Free Thick as Thieves by Catherine Gayle

sorry. I don’t try not to laugh. It’s just…” It’s just so hard to feel lighthearted when there are so many things to worry about.
    “It’s just that you’re too busy worrying,” he finished for her.
    How did he do that? Was he truly seeing the depths of her soul when he stared at her so intensely? She couldn’t imagine how else he could know her thoughts in such a way.
    Lord Preston stopped walking again and faced her. Bits of snow were slowly melting from the top of his hat and his shoulders, disappearing against the dark fabric as though they’d never been there. With his right hand, he reached up and brushed some flakes away from her cheek. The trail of leather against her skin left goose flesh in its wake.
    “There is much to worry about,” she whispered without thinking it through.
    “Shouldn’t Stalbridge be the one to ease your worries?”
    Percy had been the head of their family for several years now. Her brother should be the one to do that very thing, yet instead he was the cause of more worries than he had ever alleviated.
    Someone had had to determine what to do for them all, and it seemed to always fall on Freddie’s shoulders. Or perhaps she had taken the responsibility upon herself. She always had felt responsible for her sisters as they were growing up. And after Papa died, Mama had grieved so deeply for her loss that it had only been natural for Freddie to take up that mantle.
    She’d been wearing it for so long now she didn’t remember how to take it off.
    At the moment, it didn’t help matters any that Lord Preston’s stare had once again taken on that heated nature, the sort which made her feel as though she would melt from the inside out and be happy to do so.
    Another sprinkling of snow drifted down upon them from the branches above, scattering over her upturned face.
    Freddie’s breath caught when, instead of brushing the snowflakes away with his fingertips as he’d done before, his lips came down upon her cheek just where the snow had fallen.
    His was such an unexpectedly tender touch. Despite the cold, flame burst through her veins to every extremity, heating her through as his kiss traveled slowly over the bridge of her nose, her forehead, the lids of her eyes.
    Nothing could have prepared her for the sudden increase in her pulse or lightheadedness she experienced when he put both arms around he r and held her like he could somehow shelter her from all that was wrong within her world. On a sigh, she lifted her arms and held on to his broad shoulders to steady herself.
    Gentle kisses trailed along the line of her jaw, then upward s.
    His lips pressed to hers.
    It felt heavenly—nothing at all like the hen pecking kisses Lord Calbourne had given her before. She wanted more, but when she pulled him closer, he pressed her away.
    “I’m sorry.” His breathing was ragged, his voice little more than a rasp. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
    Freddie felt more confused than she already had, particularly because she wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her. No matter what she thought she felt or knew about Lord Preston, his kiss had been one of the most delightful things she’d ever experienced. Yet he was sorry? Was it for kissing her, or for making her want him, or for something else entirely?
    For the first time in her life, she’d been kissed by a man who made her feel something she’d never felt before, only to have him apologize for it.
    How dreadfully lowering.

 
    What on earth had he been thinking to kiss her? Clearly he hadn’t been thinking at all or else he never would have done it. He wouldn’t marry anyone, and he didn’t fully trust her, so he had no business kissing her.
    Even now, she still looked so flushed and pretty, and entirely too kissable. If he wasn’t careful, he’d do it all over again. And then he’d really be in trouble.
    But she also looked hurt.
    God’s teeth, he’d been the one to put that haunted look into her eyes. Even if he wasn’t fully