Boldly, she slid her tongue past his full lips, and he rewarded her with another rumbling groan. She caressed both his cheeks and then his hard, muscular shoulders through the broadcloth of his work shirt.
Her nipples beaded against her bodice, straining, aching. A fierce desire speared through her—a desire to explore everything unknown with this man.
The kiss went on and on, for how long, Ruth didn’t know. He nibbled across her upper lip, her lower, kissed her nose, her cheeks, the sensitive flesh of her neck. But always he returned to her mouth and pleasured her with his smooth and silky tongue. Ruth melted into the warmth of his mouth on hers, of his chest against hers. The hard male part of him pressed against her belly. He pulled her closer, kissed her deeper, ravished her with lips, teeth, tongue.
Nothing existed except her and Garth and this kiss.
Somewhere in the edge of her awareness, a voice crept into her mind. Two voices. Then three.
The children, out playing in the schoolyard. They’d remain out until she rang the bell.
The bell. School.
Ruth ripped her mouth from Garth’s and touched her lips.
“Oh, my! What on earth have I done?” Her voice pitched and sounded foreign.
She eyed the handsome man before her, his gaze scalding on her skin. His firm lips were swollen and red. She imagined hers were as well.
The cad still had his hat on, though it had jarred some and sat at an odd angle on the back of his head. She vaguely recalled fingering the rough felt as she’d struggled to get closer to him.
Closer to a man who was a stranger to her.
A man she wasn’t sure she even liked all that well.
Goodness, what had gotten into her?
She’d never been courted, never been kissed, and the first time a man showed her any attention, what had she done? Behaved like a common hussy.
She cleared her throat, determined to regain her dignity. “Mr. Mackenzie, it is time for school and I must ring the bell. If you will excuse me, please. Be sure to tell Mary Alice she can”—Lord above, her heart was racing—“stop by my pa’s farm anytime for the books. If I’m not home, my ma can get them for her.”
“Ruth—”
“Miss Blackburn, please.”
“Aw, tarnation.” His face reddened. “Miss Blackburn. I…” He shook his head. “I just want to say that I’m sorry—”
“There is no need to apologize, Mr. Mackenzie. I…participated willingly in this little…er…dalliance. I hope you don’t think any less of me for my lack of self-control. I assure you it won’t happen again.” She spied her spectacles sitting on the desk and replaced them on the bridge of her nose. “Now I must ring the bell. If you’ll excuse me, sir.”
Her body tingling, she rushed past Garth—such a masculine name for such a mascu
line man, goodness—and out the doorway to tug on the bell cord. The clanging of the school bell echoed across the yard and the children clamored into the schoolhouse, taking their places.
“Where’s Mary Alice, Mr. Mackenzie?” a voice piped from behind her.
Ruth turned to see Garth stopped in front of Laura Brighton’s desk. The empty place next to Laura belonged to Mary Alice.
“She won’t be back to school, girl,” Garth said, adjusting his hat.
“I’m having a birthday party next week,” Laura said. “I’d like Mary Alice to come.”
“Mary Alice don’t have time for parties, child.”
Garth, gaze straight ahead, strolled past Ruth and out of the schoolhouse.
No time for parties, indeed. What an insolent man, keeping his daughter from the fun of being a little girl.
How had she succumbed to his charms? She let out a scoff. Charms? The man didn’t have any. She’d succumbed to his kisses, pure and simple. The drive of lust fueled by his physical attractiveness.