Page 57 of His Perfect Bride
“Hope the wedding night was special.” Ralph winked at her as he took the luggage from Jackson.
Oh my. Mortification swelled swiftly inside her.
Ralph raised a brow at Jackson. “It was awfully quiet.”
Jackson scowled at Ralph. “It’s none of your concern.”
Ralph just shrugged his shoulders as much as he could under the weight of the luggage. “Some of the fellas are saying you ain’t really together ’cauz you’re not acting like newlyweds.”
Jackson’s angry gaze swept over the other men in the dining room. “Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
“Told the fellas one kiss would prove it one way or the other.” The proprietor’s voice held challenge.
The others had placed their mugs on the table and were now staring at her and Jackson with undisguised interest.
Jackson glared back.
It didn’t matter what the men thought. She and Jackson were leaving and would likely never see these people again. She opened her mouth to say as much to Jackson, but before she could get the words out, Jackson’s hands landed on her hips, and he was dragging her toward him, his gaze hungrily focused on her lips.
Her stomach flipped over itself. She needed to protest, to make Jackson see reason, to not let him be goaded into kissing her.
But his fingers on her hips tightened, and he tugged her until she was flush against him. In the same instant with a growl, his mouth descended upon hers. His lips were hard and greedy and ravaged hers in one easy swoop.
She gave up any hope of resisting. She had no desire to. Instead, her own hard and greedy need swelled swiftly so that she responded with a ravaging of her own. She rose into the kiss, letting her desire free from the carefully restrained closet where she’d relegated it.
Kissing him was everything she’d remembered from the first experience…except that this time she had no reservations. She was ready—more than ready—to mesh her mouth and body with his. It was almost as if she’d been starved, and this was her one and only chance at gaining sustenance.
A few calls and whistles penetrated the kiss, drawing her back to the dining room and to the fact that people were watching her kissing Jackson.
At her brazenness, she broke the kiss and ducked her head.
Jackson tried chasing after her lips, but she buried her face against his chest.
He gave a huff of protest.
The proprietor was chortling. “Pay up, fellows! I told you, they’re wild about each other! That he ain’t pretending nothin’.”
A few of the others groaned or cursed softly.
Against her, Jackson’s chest rose and fell heavily. His fingers upon her hips were taut. And he seemed immobilized, as if the kiss had turned him into a marble statue.
She decided she needed to put an end to the show or whatever was happening. She took a step back, reached for Jackson’s hand, and slipped her fingers into his. She had half a mind to tell the fellows exactly what she thought of them and their uncivilized demands. But she’d never been as vocal as Willow, had always been controlled and polite.
Tipping her chin up, she started toward the door, tugging Jackson after her, and he came along without a word of protest. As they stepped outside into the bright sunshine, she breathed in the lingering smoke from nearby campfires along with the heavy scent of pine.
A cloudless blue sky greeted them as did a clear and calm river ahead. The morning was cold, but she was overheated from the kiss and needed something to bring her back to reality—the reality that she and Jackson weren’t really a married couple who werewildabout each other.
As they started across the grassy bank toward the wharf, he held on to her hand and kept his fingers interlaced with hers. Of course, he was only doing so to carry on their charade because the proprietor was following with their bags.
When they reached theWidowerand the gangplank, he gave a curt nod to the captain already in the pilothouse. Then before she could decide what to do, whether to protest or not, his hand within hers tightened, and he bent down and captured her mouth with his.
The kiss was just as hard and intense as the one from moments ago, but it was short and over before she could arch into him and kiss him back. The quickness and intensity stole her breath and left her aching for more.
But he released her and stalked toward the pilothouse without a glance back.
She could only watch him in all his contrasting and rugged handsomeness, with strange desire pooling inside. She’d never imagined she’d ever feel so strongly about any man. But she couldn’t deny the craving pulsing through her that made her want to chase after Jackson and pull him back into another kiss.
They were only supposed to be pretending. But with every passing moment, their relationship felt more and more real. The question was, did she want it to be real? Was she ready for something real?
