And pulling her against him, he covered her mouth with his.
Chapter Six
Gwyn froze. Joshua was kissing her.Kissingher. Although, come to think of it, he wasn’t kissing her so much as putting his lips on hers. His mouth wasn’t moving, and his free hand sat lightly on her waist. What’s more, they both had their eyes open, which was unlike any kiss she’d shared from any other man.
That was why she was able to see the fellow they’d been watching walk past them, then pause to look at them. With her heart pounding, she closed her eyes and threw her arms around Joshua’s neck.
She’d merely done it to throw the stranger off. Or perhaps she’d done it because she wanted a real kiss? Either way, everything changed then. It was as if Joshua forgot his real purpose for kissing her, because a groan escaped him and his mouth began to move roughly on hers.
It sent her pulse beating wildly. He smelled of honey water, soap, and sun-warmed leather. She hadn’t expected him to smell so enticing.
Or kiss so well. This kiss wasn’t tender so much as it was thorough, with great, hungry forays meant to conquer her. And when she parted her lips for him, he took the invitation with wild ferocity, driving his tongue into her mouth over and over and leaving thrills in his wake.
Nowthiswas what it meant to be kissed. She hadn’t expected that from him, of all people.
Next thing she knew, he had her up against the building and had dropped his cane so he could brace himself with a hand on either side of her. Why did the very act of his imprisoning her against a wall make her melt like butter all over the side of the carriage house?
She didn’t know, didn’t care. She just wanted more. Joshua’s kiss was a glorious feast that she gobbled up greedily. The surprising softness of his mouth contrasted with the brush of his whiskered jaw against her skin.
The first fierce thrusts of his tongue now slowed to seductive strokes that made her weak in the knees. She clung to his neck like a cloud to a mountain. He moved one of his hands beneath her cloak to her ribs, then slid it up and down in a slow, sensual glide that sent a cascade of sensations along her nerves. She wanted him to touch her in other places, more private places.
Lord, but the man knew how to kiss a woman,holda woman. How delightfully unexpected.
So when at last he pushed away from her, a keen disappointment burned in her throat. His eyes seemed to search her face in the dusk that thankfully hid them from anyone near the inn.
“He’s gone, isn’t he?” Joshua rasped.
Her brain was so fogged by enjoyment that she nearly said, “Who?” But she caught herself in time.
She surveyed the road beyond them. “I’m afraid so.” She hoped Joshua couldn’t tell how her voice shook.
“Damnation.” Frowning, he glanced down the now empty thoroughfare. “I got caught up . . . I forgot . . .” He bent to pick up his cane. “Never mind. I lost my chance.”
“To do what?”
“Follow him.”
“Oh. Right.” She struggled to hide the hurt his angry words inflicted.
Like a fool, she’d thought their kiss actually meant something to him. She should have known better. This was Major Wolfe, for whom everything was a marine mission, even the clattering of pewter mugs in the street. Their kiss had merely been a means to an end.
No, she couldn’t bethatwrong about the effect she had on him, could she? She’d been kissed often enough to be able to tell the real from the false. Theirs had been a real kiss. And the fact that Joshua had deepened the kiss and caressed her . . .
That said a great deal.
As did the way he avoided her gaze now. “Wait here,” he said, “while I go inside the carriage house to figure out what he did to your brother’s coach.”
She scowled. Obviously, he didn’t intend to talk about their kiss or what it meant. Obviously, he hadn’t really intended to kiss her at all, even if hehadresponded enjoyably once he was in the midst of it. She’d learned early on that men were like that. They could enjoy a kiss without necessarily having it mean anything. Certainly that had been true of Lionel.
Very well. If he wanted to ignore their passionate kisses, she’d do so, too. But she wasn’t going to let him run roughshod over her in the process.
“You are just as high-handed as I, Joshua, but I am not one of your soldiers to be ordered about. I’m going in there with you.” When he looked as if he might protest, she added, “No one is around to see. And after all the trouble we took to hide that we were watching him in the first place, I think I deserve to know what he was doing.”
Takethat, Major I-Am-In-Charge-of-Everything Wolfe. She, too, could act as if the kiss had meant nothing whatsoever.
His eyes glittered at her in the light of the rising moon. “Fine.”
“Good.”
