Page 43 of Suddenly Single
“Hmmm?” She looked up, her gaze meeting his.“I’m pretty sure it’s a blowfish.”
“Nope.No’ a fish,” he said, his gaze moving over her pretty face.
“You seem pretty firm about it,” she said, and her lips curved into a smile.
“Some things a man canna let slide,” he muttered.There was an invitation in her eyes, an invitation that sizzled between them, a palpable current as smooth and as hot as the butter melted in the pan. Edan didn’t know what possessed him, but this time, he was the one who was doing the kissing.She was in his arms, and he was tracing the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue.He dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her hips, pulling her into his body. He caught her jaw and tilted her head so that he could draw her bottom lip between his teeth before slipping his tongue into her mouth.
Jenny’s hands slipped up his chest, to his neck and his hair, and her leg came up, sliding along his thigh.He caressed the bare skin above the bodice of her dress and could feel her heart beating against his palm, could feel the warmth of her skin.He moved his hand to her breast, kneading it, then followed the path of his hand with his mouth, sliding his mouth down her chin, to the hollow of her throat, then the swell of her breast. He closed his eyes to the storm brewing in him and allowed himself to feel.No thinking, just feeling.Her skin, her breath, the curve of her body—everything.
The sound of voices outside reached them at the same time.Edan lifted his head and glanced at the door.He sighed, calmly helped her arrange her dress and apron.Jenny was a little more frantic about it, but surprisingly quiet for once.He cupped her chin, and she sighed, her eyes half closed, as he nipped at her lips once more.He then walked out of the kitchen, grabbing up a nutball as he went, and left via the front door.
When Edan stepped outside, he paused to look at the sky overhead and breathe in a deep drink of fresh air.It felt like the first bit of fresh air he’d felt in his lungs in an age—he could almost feel the cobwebs lifting away.His body was thrumming—every nerve, every muscle alive and ready.He hadn’t wanted sex like this since—
“Eddy, my friend!”
Edan jumped and jerked around at the sound of Lorenzo’s voice.
“A beautiful day! We will play today some golf, yes?” Lorenzo waved as he carried on to the mudroom door and disappeared inside the farmhouse.
Edan’s blood went from simmering to pure boil.
Thirteen
Jenny was still rooted to the very spot where Edan had kissed her when Lorenzo peeked in the back door. He stepped in and looked at her with alarm.Maybe because she wasn’t breathing.She was absolutely, completely breathless.
“What is wrong?” he exclaimed.
“Hekissedme,” she said, her voice still fluttery with excitement.“I don’t even know how it happened—”
“Brava, brava!”Lorenzo said, clapping as he walked to the kitchen island, pausing momentarily to help himself to a nutball.“You see? My plan, it is very smart. You are in love?”
“No!” Jenny said, and then laughed nervously.She sounded like a hyena.
“But of course you are—this isamoreat its best, no?”
She swatted his hand away from the nutballs.That’s when she noticed several of them had been smashed.She probably had nutball all over her ass.“You’re way ahead of yourself, buddy,” she said, and poured the melted butter into the batter and stirred.
“Why do you wound me, Jenny Turner? I am an expert in the heart’s affairs.”
“Oh sure.That’s why things are going so well between you and Elizabetta.”
“But I loved her the moment my eyes saw her.”
“Then why did you kiss someone else?” Jenny asked as she began to make more nutballs.
“I am a man of many appetites, little peach.That was an indiscretion,” he said with a dismissive flick of his wrist. “Elizabetta is my one and only love.”
Jenny laughed at him. She was as giddy as a damn schoolgirl.“I think your eye wouldn’t wander quite so much if that were true.”
“I am a man,” he said grandly. “When my eye no longer wanders, I am dead.I knew I was certain Elizabetta would be mine the moment she desired to have a leather handbag that to me looked like every other handbag,” he said, making a sweeping gesture.“But no—thishandbag was theonlyhandbag she would have.No other would do.” He leaned forward and locked his gaze on Jenny’s.“It was a priceless handbag.I could give her a house for this price.But I gave her thishandbag that looked like all the others, for it is the one that made her happy.That,Jenny Turner, is when I knew.”
Jenny smiled.“That’s actually so romantic, Lorenzo.”
He touched the tip of her nose.“Sometimes, the heart knows and keeps the secret from the brain,” he said, touching her forehead.
She slapped his hand away. “Will you stop? It’s like walking around in a romance novel with you.Have you heard from Elizabetta today?”
Lorenzo’s demeanor instantly changed. “No,” he said, and sat on a stool, propped up his head with his fist. “She does not love me as I love her. She does not wish me to be happy.”
