He leaned in to kiss her lips in acknowledgement of her answer. He ought to undo the buttons on his doublet for her, because he liked where her hand was wandering and wanted to encourage her to press in closer to him if she was inclined... but this was competing with three or four other things he wanted to do, and he certainly didn't want to ruin the moment by rushing. They would have been within their rights to rush, given that she'd snuck away from an active party and oughtn't to be gone too long. In theory they had less time available to them then the last time they'd been alone together, in the study late at night. But the not-rushing seemed like an integral part of this; if he was going to muck that up, they may as well have not snuck away at all.

The top of her corset was a different cut that he was used to and left the tops of her breasts freer. Possibly it was appropriate for the time period, but he didn't have enough experience undressing women in renaissance costumes to know. Her undershirt was still keeping them from being exposed to the open air, but with her dress loosened the silhouette of her corset was easy to make out. He moved his hand down to gently lift it out of the confines of the corset, then circled her nipple through the soft fabric of her undershirt.

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