Free The Unintended Bride by Kelly McClymer

night. Could it hurt if they did kiss — just once?
    "Are you hungry?" she asked.
    The question brought him back to his senses immediately. How dare he think of kissing her when he could not even meet her most basic needs. "I'm afraid we must remain unfed tonight."
    "Go to bed without our supper for our mistake, you mean?" She smiled, and he had the distinct impression that she had seen and understood his impulse to kiss her. But that, he reassured himself, was his imagination.
    He did not return her smile. "We are not children. But my actions were foolish enough that I should be considered no better than a green boy, I admit."
* * * * *
    He had wanted to kiss her, Hero was sure of it. She felt the hard edges of the book she held under her fingers. From the few tales of seduction she had read so far it seemed that men were fickle creatures when it came to matters of fleshly pleasure. It meant nothing that he wanted to kiss her. Or that she wanted him to do so.
    She put the book down and stood up. "You are hungry. As am I." He was hungry for two things, and she could plainly see it. It would be unwise to feed his hunger to kiss, but not the other. For once, she could live up to her name. "Well, you should be glad you asked me along, then. For I have supplies for our adventure."
    "Supplies?" His expression was one of outright disbelief. And then, more quietly, "You are admirable, to use the term adventure for this nightmare."
    "Yes. Adventure," she insisted. She wanted to think of this as an adventure. And she was determined to do so. An adventure in an attic full of books she dared not read, unless she kept to the cautionary tales, which showed the folly of giving in to the flesh — after thoroughly enumerating the pleasures of the folly for the reader. While it seemed an odd way to promote chastity, it was all she had as armor against the fever of longing that gripped her as the light slipped away and Arthur stood before her, so tempting.
    "And supplies." She fished through her pockets, pulling items out and making a neat pile in front of her on a makeshift tablecloth. She stepped back. "See?" she asked with a flourish. For once, she felt enterprising. Before her lay a treasure trove of food to serve as their evening meal: several wrapped biscuits and a handful of dried apples.
    Arthur had stopped his pacing at once when he saw that she had laid everything out neatly on a clean handkerchief. "Wherever did you get all that?"
    "With so many younger sisters, one learns to travel prepared," she laughed. The servants hated the task of cleaning her pockets, she knew, because of the crumbs. However, it had saved her temper many a time when she could pull out a biscuit or an apple to soothe a tired, hungry child.
    "You Fenster ladies never cease to amaze me," he said in wonderment, looking at the few trifles as if they represented the greatest feast he had ever seen.
    Looking at her makeshift dinner table, she realized that something was still missing. "Well, I have provided food. Unfortunately, I cannot provide anything to drink."
    His eyes lit up, and he smiled unreservedly for the first time since they had begun this adventure. "I can, however."
    "Don't we make a resourceful pair?" she could not help but ask, although she wanted to call the words back as soon as they were spoken.
    "We do," he agreed, pulling a flask from his coat pocket. He raised the flask in a toast to her and then glanced at it, a look of dismay on his features. "I'm afraid I can only offer to share with you in the most primitive fashion," he said apologetically.
    Hero felt a flash of daring she quickly suppressed. A flask meant whiskey or brandy. Dare she? The tales she had read had been clear that spirits lowered the resistance to the call of the flesh. "I'm not thirsty. You go ahead."
    He lowered the flask and said quite firmly, "No. I could not if you do not."
    She sighed. She must take a sip, if only for his sake. "Then I shall be honored to share your