Free Accidental Engagement by Cally Green Page A

melting into it, the combination of strength and tenderness leaving her weak at the knees. She clung to Mark more tightly, her arms winding themselves around his neck and her hands pressing his head forwards so that his mouth moved even more closely over her own. It was blissful and arousing all at the same time. And when the soft warmth of his tongue began to part her lips she felt a surge of energy that threatened to rob her of every restraint.
    How far had their relationship gone? she wondered, before all rational though was banished as his hand trailed down to her breast. She gasped at the intensity of the sensation, feeling its effects throughout every inch of her body . . .
    . . and her gasp seeme d to change something in him, as though it had awakened him to the fact of what he was about to do.
    She felt a feeling of loss as he pulled away from her, her whole body aching for him. She wanted him to go on kissing and caressing her, and looking into his eyes she could tell he wanted it too.
    ‘You’re still sore from your injuries,’ he said, his eyes never once leaving her own.
    But regardless of her injuries, and regardless of the moods that seemed to overtake him from time to time, she knew that it would not be long before he made love to her . . . and that it would be worth the wait.

C hapter Five
     
    ‘It seems you have an admirer.’ Serena’s father spoke indulgently.
    Serena, glancing out of the window, pulled a scornful face as she saw Geoffrey Watson getting out of his Jaguar.
    ‘Now don’t be like that,’ said her father mildly. ‘Geoffrey Watson’s a harmless young man.’
    Serena, about to declare that Geoffrey Watson was as boring as he was poor, bit back the words just in time. The Watsons were old friends of her father’s, and she knew it would only make him angry if she gave way to her true feelings. Composing herself, she received Geoffrey with a good grace, whilst her father received him with genuine warmth.
    ‘And did you enjoy our party?’ Mr Leverington asked, listening patiently to Geoffrey’s effusive reply. ‘Good, good. Well, I’ll leave you two young people together. I have to see Potter about the roses. He wants me to have climbers, but I’d rather have ramblers.’ He gave an attractive smile. ‘At the moment, I don’t know which of us is going to get our own way.’
    Mr Leverington left the room and Serena allowed her mask of civility to drop, openly examining her nail polish whilst Geoffrey stammered out a few polite sentences about the party and about how charming she had looked.
    Serena didn’t listen. She would have to entertain Geoffrey for a reasonable length of time, or her father would ask her why he had left so soon, but she did not feel herself to be under any obligation to entertain him. He had paid the call. He could be the one to use up his energies on entertaining her.
    ‘ . . . wondered if you could tell me what I ought to do.’
    Serena, lost in a daydream in which Anna’s accident had been fatal, became aware that Geoffrey had stopped speaking. Unfortunately, as she had not been listening to a word he had been saying she had no idea how to reply. She covered it up, however, by turning the tables on him and saying, ‘What do you feel you should do?’
    ‘ Well. Part of me thinks it’s none of my business -’
    ‘Then stay out of it,’ said Serena, returning her attention to her nails.
    Geoffrey did not reply. She was forced to look at him again. ‘Well?’ she asked.
    He looked embarrassed. ‘It’s just that . . . I thought that . . . . with him being your friend . . . well, that you’d want him to know.’
    Serena studied him for a minute. With him being your friend . Who could Geoffrey be talking about?
    ‘I think you ought to start again. At the beginning.’
    ‘B ut I’ve already told you . . . ’ Geoffrey protested.
    ‘Again,’ said Serena, uncurling herself and leaning towards him.
    He sighed. ‘ . . . and so when I saw her with