Connor leaned back and met her eyes once more, recognized her arousal and his own. She licked her lips as if to prepare for his kiss and suddenly he wanted nothing more. “Heather, my love,” he whispered huskily.
Harsh reality settled on Emmy as she realized what he said and where they were. What was she thinking? She couldn’t believe she was allowing a near stranger to fondle her and in a hallway where anyone could see them as well! Granted it had been years since she had been held in strong male arms, years she since had felt desire. With this man, she felt it in spades and wanted oh so badly to be wrapped in his strength, to feel his passion. Madness! He thought her his wife absent these past ten years! He didn’t want her, he wanted his Heather!
Emmy drew in a shaky breath. Shifting away slightly, she wedged out of his arms and turned to him avoiding his eyes now as embarrassment washed over her. “Well, that was ummm….” Words couldn’t describe. “Well then we’re agreed, I guess. I won’t say words that disturb other people and you won’t…do what you were doing.” Her eyes drifted over the ceiling, walls, anywhere but him. “Agreed? Umm…good. Good night then,” Emmy backed away to the stairs before turning to flee up them.
She didn’t look back until she reached the top. Pausing to glance over her shoulder, she found him waiting at the bottom of the stairs, one foot on the lowest tread as if he were going to follow. When their eyes met, Emmy was burned by the passion she read there. She hesitated. She could feel his want and desire even from the distance. Years of loneliness washed over her, and she knew she wanted him as well. She could either open her arms to it and embrace it or run like the nervous chicken that quivered inside her.
She ran.
Once in her room, Emmy flung herself on the bed in a tangle of skirts and, closing her eyes, moved her hands to where his were moments ago. Her breasts felt swollen and tingling, her lust was high and aching and she knew that for the first time in her life that she’d be willing to have sex with a man she’s just met. This is where one-night stands came from, she thought. This kind of insanity.
But then, she couldn’t imagine one mere night satisfying the desire she felt. Emmy pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes and groaned. “I am such a fool!” Connor didn’t want her, Emmy, he wanted his wife. Oh, but she wanted him more than she had ever wanted a man, more than she could ever have imagined wanting a man. Right or wrong, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to fight it.
Outside her door from their shared parlor, Connor paused with his hand raised, ready to knock. This was madness, he thought as he drew his hand back in a frustrated fist. He shouldn’t want her so badly! Where was his anger? Where was the wrath that had burned within him these past ten years? He had chased her across continents when she had fled, not because he had loved her but rather because he had wanted to bring her back here and publicly divorce her. He had wanted her humiliation in exchange for his. He wanted to watch her suffer as he once did.
Where was that vengeance now? Lost in the face of overwhelming lust? When he had seen Heather at his front gates yesterday, he would have thought that he would gladly put her to a trial by fire for her sins of the past. Instead, he had lifted her into his arms, stared down into her lovely face and felt…sorry that he had frightened her. He had wanted insanely to protect her and had been more angered by himself than her in that moment.
Though Connor knew the mere sight of her should still enrage him, he knew only that he wanted to hold her and shelter her. He wanted to make love to her passionately, tenderly. Madness, he thought again.
“I have lost my mind,” he murmured aloud and raised his fist again to knock upon her door. By all rights, he could go in and have her knowing that she wanted him as well. She had responded to his touch. Had welcomed it, even. But as he started to reach for the door, he knew he couldn’t do it. So much had changed. She had changed. He felt drawn to her in ways he had never imagined lest experienced. Apart from her crazy insistence that she was not who everyone knew she was, Heather was a much deeper person today than she had been ten years ago. Maybe that maturity and this attraction were worth exploring.
He pushed away from the door and headed to his room.
Chapter 10
Scraping metal against brick woke Emmy late the next morning to find Margo in her room stoking the fire. The room chilled and damp against the cold October outside.
“Ugh,” Emmy moaned rolling over. She hadn’t slept at all last night. Wanting and unsatisfied lust had kept her a wake for most of it. Other troubling thoughts had kept her tossing and turning for the rest. How did she get here? How was she supposed to get back? What was she supposed to do about Connor? Here was a troubled guy who a little basic therapy could probably do a world of good for. She had the feeling that underneath all that angst and anger was a romantic. A really great guy who just wanted someone to love and be loved right back by. She wondered what it would be like to be that lucky woman. What it would be like to
