He will be angry. No, he will be livid.
He was here with her now because he didn’t know the truth. Allowing his kisses would be dishonest of her. She would be taking his affections by way of deceit.
This is wrong. Why does it have to feel so right?
If things did grow deeper between them, and Francis uncovered the truth of her bid for the spice tender, he may well come to regret his actions. To see himself as being taken for little more than a cuckold.
And where would that leave her? Back to where it all started. Living next door to a man who wanted her gone. The barrels and ropes were one thing—a three-year lucrative spice contract, something entirely different. Francis would become her sworn enemy.
I should tell him. Or if not, then step back and let my head overrule my heart.
Poppy was still wrestling with her conscience when Francis lowered his head and captured her mouth. With the warm sensation of his lips on hers, her heart signaled a cry of victory. Aching need overcame all sense of reason as she welcomed his embrace.
They were kissing. Reckless desire saw all caution tossed to the wind. Poppy gripped the front of Francis’s jacket lapels tight; it would have taken a Caribbean hurricane to prize her off him. She was going to take everything he offered, and consequences be damned.
This is selfish. I should stop him. But I can’t.
His tongue swept past her compliant lips, seizing, claiming. Everything he demanded of her; she gave up freely. His hand settled on the back of her neck, holding her to him. The touch of his strong fingers against her skin sent a shiver down her spine.
She groaned as his other hand skimmed over her waist and hips. When he cupped her bottom, drawing her flush against him, Poppy slipped her hands from Francis’s coat and wrapped them as best as she could around his middle. The only way they could get any closer would be if they were naked. If they were making love.
Oh lord, what if he wants that?
Her bed was in the corner. It wouldn’t take much for him to strip her naked and claim her body completely. To make her his forever.
No. Anything else, but not that. You have to resist the sweetest temptation.
It was like the ancient sirens were beckoning for her to sail into the dangerous shoals. To allow her ship to come to grief on hidden rocks. It would be so easy to heed the call. To give in to the overwhelming urge.
And then pay the heaviest of prices.
The apex at the top of her thighs pulsed with desire. Her body wanted that which she had withheld from it for so long. Nothing could compare to the glory of feeling the heavy weight of a man on top of her for that sweet moment when he spread her legs wide and filled her empty soul.
His fingers settled on the ties of her short jacket, and Francis drew back from the kiss. “Poppy?”
Thank heavens. He is trying to show restraint. Unlike me. At least one of us has a hold on their sanity.
Hers was hanging on by a mere thread.
“Do you want me?” she whispered.
Francis nodded. “In every way that you are free and willing to give. Though I think that tonight, we should draw the line at knowing one another in the fullest sense. I don’t think either of us is ready for that. At least not yet.”
He really was the gift that kept on giving. Even as she knowingly, willingly lied to him, he was seeking to protect her. Making certain that she wouldn’t be left regretting that final step.
Not yet.
Love, or whatever this was, should be simple. But it wasn’t. Any choice came with a cost that was either paid now or in the future.
But if I say no, I may never get this chance again with him. And I want Francis.
Her heart was determined to have its way.
“Yes. Touch me. But you have to know that I am not one of your innocent misses of the haute ton, Francis. I am a woman who has given and taken pleasure when it was offered. That doesn’t make me a whore; it just means I have lived.”
He pulled on the ties at the front of her silk jacket. One by one, they loosened.
“I would never think of you as anything other than fascinating. Exotic. A woman who has seen beyond the skies of London. You have no idea how much of my day is spent thinking about you. Of how I imagine you standing naked before me while I go down on my knees and worship your body with my tongue.”
