each movement. She didn’t belong in faded dresses.
After she handed him a cup of tea, she pulled a stool close to the ?re and began brushing her hair dry in the warm air.
Cooper had seen his sisters do the same thing a thousand times, but as Mary dried her long chestnut mane, he couldn’t stop staring.
“I’ll only take a few minutes,” she apologized when she looked up.
“Take a lifetime,” he whispered. “It’s beautiful to watch.”
Mary laughed. “If we’re to be friends, Mr. Adams, you can’t tease me. I’m fully aware that I’m plain. Miles says when we save enough money we can go back east and I’ll become a schoolmarm. He says I have the look of one already.”
“You could teach school here,” he said more to himself than her as he moved to the chair behind her stool.
She went back to pulling the brush through her hair.
“Mary, why’d you ask me to kiss you the other night?” he inquired after several minutes of silence.
“I don’t know.” She didn’t look at him. “Maybe I just wanted to know how it felt.”
“My kiss or any kiss?”
“Yours.” She stared into the embers. “I was kissed once and didn’t like it. I thought that if you kissed me then I wouldn’t think of it as being something ugly.”
She rose to her feet. “The rain sounds like it may have stopped. I should change.”
He stood, blocking her path. “Do you think I could try again? On the kiss, I mean.”
She stared at him with her wonderful, expressive eyes. He saw a question, but no fear. They’d ?nally gotten beyond her fright.
“No.” She shook her head, letting her curls tumble around her shoulders. “It is kind of you to ask, but…”
“I’m not being kind.” He swept a strand away from her cheek. “I’m being honest. There is nothing I’d like more than to kiss you right now.”
He leaned down and brushed his lips against her cheek as he had almost a week ago. When she didn’t retreat, he cupped her chin with his ?ngers.
His mouth swept over hers, forever erasing the bruising kiss she’d once endured. Mary had read about such a kiss. She’d dreamed about it, but she never thought anyone would kiss her so. She closed her eyes, trying to remember every detail.
“More?” he whispered across her lips.
“More,” she answered and rested her hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
This time, he leaned closer, his warm lips caressing her throat before he ventured to her mouth. She couldn’t hold back the sigh that escaped as he found her lips once more. Never, not for one minute in her life, had she ever felt beautiful, but she felt so now.
A sensation of being cherished washed over her, ?lling the very depth of her soul. Her lifetime would now be measured in the before and after of this one moment. She’d never be the same. In the twilight hours she would think of this and at dawn, just before she awoke, she’d remember the way Cooper Adams tasted on her lips.
“More.” She repeated her request when he moved once again to her throat. “More, please.”
His words tickled her ear. “You only have to ask once, Mary.”
His arm curled around her back, pulling her close. He tried to keep it light, as he guessed a woman would want her ?rst kiss to be. But when she came so willingly to him and he felt the length of her pressing against him, he deepened the kiss.
Heaven had stepped into his arms. The warmth of her, the fresh, rainwater smell of her surrounded him. How could he not have known she had been so near for years?
Her body ?t against him perfectly. She was gentle, soft spoken, intelligent. In her arms his worries faded. The taste of her left him longing for more. The beauty in her could not be measured in just a pretty face. She had a beauty that settled against his heart.
As her arms circled his neck and her ?ngers crossed into his hair, he lifted her off the ?oor and opened her mouth with his tongue. He knew he was bold. She was a woman who needed to be treated tenderly. But he was starving for the taste of her.
She jerked in surprise.
He moved his hand along her back, calming any fears as he brought passion to her simple request for a kiss. If she had pulled away, he would have stopped, no matter how much he’d have hated to. But even in her shock, she clung to him.
One step at a time, he taught her. Kissing her deeply. Lovingly moving his ?ngers over her body. Letting her know the magic that happens when the senses overload with pleasure.
Her heart beat wildly against his and he knew she wanted his touch as dearly as he needed to feel her near. Her hand fumbled with the sash of her robe a moment before the heavy wool parted and her body, clad only in undergarments, pressed against him once more.
She gulped for breath as she leaned her head back. His kisses explored her throat. His mouth covered where her pulse pounded as his hand moved up to brush over her breast.
So great a pleasure exploded in her senses, she would have fallen had he not held her. His tongue journeyed along her throat until his kisses reached the bottom of her ear, making her forget to breathe. His thumb slid across the tip of her breast, caressing her until she ached for more. The taste of him was paradise. The smell that was only him ?lled the air around her. They were suddenly ?oating in a river without shores, without boundaries, and her only thought was that she wanted more.
She craved all there was of this lovemaking she’d known nothing of before today. Before Cooper.
Pushing him an inch away Mary tried to remember how to speak. She had to tell him of the wonder he’d helped her discover. He had to know what a gift he’d given her with his touch.
But before she could say anything, he whispered, “Dear God, Mary…I’m sorry.”
Chapter Eleven
COOPER STEPPED OUT into the night air while he waited for Mary to ?nish dressing. He wished the rain still pounded. Hell, he thought, he wished lightning would strike him right now. Maybe if he got a strong enough jolt he would be knocked senseless and feel better.
Nothing could make him feel worse.
“I’m ready,” Mary whispered from behind him as she stepped out, then turned to lock the store door.
He glanced around. Back in her plain dress, with her hair pulled tightly in a knot, little remained of the passionate woman who’d been in his arms minutes before. He couldn’t tell if she had been crying-she refused to look up at him. He wouldn’t blame her. If she had not pushed away from him when she did he might have made love to her. He had never been so out of control, so mindless, in his life.
Cooper pulled his horse close to the porch and waited. He didn’t want to even guess what she thought of him right now. She probably wondered what kind of friend offers a kiss and then starts undressing her.
“Can you help me up?” she asked in little more than a whisper.
Awkwardly, Cooper placed his hands around her waist and lifted her onto the saddle. He tried not to think about how she had felt earlier, but he wasn’t sure he would ever forget the fullness of her breast in his hand with only a layer of cotton between them. She hadn’t said a word since he apologized and from the way she stiffened when he touched her, Mary was doing her best to forget he still breathed on the same planet.
He thought of walking home and letting her ride alone, but that would only serve to make him a bigger fool. In this mud it would take him an hour or more and they would probably get rained on again.
Attempting not to touch her, he slipped his boot in the stirrup and swung up behind her. When his body wrapped around her, she stiffened once more.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m ?ne.” The lie frosted the night air. “I’d just like to get to the party. My brother will be worried about me.”
