Miss Winbolt and the Fortune Hunter Read Free Page A

body, a slight rough ness of hair, through the thin lawn of his shirt. His heart beat was strong and it was growing faster…
    He smiled back and it was just as she had suspected—his eyes wrinkled at the corners, laughter lurking in them.
    â€˜You’ve collected half the hedge in your fall,’ he said, care fully picking leaves and twigs out of her hair and smoothing it back from her forehead. Emily gazed at him in delight, filled with a sense of well-being, her loneliness and other anxieties quite for got ten. This man might be a stranger, she might never see him again after this meeting, but she had not felt as close as this to anyone else for a long, long time. His eyes met hers again and she knew he was going to kiss her. Far from being shocked, she was warmed by the thought. He put his finger gently under her chin and tilted her face to meet his…
    At first the kiss was tentative, as if he was not sure what her reaction would be, but as he felt her responseit deepened and grew more intense, though still gentle. It seemed to go on for a long time. Emily was lost in its sweet ness. When he would have lifted his head, she put her arms round his neck and pulled his mouth to hers again.
    â€˜Well, well, well,’ he murmured against her lips. ‘I little thought when I lost my way this morning that I would end up with an enchantress in my arms. What is your name, lovely one?’
    Even in her present dazed state Emily had no wish to tell him who she was. This was a magic hour, a time out of reality. Emily Winbolt, spinster, had no place in this enchantment. He saw her hesitation and laughed. ‘You’re quite right! I shouldn’t have asked. Though it’s hardly fair—you know mine.’
    â€˜Will,’ she said softly. ‘Though I didn’t know it was yours until you told me.’
    â€˜Who is the other Will in your life?’
    She could have replied, ‘One of my brother’s servants.’ But she didn’t. She didn’t want him to know where she lived, or what her name was, any more than she wanted him to know that her brother owned the land all around them, and they lived in a handsome residence in the Palladian style quite close at hand. She didn’t want to talk about her brother’s wife, gentle, loving and very, very beautiful. Emily wanted for once to be Miss Nobody from no where, not rich Miss Winbolt, sister to the local land owner and an heiress in her own right. And, more than anything, she didn’t want to be reminded of the problem that had been gnawing at the back of her mind for weeks, and which had been brutally brought to the fore by her conversation with Mrs Gosworth.
    â€˜He doesn’t matter, Will,’ she whispered. ‘Nothingelse matters at the moment.’ She smiled at him dreamily, ‘Will,’ she said. ‘Will.’ And she pulled his head down to hers again. This time the kiss was passionate from the start. He held her so closely that she felt every part of his strong, muscular body, and de lighted in it. He smoothed her hair again and kissed her brow, her eyes, and then returned to part her lips with his. Emily’s heart was racing once more, this time with a feverish excitement. She had been kissed before by a man she had been about to marry, but never like this. Never before had she been so aware of her blood running through her veins with such singing delight. Her skin tingled wherever he touched her. She realised now how blood less, how meaning less those other kisses had been. Nothing in her experience had prepared her for this. She felt overwhelmed by a need to be held by this man, caressed by him. He was no stranger to her—she belonged to him. Nothing existed except the two of them, and the hollow where they lay hidden from the rest of the world in an en chanted, magical world of their own. His lips found her throat, her shoulders, her breasts…
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    A sound of whistling broke