Free Lynette Vinet - Emerald Trilogy 02 by Emerald Enchantment Page B

pint of ale, she noticed he watched her. “Well, what’s the matter? Have I grown horns or something?” she asked.
    “Nay, I just like to look at you. You’re pretty as a rose blossom.”
    A ready blush suffused her face with hot pink. She turned away, ready to stand. “Don’t be saying such things, Patrick! I don’t have the time for your nonsense.”
    When she stood, he stood also and touched her face with gentle fingers. “Beth, may I kiss you?” he asked.
    “No!”
    “Not even to thank you for bringing my lunch? ‘ Tisn’t every day I eat with such a charming girl.”
    It was a simple request from a man she had known since she was a child. They had grown up together, but she didn’t want him to kiss her, and she wasn’t sure why. Anyway, why must he ask her? If he wanted to kiss her, then he should do it, she thought petulantly and illogically.
    The hunger in his eyes was unmistakable. Now that she was no longer a virgin, she recognized desire when she saw it. “What’s gotten into you?” she whispered through pale lips, but she swayed against him, and her breasts met the strength of his chest. Her eyes lifted to his, and all her reservations vanished when his mouth touched hers in a sweet, melting kiss that seemed to turn her bones to jelly.
    “I love you, Beth.” His words startled her, and she realized the kiss had ended, and she was gazing into his eyes like a love sick sheep and holding onto him like a monkey clinging to a vine that she had seen in a picture book once. She pulled away, and though he tried to reach for her again, she eluded his grasp.
    “This isn’t right, Patrick!” Turning on her heels, she raced down the hillside and heard his voice calling after her.
    “I’m sorry. Forgive me!” she heard him bellow, but she refused to look back. All she could think about was that she had disgraced herself, had wanted Patrick to make love to her. What was wrong with her? Surely she wasn’t like her mother!
    “Howard,” she whimpered to herself like a wounded animal as she scampered down the hillside, but the face in her thoughts wasn’t Howard’s.
    ~ ~ ~
     
    Soft sunlight streamed across Allison’s sleeping form, giving her face an ethereal quality. Luminous blue eyes fluttered open. Stretching in languid contentment, she turned toward Paul, surprised to find him watching her.
    “Have I overslept?” she asked.
    Shaking his head, he drew her into the circle of his arms. She nuzzled against his chest. “We have some time before we leave. You’re not frightened, are you?”
    An involuntary shiver disturbed her complacency. By the following nightfall they’d have returned to Fairfax Manor to face Cecelia’s wrath, and Paul would learn she had been disinherited. Allison knew she ought to tell him, but if he had only married her for her fortune, she wanted to savor the few remaining hours of blissful ignorance.
    “Paul, we don’t have to return. We can remain in Dublin.” She felt his body stiffen.
    “Don’t allow your aunt to intimidate you. There comes a time when you must fight for what you want.”
    “I defied her to marry you, and I can’t even imagine what her reaction will be,” she said unhappily.
    “I suspect she’ll rant and rave, but you’re her only living relative. Cecelia will welcome you home, she’ll accept me; you’ll see.”
    “You’re so confident!”
    “I learned long ago that to get what I wanted, I had to be sure of myself. How else would I have gotten you?” His expression grew unreadable, and she wondered what deep, complex emotions Paul hid from her. She expected him to make love to her as was their morning custom, but suddenly he threw off the covers and walked naked to the wardrobe. “Time to get up,” he said and began to dress.
    “Please, let’s wait just a bit longer.”
    He wished to protest, but Allison, kneeling on the bed and opening her arms to him, pale hair framing her face and cascading down her bare breasts like spun gold,