CHAPTER 13

Knox ran his hand over his face, then went and sat on the bed.

“Please don’t lie to me,” Dru said, worry roiling her stomach at what he might tell her.

He glanced at her, silent for a moment, then said, “Because I wanted to.”

With confusion in her eyes and a slight shake of her head, she said, “But you don’t find me appealing, so why kiss me?”

Lies would get neither of them anywhere, so he spoke the truth. “That is the question I have been grappling with since I kissed you.”

Dru went and sat beside him on the bed. “I planned to leave after you left me and head to Autumn’s place, but you changed all that by kissing me and saying that you didn’t want to lose me.” She smiled softly. “Besides, I liked the kiss.”

Knox chuckled. “And here I imagined you dragging your sleeve across your mouth to wipe it away.”

She shook her head. “Nay. I favored the tingle it left in me.”

“I favored it as well,” Knox admitted.

“What does this mean?” Dru asked, innocently.

“I don’t know. It is not something with which I am familiar.”

“But you have kissed women and have done more with them before I came along,” she said as if he should have the answer.

“Aye, several women, but have you not kissed at least one man?” he questioned.

“Nay.” She scrunched her face. “Your lips are the only ones that ever touched mine.”

Bloody hell if that didn’t stir something in him.

“What do we do about it?” Dru asked.

“A good question and with neither of us having an answer, I suggest we leave it be for now and revisit it another time.”

“The next time you kiss me?” she asked and wondered if that was hope she felt flutter inside her that he would kiss her again.

He turned away for a moment, fighting the impulse to kiss her right there and then. Not a wise thought. There would be a next time, of that he was certain. But not now. It couldn’t be now.

He turned, ready to tell her they had discussed it enough, but one look at her and he saw it, felt it. She wanted him to kiss her, so he did.

It was a gentle kiss, like a sip of a fine wine that left one wanting more, so he eagerly partook, and she responded, just as eagerly. He slipped his hand around her waist to draw her close to him as the kiss turned from gentle to eager to demanding.

Dru was lost in a misty haze of pure pleasure. She didn’t want the kiss to end and when with the slight ease of Knox’s arm, she found herself lying on the bed, his arm tucked firmly around her, she didn’t protest. Sensations she never felt before trickled along her body until it felt as if they consumed every part of her in the most pleasurable way.

She felt a gasp rise up only to be captured by the continuing kiss when she felt his hand slip over her breast and squeeze it before his thumb ran over her nipple. A feeling so pleasing gripped her that it frightened her, and a warning ran clear in her head—pleasure with a man can be amazing and can also prove dangerous.

Harsh memories flooded her head, and she shoved at Knox’s chest. He let her go, and she hurried off the bed and turned away from him.

Knox sat up silently cursing himself. “I should not have done that, Dru.”

She turned around, her response anxious. “Kissing me is one thing, touching me is another since it may go much farther than it should, than either of us want. I am not what you are looking for in a wife and I do not want a husband. It is best you don’t kiss me anymore.”

Why did it feel like her heart was breaking with every word she spoke and that she feared life would never be the same again?

“Aye, you’re right. You’re not what I want in a wife, and we made an agreement, and I will see it honored,” Knox said, standing. “I need to check on Star. Sleep, we leave early tomorrow.”

Dru almost stopped him when he walked to the door, but fear kept her silent. Fear of what could happen if she surrendered to her heart and allowed herself to love her husband.