The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries 3)

Eva brought a hand to my waist, fisting the material of my jumper into her palm. She turned her body into mine, and I deepened the kiss with a flick of my tongue against the seam of her lips.

I wanted to kiss her properly. For no other reason than I could.

I needed more of her—I needed to feel more, taste more, take more.

I was worried I’d never get enough of her. That she’d never allow me to. That I’d never be able to get my fill the way I wanted to.

She felt like sunshine in my arms.

And I didn’t want to let her go.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

EVA

His kiss was unexpected, yet I found myself utterly unsurprised by the way he held me against his body and kissed me as though he had every right in the world to do so.

And I suppose he did, in a way. As my husband, he could kiss me whenever he wanted, but he had no reason to do so.

He had no reason to want to.

Not here.

In the middle of a forest.

Under a tree that was most definitely not keeping us as dry as he’d tried to insist it was.

Yet I couldn’t stop it. There wasn’t a single fibre of my being that wanted to push Matthew away from me right now. I wanted him to keep kissing me.

Keep moving his lips over mine like there was nothing else in the world he’d rather be doing.

His fingertips dug into my shoulder where he hugged me against his body. It was almost grounding, reminding me where I was and who I was with, but it still didn’t give me enough strength to pull away.

I didn’t want to pull away.

I couldn’t. I was completely lost in Matthew and the tenderness of his kiss.

We’d kissed a thousand times, but never like this.

Never this slow and easy.

Never this deep.

Never this… real.

The realness of it sent shivers through my body, and I no longer knew if the goosebumps on the back of my neck were from the chill of the rain or from him.

I wasn’t sure I cared.

Matthew jerked to the left, and I had to quickly regain my balance with several steps. Jack’s high-pitched bark pierced the air, and I steadied myself in time to see Matthew disappearing between two trees. Baxter’s low, gruff bark reverberated off the towering tree trunks, and poor Lucy had been left behind.

I quickly snatched up her lead and brought Baxter into heel. He growled at an unseen enemy, but Matthew appeared just as quickly as he’d disappeared.

With Jack in his arms.

“And that,” Matthew said. “Is why Jack is not allowed off his lead in the forest.”

My cheeks burned. “Was it a squirrel?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure. Not much else would elicit such a response from him.” He looked down at the wriggling dog in his arms. “Little sod.”

Baxter whimpered, and Matthew came over to reassure him.

“At least it’s stopped raining,” I said, a little too brightly. “Mostly.”

Matthew’s lips tugged up. “Eva—”

“Let’s go. We should finish the trail in case it starts again. Come on,” I said, turning my attention to the dogs. I leapt off ahead of Matthew and Jack, and Baxter and Lucy were all too pleased to be back on the move.

Baxter more than Lucy, at least.

I knew Matthew would mention the kiss between us, but I didn’t want to talk about it.

What was I supposed to say?

No, it was awful, please don’t do it again.

I didn’t care, it was fine.

Yes, please keep doing it.

All three of those options seemed to come with their own set of problems attached, so for now, I was going to bury my head in the sand and carry on like it hadn’t happened.

Of course, there was every chance that I would now replay that kiss over and over in my head for the next God knows how long, but talking about it wasn’t going to solve that, either.

I didn’t know what that kiss meant.

I didn’t know why he’d dropped his head and kissed me.

I didn’t know why he’d thought it was a good idea.

I didn’t know why, above all those things, I was glad he’d done it. Glad he’d dropped his head and kissed me regardless of what it meant or whether or not he thought it was a good idea.

The answers to those questions would come another day.

For today, I just wanted to get the heck out of this forest and go home.

“Aunt Eva!” Olympia leaned over the side of a little fence. “You’re here!”

“I’m here, I’m here,” I called, dropping Baxter’s lead. He rushed over to her, sniffing her all over, much to her amusement.

“Hi, Baxter!” Olympia ruffled the sides of his head, and Baxter sat down, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.

“What on Earth happened to you?” Addy said, bending down and getting hold of his lead. “I thought you’d be following us up here.”