Rudely dodging the eager Crims, Joshua pushed everyone aside and took Juliet’s arm, sweeping her to the appetizer table where they could be alone.
She was his, not these wet behind the ears swains.
She laughed. “Captivating everyone with your company, I see. You look very patrician tonight, a scion of some aristocratic dynasty.” Her gaze roved over his body inch by inch, from head to foot enough to harden his loins and roast his wits.
“Wait ’til I get you alone…” To repay her for the lingering glance she’d subjected him to, he whispered many wicked things he’d do. “I will caress and stroke and taste—” He was rewarded when her breaths rushed out of her in short pants.
Her fingers dug into his sleeves. Good. He quirked his mouth into a wolfish smile, dipping his gaze to linger on the rounded fullness of her breasts where they pushed up against her décolletage. “I’ll strip you naked, suckle your breasts…ravish you with my mouth…until I stroke a hot fire in your loins and have it wrapped around my—”
Caught between a sigh and a moan, she said, “You are sinful, my lord. You will be punished.” Her eyes lit with challenge and she ran her tongue across her upper lip with a soft sensual lick. “What if I repay you in kind?”
How he wanted to sweep her away, throw up her skirts and…she was far too knowledgeable for her own good. “A dangerous game you play,Lady Faulkner Rutland.”
She turned away from him, inspecting the table of delicacies, and delicately spooning a spiced peach on her plate. With dainty fingers, she picked up the slick confection and stared at him. She held it to her lips, hovering…drawing and nibbling between her perfect white teeth, and then sucking until nothing of the fruit remained. Her voice came full-throated and carnal. “Delicious.”
He growled. “I warn you, Juliet. You are making a grave error.”
“I hope so.” Her laugh escaped low and seductive. “I hope I can keep you here and away from the war.”
“It won’t work, Juliet. I have my duty to perform.”
“Fools and duty,” she hissed. “You will get yourself killed.”
Worry darkened the color of her eyes. His muscles tightened. They had engaged in many arguments regarding his leaving.
“We will discuss later—” He stopped when Crims and Thomas Starring joined came up to them.
“You are mighty fine on the eyes, Miss Juliet,” said Crims. “I even shined my pewter buttons to impress you.”
A blush stole across her cheeks matching her fiery hair. Their tentative game playing might have been witnessed. Joshua smiled, a jaunty, arrogant smile that never failed to disarm her. He wasn’t going to let her get away from what she all but promised.
“The town sure has taken a shine to you, Miss Juliet,” said Thomas Starring. We don’t know what we have done without you all this time. Everyone talks of your kindness. Your help in delivering my neighbor’s baby. And then my wife genuinely appreciated your help with the young ones while she was busy with her sick mother.”
“The young ones loved playing with the Bell children. How is your wife’s mother?” Juliet asked. “Did she use medicine for her legs that I boiled for her?”
“She did and her mother is so well-relieved she may be here tonight to dance,” Starring laughed. “And that drawing salve you gave Mrs. Osterhout for her canker cured it up real fast. Folks say you are an angel of mercy.”
“And Mr. Hansford,” Starring continued, “we’d feel safer with your presence and your rifle skills. Rumors abound of Indian unrest. Blackberry Valley would be ripe for plunder.”
“Unfortunately, I won’t be here for long,” Joshua said. “I received a message and must leave.”
Juliet’s hand worried the lace at her sleeve. “When?”
“Tomorrow.” He had not told her. Tension tautened the delicate features of her face. He hated that fear.
“I don’t know how you can leave a young beauty behind, Joshua. If that were me—” said Crims.
“You better watch your step,” said Starring. “I don’t think Joshua—”
“By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere,” winked Crims. “I had my wife and those were good years. All I have left is my horse.”
“Look at Bethany Powers,” said Crims. “Old Hatchet Face, the belle of the ball, eating up the attention she craves with that ridiculous pink confection she’s wearing tonight. Not for an old woman. She crossed my path the other day and told me I must be drunk giving my time to my stupid horse. Nobody insults my horse. I told her she was ugly and when I woke up, I’d be sober.”
Juliet laughed. How Joshua loved to hear her merriment.
Crims grabbed another glass of punch off a tray from Grace as she wove through the guests bearing a serving tray. “Bethany has sure taken a dislike to Miss Juliet. She has the tongue of a rattlesnake. And those girls of hers are as mean-spirited as their mother. Even Maybelle throws up her tail and races to the other end of town when they stroll by. Caught those demons throwing rocks at her.”
Juliet leaned into Joshua, her rose scent beckoning. “Do you see how Thomas Bell’s gaze follows Grace?”
