Ben didn't want to take her to bed, because he didn't want to sacrifice even a few seconds of time that he could have been touching her (and maybe somewhere, distantly, he knew that injecting some air back into this heated exchange would give him enough time to think better of it). He had an impulse to pick her up, let her wrap her legs around his waist so that he could keep kissing her while he carried her that direction... but realized as he imagined it that he didn't even know which direction to go. He hadn't been here before, and so far he'd only seen the front parlor, Nora's nursery, and the kitchen. It wasn't a large cottage, so it wasn't as though he ran the risk of getting lost, but he might end up opening the door to a linen closet instead of her bedroom, which would have been... well, not a diversion particularly well-suited to the mood of the moment.

"Show me," he said, taking his hands off of her long enough to wriggle his arms out of his shirt and coat, which he discarded thoughtlessly on the kitchen floor.

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