“No,” she declared.
He was still grappling for answers, frowning down at her.“Were you willing?”
Lise’s face flamed with embarrassment and indignation.“I wasnotwilling,” she said sharply.“How could you think that?”
“I don’t think anything,” Jonathan said quickly, raising his hands in a placating gesture.“And while you don’t owe me an explanation, I would gladly accept whatever you wish to tell me.From your own lips.”
Lise took a steadying breath, forcing herself to respond and infinitely glad that she could speak the truth without guilt and that it was dark enough for her hot cheeks to be concealed.
“Friedrich and I were not intimate, nor did we ever share a bed.”
“Thank God,” he said softly.Relief was evident in his voice and relaxed his expression, removing the frown lines.
Would Jonathan have despised her if the situation had been otherwise?What about the kiss?She had to know.
“Friedrich kissed me,” she added, the words clipped and precise.“Twice.Both times, against my will.He was ...forceful.Unpleasant.”
“That hell hound!I want to throttle him within an inch of his life,” Jonathan vowed.
“You believed me to be already ruined,” Lise said, understanding dawning.
“I didn’t know what to believe,” Jonathan admitted.“Henrik was so convinced, and you had confirmed it, and I feared —” He ran a hand through his hair.“I feared perhaps Friedrich hadconvincedyou, somehow.That you felt you had no choice.Or that you genuinely had decided to accept him.And if that were true, I had no right to interfere.”
“You had every right,” Lise whispered, before she could stop herself.
He paused, looking at her, his gaze locked on hers.She was certain he understood.
“Whatever had happened didn’t matter,” Jonathan began.“When I understood that you didn’t love him, I had to go back for you.”
It didn’t matter to him.How wonderful!
“He did nothing more,” she promised.“But after Henrik left, Friedrich threatened that tonight he would wait no longer.”
“Which is why you climbed out the window while we were circling the house trying to rescue you.”His tone was almost humorous.Teasing.An immediate and profound alteration in his manner, indicating he’d found this conversation to be as awkward and uncomfortable as she had, glad it was over.
Lifting his large hands to her shoulders, he did nothing more than anchor her there.
Unnecessary, she thought.For she couldn’t move away from him at that moment, even if the French soldiers suddenly rode onto the farm.
The air between them seemed to thicken, charged with everything said and unsaid.
“Lise,” Jonathan whispered, her name on his lips almost a plea.The sound melted her insides, causing a familiar heaviness low between her hips.Her body reacted as swiftly as her heart.
She didn’t know which of them moved first.Suddenly his hands were cupping her face and her fingers were gripping his coat.As his mouth claimed hers, she kissed him back, feeling like she was soaring through the moonlit sky.
Could it really be the same day since Friedrich’s wretched kiss had left her cold and frightened?Feeling utter misery, she’d been certain she would never again enjoy the touch of this man who now held her.
Fire and sweetness coursed through her limbs, a mutual hunger that made her knees weak while her pulse raced.Jonathan kissed her as if she were precious, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go, and Lise responded.With equal fervor, she poured into her response everything she couldn’t —shouldn’t!— yet say aloud.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Jonathan rested his forehead against hers, letting his hands slide around to her back, where his fingers pressed her close.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered.“When Henrik said you’d admitted to giving yourself to Albrecht, and had insisted on marrying him, I thought I’d lost you forever.”
“I thought I could do it,” Lise admitted.“Even while forcing Henrik to leave me behind.Then when Friedrich said we would sleep in the same bed, I panicked.I have never loved him, and I suppose I reached the limit of my self-sacrifice.”
She stopped herself before confessing how deep her feelings were for Jonathan.After all, unlike her contract with Friedrich, they had no understanding, verbal or otherwise.She noted he didn’t declare his feelings, either.His previous indications had always been to save her from a loveless marriage.Thus, it was easy to believe she knew his heart.
And what if she were correct?
