He folded his arms around her, and the familiar sensation of her body set his heart hammering. There were some things time could never change. “Minerva, if need be, I would wait for you forever.”

The smile she gave him was enough to melt a glacier. “Forever is a long time.” Circling her arms around his neck, she pressed herself against him. “I promise I won’t make you wait that long.”

Eyes glistening with expectation, she raised her mouth to him, and his blood began to thrum. Oh, dear heaven. He’d not thought this out thoroughly. How the blue blazes was he to avoid such knee-buckling temptation?

Through the thin stuff of her dress he could feel her warm curves sliding against him, igniting a firestorm of lust in him. The lure of her lips was too much. He lowered his head and kissed her fiercely. Heat shattered through him. Lust, unfettered, roared in his veins. In an instant she’d brought him fully back to life. Aroused, he pulled her closer, and she moaned in response.

“My love.” She caressed his chest and shoulders, her hands moving over him compulsively. “Will you be staying the night?”