Page 52 of A Match Made On Duchess Square

Of course, she could not look away if her life depended on it. She was fascinated by the physical beauty of his body, and had to consciously restrain herself from running her fingers through the spray of dark curls that stretched across his chest. There was some gray sprinkled in amid the dark hairs, but those only added to the majesty of his torso.

Would Andrew be as handsome?

She shook out of the thought, angry with herself for even thinking of her betrothed. Why was he not around to build these sort of memories with her?

She removed her boots and walked to the water’s edge to watch Milbury frolic with his sons amid the waves. A light breeze swirled around her gown and made her hat flap over her eyes, so she took it off and held it in her hand while the sun beat down upon her head and warmed her skin.

Milbury swam the length of the cove, dove in and out of the waves with the sleek grace of a dolphin, and then began to play a game in the water with his sons, tossing them into the air as though he were a springboard for them while they dove into the water. They did this over and over, his roars and their squeals of delight filling the air as they splashed and swam, and obviously had a gleeful time.

Gwendolyn dared to dip more than a toe in the water, hiking her gown to her thighs to keep it dry while wading in up to her knees.

She was having a nice time watching the three of them, and not paying any particular attention to where she was standing, when something scaly suddenly grazed her leg. She shrieked and began to leap around to avoid the creature, which seemed intent on swimming in circles around and through her legs.

She lost her balance when her foot fell into a sharp drop-off, and she tumbled into the water.

“Gwen!” Milbury was immediately by her side, lifting her out of the water, but not before she had gone under and come up coughing.

Her hair was soaking wet. So was her gown.

“My necklace!” She patted her chest to make certain it was still clasped around her neck and panicked when she realized it had come undone and was sliding into her chest. Unthinkingly, she stuck her hand down the front of her gown and groped around between her breasts. “Oh, thank goodness! I have it.” She drew it out, her smile bright as she held it up to show him.

“Oh, Gwen. Are you all right?” he asked in a husky rumble, looking as though his eyes had just bulged out of their sockets and he was trying to ease them back in.

Oh, Lord.

She was such a ninny. How much of her bosom had he seen as she’d frantically stuffed her hand down her gown?

Since his expression had returned to normal by the time he carried her out of the water and was about to deposit her on their blanket, she decided to ignore the fact that he’d accidentally seen too much of her and pretend that nothing had happened.

Jordan grabbed her hat that was about to float out to sea as she wrapped her arms around Milbury’s neck, not ready to let go of him when he tried to set her down on the blanket.

“Gwen,” he said, his voice deep and soothing, “do you want me to hold you a little while longer?”

She coughed. “Yes, please.” And tried not to notice the beads of water glistening on his arms and trailing down the arch of his neck.

“What set you in a panic?” he asked, not seeming to mind that he had to keep her in his arms because she was still clinging to him like a limpet.

“Something horrid rubbed against my leg.”

“A turtle? Perhaps a fish? I doubt it was an eel. They never come into the cove.”

“It might have been a snake.”

He laughed lightly. “No snakes here. But fish are commonly found in our cove. That’s why you’ll see birds circling the water whenever it is feeding time.”

She groaned. “Is that all it was?”

“Yes, my adventurous city girl.” He set her gently on her feet but kept her pressed close to his body and circled one arm around her waist to steady her while he brushed a few loose tendrils off her face. “Shall I take you back to the house?”

“No.” She remained clutching his shoulders. “I’ll be fine in a moment. I held my breath as I sank under, so I did not swallow very much seawater.”

“Good, for that would have irritated your throat. But you sound a little raspy.”

She nodded. “I did swallow a little water.”

He unpinned her hair, which was slipping out of the pins because it was soaking wet and weighed down. He dropped the pins into her hat, which Jordan had just retrieved and set down on the blanket.

“Boys, you can go back in the water. Gwendolyn’s fine. I’ll join you in a moment.”