Flirting with His Forbidden Lady--A Regency Family is Reunited by Laura Martin (good novels to read txt) 📕

her in his arms there and then and kissing her until they both forgot where they were.

‘What’s that?’

‘You.’

Reaching out, he brushed her cheek with his fingers, knowing soon they would be forced to make decisions about the future, and those decisions might prise them apart. He might not get the chance again to touch her velvety soft skin, to look into those pale blue eyes, to enjoy her smile.

‘Me?’

In answer he took a step towards her, taking his time to memorise each and every feature, each and every detail of this moment. He felt the surge of desire coursing through him as her lips parted, inviting him in. He kissed her, slowly at first, tasting the sweetness of her lips and enjoying the little jolt of pleasure that ran through his body.

Up here on the clifftop it was quiet but not private. Anyone could see, anyone could be passing, but Josh couldn’t find it in himself to care. So what if they were spotted in an embrace? He would just marry Beth and be done with it, whisking her back to India far away from any scandal or gossip. The thought was liberating and he pulled her body closer to his, deepening the kiss and encircling her waist with an arm.

‘We shouldn’t,’ Beth murmured, only half-hearted in her protest.

‘Why not? I want you. You want me.’ It was hardly the most persuasive or eloquent of arguments but it was enough for Beth. She relaxed back into his arms, her lips brushing against his again.

Eventually Josh pulled away, knowing if he didn’t he wouldn’t be able to resist tumbling Beth down into the grass, and although the clifftop was an acceptable location for a kiss, it wasn’t anywhere near private enough for anything more than that.

‘I’ve fallen for you, Beth,’ he murmured in her ear, placing a kiss just below her earlobe and loving the little shiver of pleasure he felt run through her body.

She smiled at him, her eyes still a little glazed from the intensity of the kiss moments before.

‘You’ve bewitched me. I can think of nothing but you.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

‘I’m not. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake and the last thing before I go to sleep. My days are filled with thoughts of you and my dreams...’ He grinned wickedly. ‘I shouldn’t tell you what happens in my dreams.’

‘What happens in your dreams?’

He leant in closer, so his lips were touching her ear. ‘Very pleasurable things.’

Ever so quickly her tongue darted out between her lips and the colour started to rise in her cheeks.

‘You’re imagining it too, aren’t you?’

The shake of her head was unconvincing and Josh grinned.

‘Liar. You’re imagining what might go on under the covers if we found ourselves in bed together.’

‘A gently bred young lady would never imagine anything of the sort.’

‘You’re thinking how it would feel to have my hands on your bare skin, to have my lips kissing you here.’ He placed a finger on the exposed skin of her chest, just under her collarbone. ‘And then trail down to kiss every single inch of you.’

‘I’m thinking nothing of the sort.’

He leaned in closer again. ‘You should. Even the imagining is quite pleasurable.’

She closed her eyes for a moment and the thought that she was imagining them together in her bed was enough to send Josh wild with desire for her.

‘You’re making this hard for me,’ Beth said, her eyes still closed. ‘These last few weeks all I’ve been able to think about is you, and now you’re going to invade my dreams, as well.’

‘Are you saying you haven’t dreamed about me already?’

She gave him a little secret smile and Josh knew she had fantasised about him just as much as he had about her.

‘You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?’ They began walking again, arm in arm, their bodies brushing against one another as they moved.

‘How do you mean?’

‘Today we said we’d have one day to enjoy, one day before we decide what we want to do with our futures, but everything you do makes me want you more.’

‘Good.’

‘But do you mean that? Is it a good thing?’

Josh hated himself just a little in that moment. So much of the hurt and uncertainty Beth was feeling was his fault. If he had been able to commit to her earlier, to come out and tell her he loved her and didn’t care about the obstacles in their way, then the decisions they were facing would have been easier to navigate. The truth was he was scared of rejection, scared that, even though she looked at him with love in her eyes, she would choose Leo over him. He knew the fear came from the rejection he’d experienced as a child, the feeling of always being second best, but even though he had that insight he couldn’t banish it.

‘There’s something I need to say to you. Something very important.’ Firmly he quashed his doubts and the roil of nerves deep in his belly. He gripped her hand and pointed at the steep path that led from the cliffs to a sheltered little beach nestled in a cove below them. ‘Let’s go down to the bay, sit and talk.’

Her eyes searched his face as if she was trying to work out exactly what he wanted to say to her, but eventually she nodded and arm in arm they started the climb down to the beach.

The sand was fine and soft and as soon as they reached the beach on the rocky coastal path from the cliffs above Beth paused to pull off her boots and stockings and feel the sand beneath her toes.

In a way she wanted to put off the moment when they sat and Josh told her how he felt. She wanted him to say he loved her, that he would do anything for them to be together, but if he did she knew it would mean she would then have to make some