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Her few tears turned into a steady stream, competing with the raindrops sliding down the window. Edwin rose from his seat and made his way over to Rayne and pulled her up, wrapping her in his arms.
As usual, he pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket it and handed it to her. She wiped her nose and leaned back to smile at him. “How can I be such a decisive doctor and then fall completely apart when my father enters my life?”
He brushed the fallen curls back from her forehead. “Parents have a tremendous influence on children. I’ve known men who had horrible, abusive fathers who turned into horrible, abusive men themselves. Others have gone the other way once they met a woman who opened their heart.”
She grinned, looking very much like a little girl with clumps of tears on her eyelashes. “Are you suggesting I’ve opened your heart?”
“Sweetheart, you have no idea what you’ve done to my heart. As well as my soul.” He bent his head and kissed her with all the pent-up feelings he’d been holding back. Now that he was determined to make her his, no matter what they had to do to accomplish it, he would have her for his own.
Her lips were sweet, full, moist, as well as salty from her tears. The scent from her hair drove him crazy, and he wanted more than anything to find the nearest bed and do all the things to her he’d been thinking and dreaming about for weeks.
He pulled her even closer and felt her heart pounding right next to his. Two hearts beating in rhythm. He pulled back and scattered kisses along her jawline, then the incredibly soft skin under her ear.
A slight moan from her lips brought him back to her mouth where he continued to plunder while his hands ran up and down her sides, dipping in and out along her curves.
* * *
Rayne’s breath hitched as Edwin’s mouth covered hers. This. This was what she wanted, what as a young girl had hoped for. Did she love him? Most likely not, but there was a strong attraction and she grew to admire him more every day. She believed he cared for her and despite his prior activities he was no longer the man who had been dumped at her front door and he was on his way to recovering the man he’d been.
He pulled her closer, so her breasts were pressed up against his hard chest. Despite his raucous lifestyle he had managed to maintain some of his musculature. He nudged her lips and she opened, not sure what he intended to do.
Her knees gave way as he swept into her mouth, touching, tasting, teasing. He held her tighter around her waist which was a good thing because her knees decided to turn to jelly.
“Wot ‘re ya doin’?”
Edwin and Rayne jumped apart as Glory’s voice broke into Rayne’s fog. She grabbed his arm and held on fearful she would collapse at his feet. She was breathing heavily and, goodness, she’d even forgotten where she was. She stared at the little girl, too confused and befuddled to answer.
“We were testing a new medicine. How would you like to visit with Mrs. Foster in the kitchen? It smells to me like she just took some biscuits out of the oven,” Ed
win said as calm as a feline sleeping in the sun.
Her eyes lit up. “Lor’ luv a duck! Vank you, mate.”
Before they could respond, the urchin turned and ran off, calling to Mrs. Foster.
Rayne could not believe how quickly Edwin had recovered from their kiss. If threatened with her life, she couldn’t put together a complete sentence right now. Had it not affected him the way it had her? He’d probably kissed so many young ladies that she was just another woman—another kiss. She glanced sideways at him as he watched Glory leave the room and decided that was not so.
He was flushed and breathing hard. He’d been affected. She grinned. Good.
“We really must do something about the girl’s speech,” Edwin said as Glory disappeared through the doorway.
Thankful for the young girl’s interruption so she could regain some semblance of dignity, she was happy to grab onto a diverting conversation. “That is another issue that needs to be addressed. We need to make some sort of permanent arrangement for the girl. Mrs. Foster has been wonderful about keeping her busy helping in the kitchen and has even tried to teach her a bit of reading, but Glory needs more than that. She needs a home. A family.”
“Yes.” Edwin adjusted his cravat and looked as though he was also relieved to have another subject to discuss. “Do you have any ideas?”
“I would love to keep her here with me, but when I was a child raised at the infirmary, we had a lovely housekeeper who made it all seem like a normal home. Given a choice, I would not raise children here.”
“And if you marry?”
She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, were I to marry Mr. Faulkner-Jones, I would have no married life. No husband. No children. He intends to leave right after the wedding for parts unknown while I will return to my duties and he would pop back once in a while to check on me.”
Edwin stared at her for almost a full minute his mouth agape. Then he shook his head. “The men in your life have certainly not inspired a great deal of warmth and fondness in you, have they?”
She shrugged. “Honestly, I had never given it a great deal of thought. It was always, study, study, study and then work.”
“No fun, no beaux, no dances, no parties?”
“Now you’re making me out to be some poor soul who had a terrible childhood. I did other things. I played with my sisters, we had games and dolls. We even did tea parties. But once we all got older, their interests changed from my interests.
