A pause.
“Yes.”
Their voices were only breaths, mingling, and still Jack leaned closer.
“And now?” he asked, lips almost on hers.
“I…” She gasped as he slid the hand tangled in her curls round to cup the nape of her neck. “You tell me, Jack.”
His reply was a kiss.
She made a sound halfway between a moan and whimper. It was only the brush of his lips on hers, but it was her first kiss…it wastheirfirst kiss…and he felt all the weight and the wonder of it even as surging heat melted his thoughts.
Yes,every fibre in his body breathed with relief and hunger both.Yes, this is absolutely right.
She was divinely warm and soft, her mouth turned up to his, parted around a trembling breath. He took it from her, this most precious of gifts; he took the invitation and the trust in her softness and openness and coaxed her lips with his. She hardly needed any lessons. Everything about her was just how it had always been, natural and honest and right. She kissed him back as he pressed her to him, the soft curve of her lower back under his palm, the heavy silk of her curls in his other, and the feel of her, the smell of her skin and perfume and the secret sigh she gave to him, all of it wasrightand as necessary as breathing.
“Lucy.” He moved closer still, thigh touching the heat of hers, the edge of a growl in the urgent way he said her name, thick and heavy as wet cloth. Her head tipped back in his hand, and he touched her tongue with his, hearing that half-moan, half-whimper again.
“Lucy, Lucy,” he breathed against her mouth, “be mine. Are you mine, Lucy?”
“I…I always have been.”
He groaned, forehead sinking against hers as he pulled her to him, just holding her tightly for a moment, his face pressed to her hair as he breathed a shuddering breath.
His.
It unlocked something inside him, all the cogs and wheels of a lifelong puzzle clicking into place. It opened up a new world. Here was goodness and purpose and the right course to walk. Here was the very reason to live and be a man.
“You know I’m yours too? You know that?”
Then he kissed her again; how could he not? He’d been waiting his whole life, and now he’d never stop.
Until, that is, he heard his mother’s voice.
She gave a tinkling little cough as he spun around.
“Ah. A little forward, my dears, but I confess, it’s exactly as I’d hoped.”
She stood in the open doorway, surveying the breathless couple with a satisfied smile. Furiously hot, Jack looked down at Lucy and found her looking even more mortified than he felt. He took her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Come along,” said his mother. “I can’t leave you here, I’m afraid, though I only came to find you because I supposed you must have missed the dinner gong. It’s time to go in. And whatperfecttiming it is—we can announce your engagement tonight!”
Twenty-Nine
Lucy didn’t get another moment alone with Jack. The rest of the evening passed in a whirlwind almost as hard to believe as that moment in the library, and throughout it all she still felt the brand of his lips on hers, sure it must be visible, written in scarlet across her face. Both the kiss and the whole hot weight of sensations it had unleashed.
Caroline was beaming on the carriage ride home, pleased as a cat with cream. She followed Lucy into her bedroom and stayed chatting merrily for some time until she stopped short, tutting to herself. “You’re exhausted, poor dear! And here I am, prattling on. Forgive me.” She got to her feet and enveloped Lucy in a rare, tight hug, her bantering tone absent for once. “I’m so very, very happy for you.”
“Caroline…” Lucy caught her friend’s hand as she turned to go, her clutch desperate. “I am not an heiress.”
“What does that matter?”
The panic swayed beneath her, finally having space to break through. “His whole family will hate the match once they realise.”
“It’s notthemyou are marrying.”
“But Jack… He…”He didn’taskme to marry him.She was too cowardly to speak it out loud. He didn’task. We werecaught.
