Page 35 of Never a Bride
All Emmeline had accomplished was to make Alex suspicious, and now he was coming for her.
A little thrill shot through her as she ran through a dimly lit parlor set aside for the queen’s ladies. Thankfully, no one was about to see her puzzling haste. She went out into the corridor, where there were enough people that she was forced to slow to a walk.
“Lady Emmeline,” Alex called in a loud voice, “might I have a word with you?”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw him at the far end of the wide corridor. She picked up her pace, knowing none of these important courtiers would know who she was. No one would care that she was ignoring Alex—except Alex.
She turned down the next hall, then ducked through a door leading to one of the queen’s private gardens. A sudden brisk breeze made her shiver as she pressed her ear to the door. When the handle shook, she gasped and tried to hold the door closed with her body.
“Emmeline!”
His voice was low, intimidating. She could not fight him on strength alone, so she lifted her skirts and ran, knowing the paths that circled the elaborate marble sculpture almost as well as her own gardens. She heard the door slam open, then close. Her breath came rapidly in her chest, she was almost gasping—but she wanted to laugh, to fling her arms wide at the exhilaration of the chase.
“Emmeline!”
He was close now, just on the other side of the statue. She skirted a pear tree, then ducked through a vine tunnel, which was ripe with the new greenery of spring. She just knew there was a door through the wall somewhere. Queen Elizabeth liked to have more than one exit, in case her life was in peril.
Emmeline came out of the tunnel and saw the door across a patch of blossoming flowers. She had taken one step away from the gravel path, when suddenly Alex caught her arm, spinning her about.
With a cry she tripped and fell backward, tangling her legs with his and landing amidst the daffodils. He came down on top of her.
The weight and pressure of his long body felt dangerously intriguing, touching her in all the places that burned. Wide-eyed, she stared up into his shadowed face. He wore a small smile but said nothing, just used his lazy, dark gaze to roam her face and settle on her mouth.
Emmeline was stunned by how delicious sin could feel. No man had ever touched her like this, and she felt the first inkling of uneasiness. Alex wielded a special kind of power, making her feel like she was the only woman in his mind—at least, for that moment.
The sensation was…overpowering.
Every breath she took pressed her breasts even harder against his broad chest. Her hands shook where they touched his hot, bare arms that had just performed feats of incredible strength and skill. Even though all their clothes separated them, she could feel his thigh between hers, resting against her.
Her mouth was suddenly so dry that she had to lick her lips, and she discovered with astonished wonder that this somehow affected him, because he tensed against her.
It was up to her to stop this. She had to master her emotions, fight him, force him off her.
But all she could manage was, “Alex, you should stand up.”
“I should, should I?” he murmured, his laughing gaze sweeping her face.
“I mean you must.”
He lifted himself up the slightest bit, and his gaze continued from her face to her neck to her chest.
“You’re very comfortable, Emmeline.”
She sucked in a breath, then wanted to groan because it only made her ridiculously large chest look bigger. And he was staring at it!
She slapped at his shoulder. “Please, Alex, stop looking—there!”
“Where?”
“You know! My—my—”
“Your breasts?” he murmured.
She sucked in a breath. “It is improper for you to say such things.”
“But ’tis the truth. I’m looking at your breasts.”
A blush burned her cheeks.
