Page 23 of Lady of Charade
He grasped his chest as though she had wounded him once more.
“Your words hurt, my lady,” he said, causing her to cringe, for one thing she was not was a lady.
“I only mean that you seem… pale, and tired,” she said, softening her words with a smile. “It has not been long at all since you were injured. We must see if you have done any additional damage to yourself.”
“Very well,” he said with a nod. “Where would you like me?”
“On the bed, if you will,” she said, wishing she had somewhere else she could attend to him. “You can remain seated, but will need to take off your jacket and waistcoat.”
He nodded and did as she bid, though as he sat down he looked at her with a half-smile and a quick wink.
“You know if you wanted me in bed…”
She ignored him, though it made her heart glad to see that he was well enough to joke with her. It meant he was likely on the road to full health, though she couldn’t help the warmth that filled her cheeks at his words. She decided it was best to change the subject.
“Did you see a physician?” she asked, as she busied herself by seeing to her supplies.
“I did not. I trust that your treatment is the best I could come by.”
She laughed softly as he unbuttoned the top of his shirt to provide her access to the wound. At the very least, it looked as though he had changed the dressing, and she began to remove it, ignoring the heat of his skin upon her fingertips.
“You place a lot of trust in a woman you hardly know.”
“I know enough,” he said, his breath brushing her cheek, and Sarah attempted to take deep breaths to slow her racing heart. “You seem to enjoy caring for others and seek human affection over any other currency. You give of yourself and ask nothing in return. Anything provided to you results in more gratefulness than such small actions might deserve. You are a wonder, Miss Jones.”
Sarah didn’t know how to respond to that, so instead, she bent down to better observe his wound. It did look much improved, she was relieved to see. He had scared her there, with his brief feverish state, but it seemed she had been able to provide him what he needed to heal it just in time, for which she was more than glad.
“Have you been dizzy? Feeling faint?”
He snorted at that, but she eyed him with a look, and he shrugged a shoulder slightly.
“Not overly, as long as I sit for a spell every now and then.”
She nodded and finished her dressing, smoothing a fresh bandage overtop. She was about to straighten when her eyes caught his. They were emerald green, and tonight they seemed much more vivid than usual. She wasn’t sure if it was the dim light of the room or the fact that she was closer than she had any right to be, but they called to her in a way she couldn’t explain.
Before she could even think of what she was doing, she laid her hands on his shoulders and her lips upon his.
CHAPTER11
David nearly fell off the bed.
Of course, he had felt the tension simmering between them — it had been there throughout the entire evening, since he first kissed her in the library — but he had begun to wonder if it was all coming from him, and if she was completely oblivious to his body’s humming desire for her.
Apparently not.
While it certainly wasn’t the first time they had kissed, what completely shocked him was the fact thatshewas the aggressor.
Despite the worry that he would scare her away, he had to see her, to attempt to read what she was feeling. He pulled back from her ever so slightly, looking into her warm brown eyes, shocked by the pools of desire held within them. Their locked stare was nearly more intimate than the kiss itself.
The only sound in the room was the quick rasp of their intermingling breath, and now and then the crack of the fire she must have started in the grate before he arrived. He had hardly even noticed it when he entered.
He ran a hand over her hair, pulling out one pin and then another, until it was soft and flowing over her shoulders.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, surprised at himself when his voice emerged as just above a whisper.
Her cheeks turned pink at that pronouncement.
He ran his hands down her arms, stopping when he came to her waist, feeling something hard and out of place.
