Julia Justiss by Wicked Wager

Author:Wicked Wager [Wager, Wicked]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THOUGH HE HEARD THE WORDS, Tony had to shake his head to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He never expected Jenna would agree to waltz with him.

Here, in the intimate dimness of the deserted balcony.

Given how the merest touch of her—and he’d nearly scared her off tonight, succumbing far too often to the temptation to touch her—fired to a boil the ever-simmering longing to pull her back into his arms, waltzing was probably a very bad idea. His leg, as well as other already-throbbing parts of his anatomy, was going to give him agonies when the music ended and he had to let her go.

But he also knew that nothing less than a squad of provost marshals would keep him from her. Already his hands trembled with anticipation and desire made his throat so thick he couldn’t voice a reply. Instead he pulled her toward him.

She stepped into his arms, close enough that her honeysuckle scent and the warmth of her skin enveloped him in a dizzying cloud that set his pulse trip-hammering before they’d taken the first step. As his knee would not, in truth, support his spinning her away from him in the requisite circles, he was required to simply hold her near as he led her in gentle spirals.

Their slow, swaying progress across the balcony turned a dance which, he now discovered, had been justly condemned as scandalously intimate, into an even closer approximation of an embrace. The potent power of her nearness stimulated every nerve to acute sensitivity. Within moments, his whole body was sheened with perspiration, his fingers clenched in his gloves as he struggled to resist the imperative to turn this pseudoembrace into a real one.

Still, he must resist, for if he pulled her any closer, she would learn beyond doubt how much he desired her. At the thought, his knee gave a bit and he stumbled.

Instead of pushing away, she steadied him and—miracle of miracles—stepped closer. Her hands tightening on his arm, his shoulder, she laid her head against his chest.

After the first moment of shock, from somewhere deep within him tenderness welled up, a sense of awe that tempered the sharp edges of lust. Hardly daring to breathe lest he disturb her, he bent to brush his cheek against her hair and closed his eyes, wishing that the music and the magic might never end.

Of course, far too soon, the orchestra finished. Not until she lifted her head did he reluctantly loosen his grip. But the face she turned up to him, illumined by moonlight and radiant with delight, sent another wave of tenderness spiraling through him.

How could he ever let her go?

“Ah, Nelthorpe, that was wonderful!”

“No—you are wonderful,” he answered.

She smiled and shook her head a little, as if denying it. And then he just couldn’t resist any longer. Though he’d probably get his face slapped and his ears blistered for the lapse, he simply had to kiss her.

Once again, though, she surprised him. Instead of jerking away as she had that night on the bridge, she leaned into his kiss.

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