Page 62 of In Just a Year
With a click, the door closed.
They were finally alone.
Ben’s hands grew sweaty, and he wiped them on his breeches just as he’d done as a young boy when he looked at Esther.
“I’m in your room,” he croaked. Oh dear, his voice broke as if he were fourteen. “And I used the door this time.”
Esther burst into giggles.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“No.” Of course, she was.
“You are!” Ben closed the distance and peeled her delicate hands off her mouth.
She tilted her head back and laughed heartily. “I’m really not laughing at you. I’m just so … so happy! And then you quacked. I’ve lost my mind.”
Ben chuckled. “I quacked?”
She smiled and bit her lower lip. Adorable. He wanted to bite her a little bit, too. No, he wanted to kiss her so thoroughly that she’d scream his name and stop laughing.
He gave her hands a gentle squeeze and then cupped her face. She stilled, and their eyes locked. Just like that, it was easy again.
This was Esther. His love. They’d known each other as long as he could remember. Something about her made him feel whole, exactly as he’d told Greg all those months ago back in the palace in Calcutta.
Her gaze fell to his mouth, and he leaned in. Soft, taut, and lush lips welcomed him, and his entire body hardened like a fortress trying to contain a raging fire within.
* * *
“I’ve been waitingfor so long, Esther, you can’t imagine,” Ben rasped.
Esther tingled all over her body as if she were melting under his attention. “A year?” She dropped her head to the side to give him access.
He kissed her tenderly along her jawline and went down. This was typical Ben and Esther to resume where they’d left off.
“Much longer,” he mumbled and his breath tickled her neck.
A rush of something much greater and stronger than goosebumps washed over her. “What do you mean?”
“Esther, I’ve always loved you. Watching you from afar, I felt as though I was burning from the inside.” His hands on the small of her back, he pulled her closer.
“But you went to Edinburgh and—”
“I’ve never touched another woman. Never kissed another.”
“Not even before me?”
He shook his head and deepened his gaze. “There wasn’t a before you, not ever. I sort of grew into loving you. I grew up with only you in my heart.”
“You saved yourself for me?”
“Indirectly, yes.”
“What is directly?”
Ben burst into a smile. “I didn’t mean to in the beginning. It wasn’t really a matter of saving myself, but I could never approach another girl. And later, while the other boys at school had various escapades, I went swimming.”
“You jumped off a cliff because of me, is that true? Aaron said that once.”
