Page 68 of Better Love Next Time
She parted her lips to bring more air into her lungs. “Are you going to kiss me?”
He released her hand suddenly and stepped away, the leaves crunching beneath his feet as he muttered apologies.
Kitty threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her level, ready to catch fire. His brows shot high. And she kissed him. Oh, she was horrible at it, but she pressed her mouth on his and flicked her tongue between the seam of his lips as he had done once to her.
He pulled back. “Are you sure?”
“I—I think so. Yes. I am. Very.”
He bent his knees, and his arms encircled her waist, drawing her up and against him. She reveled in the rasp of his razored cheek, the smell of shaving soap and mint, the silkiness of his tongue touching hers. There were infinite possibilities of who they could be and where they could go without going anywhere. Just kissing.
Tremors coursed through her. She arched against him, her body burning to be closer, desperate to be touching him everywhere. His tongue delved deeper, and he groaned. His firm hand slid up her arm, across her shoulders until he cradled her nape and dug his fingers into her hair.
“Oh, Julian,” she moaned. “Julian.”
He licked the corner of her mouth. He dragged kisses across her jaw and down her neck. He captured her mouth again, demanding more. Something hard at his thigh rubbed against her. He groaned and dipped his hips. On her toes, she squirmed against it.
He pushed her back so quickly she lost her hold, and he caught her before she toppled backward. He steadied her by theshoulders. Her breath came in bated gasps as she studied the mystery at his thigh.
He followed her gaze and turned his back to her. “You should go.”
She flushed, her body quivering and tight like a bow. “Julian, I… I have questions.”
“And I’m sure I have the answers,” he said, dropping back his head to gaze at the clouds. “Come tomorrow with your questions, and we’ll discuss them rationally.”
“You’re right, of course. I don’t feel rational at the moment. I feel as though I have run miles. I’m tingling. All over. In places I’ve never tingled.”
His laugh sounded painful. He turned and in two strides, he cupped her face. “You are a marvel. I… adore you.”
She blinked, her mouth slightly agape. “You do?”
“More than you know. More than I care to admit.” His thumb brushed at her cheek. He drew her mouth to his, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. “Dream of me, will you?”
“Always. Always, Julian. I adore you too.”
He pulled the hood over her head. “Until tomorrow.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Same Day
Notfelle Estate, England
Kitty’s heartwas in flight and her limbs fast and light as she leapt over a hole in Notfelle’s drive. As close as one could ever come to flying, she raced up the front steps and into the timbered and paneled hall. Julian adored her. This revelation she had repeated at least a thousand times since quitting the wood.Adored her.More than she knew. And if it were more than he cared to admit, then his adoration must be vast. Limitless like hers.
Clara hurried out from the parlor, her hands fidgeting at her lavender skirt. “Your father has been asking for you.”
Sir Jeffrey barked her name from beyond the parlor. Kitty scraped her half-boots on the slab stone floor, sorry she hadn’t entered from the rear court. She had been careless. Too elated. That Sir Jeffrey was to address her directly, instead of through Clara, boded ill.
Straightening her shoulders, Kitty tread through the parlor, its walls bare where precious tapestries had been stripped andsold, and halted at the study’s arched door. She avoided looking at the antlers, the feathered and furry victims fixed to the walls and littering the tabletops and floor. Hard to do because behind Sir Jeffrey’s stringy grey hair where he sat sideways at his desk with a gun on his lap was a badger skeleton.
“Where have you been?” he demanded, a scratched quizzing glass at his eye.
All the joy of the day vanished.
“I visited Mrs. Markel,” she lied.
“Who is Mrs. Markel?”
