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Chapter Twenty-Two

L eaves and bramble crunched underfoot as Caden led Anna off the graveled path onto a worn foot path leading into the forest. As always, the proximity to the river left the morning air thick with moisture.

Above, the sun had burned off much of the overcast sky, but the prevailing cool temperature hinted at fall’s arrival. Upon entering the dense thicket of trees, the air grew downright frigid.

Whether from the sudden absence of light or the knotted roots beneath their feet, Anna stumbled.

Caden caught her easily, one arm about her waist. He shifted to face her. He told himself she needed a moment for her eyes to adjust to the green tinged other-worldly darkness enfolding them.

Their eyes locked for a timeless moment.

Then her gaze dropped to his mouth and her lips parted.

Now, he thought, finally. She would come to him, ready and willing and, Christ , he was as hard as an untried youth .

Lifting her chin, she fisted her skirts in her hands and marched past him toward the clearing on the opposite side. “This way?”

Frustrated desire ate at his resolve to stick to his plan. “Right-o.”

They emerged into a clearing of sweet smelling grass liberally dotted with yellow and white wildflowers. A limestone wall standing two stories high and ran the length of the property as far as the eye could see. Rich green vines covered it.

She spread her arms wide. “This is lovely, but I’d hardly call it a secret garden. More like a remote picnic spot.”

“This is not the garden.” He nodded his head toward the massive wall. “One would think the wall marks a perimeter. Which it does. It also encloses the estate’s hidden-by-design garden.”

“Why did you never show me this when we were young?” she asked, her tone half accusatory, half dubious, as if she doubted the garden’s existence.

“It would hardly have been proper to bring you here, where we’d have been completely unsupervised.”

She arched a brow. “You expect me to believe you kept this place a secret due to your moral ethics?”

He kept a straight face for a full second, then barked out a laugh. “Hardly. I myself learned of its existence after you’d been gone a long while. For some reason my parents, or, more likely, the earl, thought it best not to reveal such a rife location for mayhem to two rambunctious boys.”

She laughed. “Fair enough. But now…” she pressed her palms together, steepling her fingers under her chin. Her eyes sparkled with unabashed excitement. “Show me.”

Everything in Caden wanted to drag her close and plaster her with kisses until he had his fill. Instead he sent her a jaunty smile, as if his insides weren’t tangled in knots by unfulfilled desire. “As you command, my lady.”

He reached unerringly for the hidden lever, gratified when he heard a soft click. He tugged, overcoming a modicum of resistance thanks to the overlapping vines, and out swung the low-hung arched iron-and-stone gate. “After you.”

Anna ducked inside.

He followed.

She moved into the garden’s center. The delight in her expression as she took in seemingly every nuance made the torture he’d endured in bringing her here without breaking down and kissing her worth it.

“It’s beautiful, Caden. Like a dream.”

Peeling off his leather gloves—because it was warmer in the garden than on the open path, and not because he meant to touch every inch of her exposed flesh she’d allow—he made his way to the lone slatted bench where he sprawled, legs outstretched, arms spread along the back. He tried to see the space as she might.

Sunlight entered through the domed, open-trellis styled roof, across which grape vines grew in abundance. Velvety green vines and brilliant climbing florals covering the walls swallowing, reflecting and softening the light so it appeared ever dusk or dawn.

Birds chirped merrily atop the trellis. A few had found their way inside to bathe in the trickling, large marble fountain where ecstatic angels frolicked.

Riotous English rose blossoms in pink, white, and red abounded.

He didn’t know all the other flowers by name, but he thought he spied clematis in blues, purples and pale lilac, and in the raised beds, peonies, pansies, and herbs—sage, lavender, mint, certainly.

The combined scents of flora and fauna sweetening the air almost rivaled Anna’s own intoxicating scent .

The place was bloody magnificent.

“Caden, I hope you know how grateful I am you brought me here,” she said in a feather soft voice. She moved toward him.

“I thought you’d like it.”

“No. I mean, thank you for bringing me here. ” Gloved hands twined before her, she lowered onto the bench beside him. “I’ve been thinking.”

Sitting this close, her rosy cheeks and creamy complexion called to him. He could no longer resist touching her. His fingertips grazed her cheek. Soft and dewy as a newborn babe’s.

“About me kissing you breathless?”

So much for his plan. Now she would know beyond a shadow of doubt how badly he wanted to—

“Yes.”

Everything in him stilled. “Yes, you’ve been thinking about me kissing you?”

Her unblinking eyes met his. “Yes.”

In an instant, he had her face cupped in his hands and his mouth on hers. He’d imagined devouring her. Instead, he found himself savoring her sweetness.

Tremors vibrated his hands. Was he shaking or was she? Maybe both of them were.

Her lips parted, welcoming his tongue into her warmth, and she loosed a tiny mew of need.

Longing, fierce and intense and so hot it threatened to incinerate him from the inside out swept through him. How did she do this to him?

Her arms twined around his neck and she pulled herself into him, or was that him pressing her close to touch every part of her he could? He didn’t care so long as nothing separated them.

“Anna, Anna, ” he murmured against her lips. “I’ve been so desperate for you. I can’t…I need…” He couldn’t finish his thought.

His mind whirled and his insides seemed to liquify into the richest, hottest wax. He pulled his mouth from hers and pressed his forehead against hers. “I want you,” he said in a gravelly tone he barely recognized as coming from him.

“You do? Truly? I thought…” Her magnificent eyes lowered and her cheeks, already flushed, bloomed scarlet. Her words came out in a tumult. “I thought you’d had your fill of me and proposed only to do right by me, and I swear, Caden, if that’s the only reason—“

His choked laugh cut her off mid-sentence. “Sweetheart,” he smiled into her now glaring eyes. “I restrained myself for both our benefits.”

“I don’t follow.”

He inclined his head. The last thing he wanted now was a long, drawn out discussion. But he could spare a moment to clarify matters.

“I wanted you to feel what burns between us for yourself, to wipe any and all doubt from your mind as to our suitability. I think I accomplished my aim.”

She stiffened. “Well, that seems…” She sniffed. “…calculated and a tad arrogant.”

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and her body went satisfyingly pliant in his arms.

“It’s not arrogant if it’s true.” He kissed her temple, nuzzled the tender spot beneath her ear. “Do you want me to kiss you, Anna?”

He brushed his lips over hers, feather soft, teasing her, and torturing himself.

“You know I do, Caden,” she said, her voice breathless. “ Please kiss me. ”

His words came out a hoarse whisper. “Glad to know I’m not alone in this madness. I haven’t for one moment stopped wanting you, Anna. God knows I tried.”

“ Caden.” Fisting his lapels in her hands she arched up to kiss him with a desperate, sweet ardor that stole his breath.

He pulled just out of her reach, and she huffed out her displeasure.

This was it. Time to play his ace.

“Then it’s agreed? When this is done, when we have your… situation sorted, you’ll marry me?”

Her brows furrowed. “It’s what you really want, Caden? It’s not just gallantry?”

“This again?” He took her hand and pressed it to his cock, straining against the fly of his trousers. “Does this feel like a man focused on gallantry?”

She drew in a shocked gasp. But rather than tug her hand away the moment he released her, her fingers traced the ridge of his erection, tentative and exploratory.

He shuddered in ecstacy.

Far too soon, she withdrew her hand and brought it to her mouth to remove her glove with her white teeth.

Then she lowered it to cup him and all rational thought fled.

He reached for her, dragging her into his chest. His lips found hers, hungry, desperate, as if he could swallow her whole. Everything in him went hot like a volcano ready to erupt. At this rate, he’d lose control and unman himself.

“You make me crazy, Anna, make me burn. You make me want things I shouldn’t.” His words came out choked, as if ripped from his lungs .

Her hands found their way to his shoulders, and crept up his neck to twine into his hair. She’d rid herself of her second glove and her cool fingers against his fevered skin made him gasp.

She leaned back to gaze into his eyes. “What do you want, Caden?”

I want you. Your body, your heart, your promise to be mine. But he couldn’t speak the words. He closed his eyes and trembled with the force of his desire for her.

As if gentling him, her lips found his cheek, his jaw, his neck. Her tenderness threatened to derail him from the inside out.

“I need to taste you.” He lowered his head, nuzzling her collar bone while his clumsy hands fumbled with her bodice.

After a moment, he had her ribbons untied. He tugged at the gown, lowering it to expose an expanse of creamy curves and the tantalizing edges of small, rosy, puckering nipples.

When his lips sealed over one of the cresting buds, her head lolled back, and a tiny sound of need escaped her.

He wanted to roar his triumph. His lips suckled, his tongue laved, and his groin tightened like an over-wound spring.

As if it had a will of its own, one of his hands wrestled with her skirts, fisting them upward to dive underneath.