Page 34 of Miss Dramatic
“No money.” The very words were distasteful, but they needed to be said.
“Right. No money. No pretending. Honesty or nothing.”
“A fine policy.” Had she been embarrassed by the coins she’d left for him? Did she regret that course now? He could ask her that later—perhaps. “I honestly long to kiss you.”
“There’s something I want more, Gavin, though I’m sure we’ll get to the kissing directly.”
Could she possibly want a proposal of marriage from him? “Name it.”
“Please hold me. I missed… Please just hold me.”
He opened his arms. She came to him, standing very near, then leaning a little, then a little more, until she was secure in his embrace, and he was hugging her with all the gratitude and tenderness his heart could hold.
And while darkness stole over the land, and small creatures began their nocturnal explorations, she hugged him back.
Gavin waited, hoping Rose would initiate the kissing, and his patience was rewarded with a soft, easy buss of her lips on his cheek. He went still.
“Again, please,” he said.
“You.”
He obliged by kissing her cheek, as fencers greeted each other with matching salutes. In the kisses that followed, Gavin tasted caution and confidence, hesitance and hope.
He wanted to tell her tolet go, to give him a drubbing in this regard, too, but he was also going carefully, matching this Rose with the more reckless woman he’d met months ago. Whatever had driven her boldness then, she’d mastered it, and the result was maddening.
She offered deliberate, nigh tactical kisses that inspired him to hold her more closely and explore the curves and hollows that had so fascinated him on first acquaintance. The angular jaw, the rounded hips. The silky hair and muscular shoulders.
“Don’t be so careful,” she whispered. “I won’t break.”
“I might.” His control was growing more tenuous by the moment, and thus he eased his mouth from hers and gathered her to him. “I might shatter into a thousand pieces of warmth and joy and float away on the night breeze.”
“None of that shattering business please. We haven’t enough privacy.”
Warmth and joy filled him as he rested his cheek against her temple. “We have just the right amount of privacy. Not enough to be foolish, but enough to be safe. You kiss differently.”
“I’m out of practice.” Her sigh sounded a bit aggrieved.
“Whether you’ve been practicing or not is your business. Your kisses are more serious.”
She peered up at him. “Interesting that you should choose that word.” She brushed his hair again, and this time her touch bore an element of intimacy. “You are more serious too. I’m not sure what to make of it. We were heedless before.”
“I am not heedless now, Rose, but if we stay out here much longer, I won’t answer for the consequences. I don’t want to be precipitous with you. That way did not serve us well.”
“No, it did not.” She stepped back. “I can see that now. At the time… I was like that ball, sent flying along the ground, onward through the hedge, to fetch up heaven knew where. The landing was so very hard, and I thought my marriage had taught me all about hard landings.”
“I’m sorry for that.” He collected the ball and mallets. “I want to hear whatever you choose to share about the years you were married. You deserved better.”
“I did.” She fell in step beside him. “It’s so much easier to admit that—I deserved better—than to try to make excuses, conjure up explanations, or pretend it wasn’t so bad. Toward the end, it was awful. Then for him to die…”
“Dane was an adult,” Gavin said as they came around the end of the hedge. “He brought his end upon himself. Got stinking drunk, called for his curricle, took up the reins, and whipped up his cattle. If you’d behaved like that, Rose, I guarantee you, your grieving husband would not be blaming himself for your death.”
“But I wouldn’t have behaved like that. I was too meek and proper and guilty and sad.”
“Also too sensible, responsible, and honorable.”
She stopped walking, gaze on the garden, where footmen were lighting torches. “You forgot stubborn.”
“Determined. Determination is an estimable quality in anybody.” Thank heavens the mallets and ball meant he could not reach for her hand, though he wanted to.
