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“Rumor has it he was stroking your face affectionately.”
Erika gasped. “That’s absurd!”
“Then it’s not true?”
Her eyes flashed to the taller woman. “Most certainly not!”
“What a pity.” She turned away and left Erika gasping. That was the most absurd, most outrageous thing she had ever heard! Her and Jay Colby? Groaning, she lifted her hand and rubbed her temple again. Things were deteriorating fast. She didn’t need this. It was bad enough her grandfather wasn’t speaking to her. With a horrified start, she wondered if he too had heard the rumors.
“Ready to try again?” Carnie returned to her side.
Erika nodded weakly and lifted the paper containing her lines in front of her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she read the lines to herself, repeated them, and then placed the sheet behind her back. “For thou hatred has sprung from my one love—”
“True love,” Carnie corrected.
“For thou hatred has sprung from my true love—”
“One true love.”
Erika’s brow crinkled up. Didn’t she say that? “For thou hatred has sprang from my one true love.”
Carnie sighed. “Sprung, not sprang.”
She lifted her hand and rubbed that throbbing temple once again. “Sprung, sprang, what’s the difference—oh for blasted sakes—”
Turning indignantly on her heel, she marched over to Jay and Garrett and demanded, “Must you make that insufferable noise—and would you kindly put your shirt back on!”
They both stopped instantaneously and looked up at her in surprise. Jay was the first to react as a heavy frown drew his brows down low, but still the same, he turned and grabbed his shirt.
The expression on Garrett’s face had remorse kicking in immediately. Rubbing that horrific headache once again, she told him, “I’m sorry, Garrett. I didn’t mean it.”
“That’s all right, Miss Snowden,” he said, slowly getting to his feet. “I can come back later when you’re not practicing your lines.”
“Stay right where you are, Garrett,” Jay ordered as he slid his arms into his shirt. Shooting a glance to Jay, Erika was on the verge of offering her apologizes to him as well, but the sight of that superior body of his, left her speechless.
“You’re coming with me.” He seized her arm unexpectedly and dragged her behind him as he turned toward the slope that led down the hill in the opposite direction of their spectators.
For some reason she didn’t argue. She allowed him to lead her to the grassy slope where he helped her down until they reached the railroad tracks below. From there he followed the tracks across the bridge making Erika begin to question their destination. “Where are we going?”
He didn’t say anything until he reached the center of the bridge, then he turned and glared down at her. “Somewhere nobody can see or hear us. Apparently there isn’t a hell of a lot of privacy in this town.”
Which confirmed he had heard the rumors about them as well. Erika shifted uncomfortably in her fine satin boots, the heels being caught every so often between the railroad ties. “Is this really safe? I mean, a train could come.”
“Morning train isn’t expected for another hour.”
She nodded, not sure why, but suddenly felt very confused. “Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you back there, okay. Is that what you want to hear?”
“I’m glad to hear you say it, but that wasn’t why I dragged you down here.”
Crossing he
r arms over her chest, she tried to give him her best haughty look. But his face had gone unpredictably soft and she felt her insides begin to yield. Then without warning, her bottom lip began to tremble. Irritated, she sucked it in quickly and sunk her teeth into it deeply. Mortified, she turned away and cast her eyes on the harbor and the aqua colored lake beyond.
He sighed and reached for her, drawing her up against his chest. “Has it been that bad?”
The proper moral thing to do was to pull away, but the human side, the side needing desperately to be consoled, she refused to deny. While the majority of her brain struggled with the indecency of his embrace, a smaller percentage succumbed to the comfort of his arms as she pressed her cheek against the very shirt she demanded earlier he don. Another even more minuscule, but not altogether unnoticeable, portion of her brain comprehended the fact she would have been lying snuggled against his bare chest if he had kept his shirt off. She was stunned by the jolt of disappointment this last thought caused.
As his arms came around her and held her close she reveled in the solace of his embrace. On their own accord, her much smaller arms went around his huge midriff and clutched him tightly. She inhaled the scent of him beneath her, recognizing the familiar musky smell of his natural male scent. Her stomach somersaulted causing little butterflies to flutter in her belly. With one hand, Jay reached up and stroked her hair. Slow, intoxicating caresses. That was when the tears came. She had been fighting them back for so long, there was no energy left for her to keep them at bay any longer. Sobbing into his shirt, she was certain it would be soaked through by the time she was done.
