The Bridemaker by Rexanne Becnel

Author:Rexanne Becnel [Becnel, Rexanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Regency, Single Women, General, Romance, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780312983116
Google: hDIKWjEUMRsC
Amazon: 0312983115
Publisher: St. Martin's
Published: 2002-07-14T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Adrian could barely walk. Donning his coat on Hester’s kitchen stoop became an exercise in self-discipline. Left arm. Right arm. Pulling on his gloves was a near impossibility when his hands shook this badly. At least his hat went on easily, jammed onto his head with one frustrated motion. But he’d never be able to mount his horse.

So he stood beneath a newly budded cherry tree at the back corner of her cottage, hidden from the street and sheltered from the neighbors’ view. He couldn’t hide from himself, though, not from the fierce, physical pain that gripped him, nor from the madness.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, seeking relief but not finding it. Good God, was he insane? He should have stayed in her parlor and finished what they’d begun. Hester wouldn’t have objected, and certainly he’d be feeling a damn sight better than he did right now.

What idiotic impulse had made him stop when he most needed not to stop? He’d done right by her—more than right, for he’d felt every tremor she’d experienced.

But then, he’d had a point to prove: her secret lover had nothing on him, and now she knew it.

So why stop when she was primed, when she was melting hot for him, sweet as honey and fragrant with the intoxicating scent of aroused woman?

From another yard a woman’s shout was answered by a child’s call. In the street the metal-clad wheels of a cart rumbled across the cobblestones. A dog yipped, and from inside Hester’s cottage her two pets answered, one a shrill excited bark, the other lower and lazier.

Life teemed around them, inside her house and out. That’s why he’d stopped. He didn’t want to ruin her reputation, not when she went to such extreme pains to preserve it.

So he’d stopped, when it was the last thing he’d wanted to do. But it was not over between them. She was too passionate, too perfectly responsive to his every caress not to want more, not to want to finish what they’d started.

The prudish society snob was turning out to be not so prudish and, even more surprising, not so snobbish either.

He gritted his teeth at the insistent throbbing in his breeches. In time she would come to him; he was certain of that. She would seek him out and he would be ready. More than ready.

So he willed himself to breathe and relax. He straightened his clothes and, when he felt presentable, made his way down the side alley to his waiting mount. But he didn’t ride. Instead he walked the spirited gelding, taking a route that he hoped would not bring him into contact with anyone he knew.

There was no use for it. Hester had to talk to someone and Mrs. DeLisle was the only person she could trust with a subject like this. Even then it would be difficult, she knew as she perched on the edge of the ratty hack she’d hired for her hasty trip to Milton Street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.