Page 41 of His Perfect Bride
She shook her head. “I clearly fell short somehow?—”
“No,” he whispered harshly as he gently took hold of her chin and tilted her head up so that he was looking into her eyes. “He fell short. Not you.”
“You don’t know?—”
“Yes, I do know. He was a fool to ever let you go.”
“You’re just saying that…”
He skimmed his thumb up her chin, silencing her.
Her eyes widened and filled with questions—questions he wasn’t sure he could answer, like what did his touch mean? What was happening between them? What were his intentions?
He didn’t know. All he did know was that his attraction was powerful and undeniable.
He shifted his thumb from her chin to her bottom lip. Before he could stop himself, he grazed her lip, the fullness as well as the firmness fanning a blaze low in his gut.
She released a quick exhale, the warmth caressing him. Was it a breath of anticipation? For what he’d do next?
What exactly would he do next? He didn’t have to think about the answer. He already knew and was reaching for her with his other hand. His fingers wrapped around her arm and tugged her. The movement was gentle and yet determined enough that she stumbled forward against him, bumping him lightly.
At the contact, her eyes widened, but she didn’t push away.
That was a good sign, wasn’t it?
He slid his thumb across her lips again, and this time her lashes fell, and her lips parted just slightly—enough to sense that she was taking pleasure in this moment.
More heat sparked inside him, and he bent down, his heart thudding with a need for her that pushed aside all other rationale. His hand cupped her chin so that he could direct her. In the next breath, his mouth connected with hers in a sweet, delicate kiss where his lips clung to hers for a long second.
Her response was just as soft and short, the kiss hardly beginning before it ended. She took a tiny step back, as though the short kiss was enough to satisfy her.
But it didn’t satisfy him. Instead, it only seemed to set his attraction loose like a wild beast now uncaged. Desire leapt through him, and a low growl formed in his throat.
He snaked a hand around her to the small of her back and captured her there and pressed her closer. At the same time, he lowered his mouth to hers with a surge of passion, this time taking her lips fully and completely with his.
She didn’t quite seem to know what to do with this kiss. He actually didn’t either. But the swell of powerful attraction to her had a mind of its own, leading him onward, propelling him faster, driving a strange urgency through him.
As he slid his other hand from her chin to the back of her neck, she rose into him and into the kiss, almost as if she was afraid he was ready to break away.
But he was just getting started. He pressed in more hungrily, greedy for more of her. And she swelled into him, meshing her mouth with his in a give-and-take that rendered him nearly senseless.
He loved that she was relishing the moment and participating, and he would have stopped in a heartbeat if he’d sensed otherwise.
As it was, kissing her needed to become his new occupation. Why bother with roads or bridges or anything else when he had Sage in his arms and her lips tangled with his. There was nothing and no one else he needed. Only her.
It was almost as if everything else in his life had been leading him up to this moment, conspiring to draw them together, and now intertwining their breaths, and their very souls.
Were his thoughts too intense? Probably. Was he being obsessed with her at the moment? Most definitely.
All he knew was that he had to go on kissing her forever and ever.
At an exaggerated cough near the barn door, Sage broke from him, dragging her mouth away and pushing against his chest.
She was straining hard enough to waken him from his passion-induced delirium, and he quickly released her.
She scampered away while pivoting to face whoever had stepped into the barn and witnessed their moment of passion.
Of course it was Caleb. Holding blankets and pillows, he wasn’t looking at either one of them but was instead staring at the cow.
