She shook her head so vehemently that the ribbon beneath her chin unknotted and her bonnet slipped off her head to the bench. “And every bloody day I’m in that clinic, I see men who are worse off than you, but they are truly grateful to be alive. Knowing I can’t help them tears me up inside, but yes, I retain a sunny attitude, for I think that ultimately helps everyone. Not to mention I lost a babe years ago. That leaves a permanent scar on a woman’s heart.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “So, please, argue with me again about how I don’t understand.”
Finn could do nothing except gawk at her. By God, she was magnificent in the storm of her own making, and he’d never seen anything more breathtaking. Before he could change his mind, he slipped his arms around her, pulled her as close as he dared, and claimed her lips in a kiss he’d wanted ever since he’d first met her. With little effort, he moved over her mouth seeking, introducing, exploring, and those two pieces of flesh were as plush and petal-soft as he’d imagined. He kept kissing her, familiarizing himself with the shape of those lips, her very taste until he wrenched away merely to have a look at her. When he peered into her eyes, he grinned.
“I apologize.”
“For being an arse or the kiss?” Jane was as breathless as he, but her kiss-swollen lips curved in a smile. She slipped her hands up his chest to lock behind his neck. Clearly, she’d taken no issue at being so close to him.
“The first, for I’ll never apologize for kissing you.” He’d had no right, especially if she were well and truly promised to a duke, but he’d enjoyed it so much that he did it again. She was like heaven and every good thing in the world. Over and over, he drank from her, and when she made tiny sounds of pleasure at the back of her throat, he kissed her all the more, for in her arms like this, he could believe that nothing truly mattered regarding his physical limitations and that there was certainly a bright future ahead.
Finally, she pulled away. Her eyes had taken on a dreamy quality and a tendril of ruddy hair had escaped its pins. “Can we agree that you’re capable of a great many things? The least of which is kissing. In that you are quite proficient.”
“Yes.” He caught her into his arms, but this time he merely held her. “Thank you for the reminder. I suspect I’m a nodcock most times.”
She snorted. “You are, but I’ll overlook it if you consent to see me again.”
Too much more of that and people would assume they were courting. His heartbeat accelerated. “I’m promised to my mother all day tomorrow.”
“Oh. How about the day after then?”
Muscles in his right leg twitched as if coming awake from a long slumber, but he couldn’t move the limb. Or anything else below his waist. Did he want to court Jane despite the certain heartbreak that path would hold? He grinned and pressed his lips to her temple. “I can’t think of a single reason why not.”
He’d enjoy her company, for she kept the edges of the darkness at bay, but he couldn’t promise either of them a future and refused to think that far ahead. No sense ruining the present. Yet the kernel of hope budding in his chest was a powerful thing.
At least she’d taught him that.