Cursing as pain shot up his leg, he again hauled her up against him, only this time he kept her facing him. His body reacted instantly, urgently. “Damn it, Eden! By all I hold sacred, if Montgomery were to die tomorrow I would not seek her hand!”
Her struggles ceased with an abruptness that nearly made him drop her. Unwilling to be fooled again, he maintained firm hold. “I don’t envy my friend his wife.” He looked down into her furious eyes. “I envy what he has found in her—someone he can trust without any reservations.” Someone who loves him wholly…“That is what I want,” he finished, forcing it out past the tightness in his throat. “And you want it, as well. You cannot deny it. It is what everyone wants, whether or not they are willing to admit it. We are not meant to go through life alone.”
“Do not presume to know what I want,” she gasped against him, renewing her feeble struggles. “You don’t know me.”
“I know you well enough.” He grunted, holding her in such a way as to prevent her from brushing against a certain part of him that was beginning to ache with want.
She shoved a fist against his chest. “Were that so, you would not have just humiliated me in front of your friends. Put me down!”
He tightened his hold, determined to make her hear him. “I admit to having been an ass of elephantine proportions, and I truly regret having embarrassed you. Believe me when I tell you it was unintentional, and it will never happen again. I shall make certain everyone clearly comprehends who it is that holds my interest—you.”
She stilled in his arms, and he watched her azure eyes begin to darken.
A painful sort of galloping began inside his chest, as if his heart had lost its rhythm and was clumsily trying to regain it. Sabrina had certainly never looked at him thus. He’d thought her fair, but her beauty paled in comparison with Eden’s when she looked at him this way.
The lush pink bow of her lips was an enticement he couldn’t resist. Bending, he brushed those perfect petals ever so gently, breathing in her faint murmur of objection. “Tell me I have not done irreparable damage to the rapport we’d begun to build,” he whispered against the corner of her mouth. “Tell me there is still a chance, Eden. All I ask is for one more chance. I swear I will not disappoint you.”
A tiny, incoherent sound escaped her. It was the most erotic thing he’d ever heard, and his entire body went taut in response even as hers softened. Her surrender was answer enough. Bending, he captured her mouth, tasting her full, ripe lips as he’d wanted to the moment he’d first seen her. He caressed the crease between them with the tip of his tongue, loosening his grip to press a hand into the small of her back.
She sighed at the silent command, allowing him to pillage for a moment the sweetness of her mouth. When she leaned against him fully, his cock swelled to new thickness. It strained against the cloth of his breeches with a desperation he’d not felt since he was a stripling.
Panic gripped him. With great effort, he withdrew, praying he had not frightened her. “Please accept my humblest apology if I have in any way offended you,” he said, his voice unsteady as he stepped back a pace. God help him, he’d never been so aroused. Had he been alone, he would have groaned aloud. “You have my solemn vow that I shan’t kiss you again unless you grant me express permission.”
It was the first time in his life he’d ever apologized for kissing a woman.
“I am as much to blame,” she answered at last, her voice shaking just as much as his. “I allowed myself to—”
“I wish to court you,” Percy blurted, shocking them both. He had not intended to move with such swiftness, but an overpowering need to stake his claim on her had overruled all good sense.
“But we have only just met,” she protested, casting a wary glance in the direction of the orchard path. Lowering her voice, she continued, “Courtship is hardly required when we may satisfy our curiosity through less formal means.” Her face reddened when he didn’t reply at once. “I meant only that we may learn about each other by engaging in simple conversation.”
“What I feel for you is more than mere curiosity,” he told her with an awkward smile. “I wish my intentions made clear not just to you but to everyone. Given what you said earlier, I—”
“I know what I said,” she interrupted, a frantic look entering her eyes. “But I’m sure there must be another way to achieve the same end without putting us both in danger of an ill-suited match.”
“Do you truly think us ill suited?”
“I don’t know! What if—what if we fail to develop a mutual understanding based on like desires?”
“I desire you, Eden,” he grated, stepping close again. “You cannot tell me you don’t desire me in return.” He was gratified to hear her breath catch.
“I will admit to feeling…something,” she confessed, the tips of her ears turning scarlet. “But there are other considerations which must take precedence. What of compatibility? What of love? You cannot possibly claim such a strong sentiment this early in our acquaintance.”
“I don’t,” he stated with an unexpected twinge of regret. “However, I do believe what exists between us merits further and serious exploration. Formal courtship will afford us ample opportunities to be certain we make the right decision either for or against a permanent union. If at any time either of us concludes it to be unfeasible, we may agree to tell the other and go our separate ways with no harm done.”
He watched her waver on the brink of refusal.
“Everyone will think me mad,” she sputtered. “My stepmother will be fit for Bedlam. Papa will not know what to think. It is too soon.”
He cupped her face between his palms. “Kiss me again, Eden, and then tell me it is too soon.”
Chapter Six
His roughened voice was a lion’s purr, both dangerous and seductive. Swaying toward him, she met his lips without care for caution or propriety.
Skin, bone, and sinew—all resonated to the touch of his mouth against hers. With every moment that passed, it intensified until the thrumming in her ears grew deafening. As a butterfly sips at a flower, he withdrew from her lips only to revisit them again.
He stole the sigh of want from her and pulled her closer. When had his hands left her face? The fleeting thought was gone as the liquid heat pooling at the base of her spine spilled over and gathered at the juncture of her thighs to sweep down the backs of her legs. A desperate, unspeakable longing to press herself against him overtook her.