Please touch me, Avery.” She’d fisted her hands into his sheets, and her breath was coming much quicker. “The way you’re looking at me is driving me crazy.”

“How am I looking at you?” He could not resist asking the question, though he could empathize with her desperation.

“Like you want to devour me.” Her breath came in gasps as her eyes darkened.

He did. He wanted to taste her. Kneeling between her legs, he parted her folds and lowered his head to her. The scent was intoxicating, sweet and musky and womanly. He could breathe her in forever, but if he did that, he’d never know her taste. And that was a pleasure he’d not forgo.

He licked the lower part of her folds and moved his way up as her hips writhed against him. When his lips closed around that swollen nub at the apex of her mound, she gave a mewling cry.

“There! Oh my God, right there, Avery.” The sheets twisted in her grip.

“As you wish,” he breathed against her hot, wet flesh, and then complied.

Twenty-Two

Avery seemed determined to coax her to heaven with his mouth alone. But she wanted much more than his mouth.

She got a portion of her wish when his finger slid inside her. Her muscles spasmed around it involuntarily, and she let out a long, low moan.

“Are you trying to drive me crazy?” she panted.

He gave her a wicked smile as he inserted another finger. “Perhaps.”

“Please, Avery,” she whispered as she pinched her own nipples, wishing he was close enough to kiss. “Don’t make me wait.”

She lifted her arms to him and he stretched full-length atop her. Their mouths and hands were suddenly everywhere. They rolled and tangled, tasting, touching, licking, and sucking. Leah wrapped her legs around his hips and bit his shoulder.