The High Sheriff of Huntingdon (14 page)

This
w
a
s
nothing
like the
kisses she’d
received from family and
friends.
N
o
t
h
i
n
g like she’d
ever
imagined. His
h
an
d
reached up
and caught her chin,
and his long fingers
held
her
face
still
as plundered
her mouth, forcing
her
lips apart,
his
tongue
between
her
teeth.
She
t
r
i
e
d
to shove him away
in sudden panic,
but
h
e
was strong,
much
too
strong,
and
she was no match
for
h
i
m
.
She
couldn’t
breathe,
her
body
felt crushed, and for the
first
t
i
m
e
in her
life
she considered
whether she might
faint.

It
was
almost
an
abstract
notion. She thought
about
it,
and
as
she
let
her
mind drift,
his
kiss changed
ever
so
slightly.
He slanted
his mouth across
hers,
and
there
was
less brutality
and
more
wooing.
No l
o
n
g
e
r
was she shoved
against
the
wall;
instead
he’d
slid his arm
around her
shaking shoulders,
pulling
her
up
into
his
arms, and
for
a
moment she began
to melt
beneath
the
unexpected sensuality of his kiss,
the
heat
and
strength of his
b
o
d
y.
She
wondered if
s
h
e
was supposed
to kiss him back,
and
how
she would
go about
such a shocking thing.

“There you are, cousin.”
A familiar voice broke
through the
roaring
in her
ears.
It took her
a moment of dreadful
coldness before she
realized that he
no longer
held her. She was leaning up the
wall
,
her
knees shaking, her hands trembling,
eyes
still
shut. She opened them
to
s
e
e
the
h
a
nd
s
o
m
e
face of Gilles De Lancey.

Alistair
had turned
his
back
on her
and she
had
no
idea
whether
he
had
suffered
any
reaction to
the
power
of
that
k
i
s
s.
“What do you want,
Gilles?”
he
said
in
a bored
voice.

“I
hadn’t
realized you were
…
er…
occupied. The
ladies were
asking
for
you. I
can tell
them
you
are
otherwise engaged.”

The
sheriff waved
a
negligent
hand.
“That’s
the
thing about wives,
Gilles. They’ll
keep. Make
sure she
finds
her
way back
to the
tower
with
no
side trips. And see
what you
can do about
the
crone
who
was supposed
to watch
her.”

He
sauntered
a
w
a
y
with
deliberate nonchalance.
El
speth stared after
him,
furious,
a
ffro
n
t
e
d,
relieved.
She
put
a
trembling
h
a
n
d
to
her mouth,
realizing it
was damp and
swollen.
She never knew
men
kissed
like that.
She
wasn’t
sure
s
h
e
liked
it.

The
only answer
was
to
have
him try it
again.
Half
t
h
e
problem
had
been that she wasn’t
expecting it
a
n
d
he was
furious
with
her.
Maybe
s
h
e
could get him to kiss her again,
this
time when
he
wasn’t angry,
when she was
ready
for it,
so
that
she
c
o
u
l
d
decide
whether
s
h
e
cared
for
it
or
not.
She
suspected
she
could grow to
like it
very
much
indeed.

However, it
seemed as
if
the
high sheriff of Huntingdon
was
always in some
sort
of rage. And if that
first kiss was
anything to
go by, it
w
a
s
uncertain
whether
Elspeth would
ever
be quite ready
for it.

“R
e
a
d
y
to
return to
your rooms, my lady?” Gilles
De
Lancey
said
in
h
i
s
mellifluous
voice, all
g
e
ntle
concern.

Elspeth glanced
up at him. He
was
a very handsome
man, with his blond hair, his strong
b
o
dy,
and his pretty face. M
uch more handsome
than her
husband.
Yet
El
speth
had
not the
slightest
interest in
seeing
how his soft,
slightly plump
l
i
p
s
tasted.