Page 26 of The Burning Passion of a Fiery Lady
She sat up, picking some buttercups, twining them into a chain of her own. Then she carefully placed them on his head.
“There,” she said, with satisfaction. “If I am the queen of the woodlands, then you are surely its king, now.”
They gazed at each other, smiling. Jasper felt a wave of pure happiness wash over him. He didn’t know why he felt so free and comfortable with her; he only knew that he had never felt this way with another woman in his life.
Even Helena. Even with his fiancée who had jilted him the night before their wedding.
He kept staring at Susannah. The features of her beautiful face were all that he could see, anymore. Suddenly, he realised that he couldn’t quite remember what Helena looked like. It was as if she were fading in his memory, just like his feelings for her were fading. He almost couldn’t rememberwhyhe had been so upset over her.
It was as if the last of the knots binding his heart had abruptly unravelled.
Good luck to her, he thought magnanimously.We would never have made each other happy. She truly did me a favour in leaving me. If she had not, I would never have come here. I would never have even met Susannah.
He couldn’t believe that it was possible now. That there had ever been a world that he had inhabited without her in it. It had only been a few short days ago that he had come to this part of Shropshire, but it was as if he had been half-alive before then. An incomplete puzzle that she had somehow made into a whole.
It was love, pure and simple. He loved her, with all of his heart.
He gazed at her, stunned. He knew that the physical connection between them was strong. He knew that he liked and respected her as a person. But he had never dreamt that love was possible, so quickly. How on earth could it have happened?
But it had. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops. He wanted to stand up, in this field, and inform the world of it.
Did she feel the same way?
He kept staring at her. It was too soon to tell her what was in his heart. She was still grieving her husband and dealing with all the complex emotions of it. It was too soon for him to whisper words of love to her.
He gripped her tighter. One day, very soon. He could barely wait.
Chapter 11
Susannah opened her eyes slowly. For a moment, she blinked, trying to clear away the last vestiges of sleep. Why did she feel such joy that was almost overwhelming her from the moment that she had first awoken?
And then, it all came back to her in a rush.
Jasper.
The horse master, who had come here to train her new colt. Up until a few days ago, he had only been that to her. A faceless name, who was coming to The Willows to do a job, and once that was completed, he would disappear out of her life forever.
She simply could not believe how quickly things had changed. How quickly he had changed everything for her. He had turned her life completely upside down.
She was gripped by a sudden fear. Would he go, once the training of Thor was done? But how could he now … after what had happened between them?
She blinked back tears. Just because he had pleasured her, in that bewildering way, didn’t mean that he was going to stay at The Willows permanently. It didn’t mean anything at all. It wasn’t as if they were courting, or engaged, or promised to each other in any way. For all she knew, he might make a habit of seducing the women at the properties where he worked. He could be a Casanova, a Lothario, a cad.
But then she shivered, remembering the ardent look in his pale blue eyes, as he had promised to keep pleasuring her. When he had told her that he wanted to do this again, many times. When he had told her how beautiful she was to him, at that moment.
She shivered again as she remembered what he had done to her. The way that his hands had expertly sought her most private place, knowing where to touch her, so that she would enjoy it. She had never dreamed that such sensation was possible; it was as if he had conjured it out of nowhere.
Her face flushed, and she twisted in the bed, suddenly aflame with desire for him again. It was like a fever, infecting her blood, breaking out when she least expected it.
How could this have happened to her? She was a widow. She had fully expected that she would remain a widow for the rest of her life. She had no desire to find another husband after what had happened with Gilbert. She had seen the false promises of love and had no inclination to put her hand on that hot burner twice.
She had resigned herself to being alone. She had almost welcomed it. And now, her whole world was topsy turvy.
She twisted with desire again, feeling it flow like fire through her veins. He was so very handsome; she ached to touch him. She saw the darkness of his large hands against her pale skin, caressing her, coaxing her to fulfilment, and felt the fever of his lips on her, pushing her further, to that point of no return …
She sat up in bed, her heart pounding. There had only been once, in her whole time with Gilbert, that she had ever been close to experiencing what she had yesterday, at the hands of Jasper.
She didn’t want to remember it. But it had jostled its way into her head, crowding out everything else. She shrunk back as if he were there in the room with her. His voice, filling the space. His hands, on her flesh. And there was nothing she could do, but let it play out, like a music box, the key twisted tightly, and now slowly unfurling …
