Jessie shivered, her breath catching softly at the intensity of his gaze. She stared stupidly. His eyes... they seemed to be looking into the very depths of her soul... One brow rose slightly, and he smiled, a roguish smile, as he lifted her hand, placing it to his chest.
“Do this wretched heart o’ mine a kindness,” he whispered. “Tell me again,cherie... that you missed me.”
Jessie’s heart skipped its normal beat.
She prayed her blush wouldn’t deepen and give her away. Of course, she had—so much so that some part of her had nearly died with grief in his absence.
But he might have sent word—might have told her that he intended to return, rather than let her speculate and worry. Rather than leave her to fend off Eliza’s smug “I told you so” looks. Her heart tripped painfully when his sensual lips broke into a wicked little grin, and she felt the telltale warmth creep down to the tips of her very toes. And yet she couldn’t tell him what he wished to hear.
She couldn’t let him see how much his inattention had hurt her.
How much his return meant to her.
She felt much too vulnerable.
She forced a lighthearted smile. “I-I was watching the colt.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the animal in question, then turned again to scrutinize her. Staring meaningfully into her eyes, he whispered slowly, “Exquisite creature.”
“Yes... he is,” she agreed.
His mouth quirked with amusement, and she wondered what she’d said.
“The dam was a gift from my father,” she explained.
His grin turned crooked. “That was quite generous of your father, Jessamine, but I wasn’t speaking of the colt, you see…”
Her hair was caught today at her nape in a brilliant yellow bow; a few of her dark, shiny curls had found their way free and now fell in abandon, framing her lovely face. Her soft, pale cheeks were flushed from too much sun. In her bright saffron muslin gown she seemed a ray of sunshine herself.
As though she only now grasped his meaning, her gaze fell demurely, and it was all he could do not to lean forward and kiss those soft lips as he craved to do.
He had to remind himself she was not some dockside miss to be mishandled. For most every second of the last two weeks he’d fantasized about seeing her again, kissing her—a new experience to him, this idle daydreaming. He decided it had been much too long since he’d lain with a woman, for even now he found himself helpless to follow his baser instincts. Her sweet innocence fed his lust; like kindling to burning coals, it set him afire, brought him to a full and painful arousal. He wanted to make her smile, he realized. He didn’t relish seeing her this way.
“Jessie,” he said, “I’m sorry if I’ve neglected you these past weeks... I wanted to come. I swear I did. I simply couldn’t.” And it was the truth, nothing but the truth. “Forgive me?”
Jessie wanted to believe him, she truly did.
He’d still not released her hand, she realized. She nodded at last, unable to deny him the words he wished to hear when he looked at her so affectionately. “Yes,” she confessed softly, and her heart quickened painfully as he lowered his face to hers suddenly. “Yes, I do…”
He smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “’Tis the truth that I thought of you every moment.” He stared deeply into her eyes. “May I kiss you again, Jessie?”
Her heart lurched, and she stammered, “Y-You wish to...”
“Kiss you,” he finished, nodding. “Very much so, Jessie.”
The sound of her name on his lips gave her heart a jolt. He drew away a fraction, watching her with smoldering eyes and his covetous expression was her undoing. If she’d harbored even a thought of resisting, it was gone now. His gaze flicked provocatively to her lips, and he came forward once more, his hand touching her cheek as their lips met softly.
“I’ve craved this every moment we’ve been apart,” he murmured.
God help her, but so had she...
For a few seconds, Jessie ceased to breathe at all. The shock of his lips as they touched upon her own prompted her to clamp her lips tightly shut. He made a sound, part chuckle, part groan, as though her absurd reaction had somehow pleased him, and then he cradled her face within his hands, pecking one corner of her mouth first, then the other, ending with a kiss on the bridge of her nose.
Breathe!Jessie commanded herself.Breathe!
But she couldn’t, and then as his mouth lifted and descended once again, grazing hers, moving seductively over her trembling lips, molding insistently with her own, her uncertainty vanished. With subtle but coercive pressure, he coaxed her lips apart, and liquid fire spilled into her mouth. Never in her life had she been kissed so exquisitely, so thoroughly. Indeed, never in her life had she been kissed at all… except by him.
“God... you are lovely,” he whispered into her mouth.
