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That made him incredibly annoyed; at the magistrate, the brother, and the circumstances in which she lived. The house was nothing short of a ramshackle dump. It was incredibly difficult to understand why lodgers would pay to live in such a place.
That though was enough to draw his attention back to the other lodgers. He knew there was something odd about them; he just didn’t know what.
But I will find out, he mused and made himself a promise that he would search their rooms at the first opportunity.
He made his way up the stairs but, when he turned the corner to his bedchamber and slammed into a delightfully feminine figure he hadn’t realised was there. His arms immediately swept around her to hold her steady when she stumbled. She was so close that her gasp was lost somewhere in the region of his chest, but he paid it no attention. His mind locked on her delicate scent, and how wonderful it felt to have her flush against him.
He looked down at her at the same time she peered up at him.
Even standing on tip-toe she barely reached his chin. Tipping her head back, she immediately became lost in the dark promise in his eyes, and the comfort of his warm embrace.
“I am sorry,” she whispered, ensnared by that gentle gaze.
When she had bumped into him, her hands had lifted instinctively and now rested against the solid wall of his chest. She made no attempt to move them. At the moment they didn’t feel as though they belonged to her.
“It’s alright. No harm was done,” Marcus whispered.
He lifted a slightly shaking hand and tucked an errant curl behind one ear, and breathed in her essence. It was honeysuckle. Sweet and natural, just like her. Logic went out of the window. Reasoning followed it. Nothing could have stopped him from dipping his head and placing his lips over the warmth of hers. He elicited a gasp from her and eased back so that he didn’t frighten her.
“Jessica,” he whispered.
Her name on his lips washed over her. A shiver slid down her spine. It was only when the silence between them thickened that she realised he was expecting her to say something. She tried to think of something but couldn’t. She didn’t usually converse with her lodgers while still in her nightgown – in a darkened hallway – wrapped in their arms in the middle of the night.
It was then that the reality of their situation slammed into her, and she realised what she was allowing to happen.
“I am sorry, I shouldn’t have-” she murmured as she pushed away from him.
Marcus sucked in a reluctant breath and slowly released her. He had no idea what had just happened, but his body ached. Wrapped in the pale fabric of her night gown as she was, Jess looked angelic. The halo of her long hair tumbling wildly around her shoulders made her look wild and carefree. The mental image of her running through a wildflower meadow flickered through his mind with such clarity that he yearned for it to become a reality. He swiftly closed the door on it when his body began to respond and forced himself to focus his attention on more mundane matters.
“I heard voices you see, and wondered who was up and about,” she explained self-consciously. She wanted to tuck her hair up but didn’t have her pins.
I must look an awful fright, she thought in horror.
“I was downstairs, having a conversation with your brother,” he explained.
Jess frowned. All trace of the warm flush of desire she had just relished immediately receded, and left shame in its wake. Of course, there had to be a reason for him to be up and about in the middle of the night, and it was not her.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” she gasped, forcing her attention back to her brother. “Is he alright?”
When she tried to side-step around him to go and check on Ben, Marcus captured her arm.
“He is fine. I just found I couldn’t sleep again so went for a walk. When I came back, I ran into your brother,” Marcus hastened to assure her.
“You couldn’t sleep?” Jessica parroted. “What do you mean ‘again’?”
Marcus tried to ignore the way her lips glistened in the moonlight. When his body began to tremble with the need to touch her, he made himself turn away. He had to put some distance between them before he did something rash like hauling her back into his arms for a very thorough kiss. That would most definitely lead to the bedroom.
“I don’t sleep very well,” he replied, hating to have to lie to her. “I have been for a walk. When I got back, I ran into your brother. I didn’t realise he slept downstairs.”
“Yes. There aren’t enough bedrooms. Ben sleeps
in the scullery,” she replied.
Marcus smiled. “I am sorry to have kicked you out of your room.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she hastened to reassure him.
She wanted to ask him what the kiss had been all about, but she couldn’t. Not even when she noticed him studying her lips with a thoughtful frown.
