A Roll in the Hay, стр. 53

“I had plans,” Susannah replied. “Big plans that I promise you we would both enjoy very much.”

“What a coincidence, because I fully intended on taking you straight to bed.” Tess was trying to keep up, but when it came to seduction, Susannah already had her at a disadvantage. Just one raking glance, a faint flicker of tongue over those lips, and Tess was entirely malleable, ready for Susannah to sculpt and mould her at will.

“I admire your confidence in thinking we’d get that far. My money was on the first soft surface we came to.” Susannah leaned closer, her eyes focused on Tess’s lips.

“Oh really?”

“Doesn’t even need to be that soft.”

Susannah reached out between them and pressed the improvised mattress. “Hmm. Dry. Firm. Add a blanket and this is just perfect for right now, wouldn’t you say?” Her eyebrow lifted.

That simple gesture came for Tess like a ton of bricks. This wasn’t casual flirting anymore, or some hasty but enjoyable kisses. They were inches apart, and here was Susannah, in all her Lady Karlson finery, suggesting she shove Tess down right there and have her wicked way.

The very idea sent a tidal wave of want crashing through Tess’s body. The dull throb of wanting became a constant, arching need that seemed to keep drawing their bodies together. With her long, careful fingers, Susannah reached out and undid her bow tie, then left it to dangle around her neck. She twisted the first button on Tess’s dress shirt, freeing it. Susannah moved right down to the next button. And the one after that.

As soon as she ran out of buttons, Susannah pulled Tess into the kind of kiss that left zero ambiguity about her intentions. At one point in the meeting of lips and tongues, one of them actually whimpered. Tess wasn’t sure if it was her.

The primitive surroundings didn’t dampen their need for each other one bit. Any cold in the air was chased off by the heat generated between them, and the glow of the stove was a safe distance from where they were slowly becoming entangled with each other.

Tess ran her hand up Susannah’s thigh, bared by the slit in her dress. The silky skin seemed to go on forever, the silk of the dress never presenting any kind of barrier until the last possible inch. Under her palm, the toned muscles of Susannah’s leg flexed and jumped. Those countless days in the saddle had toned her body into a living sculpture, an absolute work of art.

Susannah took full advantage of that part in the fabric to get one long leg wrapped around Tess.

The dress at Susannah’s shoulders gave way at the slightest tug. That let Tess explore her more fully, with open-mouthed kisses from that strong jawline to the elegant, almost fragile hollows at Susannah’s neck and collarbones. Her skin was impossibly soft, whether from expensive lotions or just genetic luck; Tess couldn’t bring herself to care. All she knew was that Susannah felt perfect against her lips, something that had been true since their very first kiss.

“God, I’ve wanted you all night,” Susannah said, grabbing the collar of Tess’s shirt. “At one point I thought I was just going to rip the buttons right off and have my way with you there and then.”

“If anything, it’s a miracle we made it through the evening without my hand under this dress,” Tess said. “It’s practically an engraved invitation to everywhere I’ve been dying to touch you. Which I think is exactly why you wore it, isn’t it?”

To think of Susannah, with her designer wardrobe existing like an arsenal for her to choose from, picking out a dress just to render Tess incoherent with lust, was more than Tess could have hoped for.

Susannah’s smirk was unmistakable as Tess cupped her left breast through the fabric of her dress. Rubbing a thumb across the already stiff nipple, Tess delighted in the moan that bubbled up from Susannah’s throat. It seemed as if she was going to be every bit as vocal in this as she was in the rest of her life, and Tess couldn’t wait to hear that.

“I wore it to make sure you appreciated just what you were in for tonight. Just like you were trying to kill me with the whole soft-butch James Bond thing.”

“And…you like that,” Tess said, her voice knowing. “You want me to want to please you.”

“Oh, very good. Gold star for the good doctor.”

Tess responded with another searing kiss, pushing Susannah down until she was flat on her back. Another tug at the dress bared more of her body, down to the top edge of her strapless bra. With one leg exposed, the rest of the dress was barely a barrier, but Tess took her time shimmying the soft material down to expose inch after inch of lightly tanned skin.

“Gorgeous,” Tess said, finally setting the dress aside. She rocked back on her heels and drank in every detail of the sight before her. It took a moment to remind herself to breathe, so struck was she by Susannah starting to come undone. Tess’s impatience to touch every part of her spiked. She quickly dispatched her jacket onto their growing pile of clothes. Tess’s shirt that Susannah had unbuttoned hung open, halfway off her shoulders.

The hunger in the way Susannah watched was scorching, but it was nothing compared to the sensation of her hands tracing Tess’s curves as they exposed themselves.

Her bra was more substantial than Susannah’s, but then it had quite a lot to carry. Susannah reached up to tease a finger along the lace edge of each cup, her smile downright greedy, and Tess gasped. Each pattern Susannah traced seemed calculated to drive Tess out of her mind, but supporting herself on her forearms, she forced herself to lean forward and pressed Susannah down on the bed of hay. Her last threads of self-control were fraying as Susannah shifted under her, forcing more