Page 24

She froze, unable to move or look away. He wanted to kiss her—she thought. She couldn’t be absolutely sure. She licked her lips and leaned incrementally closer.

He swallowed hard and brought one hand up to trace the curve of her cheek. “This is not a good idea, Glory.”

Her insides melted at his touch, the fever in his eyes, her name on his lips. As if drawn by an invisible magnet, she leaned closer still, bringing her face inches from his.

“Are you saying you don’t want to kiss me?” she asked in a voice barely a whisper.

Caden huffed out a laugh that seemed equal parts exasperation and frustration. “No . ”

His hand on her cheek slid to cup her nape, anchoring her in place with a palm that was hot and slightly damp. “I do. So. Badly—”

The glass jar she held slipped from her fingers to land on the carpet with a thud. She had heard all she needed to hear .

Caden continued. “But it’s not a good—”

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.

***

He’d recognized her intent one second before she silenced him with her kiss. Thanks to their previous experimentations, the ensuing explosion of need coursing through him came as no surprise.

But Anna's outpouring of sweet, reckless passion left him reeling. She arched against him, wound her arms ‘round his neck, kneaded her fingers into his hair.

He felt as dumbstruck as a greenhorn lad, and at once the luckiest, most virile man alive.

He wanted her. Wanted to devour her whole in one swallow. He had to stop this now—before he couldn’t stop at all.

With an agonized groan, he turned his head, breaking off the kiss. “Anna, you don’t know what you’re—”

“Shh.” She cupped either side of his face with damp palms and guided it back in her direction.

Then she angled her soft lips over his and he was well and truly lost.

She leaned into him, her body half draped over the side of the bed. Much too far away.

He scooped her up, dragged her across him, and, rolling, tumbled atop her onto the center of the bed.

He propped himself onto his elbows, arms bracketing her, eyes drinking in the sight of her—skin luminescent in the candlelight, lips softly parted. “Gods, you’re beautiful.”

Shaking with the effort it took to reign in his need, he kissed her mouth with a tenderness that cost him. He wanted to ravage, to plunder, to feast, but her lips, so soft, so sweet, begged to be nibbled, tasted, teased.

His tongue cruised over the seam of her lips ’til she opened for him on a delicate gasp that acted like a feather duster down his spine.

A low moan sounded in his throat as he sunk inside her warmth, deepening the kiss. His hand snaked up to cradle the warm nape of her neck, fingers tangling in the once neatly twisted knot of hair.

“This won’t do at all,” he murmured.

“Mmm?” came her dazed reply.

With a grunt of impatience, he set about removing her hair pins. Soon he had the majesty of her dark, chestnut hair fanned over the bedcovers. Looking at her almost hurt.

“You’re beyond anything, Anna. You intoxicate me, rob me of sense ’til I feel I’d rather cease breathing than stop kissing you.”

Her cheeks flushed a deep red and an uncharacteristically shy smile tugged at her ruby lips. “Then don’t. Please. ”

Satisfaction roared through him, and his cock, already straining against his trousers, went painfully hard.

He had to calm his violent need for her or risk humiliating himself, and he had a decision to make.

He lowered his head to nibble at her delicate ear lobe and nuzzle the tender underside of her jaw, a war raging inside him.

He wanted her, and she seemed to want him equally.

He could make love to her here and now, but then what?

Watch her walk out of his life, an impoverished, helpless servant? Impossible.

Trembling with the force of his desire, he pressed his forehead to her collar bone and resisted the urge to howl.

Her fingers toyed with the hair at his nape. A shiver rolled though him.

“Caden?” His name on her lips tore at his insides .

“I…can’t.”

“I see.” Her hands fell away from him.

Everything in him mourned the loss of her touch.

Gathering his strength, he lifted his head to stare into amber eyes filled with so much hurt and confusion it took everything in him not to gather her close and kiss her again.

He clenched his jaw against the wave of temptation, and showed his hand. “I can’t make love to you and leave you to your current circumstances. Hear me out,” he said, rapid-fire, when he saw stubborn resolve fill her eyes.

He must convince her to accept his help. That alone would free him to make love to her ’til neither of them could walk out of this room.

And after that?

After was where the terror came in. One step at a time, Thurgood .

“I spoke to Hardasher.”

Her eyes went wide and she jolted to a sitting position despite his best efforts to stay her.

“But I asked… You promised .” She stared at him as if he were the very devil. As if he’d betrayed her.

He wanted to shake her. He would never hurt her, damn it.

He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, beyond frustrated. With Anna, with himself, and with the clamoring needs of his heavily aroused body.

“Hear me out, please?” He stared at her over his shoulder, unblinking.

When she gave a single nod, he rose, tightened the sash of his robe, and paced.

“To clarify, I did not ask Hardasher about you, nor did I mention your name. He broached the subject of…you.”

The color drained from her face. Jesus, she was that worried about losing a post? He could take care of her if it came to that.

The thought brought him up short. He truly was getting ahead of himself.

“What did he say?”

Caden sent her what he hoped passed for a reassuring smile and moved back to the bed, propping his hip on the edge of the mattress. He reached for her hand, which she gave him with evident reluctance.

Brushing his thumb over her knuckles he said, “He didn’t recognize you, darling. You caught his eye because you look similar to some poor wench who had the misfortune to marry one of the most detestable members of the British nobility to walk this earth.”

“Dear heaven.”

“Precisely. Evidently, on this vile creature’s wedding night, he lost his bride to an abduction or some such thing. According to Hardasher, an ad ran for some time asking for any information—what the devil?”

She jerked her hand free of his and flung herself off the bed to land on her feet. She looked not the least relieved. More like a cornered, wild animal.

Doubt whispered through him. He rose, and with measured steps, circled the mattress to stand before her.

“Anna, do you have something to tell me?”

She lifted a trembling hand to her mouth. “He’s not dead. Thank God.”