Page 17 of Sense and Suitability
Then her entire body tensed, and she pushed back.
“How... how could you?” she whispered, voice shaking.
And with a flash of fire in those eyes, her palm connected with his cheek, a sharp sting that left him reeling—not from pain, but from the knowledge that he’d just made everything so much worse.
Chapter 4
Hewas kissing her!
Simon Reeves, the man who broke her heart and left her to the gossips of St. Groves and the possible demise of her matrimonial future, was kissing her.
Full on the mouth.
The warmth of his lips seared her fury. Heat unfurled from her stomach to scorch through her middle before racing back to her cheeks.
Very full on the mouth.Warm and strong, his fingers kneading against her back in an almost desperate way.
And once the initial shock faded, two thoughts rose to prominence, jostling for dominance.
The first: She’d been entirely wrong about kissing scenes in her novels. Woefully, inexcusably wrong. How had she reduced this—the strong, urgent heat of his lips, the solidity of his arms encircling her with such strength, the undercurrent of tenderness in his touch—to mere words on a page? She’d overlooked the exhilarating aliveness of it all: the way his scent—a tantalizing blend of leather, musk, and a trace of rosewood—ensnared her. She drew in a deeper breath, a strange sort of whimper slipping from her in appreciation. Her entire body came alive with... feeling. And when his palm slid up her back, pressing her to him? Heavens, she hadn’t expected to enjoy the sensation of being captured quite so much.
Her fingers twitched, curling into the rough fabric of his coat, justto give her time for a lengthier assessment. He tasted like lemonade—sour with an undercurrent of sweetness? She almost grinned at how close to the mark it fit his personality.
Or the personality she thought she’d known.
Which ushered in the second thought, striking her much harder than the first: How dare he? How dare he! Simon—Lord Ravenscross, she reminded herself fiercely—was quite thoroughly completing his ruination of her reputation. And she’d already indulged in his thorough ruination for much too long. His abandonment had been a betrayal sharp enough to cut, but this? To kiss her now, as if her feelings and her reputation were his to toy with, was beyond the pale.
With all the strength her indignation could muster, she shoved him away.
The cool night air rushed between them, biting against her heated skin and pricking her eyes with traitorous tears.
The audacity. The sheer thoughtlessness and... meanness. She’d never expected him to stoop so low. Not the man she thought she’d grown to know, but he’d proven her wrong in every particular once he’d left her standing alone on a veranda with a handful of notorious witnesses and a crack in her heart.
“How... how could you?” Her voice, trembling and uneven, betrayed her fury even before her palm cracked against his face with a force that startled even her.
Simon flinched, his hand flying up to his cheek as he stared at her, wide-eyed. Up close, his eyes were paler than she’d remembered, their blue almost translucent under the moonlight.
“Didn’t you ruin me enough already?” she demanded, though her voice wavered.
His expression—a mix of shock and something more devastating—stole the edge from her anger. Why did he have to look so... so lost? She pressed on. “Are you determined to destroy me entirely?”
He winced, as if her words struck harder than her palm, and his mouth parted as if to explain, though no words came immediately.
The burning in her eyes intensified.
“I... I never wanted to hurt you, Em... Miss Lockhart.”
The formality should have pleased her. But against every shred of common sense, its distance settled in her chest like a stone. She shouldn’t wish for intimacy with him! Not after what he’d done, even if the look he currently was giving her—raw and impossibly sincere—nearly had her reaching for a handkerchief to offerhim. She hardened herself against the rush.
“Kissing me on a balcony at a very public ball certainly suggests otherwise.”
To her chagrin, saying it didn’t please her as much as it should have. In fact, she felt rather miserable.
“I... I was attempting to keep our location secret so that we wouldn’t be discovered.”
A weak excuse, and from the frown he made, he knew it.
He stepped back, raking a hand through his dark hair in a gesture that was far too casual for her liking. “I wanted to escape my pursuers just as much as you wanted to escape yours.”
