“And to watch mermaids emerging from it,” he could not resist teasing, seeking to strike a lighter mood between them.
Already, there was too much heaviness. Too much uncertainty.
She caught the bow of her upper lip between her teeth, and he almost groaned at the sheer eroticism of it. “You are wicked to remind me of my folly.”
Oh, she had no idea just how bloody wicked he was.
He would be more than happy to show her.
Not yet, you oaf.
He grinned. She was so damned beautiful, and at this proximity, he could count each one of the copper specks on her dainty nose. “Was it folly?”
Her lips parted, full and inviting. “Of course it was.”
“I am not so certain.” He paused, searching for the proper words and finding none. He knew how to flirt, how to charm. No one was better at cozening a woman into the palm of his hand than Sidney and from there, into his bed. But this woman was different. She mattered more than any other had. “You are wrong to think I feel guilty about what happened between us yesterday. If anything, I am glad.”
“Glad?” Her fingers tightened on his arm, her brow furrowing.
“Glad I was the one there and no one else. Glad I kissed you.”
She blinked, disbelief etched on her face. “B-but…”
Her protest died, her bluer-than-blue gaze searching his.
And he realized he was mucking things up desperately. He had not been prepared to see her again after those kisses. Those kisses that had changed everything. Had changedhim, in a deep and permanent way that he could not fully comprehend.
“But what, Julianna?” He was mesmerized by a curl that had swept across her face when the gentle breeze blew by them. The lustrous strand settled on her lips. He plucked it away and then lingered, running his thumb over her lower lip. Tracing the pad higher, over that sinful Cupid’s bow. “Are you glad we kissed?”
He knew she was. He knew it in his heart. Had felt it in her response. But he needed to hear the words. Had to have her affirmation. She was nervous as a bird, about to be startled into flight. And he did not want her to fly. He wanted her to stay here, with him.
Forever.
“I… Shelbourne. You are a rake.”
Not the response he wanted.
His thumb traveled over the seam of her lips once, twice. “I am not a rake where you are concerned. Forget about everyone else. There is only the two of us in this moment. Just Julianna and Sidney. Is Julianna glad we kissed?” His hand lowered, and he splayed it over her heart, absorbing the frantic thumps. “Here, in her heart, is she glad?”
Her pink tongue darted over those sweet lips. Her response took a lifetime.
“Yes,” she whispered at last. “She is glad. She has longed for Sidney’s kisses for longer than she cares to admit.”
He almost chuckled with sheer joy. He had found his way around her anxiousness. Speaking about them as if they were other people—that was the trick. And there were the answers he wanted. The answers he needed.
“Sidney has wanted the same,” he told her softly. Tenderly. A burst of love so overwhelming it almost brought him to his knees rushed over him then. “I have wanted to kiss you for years.”
“Years?”
“Years.”
They stared at each other, exchanging so much more than words could reveal with their gazes alone. It was the most profound connection he had ever had with another person, this inexplicable link he felt to Lady Julianna Somerset. As if she had been made for him. As if he had been waiting for her, all this time.
Until the right time.
The time was now, and he was seizing it.
“I want to court you, Julianna,” he pressed. “Not because I feel a speck of guilt for kissing you. But because I have never wanted—never felt for another woman what I feel for you. Tell me you feel it too. Tell me you want me, too.”
