He lifted her tingling hands and placed a lingering kiss in first one palm, then the other.
“May I help you off with your pelisse?”
She nodded again, and then grasped her courage and told him, “If I can help you with your coat.”
He pressed his next kiss to one corner of her lips. “We shall disrobe one another, then. You start, my angel.”
How to do this? His coat was moulded to his form, fitting his shoulders like a second skin. If he turned his back on her so she could ease the garment off from behind, he would have to stop kissing her, running his lips down one side of her face and then up the other.
She slipped her hands out of his, put her palms on his chest and slid them under the coat and up towards the shoulders. He took a shuddering breath at her touch, and nuzzled her ear, which distracted her from her task and set her trembling.
Focus, Charlotte. She ran her right hand over his shoulder, pushing the coat backwards and down his arm. He dipped and twisted that side, then used his other hand to pull the sleeve over his wrist and down. The other side slipped easily, and she caught the coat, folded it by its shoulders, and leaned away to lay it on the nearest chair.
“My turn, Cherry,” he said, catching her around the waist and pulling her to him for another kiss, this one full on the lips, his mouth open, his tongue shaping her lips until she gasped at the shock of pleasure that speared through her, and his tongue darted inside. She sank into the sensation, conscious of nothing but his mouth on hers until she felt him easing her pelisse off one shoulder. She turned her head to look, breaking the kiss, grateful for the firm hand around her waist and for the support of the sofa, for all her bones had turned to jelly. She had not even been aware of him unbuttoning her garment with his free hand.
“Too fast?” he asked. She shook her head, her voice having got lost somewhere during that kiss.
