Page 48 of Where the Heart Leads
Griselda’s answering smile as she placed her hands in Penelope’s was equally warm. She assured Penelope she was pleased to have been asked.
Penelope squeezed her hands, then stretched up and touched her cheek to Griselda’s. It was a common form of affection between tonnish ladies; from the surprise Barnaby glimpsed in Griselda’s eyes, she recognized the gesture—and was utterly stunned that Penelope would bestow it on her.
If Penelope realized what she’d done, she gave no sign; still smiling warmly, she stepped back, drawing her hands from Griselda’s and turning to the door. “We’ll leave you then. Doubtless we’ll meet again once Stokes or you have more news.”
Griselda followed Penelope to the door. She opened it; with a last smile, Penelope went through. Barnaby summoned a smile for Griselda and saluted her as he stepped past. “Until next we meet.”
She smiled. “Indeed. Good night.”
Following Penelope down the steps, Barnaby halted beside her. As she had already done, he looked up and down the street. There was no hackney in sight.
He glanced around the roofline, getting his bearings. “We should be able to find a hackney on the next corner past the church.”
She nodded and fell into step beside him.
Whether it was the habit of the day, or more likely ingrained gallantry surfacing instinctively, he put his palm to the small of her back as they angled across the street.
She sucked in a breath and almost jumped away from him. “Oh, do stop that. The day is over. I’m not in disguise any longer.”
Caught entirely off guard, he frowned at her. “What the devil’s your disguise got to do with it?”
“My disguise.” With a dismissive flick of her hand, she started marching for the corner. “Your reason for behaving as you have been all day—all those little touches expressly designed to overset me.”
He blinked. Lengthening his stride, he quickly overhauled her. “My reason for deliberately oversetting you.” His temper started to slip its leash. “If I might ask, just how did you deduce that?”
They’d reached the church on the corner. She halted and swung to face him, the high stone wall at her back. Eyes narrowed, lit by sparks, she glared at him. “Don’tthink to play the innocent with me. Pretending to be my disgruntled lover. Holding my hand—and me—as if you owned me. Pretending to kiss me in that doorway! As I told you at the time, I was perfectly aware you were only doing such things because you didn’t approve of me being there!”
She’d been serious?He could only stare blankly in the face of her tirade, shocked, not by her anger, but by the response she sparked in him.
She continued, ire unabated, “No doubt you imagine such behavior will put me off going out in disguise again. Permit me to inform you that you’re sadly mistaken.”
“That wasn’t my intention at all.” Anyone who knew him would have taken warning from his far too even, impossibly mild tone.
Penelope didn’t know him that well. Eyes alight, locked on his, she drew in a huge breath. “Well, whatwasyour intention then? What possessed you to behave as you have been all the damned day?”
For one tense moment, he held her gaze, then he raised his hands, captured her face, stepped close as he tipped it up and brought his lips down on hers.
And gave her her answer.
It wasn’t a gentle kiss.
He was furious that she would imagine him the sort of man who would play on her senses to punish her.
When in reality he’d spent the entire day fighting the urge to ravish her.
That she’d so misjudged his motives seemed utterly incomprehensible.
And equally unforgivable.
So he took her lips, then her mouth, then he stole her breath.
Then gave the same back to her, along with the raging need he’d kept pent up all the long day.
That and only that was what had possessed him, what had driven him in a way he’d never before been.
That ragged, desperate, hungry need welled and poured through him, and into the kiss. As kisses went, this one was…ungovernable. One step beyond control, edged with a wildness he’d never before felt. Her lips were as ripe and luscious as he’d imagined, the soft cavern of her yielded mouth a delectable delight.
One he plundered.
