Free Married: The Virgin Widow by Deborah Hale Page A

loins.
    His control threatened to slip away, but he clung to it with grim determination. Extending his tongue, he eased the hot, wet tip into the narrow fissure between her lips and slowly pried them open. When at last he gained entry to the sultry cavern of her mouth, he explored, caressed and tasted Laura to her delicious depths.
    The wicked hum of lust in his veins urged him to tug up her skirts, fumble open the buttons of his breechesand take her there, up against the door. All that stopped him was his fierce resolve not to lose control and a troublesome remnant of tenderness he had thought long since purged from his heart.
    An even more troubling thought slithered into Ford’s mind, piercing his triumph with sharp fangs and injecting noxious venom. Laura might have promised to marry him, but that was no guarantee she would. Perhaps she only wanted this month-long betrothal to give her time to secure a husband more to her liking. And what if her true motive for wanting such a public wedding was so she could humiliate him before all his neighbours?
    Breaking abruptly from their kiss, he wrenched open the door behind her and growled, “Away with you. Go!”

Chapter Six
    D id Ford want her or not? Laura asked herself as they drove to church on Sunday morning with her sisters. A few days after their bewildering betrothal kiss, the only question that perplexed her more was whether she wanted him. After the other night, it seemed the answer might be…yes.
    Buried beneath stifling ashes of fear and mistrust, nearly quenched by shame, an ember of desire smouldered within her. Whenever she remembered Ford’s deep, brandied kiss or the restrained intensity of his touch, that ember threatened to set her on fire.
    How had Ford felt about their kiss? She stole a sidelong glance at him as her sisters chattered on about some harmless bit of local gossip. As usual, his harshly handsome features betrayed nothing of what he might be thinking or feeling.
    What had made him push her away when his passion had reached at its sizzling peak? Could her reluctance have repelled him as it had Cyrus? She feltlike a fool, understanding so little about men after five years of marriage.
    Without any warning, Ford spoke. “I have decided to host a ball to celebrate our engagement.”
    “A ball?” Susannah squealed, clapping her hands. “How splendid! Laura never breathed a hint of it to us, the sly minx.”
    “That is because I knew nothing of it until this moment.” Laura tried to stifle her annoyance. Would it have been too great an inconvenience for Ford to ask her wishes in the matter?
    She appreciated his kindness to her mother and admired the effort he was making to improve the estate. But when he arranged matters to suit himself without consulting her, it made her feel as controlled and powerless as she had been with Cyrus.
    “I expect Ford wanted to surprise you,” suggested Belinda, putting a pleasant face on the situation, as was her habit. “I should enjoy a ball, though we haven’t any ball gowns that aren’t years out of fashion, nor proper dancing slippers. I fear our shabbiness would disgrace him.”
    “That would never do.” Ford’s firm mouth tightened in a frown of mock-gravity. “I can abide anything but disgrace.”
    Though Laura knew he meant nothing by the quip, his mention of disgrace still gave her a qualm. If he ever guessed the disgrace she could unleash upon him if she chose, he would treat her with far more consideration.
    “I reckon I have no alternative,” he continued, “but to bring the three of you along to London when I go there on business this week. While I look for suitable premises and hunt up the brother of my partner, youladies can shop for ball gowns, wedding wear and my bride’s trousseau.”
    There he went again, arranging her life without the slightest regard for her wishes.
    “We cannot all go away and leave Mama,” Laura protested. “And how are we to pay for all these new