“I have been longing to do that since the moment I saw you up there on that staircase,” Bernard said moments later as he raised his head. He was breathing harshly, and the sight of Marissa’s closed eyes and her wet, plump lips beckoning on him was enough to have him swooping in again, especially when her eyes fluttered open and she looked at him vulnerably for a moment with those expressive eyes of hers—an expression that was rarely seen in her eyes.

He almost took her right there and then, giving no damn about the dratted outing, but still with that vulnerable look lingering in her eyes, she whispered,...