Page 16 of Lady Elizabeth's Winter Stranger
This time, his kiss was more commanding.He held her closer and after her lips opened to his, the kiss caught fire.When his tongue tangled with hers, she responded.For an immeasurable interval, the sensual duel continued.
Elizabeth was breathless when he raised his head to pepper her face with a rain of little kisses.Kisses across her chin and cheeks and brow and nose.Each sparking a delight that stoked the heat flaring inside her.Her heart was pounding, and she’d never felt so alive.Every sense worked at full stretch to capture this extraordinary experience.
She’d been kissed before.When she was sixteen, she and Alexander Comerford had conducted a secret flirtation that involved far too many torrid embraces in the woods at Sander Hall.But once that summer was done, her ardor for the future Lord Lumsden was done as well.Her adolescent passion left only a friendly interest behind.A good thing, given Alexander was now married to one of her best friends.
In the years since, a couple of men had defied propriety and kissed her.Some with her cooperation, some without.When she’d cooperated, she found the experience pleasant, but nothing more.None of those kisses came near to igniting the heat that Alexander had.Until now.Until Tom.
Tom’s kisses swept her into a new universe, conjured up sensations that she had no idea existed.When his lips touched hers, her soul took flight.
The moment that his lips returned to hers, she melted against him and her hands raked through his thick, black hair.Her bosom swelled against her bodice, while a heavy weight settled in the pit of her stomach.An aching, longing, hungry weight.
It was a huge, unprecedented reaction to a kiss.Goodness, imagine if he set out to seduce her.She’d be helpless against his attractions.
He shifted along the seat away from her.In visible torment, he shut his eyes and ran a shaking hand through his messy hair.“Don’t look at me like that.”
Elizabeth blushed, guessing that her expression must betray the wanton direction of her thoughts.“We should stop.”
At her deepest level, she didn’t mean that at all.But voices on the other side of the hedge signaled that a family passed by.She was painfully conscious that someone just had to take the narrow path between the holly bushes to stumble upon her entangled in Tom’s arms.Despite those heady kisses, she wasn’t entirely lost to prudence.Although if Tom kept kissing her, she wasn’t sure that her caution would persist.
“We should.”He sounded as reluctant as she did.
She wasn’t sure who shifted, her or Tom.But they were kissing again with a fervor that made her head spin.This time, breaking free of his embrace was so difficult that it verged on the impossible.
He groaned when at last she found the willpower to end the kiss.“We need to get back into the open,” he rasped out.
Her hands tightened on his shoulders, as if her body resisted that idea, even while her mind recognized its necessity.“Yes.”
Another kiss, but Elizabeth couldn’t forget the danger.This time, when Tom lifted his head, she struggled onto her feet and held out her hand.Standing presented a challenge.Those thrilling kisses had transformed her once perfectly functional knees to jelly.“Come on, Tom.Let’s see if we can find some more winsome tots to rescue.”
Heavy-lidded eyes dwelled on her.He looked like he hadn’t yet returned to the snowy reality of Hyde Park on Christmas Day.Her kisses had transported him as thoroughly as his had transported her.She stifled a surge of pleasure at the thought.
His face was flushed, and his lips were full and dark.Dear heaven, what delight those lips could deliver.For a prickling moment, Elizabeth considered returning to his arms.Then she straightened her backbone and stiffened her wobbly knees and told herself to be strong.
She watched him suck in a deep breath, as the dazed pleasure seeped from his face.The ardent lover faded from view.He became again the debonair stranger she’d met mere hours ago.
Although after those kisses, he’d never be a stranger again.
“I wouldn’t describe Cyril as winsome.”
Her laugh cracked.Despite her best efforts to appear calm, she was still shaky.Tom’s kisses made her blood churn, and his taste lingered on her lips.“I’m not sure I would either.”
With visible regret, he picked up his hat and placed it on his head.She shared his regret, but she could no longer forget that they were in a public place.
Would she find a chance to kiss Tom again, free from the fear of discovery?The idea made her heart leap with forbidden elation.Perhaps if they had privacy, he’d do more than kiss her.The shocking idea made her breath catch in her throat.The need to avoid a trip to Scotland became even more urgent.
To her relief, Tom rose and took her hand.The contact went a little way toward making up for her self-sacrifice in abandoning his kisses.She curled her fingers around his, as if making a silent vow of allegiance.
They emerged from the hedge to discover that the brighter weather had enticed more people into the park.Tom paused beside the holly hedge to pull up the hood of her cape.His care for her reputation warmed her heart in a different way from that passionate embrace.
To her dismay, the short winter’s day closed in, bringing an end to her freedom.Tom must have noticed, too, because he frowned and spoke with uncharacteristic force.“Damn it, I want you to stay.But you’re about to tell me that you have to go, aren’t you?”
Elizabeth was just as torn.She felt like she’d gained a friend and a lover, although their acquaintance was too short for him to qualify as the first and every rule of society barred him from becoming the second.
“And this time, I’ll mean it,” she said ruefully.If she was to have a hope of bringing her father around from his draconian plans, she needed to mind her manners for the next little while.
Should Lord Tierney discover that his oldest daughter had been romping around Hyde Park like an amorous milkmaid, he wouldn’t even give her the option of marrying the man of his choice.He’d pack her off to Great-Aunt Agatha before Elizabeth could say “I do” to her imposed bridegroom.
“Let me take you home.”
