She blinked, her heart pounding. “You don’t even know me. Not really.”
He slid his arms around her, drawing her to him. “Do either of us know a mysterious old woman who toddles about wearing red plaid shoelaces?”
“Not, really, but…” She couldn’t finish.
He was right.
“You’re saying stranger things have happened and do.”
“So I am,” he agreed. “I have known since we met in the Merrivales’ cloakroom that want you, lass. More than that, that I not only want to take you to Scotland with me, but that I want to make you mine. And in all possible ways, including marriage.”
She looked at him, seeing the truth in his eyes.
He loved her.
At the very least, he was falling in love with her. And – dear heavens! – she felt the same about him.
“Oh, my,” she said, blinking madly.
“You say that a lot, sweetness.”
“Only when I am stunned,” she admitted. “And I find I feel that way quite frequently in your presence. Stunned, and…” She paused to smile at him. “Delighted.”
“Then I am glad.” He returned her smile. “I want to make you happy.”
Melissa’s pulse leapt. This was her chance.
“I would be very happy if kept your word,” she said, hoping he’d understand.
“My word?” He puzzled. “I always keep my word.”
“Not this time.” She looked down, nudged a clump of grass with her slippered toe. “When you left me on the road outside Hyde Park, you said you’d kiss me when you came to Cranleigh.”
“Ahhh…” His eyes warmed, his handsome face splitting in a smile. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
She nodded.
“And we are still at Cranleigh, are we not?”
“We are.”
“Well, then.” His arms tightened around her. “Let’s remedy my oversight, shall we?”
“Yes, please.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, figured that if they were to run off to Scotland together, and to marry, there was no harm whatsoever in a kiss.
And there wasn’t, he clearly agreed.
There could be no doubt because before she could blink, gasp, or – as he’d suggested, ‘cry out in ecstasy’ – he crushed her against him, lowered his head, and kissed her roughly, claiming her virginal lips in a bold, hot and stunning open-mouthed kiss that was long, deep, full of tangling tongues, shared breath, and more thrilling than anything she’d ever imagined.
Indeed, when he kept on kissing her, not satisfied with just one kiss, she decided they should stop and kiss every mile on the journey to Scotland.
Indeed, she’d insist on it.
