With This Kiss Read Free

street.”
    “And you felt guilty that you weren’t injured, that you weren’t killed,” she added.
    He was right. She had known. “Yes. And like an ass, like a coward, still afraid.”
    A small hand cupped his cheek. “Any man not afraid in the middle of battle would be mad.”
    “It’s not manly,” he muttered, thinking that he would never be able to explain how he felt, not to a woman.
    Out of nowhere, soft lips descended on his, brushing a kiss. It was the first kiss she’d ever given him . He could feel the joy of that melting some of the self-hatred that consumed him.
    “I think you’re very manly,” she whispered against his lips. “Your medals show how brave you are, Colin. You saved your men’s lives, again and again.”
    His throat was too tight to answer.
    “A man who was untouched by the violence and death around him would not be a man, but some sort of animal. An uncaring animal.”
    How did she know to say that? He had looked at his friend Philip sometimes, at the way he would tell a joke five minutes after a sailor died at his feet, see his blue eyes untroubled, clear… and think just that very thing. Philip was like a wolf, a predator who killed with impunity.
    Grace’s next question eliminated all his interest in that thought. “Are you going to take off your clothes this time?” Her voice was an enchanting mixture of timidity and curiosity.
    “I didn’t take my clothing off in the carriage?” Of course he hadn’t. His voice rasping, he said, “I didn’t treat you as you deserved, Grace. What an ass I was!”
    “Because you didn’t take your shirt off?” Laughter threaded through her words, making the pain in his chest ease. “ Or your breeches,” she added. “I had to button up your placket myself.”
    “Unprincipled,” he muttered, one hand running down her back and pulling her ruined gown still lower, down around her hips. “Degenerate, repulsive, disgusting.”
    She giggled. Grace. His solemn, sweet Grace. He thought for a second about where they were situated in the bed, and then pulled her underneath him. It felt safer this way. She was protected from anything that could harm her.
    “Oh!” she gasped.
    “Since we have to marry, we might as well practice what married people do.” He cupped a breast with his hand, found her nipple, and bent his head to it.
    A moment later she wasn’t giggling any longer. The joy was still there, but she was twisting up, trying to suck air into her lungs, crying out with pleasure.
    Colin waited until he thought Grace had breath again. “One thing I can’t remember,” he growled, the words caressing her skin even as he stroked her breast. “Did you touch me in the carriage, or did I just touch you?”
    “No, I didn’t touch you.” She whispered it, and he felt a surge of white-hot possessiveness.
    “Would you like to?” He held his breath. It might take months for Grace to be demonstrative. Especially since she had these ridiculous ideas about him stuck in her head. Love her? Damn, did she think that he could make love to another woman as he had to her?
    Actually, what did she know? Grace had never been with a man before him. Had never  . . .
    It occurred to him that she had never said that she had been a virgin. But his hands knew it. He could feel the surprised pleasure in her kiss, in her every shiver. She didn’t love McIngle, so she would never have allowed him more than a kiss, not Grace.
    “Yes,” she breathed.
    He sat up, swinging his legs over the bed. It was the work of a moment to pull his shirt over his head, wrench off his boots, and strip off his breeches and smalls. Grace stayed quiet as a church mouse, even when he pulled the remains of her dress down her long, slender legs and tossed it to the floor.
    “What do you think?” he asked, hands on his hips.
    There was a giggle from the bed that made him aware that he was suffused with delight.
    “This isn’t fair,” he said as he stared down at the