It wasn't like Phryne to be impatient about having her mouth on her partner's, but everything about being with Jack was different. Kissing stopped functioning as a means of sharing sexual sensations and became a necessity, a means of breathing. So that when he pulled away from her, a quiet protest slipped from her lips, until she realized he meant to extend his attentions rather than cease them, and then she could scarcely be stopped from removing the slip herself.

Scarcely, but she did allow him the pleasure of undressing her, as there seemed no point in abandoning his timetable now, after all these many months. That was not to say, however, that she remained passive under his hands. Whenever his attentions permitted, she attended the removing of his shirt, and between heated breaths drifted among wisps of wonder that his chest beneath her hands and lips seemed more erotic than entire past encounters.