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Her stomach flipped nervously when she saw the intent look in his eyes. When she tried to breathe, she felt as if she was trying to draw the luscious air out of his lungs. He was so close she could smell the fine scent of soap and lemons. It was light, and reminded her of summer, but rather than bring a smile to her lips a wealth of misery and yearning began to build instead.
“I am stopping you from falling onto the rocks,” Ryan replied. Rather than release her, he slid both arms around her. He then looked steadily into her eyes. “You shouldn’t have kissed me in the study just now.”
“I am sorry I did,” she murmured with a frown of confusion.
“It was wrong.”
“I know.”
“All wrong.”
“I know.” Sian struggled to contain her misery and tried to push at his biceps. Anger began to grow at his refusal to allow the matter to drop. Any gentleman would. “It was a minor indiscretion. Why do you insist on discussing it? Don’t you know it isn’t the gentlemanly thing to do? I was wrong, and I apologise, all right?”
“That isn’t what was wrong,” Ryan countered.
Sian blinked at him. “Pardon? What was?”
“That isn’t how you kiss someone at all,” he assured her tenderly.
“Oh, how should-”
Ryan lowered his head and did what he had wanted to do since he had first set eyes on her. They were alone. Together. In a secluded place where nobody ever ventured. There was nothing between them but the fear of being hurt, their emotions neither of them dare acknowledge, and the social strictures they should have left behind at Sian’s house. Now was the time they could, and should, be a man and a woman, and Ryan didn’t want to waste a single moment of their time together. Ryan knew there was no better time to get her to see him as someone more than the wealthy and titled neighbour and a business partner of her father’s. He knew that if he wanted to get her to see him as a potential suitor then he had to do something to shake her view of him and make her see him differently.
“What are you doing?” Sian whispered when Ryan’s head began to lower toward hers once more. She savoured the gentle press of his lips against her cheeks and chin before he gently nipped at the corner of her mouth.
“Kissing you,” he whispered,
“Oh?”
All other words were gently silenced by the soft slide of his lips, which returned to hers once more.
Ryan slid a hand into her hair and kissed her in a way that he had never kissed another woman. He poured every ounce of emotion he could ever hope to possess into the kiss he gave her. This wasn’t like kissing anybody else. With Sian, the first touch of his lips against hers was almost reverent; a homage to the woman who meant more to him than anyone. The faint brush of his lips against hers shivered down his back. He stepped forward and held her tighter as he repeatedly tasted her. When he felt her sigh, Ryan pressed for a deeper kiss and immediately felt her relax against him. It assured him that he was, finally, managing to find a way through her defences and get to the woman hidden beneath.
Whatever the kiss in the office had been all about, Ryan knew she hadn’t expected him to be so bold as to kiss her again. It was a good thing, because he wanted to be a little unpredictable with her. He wanted to leave her guessing, curious, and wanting to know more about him. He wanted her to want to spend more time with him, and yes, share more kisses. Moreover, he wanted her to stop seeing him as the young boy next door and see him as the man he had become. More importantly than any of that, Ryan wanted her to see him as a potential suitor.
Sian clung to his broad shoulders and revelled in every moment of their embrace. She was trembling from the force of the emotion that coursed through her. This was everything she had ever dreamed of; her first true kiss with Ryan in this magical place was something straight out of her fantasies. It meant everything to her. It was something she had never once believed possible, and something she now didn’t want to end. As far as she was concerned, she didn’t care how long they stood together like this. She didn’t care who might stumble upon them. Nothing mattered. Ryan Terrell hadn’t just come after her to find out why she had kissed him, he had kissed her back. He was kissing her with a passion that made her wonder if she meant something to him. It was foolish to contemplate a future together just yet, but it was possible – wasn’t it? Surely Ryan wasn’t the kind of man who would kiss someone like she was the most precious thing in the world to him and then just walk away – was he?
Of course, Sian knew that while Ryan had lived next door for practically all her life, she still didn’t know much about him, the man. She didn’t move in his social circles in London and had no idea if he had a reputation for being a cad, a womaniser, or a rakehell. She had no idea what he wanted from his future, or whether he had any intention of living in the county or returning to London the first chance he got. While she wanted to know more about him, Sian wasn’t at all sure she did want to know more about him. She wasn’t at all sure she should fall in love with him any more than she already had. Ryan already had the ability to break her heart and ruin her future. He just didn’t know it.
When Ryan eventually lifted his head, he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek before lowering his chin to her shoulder. He couldn’t make himself release her, not when she was holding him so tightly.
“We need to get you home,” he whispered, not least because the need to stay where he was and spend the rest of the day kissing her was strong. “Your father is likely to send someone out to fetch you if we are here too long.”
Sian nodded reluctantly and released him. Her shy gaze lingered on the laces of his shirt until she just had to take another look at him.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” she whispered without apology.
“Do you regret it?”
Sian shook her head. “But you shouldn’t have come after me. It is only going to add to my father’s suspicions that something is going on between us.”
“Something is going on between us,” Ryan countered, tightening his arms around her meaningfully.
So many questions hovered on Sian’s lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask them. Instead, she tried to draw in a brea
th to steady herself only to find her indrawn breath pressed her even tighter against him. Sian looked helplessly up at him.
“What happens now?” she asked, tipping her chin up and bracing herself for the answer she suspected she wasn’t going to like very much.
