Page 27 of Courting Claudia
“Julia.”
“Will you marry again?”
“Perhaps. Right now my newspaper and my employees are my family. I devote all my energy to them.”
“And to being inappropriate.”
A tiny smile quirked his lips. “When the mood strikes me.”
“You get in a mood to be inappropriate?”
“Absolutely.” He glanced sideways at her. “Don’t you ever get that feeling? That urge to do something that may be wrong, but for the moment it feels right?”
“Like what?”
“I’ll show you.” And just like that he closed the distance between them and cradled her face in his hands. He first kissed her gently, an innocent kiss. Then he proceeded to place sweet kisses all over her face. Her eyelids. Nose. Each cheek. Everywhere he touched, she wanted him to find a new place to put his lips.
Then his mouth met hers, and he moved across it slowly. Ever so gently, sweeping his tongue across her bottom lip and then the top. She opened for him and felt his tongue enter her mouth. Tentatively, she moved her tongue forward and brushed it against his. The sensation radiated from her mouth to the tips of her breasts and then ended between her thighs. Bolder, she continued the tongue play until she thought she would lose her footing.
This was wrong. But, oh, did it feel right. Still, it was wrong. She should be kissing Richard this way, not this man whom she barely knew and whose motives she didn’t completely trust and who, she’d only recently discovered, had been married before. She pushed at his chest, and he broke off the kiss and stepped back.
“Why did you do that?” she asked.
“Because I wanted to.”
“And what if I didn’t want you to kiss me?”
“Then you shouldn’t have kissed me back. It’s the simple rule of kissing. If someone kisses you and you’d rather them not, then you simply don’t kiss them back.”
“I’m not familiar with these so-called rules of kissing.”
“Claudia, I’m beginning to think that your so-called fiancé has not taken advantage of your sweet mouth.”
She felt herself stiffen. He might not have properly proposed, but Richard was her intended. Everyone knew that. “My relationship with Richard is none of your business.”
“That certainly answers my question.”
“You didn’t ask a question, and it does not.”
“Did you enjoy it?”
“I beg your pardon? Did I enjoy what?”
“The kiss.”
“I will not answer that.”
“Again you answer.”
“You are infuriating.”
“So I’ve been told. Why is that, do you think?”
“Because you clearly find it amusing to make those in your company uncomfortable.”
“Are you uncomfortable?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but stopped. Honestly? No, she wasn’t uncomfortable. She should be, though. Wasn’t that the point? Nothing about their time together had been proper. So why didn’t she feel uncomfortable as she accused? That was a fault in her.