by Laura Landon
He set her on her feet and held her an arm’s length from him, but he didn’t release her. His gaze dropped to her lips and she knew he intended to kiss her.
She knew she couldn’t let him. For her own sake, she couldn’t allow him to kiss her again.
She took a step back from him and turned toward the closest apple tree. “We’d better pick some apples or you won’t get your apple crisp.”
“You’re a harsh taskmaster, Miss Cornwell, but you’re right. We need to get some apples picked because I have something special to show you.”
“Something more special than this?”
“Oh, yes. Something much more special.”
Eve picked the apples on the lower branches and Gideon picked those on the higher branches. In no time their basket was full.
“Here,” he said handing her another apple. “This will be our lunch.”
He picked an apple for himself, then reached for her hand.
She clasped her fingers in his and followed him as he led the way through the orchard. After a short distance he stopped. “Do you hear it?” he asked.
She listened and at first she didn’t hear anything. Then, she heard the faint rushing of water. She looked up and met his gaze. “Is there a stream nearby?”
He smiled and pulled her with him. They wound their way through the trees, then the scene before them opened to reveal a narrow stream with water so clear you could see to the bottom.
Huge shade trees lined the stream, and beds of flowers covered the open meadow on the other side of the stream. Large rocks sat in a scattered pattern throughout the riverbed, forcing the water to rush around them. Some were big and round, like giant mushrooms growing from the water. Others were long and flat, like smooth benches waiting for someone to sit on them.
“Would you like to take off your shoes and wade in the water?”
“May we?” she asked, barely able to hide her excitement.
“Of course we may. This is my private paradise and there’s no one here to stop us.”
“Oh, yes. Let’s.”
He led her to a fallen log and they removed their shoes. Eve turned to the side so Gideon couldn’t see, and removed her hose. When she turned back, he’d removed his jacket and waistcoat, and rolled up his shirtsleeves to his elbows. His shoes and socks were off and his black pants rolled to his knees.
“You’ll have to hold your skirt up or your gown will get wet. Unless you prefer to remove your gown,” he said with a teasing glint in his eyes and a mischievous grin on his face.”
She cast him a reproachful look. “I think not, my lord.”
He laughed as she gathered her skirts in her hand. She took his hand however when he reached out to help her up.
“Be careful. It will be slick when we reach the water’s edge.”
He kept his hand anchored on her elbow as they made their way to the bubbling water, then he wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close to him.
“Are you ready?”
“Oh, yes! I haven’t waded in a stream since I was a little girl.”
Eve took her first step into the water and squealed in delight. It was luscious. The water was cool and clean, and wrapped around her ankles and calves with each step. The mud from the bottom of the riverbed squished through her toes as they made their way toward the center of the stream. She’d never felt anything more wonderful.
“You might want to hike your skirt up a little more,” he said as they headed further out from shore. “The water will start to get deeper here.”
Eve gathered her skirts and threw the material over her arm and held it a little higher. “Oh, this is heavenly! Just heavenly!”
She took one step, then another, and another. A small fish swam past them, touching her legs. She looked down. The water was so clean and clear, she could see the fish as they darted past.
“We need to turn around now,” Gideon said. “The water is deeper past this point.”
“Do you go this far when you go wading?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. I love to swim here. There’s nothing more enjoyable on a hot summer day.”
“Oh, I envy you.” She imagined Gideon swimming here. She didn’t doubt that he swam in the nude, and her mind eagerly imagined what his tall, muscled body would look like without clothes. She’d seen his bronze, muscled arms when he’d been chopping wood, and knew the rest of his body would look just as magnificent.
“Someday you’ll have to join me.”
She tipped back her head and met his gaze. There was a look in his eyes she’d seen before. A look that connected her to him. The intensity in his gaze warmed her insides.
Their gazes held, then he lowered his head and touched his lips to hers.
Oh, she wanted this. She’d been hungry for his kiss since he’d kissed her before. Except this time when he kissed her she didn’t want her world to turn upside down. She didn’t want emotions she didn’t know existed to explode inside her. She didn’t want to feel as if his touch could ignite a display of fireworks. That his kisses could send shooting stars to explode behind her closed eyes.
She wanted to be able to tell herself, ‘See, I told you there wasn’t anything special about his kisses’.
Instead, her world spun in dizzying circles and the most magnificent display of fireworks burst inside her head.
He tilted his head and deepened his kiss. His tongue skimmed her lips and she knew what he was asking.
Gideon wasn’t the first man she’d kissed, and yet he was. Other men had touched their lips to hers, but no one had ever really kissed her. Not like Gideon was kissing her.
She opened her lips and his tongue breached the entrance. The feel was amazing—soft yet unyielding, rough yet silky. The emotions that erupted inside her weakened her knees.
She skimmed her hands up his chest, then fastened her arms around his neck. She needed his support to stand, needed the feel of his body against hers for strength. She needed him to be there for her. To let her experience the emotions she’d kept buried for so long, emotions she thought she might never feel.
He kissed her again. Then once more. Then he lifted his mouth from hers and pulled her close.
For several long moments neither of them moved. Neither spoke. There was nothing to say. And even if there had been, she couldn’t find the air she needed to utter any words.
From the heaving of his chest, she doubted Gideon could find the strength to speak either.
They held each other for several long, wonderful minutes. He finally spoke.
“Your gown is in the water,” he whispered in a rough and gravelly voice.
She lowered her gaze. The hem of her skirt floated in the stream.
“Would you like to sit on that rock?” he asked.
Eve looked to where he pointed. “I’m not sure I can move,” she said truthfully.
“I’m not sure I can either,” he answered, “but we can’t stay here all day. You’re getting soaked.”
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her to a flat rock that was closer to the left side of the stream than the middle. He helped her sit on the rock, then took clumps of her skirt and wrung the water from the material.
“I’m afraid it will take until tomorrow to dry,” he said, haphazardly laying the material out on the rock.
“It’s all right. I’ll sit by the cookstove when we return to the cottage.”
When he had the material spread out, he sat on the rock beside her. He took her hand in his and held it.
“We shouldn’t have—” she started to say, but he placed a finger atop her lips to stop her.
“Yes, we should have.” He twined his fingers through hers. “We had to so we knew.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what we think we know.”
“Oh, Eve. When you’ve lived as close to death as I have, all that matters is what you know. What you feel. Who you are. And what you’ll leave behind. Nothing else is important.”
&n
bsp; He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, then placed it against his chest. She could feel his heart beat beneath her flesh and she knew what he was trying to tell her.
She felt the same. But unlike him, she knew how impossible it was for them to act on those feelings.
CHAPTER 11
“Good morning, Eve,” he greeted when she entered the cottage.
She smiled and returned his greeting. She loved that he used her Christian name when he spoke to her. The sound of her name when he said it left her warm and feeling…special. His use of her name left no room to doubt his pleasure at seeing her.
No matter how often she came to the cottage, or how many times she saw him, her body reacted the same: her heart shifted in her breast and her breathing halted before it could begin again. He was…
She tried to find just the right words to describe him, but it was impossible.
He was handsome in the extreme, with rugged features, high cheekbones, a strong jaw and eyes as black as midnight. But it wasn’t his looks that made him different from every other man she’d ever met. It wasn’t anything she saw. It was what she felt when she was near him.
He possessed an indomitable strength that couldn’t be matched, or even equaled. He had the ability to take charge and control anything in his domain, and even though he’d seldom traveled farther than Townsend Manor or his cottage at Shadowdown, his demeanor radiated authority and power. Those qualities set him above other men.
He was only eight and twenty years old and had been secluded nearly his entire life, yet he’d been raised and educated as the heir that he was. And, thanks to the insistence of his father, he was prepared to take over the running of the Townsend dynasty when that time came. The fact that his father had refused to allow Gideon’s seizures to dictate any limitations he might face spoke of the love the duke had for his son. And the eternal hope that there would be a cure for Gideon.
Eve walked into the foyer then followed him to the same room where they always met. “How are you and Lettie getting along?” she asked.
His answer was a slow shake of his head. “At this rate, I won’t be able to button any of my waistcoats by month’s end. And she’s only been here for a little more than a week.”
Eve laughed. “And you haven’t had a seizure,” she reminded him.
“No, but it’s early yet. I’ll need to wait another week or two. Perhaps as long as a month.”
There was a rap on the door, then Lettie entered with a tea tray. “I hope his lordship hasn’t been filling your head with tales that I’ve been starving him,” she said placing the tray on the table in front of them.
“Just the opposite, Lettie. He’s been complaining that he’s having trouble fastening his clothes.”
“That’s because his lordship has been spending too much time sitting indoors reading, and working on the ledgers His Grace brought him. He’s not spent enough time outdoors using the muscles God gave him.”
Eve and Gideon both laughed. “What exactly is it you think I should be using my muscles to do, Lettie?” he asked.
“Nothin’, your lordship,” she answered. “Unless you want another apple pie, or perhaps a peach cobbler. Then you might consider going to that orchard you’re always boasting about, and bringing me back something I might use to make you one of those desserts you’re so fond of eating.”
“Our Lettie is a taskmaster, Miss Cornwell. Always threatening me with starvation if I don’t work for my meals.”
“Ha!” Lettie said as she turned toward the door. “I’ll leave a basket by the back door, should you and Miss Cornwell decide to get a breath of fresh air.”
“Thank you, Lettie,” Eve said. “We’d be delighted to pick some fruit for you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Gideon said as Lettie closed the door and left the room. They heard her amused cackle as she bundled herself off to the kitchen and they smiled at each other.
“I don’t know what I’d have done without her,” he said after Eve poured them each a cup of tea. Then she handed him a plate with pastries still warm from the oven. “She filled the void that was left when my mother died.”
“What about your stepmother?”
“I can never say anything negative about Her Grace. She came to be with mother after I was born, then stayed, even after Mother’s seizures began.”
“Is that how your father met her?”
He shook his head. “Actually, Father knew Ernesta before he met my mother. According to Lettie, there were rumors about Father and Ernesta before Father met Mother. Once he met Mother, so Lettie says, Father didn’t have eyes for any other woman.”
Gideon finished his tea and the pastry, then set down his cup. “Have you discovered any more files Dr. Milton had concerning Mother?”
Eve shook her head. “Nor have I found the journal your mother supposedly kept.”
He smiled. “You will. It has to be there somewhere.”
“I scour through another store room every time I go to the basement. I’m almost running out of places to search.”
“I’m not concerned. You’ll find it.” Gideon rose from his chair and held out his hand. “Come. The sun is out and it’s too pleasant of a day to let pass without picking those apples Lettie needs.”
Eve took Gideon’s hand and rose. She knew the emotions that would rush through her body when her flesh touched his, and she wasn’t disappointed. A surging warmth traveled from where he held her hand to places all throughout her body. She didn’t want to be so affected by him. Knew nothing could come of such feelings. But she wasn’t strong enough to stop them. And a part of her didn’t want to.
They went through the kitchen and took the basket Lettie had sitting beside the back door. When they reached the outdoors, Matthew joined them. He followed, as he or Thomas always did, but stayed far enough back that he didn’t interfere.
“Can you imagine the day when we’ll be able to walk about without Thomas or Matthew following?” Gideon said. He’d tucked her arm through the bend in his elbow and led her down the stone path that wound through the gardens at the back of the cottage, then turned on a small path that led to the orchard.
“I think you won’t know how to behave without a guard to look after you.”
He laughed, then turned serious. “Do you really think it’s possible that we might find a cause for my seizures?”
“I do,” she answered. “I’m not sure why I think that, but I do. I tell myself it’s because your seizures are different from other seizures I’ve seen. Or the amount of time between seizures, the regularity.”
“Or maybe,” he said, placing his hand over her hand resting on his arm, “it’s that you want there to be a reason for my seizures, and you desperately want to find a remedy.”
“That’s possible,” she answered. “I don’t want to think that you will live the remainder of your life having to endure these attacks.”
Gideon took her hand in his and pulled her behind the low hanging branches of a huge apple tree. When it was unlikely that they could be seen, he turned toward her. He lifted his hand and cupped his palm to her cheek.
Eve knew he was going to kiss her. Kissing her had become a habit—a habit she didn’t mind, but knew she should. Nothing could come of their kisses except heartache and hurt. Especially for her.
He wrapped his arms around her, then brought his mouth down over hers.
She didn’t want to know if Matthew could see them, nor did she care. She didn’t intend on getting carried away with Gideon’s kiss. Not like she had the last time. Not like she had when they’d been here before.
But before she could control what was happening, her emotions shoved her mind to a small corner of her head where it couldn’t influence her behavior.
He deepened his kiss, then brought her closer to him. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and the other arm around her waist.
She told herself that she couldn’t let his kisses go too far, that she needed to exhibit self-control. Inste
ad, her palms skimmed up his chest, over his finely made jacket, then she wrapped her arms around his neck. She needed to be closer to him.
She threaded her fingers through his silky hair, then pressed against the back of his head.
He kissed her with open-mouthed hunger, each sampling of her mouth more passionate. His tongue entered her mouth, searching, discovering, then finding what he hunted for. What he desperately sought.
A low moan competed with the chirping of the birds and she knew the sound had come from her. She knew the sound was evidence of her desire for something she couldn’t explain.
And he deepened his kiss.
This was going further than she’d intended their kisses to go. The effect it had on her, and on Gideon, frightened her. She knew she had to stop their kisses before they passed the point of stopping. On a harsh gasp, she turned her head and broke their contact.
For several long moments neither of them spoke. They gasped for breath as if they’d just surfaced from staying too long under water. Their heavy breathing even drowned out the rustling of the leaves in the trees around them. And she could do nothing more than wrap her arms around Gideon’s waist and hold onto him.
“You are a wise lady,” he said, resting his forehead against hers. “You possess much more strength than I.”
“I was afraid these apples would rot on the trees if we didn’t pick them soon,” she said on a ragged gasp.
He laughed, then stepped away from her, but he still held her hand. Their separation seemed as if he was a million miles away from her.
“And Lettie would scold both of us for being gone so lon—”
A sound shattered the silence and stopped his words. Gideon’s grip on her fingers tightened, then he jerked backwards.
Eve wasn’t sure the exact moment she realized something was wrong. Perhaps it was when she saw the look of stunned disbelief on Gideon’s face. Perhaps it was when his eyes closed and his head dropped back on his shoulders. Perhaps it was when he slumped to the ground and she couldn’t keep him from falling.
“Gideon!” she yelled, fully aware of what had happened.
