Page 17 of In Compromise with the Earl
His eyes swept over the stone and at not seeing his clothes, his expression went thunderous. He swam to her and glowered hotly enough that her skin rippled with gooseflesh. “What the devil do you think you are doing?”
“Getting your attention,” she said, leaning in. “And now you cannot ignore or dismiss me like before.”
“Well, Shylock, what pound of flesh do you want from me?” Oswald came closer. His brows were lowered, a dark sapphire flame in his eyes.
“Tell me what I did to anger you,” she said. “I’ll apologize and give you your clothes back so we can go our merry ways.”
He seemed to consider it, but just as an emotion flashed across his eyes, so did his hands fly up, grab her and haul her off the stone, dunking her into the cold water with a horrifying splash.
For a moment, Aphrodite was frozen in shock, and when she registered what had happened, anger followed in its wake. She struck balled fists on his chest, with little result as it pained her more than it did him. “What have you done, you…you…youtroglodyte!”
“The better question is, what are you doing to me?” he glowered as both of his hands framed her face—and for the first time, she was being kissed.
As their lips met her, Aphrodite couldn’t breathe, she could barely think. Oswald’s firm lips roved over softer ones with consummate potency. The feel of him, the heat of him, the connection of their lips overrode everything her mind could process. A tide of pleasure, much like the one pulling her to him, possessed her, so strong and heady that she lost her bearings.
She shivered when his tongue swept against her bottom lip. “Open for me, minx,” he ordered.
With her senses spinning, Aphrodite lifted her hands to circle his neck as she obeyed and opened her lips. His tongue plunged boldly inside and tried to match his movements. She shivered when the tip of his tongue ran over the sensitive roof of her mouth. Pulling away to gasp in a breath, she met his gaze, dark, sultry and…hungry. “Oswald—”
He took her lips again, kissing her with unapologetic possession. A strange sweetness from his kiss sparked heat into her blood and she clung to him as his kiss grew even more demanding. Instinctively, she followed his lead, letting him in deeper, meeting his tongue and tangling it with her own.
A rough, ragged sound tore from his chest, and he pressed her flush against him, his tongue seeking every corner of her mouth to stamp his mark of ownership. She was surrounded by icy water that did not stop heat from blooming at the center of her chest and the tips of her breasts tightening against him.
He pulled away to rest his forehead on hers. “What are you doing to me?”
She cleared her throat. “Well…that was enlightening.”
He chuckled, “Funny enough, that reaction could come from a weak, boring man, eh?”
Flummoxed, Aphrodite wondered why he had said that, but she heard a pointedness to the words,weakandboring. Then, the conversation she had with Lady Pandora came back to her and she went red.
“You heard that, did you?”
He nodded and stepped away, to gaze over her shoulder. “Your friend is right. You should stay away from me.”
“I lied,” she said. He turned and quirked a brow in a wordless question.
“When Lady Pandora said that you were weak, I said that I did not want such a man to be with me,” Aphrodite explained. “But I lied because I wanted her to stop being so insistent. I told her that nothing is black and white and that what we know of you is half a story. I told her that I wanted to know the rest.”
“You said that?” he asked.
“Yes, and that is true,” she replied, while reaching out to touch his face. “I lied to her because the truth is I do want to know you. I suspect that you’re still hurting from what your wife did and her death must have left you with many unexplained questions.”
He snorted. “If you can sense that, why can’t others?”
“It’s true, though,” she added. “I do want to hear the rest of the story, if you are willing to tell me, that is.”
A muscle in his cheek rippled and he looked contemplative. Just as before when he had hauled her into the lake, he effortlessly lifted her back on the rock. “Go back to the Manor, Aphrodite. T’is not good for you to be gone for so long.”
Her heart sunk as it felt like another rejection, but she did not say a word and instead, went to get Oswald’s clothes. She rested them on the ledge and then turned to head back. As soon as she neared the tree line, he called to her back.
“Are you sure about listening?”
She pivoted to see him dressed. The clothes were clinging to his wet body, outlining his powerful frame, yet his expression was hesitant. She smiled. “Yes.”
“This evening, at the pagoda,” he said, then turned to attend to his horse.
She didn’t mind how hesitant he was, that was sure; all she knew was that he had given her the chance she wanted, and Aphrodite was going to make sure she took it.
