Just One Kiss (23 page)

Letting herself hope again as the tingling memory of Edward’s kiss returned to her.  She sighed.  Perhaps she was being silly?  Given all the hours of her life that she’d spent thinking about him, Daphne wondered if he was now thinking about her at all?

Chapter 2
5

When Daphne woke the next morning it was to the familiar feeling of disorientation.  She could understand why she found it odd to wake up in an unfamiliar room, but she couldn’t understand why she was always surprised to wake up
alone
.  She and Edward had only spent a handful of nights together!  Certainly not long enough for her to get used to it- or, so she would have thought.

“Good morning, Mistress Daphne.”

Daphne
turned her head toward the door
as her maid bustled into the bedroom, laden down with a breakfast tray. 

Daphne
climbed out of bed and
wandered over to the window and pulled open the curtains, revealing it to be a beautifully sunny day outside.

It was so lovely that hardly an hour had
passed
before Daphne found herself outside in Dunnely’s gardens walki
ng up and down the flowerbeds.
Her feet were itching to lead her away from the house
. They wanted to carry her toward Packwood,
but Daphne was trying her hardest to fight that urge.

She
managed for all of half an hour.

It
wasn’t very likely that she would see Edward even if
she did wander onto his grounds.
  The Earl’s lands covered over 800 acres.  The chances of her happening upon him for the second day in a row were slim to say the least.  Besides, it would look very odd if she did stu
mble upon him, Daphne reasoned. That
nearly stopped her from going altogether.

What would he think of her if they did meet?  Daphne chewed her thumbnail nervously.  It
was
highly unlikely though!  She clung to that thought- at least she thought she did- why exactly was she walking all the way to Packwood House if she
didn’t
want to see Edward?

S
he did want to see him. S
he just didn’t want to seem like she was throwing herself at him.  Daphne cringed.  Again.

She meant to keep to the edges of the park at least, but as time wore on Daphne found herself drifting ever closer to the house, wandering aimlessly through the formal gardens, remembering how she had chased the boys up and down these same paths as a young girl.

There was a pretty little orangery not very much further on she recalled.  Daphne’s feet were beginning to ache a little and she knew that there would be somewhere to sit inside the building, so she made her way in that direction.  It was a little strange, she considered, that she hadn’t happened upon a gardener or anyone, not that she was complaining about her solitude!

Relieved to find a little wood bench outside the orangery in the shade, so that she wouldn’t have to endure the heat inside, Daphne settled herself down.  She smoothed out her skirts and looked about, unprepared for the sudden welling of sadness that started to bubble up inside her.

This should have been her garden, and she should be sitting on her bench, not feeling like an intruder stealing a little piece of something that she couldn’t have.  Daphne sighed, a deep, heavy, soul-stirring sigh, and then nearly jumped out of her skin when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Edward!” she gasped, raising a hand to clutch at her pounding heart.  “You scared me half to death!”

“Sorry,” he chuckled, looking strangely pleased.  “I thought you might have been expecting me.”

“Expecting you?” Daphne echoed, still rather breathless.  “Why would I have been expecting you?” she asked, sounding rather puzzled.

Edward flashed her a puzzled smile of his own and glanced around the formally laid out flowerbeds and shrubs in front of the orangery.  “Well, this is my garden,” he pointed out.  “Or rather,
our
garden really,” he amended softly, which caused Daphne’s already flushed cheeks to positively burn.

“Oh!  Of course it is-
your
garden I mean, I was just- just-” she flailed helplessly for a moment before Edward saved her.

“Would you like to come back to the house for a cold drink?  Lemonade?  You look a little… hot,” he drawled, letting his eyes roam over her figure and face rather shamelessly. 

The achy need in her womb, which Daphne had been doing so well to suppress, pulsed to life again.  How could he make a glass of lemonade sound so wicked?  It wasn’t decent!

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Daphne said slowly, not thinking that being alone with Edward in her current, almost desperate, state of mind (or was that body?) was a very good idea at all!

“Well, we could just stay out here I suppose,” Edward conceded, sitting down beside his wife.

Daphne gave a silent little nod.  She wasn’t sure how he was managing to take up quite so much of the space on the bench, but she was squeezed right over to left hand side and Edward’s thigh was still almost touching hers!  The desire to move a little to her right so that
it could was almost unbearable.

“So,” Edward said, slowly, and the tiny little word seemed to be infused with meanings that Daphne couldn’t quite grasp.

“So?” she repeated hesitantly, when her husband didn’t actually continue speaking. 

Edward turned to look
at
her, but he didn’t immediately say anything, even then.  He reached out an arm, leaning nonchalantly back in the garden seat, flexing his fingertips so that they brushed Daphne’s shoulder.  Her breath hitched in her throat at the pressure of his touch, it was butterfly light, but sparks still sizzled all the way down her spine.

“Edward?” she pressed, her voice growing breathless as her husband remained silent. 

His fingers didn’t stay still however, they tiptoed over her shoulder, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, before trailing a line along her jaw.  He then hooked one digit under her chin and forced her to look him straight in the eyes… except, Edward didn’t seem terribly concerned with looking at her eyes.

No.  Edward was staring quite fixedly at her lips.  Daphne couldn’t help but lick them instinctively.  His gaze was almost as heavy as a touch and Daphne’s skin was tingling under the attention.

“Edward?” she whispered again, but her voice was hardly loud enough to be heard.  He was leaning towards her… closer, closer, closer… until their lips finally, blissfully brushed against one another, and Daphne felt as if the magical moment they had shared the previous day had never ended.

Daphne leaned
into Edward’s kiss, and the promise of everything that it hinted at, she wanted this, she wanted him… was
this
then what she’d come to Packwood looking for?  She didn’t know, but she did know that she didn’t want to fight it.  She
couldn’t
fight it. She didn’t
even
try
to struggle
when
Edward’s arms closed around her. He pulled
her toward him, wrapping her in his embrace as he deepened his kiss.

“Edward,” she gasped against his lips, her voice was a small plea, but a plea for him to do what- stop or continue?  Daphne wasn’t sure that
she
even knew. 

Edward seemed to know what she wanted though, or he made a rather good guess at any rate.  His tongue surged deeply between her teeth, worshipping the sweet recess of her mouth while his hands slowly, reverently wandered over her body.

“We shouldn’t,” she murmured, when Edward’s mouth moved from her lips to her neck, but she of course made no move to actually stop him.  His tongue flicked over her slightly salty skin, creating sizzling little trails all over the elegant curve of Daphne’s throat.

“Shouldn’t we?” he purred, moving his hand so that he was able to cup one of Daphne’s breasts through the thin fabric of her day dress.  “Why not?” he whispered, his breath tickling against her skin.

“Be-because…” Daphne began, but didn’t finish.

“Because it would be considered that I’m compromising you?” he teased.  “You know… you are still my wife, Daphne,” he said softly, hesitantly, almost as though he wasn’t sure whether or not he was allowed to remind her of that fact, but all Daphne murmured in reply was a dreamy: “I am.”

Edward seemed to stiffen, but then relaxed as he listened to this confirmation trickle from her lips.  “You are,” he growled, beginning to move more possessively to take her.  “Mine,
mine
,” he rasped, claiming her lips in a harder, more desperate kiss than before.

She should put a stop to this…
that hazy thought did finally register in Daphne’s mind as Edward’s hands became
heavier
and his mouth more demanding. 

He was going to think that she was coming back if she let him continue, and she
did
want to come back to him she acknowledged, running her own hands over his chest, loving the feel and the power of him.  She did want Edward back, she had never really wanted to leave him after all, but she
couldn’t
.   Not yet, not until she knew that he had changed,
really
changed.

“Come up to the house, Daff,” Edward whispered huskily.  Daphne shook her head, a little of her common sense returning as she imagined what the servants would think if she went back to the house with Edward!  She gasped however, her bones seeming to turn to liquid when he flicked his tongue into her ear.  “No?” he purred.  “Maybe you’re right,” he breathed, casting a wicked glance in the direction of the orangery.  “Maybe the house is too far?”

"What- what do you mean?" she gasped, but Edward didn't answer.  He did however scoop her up into his arms.   "Edward!  What are you-?" Daphne started to squeal, but still her husband didn't speak. 

The wicked grin that he was wearing gave Daphne a clue as to his intentions, however, and when he started to carry her in the direction of the orangery her eyes widened to the size of small saucers as she began to guess his intentions.  

Well, a kiss was one thing, but surely he didn't mean to…
  "Edward, put me down!" she begged, giving a little ineffective kick of her legs that hardly supported her request in the slightest.   "Edward!"

"I'm going to put you down," Edward murmured huskily.  "When I'm ready," he added smoothly.

"No, now, Edward!" Daphne demanded, as her husband, completely ignoring her, carried her inside the orangery.   It was hot inside, almost unbearably so.  Daphne took a deep gulp of heavy air and squirmed in Edward's arms.  "It's too hot," she sighed, fanning her face.

"Well maybe we should do something about all these clothes you're wearing?" Edward whispered into her ear.   He finally put her back down onto her feet, only Daphne wasn't quite sure that her legs would carry her weight any longer.   "That might cool you down?" he rasped thickly.

More than likely it would make her even hotter!  Yes.  She'd guessed what Edward was after, but for him to actually come out and say such- such… scandalous things, it was causing Daphne's temperature to positively rocket!  She was achy and needy, but what sort of a lady was she if she couldn't control her own desires?

"Someone will see," she whimpered, continuing to make a half-hearted protest to Edward's advances as he urged her back towards a large, cushioned, wicker chair that was more than big enough for both of them to sit in… somehow Daphne didn't think that 'sitting' was quite what Edward had in mind.

"No one will see anything," he purred, pushing her down onto the cushions. 

With the deep foliage inside the orangery they were quite well concealed, Daphne had to admit, but if one of the gardeners should decide to work inside today…!   "Edward-" she sighed his name again, but it was clear to both of them that she was giving up the fight.