Lucrezia stiffened as his nearness shifted from threat to temptation. His words elicited another small sigh from her before she could prevent it, betraying the tremor that ran through her.
She felt his hands travel from her spine to the small of her back, settling there.
Before she could process anything, the torches from the corridor walls diminished at once. Shadows crowded the stone walls, swallowing detail and depth until the world narrowed to shape and action alone. Lucrezia could make out the breadth of his shoulders, the dark fall of his hair, the outline of him as he stepped nearer, but his face remained unreal and unknowably lost to the half-light.
She could feel the cold brush of air on her skin before it was met with warmth. His lips found her neck, and that was enough to draw another soft sound from her.
Her fingers curled at her sides as his hands traced the lines of her dress, finding the laces of her bodice, testing their knots without loosening them.
