She moaned softly as his lips moved to her nose and then back to her beautiful lips. He could stay here all night, kissing her, making love to her.
Slowly he realized she was drawing away from him. Cool air swept between them. She stared up at him with wonder and confusion in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Chapter 8
Elizabeth blinked several times as the reality of what they had done dawned on her. He kissed her. And she’d kissed him back.
Passionately!
She had only been kissed like that one other time. Only it hadn’t felt like William’s kiss. His kiss made her feel as if she were drowning in desire. The intensity of his lips against hers all but burned her into a cinder. No man had ever done this to her.
Never in twenty-six years.
And instead of chastising him for his affront, she stood there staring at him, hoping he would kiss her again. Slowly the reality of their moment together made sense. He hadn’t kissed her because she was a sensual woman. She just wasn’t Abigail.
Any woman would have done for him.
“Elizabeth, I do apologize.”
“I need some air,” she muttered, racing toward the door. She didn’t need air but she desperately needed her friends.
“Elizabeth!”
Before he could say any more or come after her, she walked out the front door. Luckily, the rain had stopped as quickly as it had started. But now what? Jennette’s home was the closest, but she couldn’t walk there without a maid. With a sigh, she reentered the house and called for Susan to accompany her.
She couldn’t get her mind off what had happened between her and William. His lips touching hers was the most incredible thing she’d ever imagined. For the first time in her life, she understood why Avis had gone off with her husband, Banning, before they were married. And why Jennette was always telling Elizabeth that when she found the right man, marriage wouldn’t matter.
But it did matter, didn’t it?
Her mother had impressed upon her the importance of a good marriage. Then again, her mother had had an affair and Elizabeth was the result. Perhaps it had been guilt plaguing her mother, not some sense of moral righteousness.
Finally, she and Susan reached the door to Jennette’s home with her husband, the Earl of Blackburn. Elizabeth knocked on the door, not surprised that their butler hadn’t seen her coming. Jennette was still in the process of setting Blackburn’s house and staff to rights.
“Lady Elizabeth, come inside before the rain starts again,” Mr. Woods said as he opened the door.
“Thank you, Woods. Is Lady Blackburn at home?”
“Please wait in the small salon and I will check.”
Elizabeth walked into the salon and noticed the changes Jennette had made in the past six months. Almost everything in the room was new. Not that Jennette was a spendthrift, but Blackburn’s home had been in a dismal state of disrepair when she married him. Together, they were rebuilding their home and his fortune.
“Elizabeth, how wonderful to see you,” Jennette said as she flowed into the room. Her extended belly looked even larger today.
Jennette sank into the rose-colored chair and sighed. “I am absolutely huge.”
“No, you’re not,” Elizabeth said. She sat across from her friend and stared at her hands.
“What is wrong, Elizabeth?”
“Nothing.” Now that she was here, the words wouldn’t come out. “I had hoped maybe Avis and Sophie, or even Victoria, would be here.”
Jennette smiled, then pulled herself out of her seat. “I will ring for tea.”
Elizabeth watched as Jennette spoke in whispered tones to Woods, who nodded in reply.
“I shall be right back,” Jennette said to her. “I need to let Matthew know that you need to talk.”