Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [189]
Suddenly she felt his hand clamp on to her shoulder. ‘Boo!’ he shouted, making her nearly jump out of her skin as she hadn’t heard him creep up behind her.
She had a snowball ready in her hand, and she brought it up and pushed it into his face. ‘Boo to you too,’ she giggled.
He laughed and brushed the snow off his face, but there was still some on his nose. They were only a foot apart, and Beth took off her mitten and reached out to brush the snow away. But as her hand touched his cheek, she suddenly saw something in his eyes. It was the same look she’d seen the last night on the ship before they got to New York. She was so innocent then that she hadn’t known what it meant, except that it was special. But she knew what it was now.
Raw longing.
She couldn’t take her hand away from his cheek. She had a feeling welling up inside her that was so strong and sweet she felt she might cry. He took her hand and moved it to his mouth, kissing her palm. The warmth and softness of his lips sent an exquisite tingle down her spine.
It was she who moved closer, moving her hand to his cheeks to kiss him on the lips. For a moment or two he didn’t move, her lips on his, their bodies not quite touching, but then his hand came up to cup her face and he was kissing her back with such tenderness it made her feel she was an innocent seventeen-year-old again.
How long they stood there kissing she didn’t know, but she knew she didn’t want it to stop. Every part of her body was tingling with desire, wanting more than kissing but afraid to break away even for a second in case the spell broke.
Snow continued to plop from the trees all around them and the sun felt warm as it slanted across her cheek. In the distance she could hear the clank of a windlass as a miner hauled his bucket of mud out of a hole in the ground, and a bird chirruped on a nearby tree.
It was Jack who drew away first. His bare hands went back to cup her face and he looked deep into her eyes. ‘My beautiful Beth,’ he sighed. ‘I hope this isn’t just a dream and I wake up to find it didn’t really happen.’
Chapter Thirty-five
As they stopped outside the cabin to remove their boots, Beth felt awkward. The kissing had happened spontaneously up on the hill and it felt pure and right. But now they were going inside she was very aware that she had to decide whether or not they would move on to the next stage. She wanted to, but she wasn’t sure if it was wise.
Jack was her best and closest friend, the one person in the whole world who really knew her inside out. She was afraid of jeopardizing that friendship.
‘Scared?’ Jack asked as they stepped into the cabin.
‘No,’ she lied.
‘Well, I am,’ he admitted, kissing her nose as he took off her hat and ran his fingers through her hair. ‘But then I’ve been dreaming of making love to you ever since I first met you.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, really. If you could have read my thoughts sometimes, you would’ve blushed.’
‘You’re teasing me?’
‘I’m not,’ he said, unbuttoning her coat. ‘Thoughts of you have kept me warm on many a cold night.’
He dropped her coat on the floor, drew her into his arms and kissed her again. As his tongue flickered against hers, Beth felt the tugging of desire inside her and she knew she was lost and couldn’t back away.
Still kissing her, he managed to remove all her clothes down to her chemise, then took her over to the bed and knelt beside it to peel off her stockings. ‘I always used to wonder what your legs were like,’ he said, running his hand up them while looking into her eyes. ‘I saw them as far as your knees once when we were on the raft, and I nearly fell in I was so excited.’
‘Oh, Jack,’ she said reprovingly.
‘You don’t like to think I was lusting after you all that time?’ he asked, his eyes glinting with mischief as his hands slid further up her thighs, stopping just an inch away from her sex.
Delicious waves of desire had rendered her speechless. All she could do was reach out for him.
He was out of his clothes in a couple of seconds, just long enough for her to pull the blankets