Page 51 of A Sight to Behold
Pippa hooked her index finger into his waistband and pulled. She stepped back and tugged. He followed a step, never stopping to kiss her. One more step backward.
“Pippa,” Nick whispered. He knew what she was doing. Step-by-step, luring him closer to her bed.
His hands came from the back of her neck to her neck. As if he needed to drink from her, he pulled her close whilst leaning his body onto hers. There was little room left between them and it was still too much.
Pippa tilted her head sideways and gave him access to her neck. As if their minds were one, Nick responded by kissing a trail down her neck, tenderly and slowly. Then he reached the edge of her collar. He kissed the last part of her skin that was exposed and gently touched the edge of the fabric as if it were the barrier he wouldn’t cross.
She wouldn’t have any of it and raised her hand to pull her sleeve down. Nick broke the kiss and stepped back just enough to tower over her. Her hands were a little shaky, and her finger trembled when she tugged at the fabric and pulled her arm out. The other side came out more easily and the gown slid off.
Nick’s Adam’s apple jumped as he watched her. His gaze was serious but his eyes black.
When the fabric of her dress fell to the ground, he bent down to pull it down over her hips, letting his hands brush over the skin of her belly and then her side. Before long, she was only inher slippers, garter belt, stockings, and stays. Nick nudged her left foot out of the pool of fabric and Pippa put both hands on his glistening shoulders, watching the muscles flex as he pulled her foot out of her slipper. Then the other side. He quickly hung the dress over the edge of the settee but remained squatting before her.
And when he looked up at her, she saw a sincerity in his gaze that sent her insides into tumult. No one had ever simultaneously looked at her with such tenderness, concentration, and vulnerability. He blinked at her like a servant, waiting for the sentence of a queen. And Pippa understood, he’d spoken the words before, but this was the moment. If she allowed it, he’d fall in love. Oh, and she wanted nothing more than his heart because she knew hers already belonged to him.
Her hands still on his shoulders, she was slightly bent over him. He blinked up at her, his hands now wrapped around her calves. He began to stroke her legs. Even though she thought she’d be shy, it was vulnerability she felt more than anything else. But she knew she’d be safe in his arms.
Nick still looked up at her, begging for permission to continue. His wavy blond hair with tones of gold and amber fell deliciously over his smooth forehead. With his lips pursed, he clenched his teeth and the muscles in his cheeks popped and led Pippa’s eyes to his angular jawline. She steadied herself and straightened so that her hands no longer reached for his shoulders, but she could still drive her fingers through his gorgeous hair. The messier it got, the more boyishly mischievous he looked. Pippa’s heart beat heavily in her chest but her heart felt so light because it felt like it was meant to happen. He was so right for her, and she welcomed his every touch even more than fresh air entering her lungs after a swim in Brighton.
Nick ran his muscular hands over her lower legs and then caressed upward, going toward the knees. He unhooked the stockings from her garter belt with great dexterity and Pippa remembered that he must have done this before. He’d been with others.
A pinch of jealousy shot through her.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, apparently noticing her frown.
“Do I please you?” Afraid to ask for fear that the answer would shatter her, Pippa held her breath. Again, she spoke before she’d thought about the consequences. A question deserved an answer and if she didn’t want to hear his response, she shouldn’t have asked.
“D-d…” Nick stuttered, which was unlike him. Usually the eloquent doctor, he wasn’t like his usual self now. Half undressed, barefoot, squatting before her, he seemed younger, disheveled, and yet intent on what he was doing as if he were an arrow shooting through the air. And Pippa was his target, hit by Cupid’s arrow.
He trailed his hands to the outer side of her thighs and then brought them to her behind. He cupped her bottom with a gentle squeeze and groaned.
“Pippa, you are—” He bit his lower lip and looked at her middle, then up at her breasts. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Pippa.” She heard his words but could barely understand them. After a lifetime in Bea’s shadow, and being calledthe ugly gooseeven when she was at a ball with her father had eroded her self-esteem. “You are so beautiful, Pippa. I…” He bit his lip again and took her hand, opened her palm facing up and placed a slow kiss in it. Then he closed her fingers and turned it over. “Pippa, if you allow me to love you, to make love to you, and to give you my heart, I promise I’ll spendmy entire life trying to live up to you.” He blinked, and a tear escaped the corner of his eye.
A moment of silence hung heavily in the air as Pippa tried to understand. He was asking for permission to love to her. The gorgeous man at her feet who’d cured her of clumsiness with a little thing like spectacles. He’d come into her life wrapped in whipped cream and custard and since that moment, he’d vanquished the loneliness from her heart. He’d been a perfect gentleman and Pippa had the wicked ideas to abduct him, yet he knelt before her asking for permission to… to…
“I didn’t think you’d want my love—” but before she could finish, he dropped his head on her belly button and deflated. He’d let go of her hands, and she placed them both on his head, into the silky mess of his gold-spun hair shining in the light from the fireplace. “Nick?”
“Hm?” He mumbled and something tickled her.
“Nick, if you want me and my love, I’d like nothing more than to be all yours.”
Another tickle.
Oh my, what was he doing there?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nick kissed hernavel and carefully grabbed her narrow waist. Her hip bones protruded because she was slender but well-built, her muscles twitching when he placed a row of butterfly kisses on her abdomen.
“Such perfect anatomy,” he mumbled, kissing a path down from her navel as he pulled the garter belt off and gave her bottom a squeeze.
She exhaled with a half laugh and cupped his face. He’d loved her hands in his hair, but he looked up when she held his cheeks. “You are so gorgeous, Pippa. I love your wit, your intelligent eyes, the curl of hair that always falls around your ear, and the way you speak. But Pippa, I want to show you how beautiful your body is, absolute human perfection as I have never known it to exist.”
She drew her eyes wide.
“With your permission—” He kissed the spot just above her hairline.
“Yes. Anything, anything with you and from you.”
