A Gentleman's Vow (Saints and Sinners 2)

Relief filled her. “Good.”

Gideon lowered his head the remaining distance and at last kissed Jessica the way she had been dreaming about all day. Jessica wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him tightly. Gideon did not hold back his passion today. He held her close, and allowed the kiss to continue until she was growing hot and very bothered.

Jessica pushed at him, forcing him against a wall. She brought her hands up to tangle in his hair, loving that she could touch him, and that he seemed to like her doing so.

He wet his lips. “We have to stop.”

“Why?”

“Luncheon will be announced soon. We are expected to sit down with everyone shortly.”

She pouted and caressed his ear. “I don’t want to go. I like this.”

“I do too, but I will not have your reputation called into question.”

She understood his concern, even if she didn’t like it. “It’s not fair.”

“No, it is not. Patience.”

She tried not to smile. He would be just down the hall tonight. If he would not meet her in the garden, the other option was to visit his room. “Patience, and then we might do other things together tonight.”

He kissed her lips. “We have to slow down, but no matter what you hear, remember, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Neither am I.” She met his gaze again. “Giddy, who do you imagine my husband might be?”

“I never liked to speculate before.” He pressed his lips to her brow and peppered kisses over her skin. He drew back too soon. “I hope he will be the man who already loves you very much,” he whispered.

A nervous laugh escaped her, and she wound her arms tightly around his neck. She hugged him, and he responded by lifting her feet from the floor and twirling her about in a circle.

“I can tell that pleases you but,” he set her back down to earth to look into her eyes, “I fear your father will begin to talk of taking you back to London to continue your season soon.”

“Why?”

He traced her jaw with his fingers and she shivered all over. “So you might meet more eligible men.”

“Oh? What? No!” There was no one more eligible to be her husband than her Gideon.

“Jess,” he said carefully. “I am much older than you.”

“That’s obvious.”

He sighed and released her. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have a title, either, which has long been a requirement of your father’s.”

She set her hands to her hips. “I don’t care about that.”

“But your father does, and you could, too. I would hate for you to become bitter like Mrs. Warner one day, reminding everyone every moment of every day that she’s a duke’s daughter. She married beneath her, even if her husband had funds enough to make him acceptable.”

Jessica shook her head. “That is not actually why she is bitter. It’s my fault, sort of. She hates that I’m the favorite.” Jessica stared at him as her words sank in. “You are handsome and kind, you make me laugh. You are someone I could grow old with.”

His brow crinkled. “I’m already old.”

Jessica loved to shock Gideon. She grasped the lapels of his coat urgently. “Then we should waste no more time. We should elope.”

Gideon’s eyes widened in shock, and he stumbled away from her. “Absolutely not!”

“Why not?”

Gideon paced away a few steps and then turned. “Because if we eloped, your new mother could not attend your wedding and your father might never speak to either of us again.”