Marrying the Musketeer (6 page)

Arm in arm they walked down the street and into the park-like grounds of the city cathedral.
 
Tall oaks dotted the grass, and a row of weeping willows bordered the small stream that wound its way lazily through the green.

Suzanne handed her a scrap of bread from her basket and she crumbled it in her hand and threw it on the grass at her feet.
 
A pair of cheeky squirrels raced up to her, chattering and scolding away as they squabbled over the crumbs.
 
Their noise attracted a trio of sparrows, who darted in to steal what they could.

She crouched down and held out her hand with a few crumbs on it.
 
One of the squirrels darted up to steal the bread right out of her hand.
 
She laughed with delight as it grabbed the crusts and ran off again to a safe distance to munch them safely down.

She looked up to see Monsieur de Tournay looking down at her with a smile on his lips.
 
She rose to her feet in haste, feeling her face grow hot.
 
“Country pleasures,” she said, with a self-deprecating smile.
 
“I suppose I must seem terribly childish to you.”

“Innocent - yes.
 
Childish – never.
 
No, you are too evidently a woman to seem like a child.
 
You are terribly charming – which is far more dangerous.”
 
He crouched down beside her and picked up a crust that the squirrel had dropped in his haste to decamp with his booty.
 
He held it on his open palm, coaxing the shyer squirrel nearer and nearer, until with a quick snatch, it too bounded off to dine in safety.

He laughed out loud and held out his hand to Suzanne.
 
“Give me another crust, if you would.”

Suzanne shared the last of the bread out between them.
 
Together they crouched on the grass, tempting the squirrels nearer and nearer to eat the bread out of their hands, until it was gone.

Once the food was all eaten, the squirrels scampered away again to find another source of easy provender.
 
Courtney rose to her feet and brushed her hands together to get rid of any crumbs that were clinging to her palms.
 
“I always bring a crust for them.
 
I love to see them play.”

He followed suit with a grin.
 
“I haven’t done that since I was a boy.
 
You have given me a great gift today in making me remember how happy I was then.”

She smiled up at him, thinking how happy she was right now in his company.
 
Childhood pleasures were nothing to her in comparison with this moment.

He offered her his arm as they walked together along the grass.
 
With a frisson of pleasure that skittered down her spine all the way to her toes, she placed her hand on his sleeve.
 
He drew it up
 
into the crook of his arm, pressing her body as close as he could against his own.

Suzanne had tactfully slowed her step, gradually falling further and further behind the pair to allow them a modicum more privacy.
 
Courtney made a mental note to give her a new pair of gloves for her quiet thoughtfulness.

Monsieur de Tournay broke their companionable silence.
 
“I have been absurdly busy since that night I first met you, and was cursing the demands of my position that it prevented me from seeing you for so long."

“My gathering was only three days ago.”
 
She was not ready to confess that she had spent every moment of those three days thinking about him.
 
Even when she was asleep, he haunted her dreams.
 
She would never be free of him, not even if she lived to be a doddering old crone of fourscore and more.
 
Still, that was not for a lady to confess to a gentleman she had only just met, particularly when she was still unsure of his feelings towards her.

He placed his free hand on her arm, clasping it tightly to him.
 
“Three interminably long days to me.
 
Each minute that I was not with you stretched out to the length of an hour, each hour seemed longer than a day.
 
I have aged a year and more since I last saw you.”

His words sent a shiver down her spine.
 
The days had seemed long to him as well, then.
 
She was glad that she that she was not the only one who had shivered herself to sleep each night, longing for the sight of him, longing for the warmth of his presence close to her.
 
She inched her body closer to his so that her breast brushed lightly against him as they walked, delighting in the contact of their bodies.
 
“I am happy to see you now.”

He did not look satisfied with her lukewarm confession.
 
“Did you not miss me at all?
 
Did you not lie awake in bed at
 
night, thinking of me?
 
Did I not haunt your dreams when at last you finally fell asleep?
 
Did you not jump up with a start every time there was a knock on the door, hoping it was me?”

“I do not know you well enough to miss you yet,” she lied.
 
“I hardly even thought of you.”

He stopped dead in his tracks behind a small clump of bushes that sheltered them from the view of anyone who might pass by.
 
He dropped her arm and turned to face her, holding her hostage with his penetrating gaze.
 
“I will have to remedy that on the instant so you will miss me the instant I go away again.”

Courtney felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach burst into flutterings of panic as he put his hands on her shoulders and bent his head towards her.
 
He was going to kiss her again – in broad daylight in the grounds of a church.
 
She had never heard of anything so sacrilegious in her life before.
 
“Y..you cannot kiss me here,” she stammered.

He raised one eyebrow.
 
“I cannot?” he whispered, his sweet breath fanning her cheek.

There were at least a million reasons why he should not kiss her but she could not think straight with him nibbling gently on her ear.
 
He made her want to melt into his arms at the slightest touch.
 
“Some one will see us.”

He tickled her cheeks with his moustache as he traced her jaw-line with a series of feathery kisses that she felt all the way down to her toes.
 
His hands on her shoulders caressed her in slow circles, holding her ever tighter to him.
 
“Have no fear of that.
 
We are well hidden in our corner.
 
Even if they do see us, what then?
 
They will give a little sigh at the sweet sight of two young lovers locked in an embrace and avert their eyes.”

She looked around nervously.
 
There was no sign of Suzanne the serving maid, or of anyone else, either, but she was not pacified.
 
Someone might walk by at any moment.
 
“God can see us.”

He did not seem in the least concerned at the prospect, but clasped her closer to him with his strong hands.
 
“I doubt that he is looking.
 
With all the plagues and pestilences there are in the world, he has more to worry about than a couple of stolen kisses in a garden.”

Her whole body was plastered against his now.
 
Her breasts were firmly pressed up against the round pewter buttons of his jacket.
 
One strong thigh of his had nudged its way in between her legs so that she was almost sitting on his leg.
 
She wriggled a little to try to get away from such a compromising position, but he did not let her go.
 
“Mmmm, do that again,” was all he said, as he arched up his thigh in response to her movements.

The rasp of his thigh against the juncture of her legs made her gasp and her breath come in panting snatches.
 
She had never felt such delight before.
 
It felt so good that she was sure it must be wicked.
 
She stood still and did not try to wriggle out of his clasp again.
 
“Do not do that again,” she instructed him, half wanting the temptation to go away and half wishing that he would ignore her and continue his sweet torment.

“Do what?
 
That?” he asked, moving his thigh against her again until she squirmed again with guilty pleasure.

“Yes, that,” she said when she had mustered enough breath to speak.

He looked at her with an innocent air.
 
“Did you not like it?”

“That is not the point.”
 
She brushed a few loose tendrils of hair away from her flushed face and tried her best to look severe.
 
“I asked you to stop.
 
A real gentleman always honors a lady’s request.
 
Particularly in matters such as this.”

He took his hands away from her shoulders and his brown eyes looked hurt to the very bottom of their depths.
 
“I am sorry if I caused you distress.
 
I would not ever do anything to hurt you.”

The sincerity and severity of his penitence made her feel even more wretched.
 
He was not to blame that she liked the touch of his body on hers too much.
 
She could not have him feeling guilty for her own wanton thoughts and desires.
 
“I did like it,” she confessed in a tiny whisper, hoping to smooth out the troubled wrinkles that marred his fine brow.
 
“But I am sure that I ought not.”

“Do not take the blame on to yourself that rightfully belongs to me.” He looked ruefully down at her as she shook out her crushed skirts and tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ears.
 
“I will not tease you any more.”
 

She could not help feeling disappointed at his promise.
 
Was he never going to touch her that way again?
 
Would he never make her squirm with a secret burning as desire for him unfolded in the pit of her belly?
 

She shook her head at her foolishness.
 
Regrets were out of place in such a situation.
 
It would be safer if he did not touch her again.
 
She lost her head whenever he so much as laid a finger on her.

“But you must help me to keep my promise.
 
You would make it far easier for me if you did not look so deliciously edible.”

His promise did not sound so binding as all that.
 
She was glad of it.
 
“I will scowl so fiercely at you that you have no desire to kiss me again.”

With a last check to make sure that neither her hair nor her clothes looked too badly rumpled, she took a step out of the leafy corner that concealed them from prying eyes.

“Not so fast,” he said, putting out his hand to stop her.
 
“First I must have that kiss that I have been promising myself ever since I saw your pretty face dance into my sight.”

A kiss?
 
He wanted a kiss from her before he let her go?
 
All her senses went on high alert again.
 
Only too well she remembered the kiss they had shared by the fountain three long nights ago, the night she turned eighteen.
 
His kiss had turned her life upside down.

She had escaped from one danger only to fall headlong into another, but her will to resist had evaporated in the face of a new temptation.
 
All her strength had gone.
 
She could only succumb to his powers of persuasion without a single word of protest.
 
“Just one.”

The grin on his face looked almost malicious in its intent as he drew her into his arms.
 
“I had better make it one worth remembering then.”

Her stomach contracted with molten desire as he held her in his arms, just looking at her for the longest time.
 
Then, ever so slowly, he bent his head towards hers.
 
She thought she would die of anticipation in the eons of time it took before his lips touched hers at last.

His breath mingled with hers in their sweet embrace.
 
She felt her soul entwine with his as she poured out all her wanting and all her desire for the man who had captivated her heart with his fierce wooing.

He accepted her desire and returned it with his own, pressing her body into his as he deepened their kiss.
 
His tongue sought hers, making her tremble with fear and passion as it searched out all her secrets.