The Other Side - J. D. Robb [40]
“Bettina, we have to pray that this ends tonight and prepare for the fact it may not. But we cannot give up trying to find a solution.”
“Of course not, but Harry, please, we have to teach each other how to go on. If this continues, we may well be sent to Bedlam. This morning, Roberts looked at me askance when I told him that he could choose my clothes.” Bettina shrugged. “I had no idea what your calendar called for.”
Harry nodded. “Yes, I see your point.”
Bettina went on. “I’m sure Freeba thinks something is terribly wrong. We never spend this much time together in the morning. Cameron is most likely missing his mama, and Lord Osterman is wondering why you are not in Parliament.” And tonight we both know that Patricia Melton will wonder at your absence.
“Do you not think that we should take a few days to teach each other what we need to know? Besides, you will not want to be in society this week.”
He shuddered.
She waited while he thought about it.
“It seems that while we are in different bodies, our minds are very much our own.” Harry waited for her nod before he went on. “Looking at myself when I look at you is not all that different from looking in a glass.”
“Oh, yes, it is. I’ve noticed it as we’ve been talking. Look at the eyes, Harry.” She moved from the chair to sit on the bed opposite him. “The color might be correct, but when I look into yours, I see you. You must surely see me.”
They sat still a moment, staring intently at each other. He smiled, that rakish smile that was the first thing about him that fascinated her. It might be her lips, but it was his smile.
“Why don’t we kiss,” he said, moving closer.
“No!” Bettina jerked back. “It would be like kissing myself.”
“Just a little kiss. I do not feel like any more than that. A kiss of comfort. Close your eyes. Let’s see if it feels different.”
Tentatively, Bettina moved toward him. She closed her eyes as she felt that first brush of lips. His lips were soft. So soft and full. Opening her eyes, she stared directly into him and forgot reality.
She opened herself to him. His tongue felt delicate as it swept into her mouth, then Bettina moved, taking over the kiss. She was in the bed beside Harry, fitting her mouth to his or his to hers.
It was so confusing, but then she forgot all about pronouns as sensation flooded her body.
Bettina had never felt this need before; anticipation raced through her, pushing all thought from her mind, arousing her so that all she wanted was to join together and find the pleasure that the kiss tortured her with.
She wanted more than the feel of his lips. She needed more than his tongue teasing her. Her body was barely within her control but not for much longer. She pulled her mouth from his. “I want you now, Harry.”
Harry stiffened, pulled away. “All I wanted was a kiss, Bettina.”
His words sobered her. “What’s wrong?” she asked and then recalled him asking the same question with the same edge to his voice in their first days of marriage.
“I wanted only a kiss of comfort. Do you think I am trying to seduce you? Who would want to have sex feeling as I do?” His hand swept down to his lower abdomen. “Nor do I think that you would want to have sex while I am in this condition. All I wanted was a little soothing kiss.”
He sounded like a . . . She paused. He sounded like a woman. He sounded like her.
Four
As Bettina paced the hall waiting for Harry to join her, she found herself actually praying. She had given up praying when her sister died in childbirth five years ago, despite hours on her knees in church, begging God to spare her.
Bettina’s prayer today was proof that she had not abandoned her belief in God but rather that she had given up on the idea that prayers made a difference to His plans. But a man and a woman switching bodies had to have involved some kind of divine intervention, and she was not about to let Him forget