A Season Beyond a Kiss Read online

  Jeff’s lips curved roguishly aslant, displaying the tantalizing depression in one of his cheeks as he paced forward with measured tread. Had he been stalking a wary doe, he could not have been more careful or deliberate. “Should I be whipped for a scoundrel for startling you, madam?”

  “No, of course not, Jeffrey. How absurd.” Raelynn stared up into those luminous orbs, saying nothing more until she realized she was grinning back at him with a total lack of aplomb. The fact that she now felt completely alive and alert made her mindful of the potency of the strange elixir exuded by the man. “I mean, you make me feel . . .” She searched for a word or phrase that would adequately describe her disarray and yet leave no derogatory image of a love-struck chit. How could she, with trite comparisons, explain the blissful aura that at the moment seemed to encompass her?

  She certainly had no wish to reveal the mental upheaval she was suffering because of their marital dilemma. By dint of will she had managed to withhold herself from his amorous attentions, yet it hadn’t been easy by any means. Having been taken to the very brink of consummation, she had then been unable to relegate those sensually stirring memories to the realm of oblivion. She had seen him as a bridegroom fully aroused, and thereafter, a battle had raged within her for possession of her mind. In spite of the difficulty she had in controlling her own growing curiosity and desires, the chasm between them had continued to widen, especially after he had begun distancing himself from her. Many times during his absence, feeling lonely even in the midst of so many servants, she had caught herself savoring recollections of those titillating adventures in his arms. Now she had no need to conjure images from the past. He was standing before her, barely a step or two away, close enough for her to feel the aura of his manly magnetism as keenly as if it were of tangible substance.

  “Make you feel like what?” Jeff queried, his lips once again sliding upward at a corner.

  Unable to contain her own grin, Raelynn cast a coy glance upward. For the life of her she couldn’t deny the way her senses seemed to soar to bracing heights in his presence. “Wonderful.”

  “Wonderful?” The emerald eyes probed hers, searching for the precise import of her flirtation. Jeff was wary. He had lost himself in the fervent heat of those darkly lashed, blue-green orbs once before, and he had taken great delight in sweeping his young bride to their marriage bed, only to have been halted on the very threshold of fulfillment by the entrance of a rowdy band of brigands, who had whisked his bride away to the warehouse lair of Gustav Fridrich. In giving chase after a leaden ball had creased his scalp, which had led the miscreants to think that they had killed him, he had rallied his brother and a collection of friends, including Sheriff Rhys Townsend, who, along with his deputies, had met him in Charleston. The lot of them had stormed the building in which the German and his army of callow toughs were holding Raelynn captive, and though they had proven victorious over the ruffians who had outnumbered them, Jeff had later been frustrated by Rhys’s announcement that Fridrich couldn’t be arrested for the simple reason that Raelynn’s uncle, Cooper Frye, had tricked the man into believing he had bought her.

  Only a few hours after his wife’s safe return to Oakley, Jeff had found himself encountering a different sort of aggression. Accusations from a former hireling had left his bride less than confident of his integrity and fearful of becoming intimate with him. Thus, what he had fervently hoped would be the beginning of a loving, passionate marriage with a woman who had seemingly made his dreams a reality, had become instead a titular relationship.

  Through the next pair of weeks, the two of them had lived in polite but stilted congeniality, eating and conversing together but sleeping apart, she in her room and he next door in his. It was an arrangement that Jeff had tolerated, but only by the grit of his teeth. Indeed, there had been moments wherein he had found his gentlemanly forbearance sorely strained. His wife was far too beautiful and alluring for him to nonchalantly endure her nearness. In a quest to put some distance between them, he had spent long hours away from the house, directing his attention to his many business affairs: his shipping company, his lumber mill, his horse-breeding operations, or overseeing the earlier harvests with his foreman. To some degree, his attempts had helped to abate his concupiscence, but coming home to her had been tantamount to being hit with a sledgehammer in a most vulnerable area.

  “Wonderful in what way, my sweet?”

  Raelynn lifted her slender shoulders, not willing to divulge the full extent of the feelings he awoke within her. One moment she was fraught with anxiety over what she might suffer yielding to him; in the next she could not fathom continuing on in their marriage another moment longer without becoming his wife in truth. “Just wonderful.”

  “Madam, in that regard, may I say how wonderful you look this early morning hour,” he murmured, his eyes carefully probing the delicate fabric that all but flaunted her womanly form.

  Mindful of her husband’s proximity in a variety of different ways, not the least of which was his close attention and the scent of his cologne mingled with an underlying essence of soap, Raelynn suffered another attack of nervous jitters, which, beneath the flame burning in those dark, crystalline depths of emerald green, might have equaled those of a fox-cornered hen. As observant as Jeffrey was, she was sure that any smile from her lips would have been construed as an invitation, encouraging him to test her restraint, leaving her to face the quandary of whether to ignore Nell’s accusations or to accept his advances with open arms. Torn between that which she had hotly craved in the dead of night and the more arduous travail of keeping up a cool facade of offended wife, Raelynn could not at this point predict what her answer would be. A small, inner voice counseled aloofness and separation; certainly wisdom cautioned that she hold this man at bay until confident of his merit as a gentleman. Nevertheless her young body yearned for the thrilling excitement that she had experienced far too briefly. Brought up sharply by the conflict raging within her, leaving her mind roiling in indecision, Raelynn cried out in silent anguish, What to do? What to do?

  In spite of the tormenting vacillation she was encountering, Raelynn sought with casual comments to safely anchor a ladylike amenability, in that way hoping without undue hardship to escape the moment of temptation. “Your men are moving right along with Cora’s new cabin, Jeffrey. Why, at the rate they’re progressing, the structure will be finished by the end of next week. I’m sure you must be aware of how anxious Cora and her family are to get into a home of their own again.”

  She broke off suddenly, realizing to her abashment that a dignified serenity was not what she was imparting. Indeed, she seemed to be chattering on like a mindless ninny, hardly conscious of what she was saying. How in the world could she even come close to a cool-headed logic when those probing green orbs all but devoured her? Every time his gaze flicked over the cloyingly damp cloth veiling her bosom, she was brought up short by a memory of those brief moments of passion wherein his tongue had moved with tantalizing slowness over her soft nipples. It was quite exhilarating to realize that even now that particular recollection had the strength to arouse a hungry yearning in the core of her womanly being.

  Jeff stepped even closer yet, his gaze dwelling upon the delicate pink crests teasingly displayed by the diaphanous fabric. Having anticipated the pain that had promised to lay him low each and every time he yielded to a manly propensity to indulge in a visual appreciation of his wife’s beauty and winsome form, he had abstained from that kind of self-abuse by limiting the time he spent with her. Even when he had been forced by the demands of protocol to conduct himself in social good manner and escort his young wife to functions which had required their attendance as a couple at weddings, christenings and similar affairs, he had sought to remain distantly detached and had only glanced at her when he had been compelled to and then, only briefly, a contrivance which had allowed him by dint of will to maintain his gentlemanly forbearance. Although she had looked no less than enchanting every time they
had gone out, she had hardly been clothed then in a filmy thing that left nothing to his imagination. Whether due to her softly swelling bosom or the intriguing shadow vaguely hidden beneath her nightgown, his attention was firmly ensnared. Such enticements were too much for any man to ignore, much less one who had found himself hard-pressed by a lengthy abstinence and ever-goading passions. He could only hope that this time her generous display amounted to an invitation and that she was actually coaxing him to do more than just look.

  “Aye,” Jeff finally agreed, “it won’t take any time at all for my men to finish the cabin.”

  Raelynn was herself besieged by a growing tension, the like and depth of which in her maidenly innocence she had never experienced before. After the miserable night she had just spent, the merest thought of withholding herself left her devoid of any hope of finding a sensible remedy for her situation. She had definitely grown tired of that transparent guise of an offended wife denying her husband for no other purpose than to obtain irrefutable proof that he was nobly pure. When she was harried by fierce longings of her own, she certainly didn’t feel all that saintly herself. Jeffrey was her husband, she mentally argued against a chiding conscience. He had not only viewed everything her nightgown now displayed, but he had also handled her with all the familiarity a newly espoused husband is wont to lend his bride. The fact that she was standing there, submitting herself to his probing gaze, all but screamed for him to take her.

  Still, he was very much a stranger to her, her pragmatic self argued. Nigh to two weeks ago they had met for the very first time after she had broken away from her uncle. Yet when Jeffrey had proposed that very selfsame hour to save her from Cooper Frye’s devious plans, she had felt no qualms about accepting. It had only been afterwards that she had questioned her wisdom in speaking the vows with him so quickly. As much as she had struggled to thrust them from her mind, Nell’s accusations had continued to rake their cloven claws across her memory, undermining her aspirations to be joined to this man in body as well as in name. It was the idyllic standard to which most married couples conformed, and it was only natural for her as a young wife to yearn for marital union. Indeed, there were times when those unsatisfied longings left her feeling much like a broken ship washed up on a beach.

  Cognizant of her own weakening resolve even in the face of harrowing images of Jeff seducing Nell, Raelynn felt as if she teetered precariously on the sharp precipice between commitment and rejection. More than anyone she recognized the fact that she had to find a way to end her shilly-shallying and settle her mind on a prudent decision, for she was beginning to suspect that her awakened passions were now pulling sway over all the rational arguments she could put forth.

  Idle chitchat seemed essential to ease the struggle roiling within her and, at the very least, to end the lengthy silence between them. Yet she blushed in discomfiture, knowing that it was merely a sham to hide what was really going on in her woman’s brain and body. Truly, her husband might have been shocked if he’d have been able to discern the scope of her imagination, for at times it seemed most vivid. “Cora’s new cabin appears twice as large as the old one, Jeffrey. She’ll enjoy having so much room.”

  Jeff tilted his head wonderingly as he tried to find a reason for the vivid blush now infusing his wife’s cheeks. The fact that she was garbed in a gossamer creation and had made no effort to fly out of his reach gave him cause to think that he could woo her into his bed, if not this very moment then perhaps very, very soon. Yet she seemed as nervous as a young chick looking into the greedy beak of a hunting hawk. He suffered no doubt that she had been far less tense when she had voiced her decision not to go to bed with him.

  “Considering my housekeeper’s fondness for children, ‘tis highly unlikely that Clara will be an only child,” Jeff surmised, leaning near to sample his wife’s fragrance. It was a very delicate, enticing essence, reminiscent of a fresh bouquet of spring flowers. “It seems reasonable to assume that in a few years Cora and her husband will be needing quarters as large as the one that’s presently being built for them.”

  Raelynn’s jitters had come back full force as she felt Jeffrey hovering near, and just as before, her tongue began racing off in nervous haste as she sought to hide her unease. “Your rescue of Clara was certainly admirable, Jeffrey, but it’s my most fervent hope that I shall never have to witness such a daring feat again. When I saw you running into that burning cabin with only a split wooden barrel shielding you from the flames, I was certain you’d be cindered right along with the house and the child.” She smiled up at him nervously as he straightened. He didn’t meet her gaze, but seemed oddly intrigued by the drawstring that kept her gown snugly closed at her throat. “Truly, with everything that happened during the first days of our marriage, perhaps you can understand how grateful I am that in these past weeks I’ve been able to enjoy the serenity of your plantation. My greatest fear is that it’s only a lull before a storm. I know in time Gustav will try to avenge himself for the shoulder you shattered in spite of the fact that Olney Hyde was really the one at fault.”

  “I wish I could remember shooting the scoundrel,” Jeff murmured and ran his fingers reflectively over the scar that had been left in his scalp after Olney had shot him, an incident which had immediately caused his own pistol to discharge a leaden ball into Gustav Fridrich’s shoulder. “Such a memory might help ease my irritation over the circumstances that have allowed Fridrich the liberty to continue his chicanery and, in spite of the warrant Rhys issued for Olney’s arrest, the fact that that young whelp is still wandering freely about somewhere.”

  “You can be assured that Kingston hasn’t forgotten any of the particulars of that incident,” Raelynn replied with a faint laugh and then scolded herself for not being more dignified and serene. Her husband was completely self-possessed, which in comparison to her uneasy fits and starts left her feeling as awkward as a bumbling chit. Even so, she rushed on, unwilling to give him time to dwell on her discomfiture. “After suffering through the trauma of thinking that Olney had killed you, Kingston was nearly rolled back upon his heels when you revived. The story seems quite humorous when he tells it, but I recall the horrible dismay I suffered far too vividly to even think of laughing over that dreadful incident.”

  The only remaining impression Jeff had of those moments immediately following his return to consciousness was his butler’s slack-jawed astonishment. That singular memory would likely abide with him for the rest of his life. “I seem to remember Kingston saying something about an angel. I suppose he thought it was some kind of miracle when I regained consciousness.”

  “It was a miracle! If that shot had been any lower, Jeffrey Birmingham, you’d have had a large hole bored through your head, and I’d be standing here no less than a widow.”

  The corners of Jeff’s mouth twitched with humor as he toyed with the delicate ribbon dangling from the bow at her throat. “I wonder how many virgins in the last hundred years have been left bereaved by the untimely demise of their bridegrooms. I doubt there have been many.”

  A soft, fluttering sigh escaped Raelynn as he leaned forward and brushed his lips against her cheek. From there, soft kisses trekked a leisurely descent along the creamy column of her throat. Cautiously she laid a trembling hand against his steely chest and closed her eyes, nearly swept away by the languid caress of his mouth. Beneath her palm, his heart nearly matched the swiftly thumping rhythm of her own, attesting to his growing involvement in his game of seduction. “I can’t imagine that our situation is all that unique, Jeffrey.”

  “Surely other men would think so, my sweet,” he murmured, having wondered many times in the last fortnight if he was the only husband in creation whose wife was still a virgin.

  Jeff marveled at her willingness to accept his warming attentions, yet he was still wary of being rebuffed. Lifting his head, he searched her face for what emotions might be revealed in that sublime visage and was again impressed by her unparalleled beauty. The texture of h
er creamy fair skin was as lush and smooth as satin. A rosy blush infused her cheeks, brightening her aqua eyes until they seemed to glow with a brilliance of their own behind the thick, sooty lashes. Her nose was pert and slender; her soft mouth winsomely curved and much in need of kissing. In all of that wondrously fair countenance, Jeff could detect no slightest hint of diffidence. Though her eyelashes fluttered downward as she shyly avoided his gaze, she remained well within his grasp, encouraging him to test her resistance as well as that of the silken cord.

  A small gasp escaped Raelynn as she felt the nightgown sliding away from her throat and the placket widening between her breasts. “Jeffrey, please . . .” Her whisper was hardly more than a soft exhalation of a breath. Once more she found her wits scattered, her attempts to appear composed hopelessly frustrated. Certainly what spilled forth in a hasty rush from her lips had no real relevance to what she had craved in her lonely bed. Though outwardly her statement conveyed something else entirely, it had much to do with her own incertitude over the circumstances in which she had been cast. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

  Jeff managed a stiff smile as he straightened to his full height. He had expected her to put him off, and though it was not at all to his liking, he was hardly one to fly into a raging fit when he didn’t get his way. Still, if he could ascertain anything from her sudden nervousness, he’d be inclined to think that she wasn’t nearly as cold and aloof as her words had led him to believe.