Her blood turned to ice in her veins. At the time, she’d nearly panicked, frantically fearing that he would drown.
She wasn’t the least bit reassured by his matter-of-fact recounting. She’d been right. Hehadnearly drowned.
Nearly died.
She looked up and, when he glanced at her, trapped his gaze.
She stared at him, then abruptly, stopped walking.
With their arms linked, he halted, too. His expression unreadable, he faced her.
She’d come within minutes, perhaps seconds, of losing him.
Life’s too short to waste even a minute.
She pulled her arm from his, stepped into him, reached up, set her hands to his lean cheeks, and hauled his lips to hers.
She kissed him and invested the caress with every last iota of her fear and the underlying desire that had birthed it.
Deliberately, she flipped the latch on the box in which she corralled her emotions, all those unruly feelings, and set them free. Free to find expression through her lips, through her touch as she gentled her hold and, wonderingly, stroked his skin.
In blatant desperation, she brazenly pressed against him.
She had to know—now, this minute—if he returned even a fraction of her regard. Today, now, had almost been too late to discover what this was between them—this strange, restless, reckless compulsion.
Thisneed.
So lost was she in her focus on kissing him—in impressing on him her wishes and desires—that it was several minutes before she realized that he was kissing her back.
Just as hungrily, just as ardently.
More, he was every bit as lost in the moment as she was.
Joy filled her, and she jettisoned any attempt at rational thought and gave herself up to giddy exploration.
Gregory met her questing tongue with his and matched her hungriness with barely controlled greed. She was the epitome of heat and passion in his arms, her full lips gloriously supple and giving under his.
He supped and savored as her warmth, combined with his response to her blatant demands, sent heat surging beneath his skin, vanquishing the lingering chill.
How long they stood in the lane, locked in each other’s arms and communing with lips and tongue, he had no idea, but eventually, a sudden gust of wind blasted and blew, rattling the branches of the trees beside the path, rudely jerking them back to awareness of the here and now.
Albeit reluctantly, they drew apart, their lips separating on a mutual sigh, then they looked around and discovered roiling leaden clouds racing down upon them.
“Good Lord!” She looked at him and met his eyes, and all he saw was wonder, but then she blinked, refocused, and frowned. “We need to get back to the Hall before the storm hits. You’ve been drenched once already today.”
In the grip of eye-opening wonder as well, he stared at her and, somewhat inanely, remarked, “There you are.” The one woman he desired above all others. The only woman for him. She was that lady; he knew that as surely as he now recognized he’d spent a good portion of the past decade looking for her and never finding her.
Then reality intruded, but before he could locate his wits let alone his customary sophistication, he heard himself say, “I don’t even know who you are or what brought you here.”
She blinked at him, then she searched his eyes. Whatever she saw there convinced her to open her lips—he knew beyond question she intended to reveal the mystery of her identity—but along with leaping anticipation, a bone-deep shudder wracked him from head to toe.
Her lips snapped shut, and she regarded him with flaring concern. Then her chin set, and she retook his arm and urged him on. Or tried to. When he didn’t move, she met his eyes. “We need to hurry. We have to get you back to the Hall and get you warm again—you must see that.”
He teetered. The anxiety in her gaze was entirely real—which was compelling—but so, too, was his need to know who she was—
She gave vent to an agitated, frustrated sound. “IpromiseI’ll tell you everything you want to know later. Once you’re dry and warm and Alice has given you a clean bill of health.” She tugged on his arm. “Pleasecome on. We need to get back to the Hall.”
He didn’t have the necessary strength to stand firm against the plea in her voice and her huge pansy eyes, especially not as he’d started shivering uncontrollably again. “All right. But you will tell me later. After dinner.”
