A soft sound somewhere between a mew and a purr broke from around their kiss. Belle moaned at Henry's touch, barely able to stand the fire that it caused. It was all too hot, too encompassing, too much... Yet, she could do nothing but draw it closer.
Finally!Finally,she knew the truth of Henry's feelings. He cared for her as she did him. Lachlan and the Hunters would be sent away.Thiswas the man to whom she would be pledged. The man that clearly loved her and wished to claim her for his own.
For claiming her, he was.
His kiss branded her from head to toe. It shot bolts of lightning along her limbs. It awoke a hunger within that she had never before known. It caused a thrumming ache at the cleft between her legs...
By the time Henry broke the kiss, lifting his head from hers, Belle was faint with sensation. Her lips felt swollen, her eyes wide with shock, and her legs would not support her weight. She wanted only to sink to the floor, to draw Henry down with her and to burrow into his embrace as close as she could get.
Every inch of her skin was trembling with the need to feel his touch.
"Henry, I..."
What to say at this moment? What to confess? Was this the opportunity to speak her mind? Was this the invitation to confess her heart's desire?
Damn her inexperience with the opposite sex! For her ignorance made her nervous, and her nerves stalled her tongue.
Henry was all about etiquette. He valued the rules that he taught and the lessons he gave. She did not want to risk the connection between them for the sake of her own clumsy choices.
"We should move," Henry finally said, refusing to meet her eye. His hands had shifted from her waist to her shoulders. He had taken a decisive step backward. "We need to return to the castle."
Suddenly cold and unsure, Belle tried to smile.
He was being practical, she reassured herself. She was injured, it was raining, and the both of them would catch their death if they did not return home to a blanket and warm broth.
His sudden distance was not to be feared, she was sure. It was a sign of his care. Wasn't it?
Belle tried to convince herself as Henry took her hand and led her through the trees. Not once did he glance over his shoulder, smile at her, or draw her close for another embrace. In fact, apart from the hand that he held to steer her true, he seemed determined to ignore her existence entirely.
Hurt and confused, Belle's headache quickly returned. It pounded through her temples, behind her eyes, and down the back of her neck. Against her will, recent events came back to her again: the near-kiss in the dining hall; the distance Henry had been putting between them; the way he had said nothing when Lachlan Hunter had announced his intention to marry her.
Placing a hand to her lips, Belle's fears began to get the best of her. Had she just given her first kiss to a man who had no plans for their future? Had she been willing to turn herself over to him, body and soul, when all he wanted was to place distance between them?
What of her fears that he was married?
She had not been able to bring herself to ask him, fearing what the answer might be. She still did not know.
The thought cut Belle to the quick, but it would not go away or relent.
Perhaps she had been right. Perhaps Henry had a family back home, a wife that he had just offended in his kissing of Belle.
Worse still, perhaps he only held interest for Belle because of his separation from the woman he truly cared for?
Was she simply an inferior replacement?
By the time the light grew stronger and the trees thinner, Belle was on the verge of tears. Whether it was the knock to her head or her own masochistic heart, she had managed to sharpen her thoughts into claws that had then turned to maul her heart. They mocked her for her childlike fantasies and repeated over and again that Henry had shown a passion for her and yet no desire toacceptthat passion.
For all intents and purposes, he wanted her gone and his life back in the Lowlands restored to him. And his male needs were a mere distraction that he was struggling to overcome.
Well,Belle thought with resignation,there is one way that ah can aid him in that.
If she no longer needed a tutor, there was nothing to keep him here on Henderson land.
When the trees turned sparse enough that Belle could see the outline of the castle in the distance, she let go of Henry's hand. The man stopped and looked back, but she refused to read whatever apology might be written on his face. She kept her gaze on the ground and her ears trained on the voices nearby.
Men were shouting, hollering into the woodland in the hopes that she might reply. Some called her name. Others yelled the name of her horse in case she was still upon it.
It took only a few moments for them to notice her reappearance.
