response, didn’t it?’ His eyes flickered to hers as if asking a question but she felt too confused to understand what that might be. He gave a wry smile. ‘I thought no one would notice us for a while. I had visions of us locked mouth to mouth for another ten minutes at least.’
Then he turned and laughingly acknowledged their amused guests below as if nothing special had happened between them at all.
Her agitated breathing slowed, though she felt weak, as if he’d stolen all her energy. She licked her softened lips and gave a sigh of thanks. Aware of the tingling of her body, she knew that she had to escape to her room to recover her composure. Now that they’d ‘made up’ publicly, he couldn’t object if she disappeared for a while.
‘Jake,’ she said, her voice still infuriatingly soft with arousal. She looked at him in alarm when he whirled around, smiling.
‘It wasn’t so bad, kissing me, was it?’ His hand lightly touched her hair and she shrank back again into the dark recesses of the gallery, pressing against the rose garlands which hung in swags on the wall. ‘Amber...I think you’re in need of more comfort and affection than you realise,’ he mused, his eyes drowsy and warm.
‘No!’ she managed to say. ‘No, I’m not.’
‘If you say so,’ he murmured, a faint twinkle in his eyes.
How dared he twinkle, when panic was beginning to claw at her stomach? And she had no fight left in her to argue...
‘Don’t patronise me!’ she complained feebly. ‘I didn’t want to be kissed. I didn’t like it. I feel sick. I’m very tired too. That’s why I didn’t stop you when I wanted to.’
‘I see,’ he drawled lazily.
Amber passed a weary hand over her forehead. There had been too many emotional dramas, too many tears, too much for her to cope with. She’d never whined or whimpered before, but right now she felt like doing just that.
‘I’ve had enough,’ she said plaintively, her voice near to breaking. ‘I’m at the end of my tether with everything that’s happened to me recently. I’m falling apart—’
She stopped her muttered litany because Jake strode towards her and caught both of her shoulders in a firm grip. ‘Shape up, Amber!’ he advised sternly. ‘If you’re going to feel sorry for yourself then you’ll never get through the next few hours.’
‘Don’t bully me! Go away!’ she complained, dreading it all.
‘I can’t. We’re married, remember?’
‘But not welded together!’
‘As good as, for the next hour,’ he pointed out.
‘No. I’m quitting now—’
‘You can’t,’ he said patiently. ‘Not yet. First I have to get something clear. And then you must give a convincing performance to all and sundry. I want there to be no doubt about your feelings for me.’
She gulped. No more kissing, though, no more touching, she thought. She didn’t think she could bear it. ‘That—that kiss was enough to convince people, surely? Jake, you can’t ask me to do that again—’
‘It depends on how well you act the loving bride,’ he told her flatly. Amber gave him a puzzled look. He sounded...bitter. ‘In a moment, you’ll come down to the hall with me and you will sparkle like the diamonds on your finger. And dance with me as if you would die for me,’ he added with mocking softness.
Feeling hot and giddy again, she tried to move to the chair but the back of her dress seemed to be caught somewhere at the waist. ‘Oh, Jake—I’m trapped!’ she cried in dismay, twisting to see where and how. And she wanted to cry tears of angry frustration. She could feel them filling her eyes, blurring her gaze as she stared miserably up at him.
He slipped his hand around her to investigate. ‘So you are. Impaled on a rose thorn. Life’s full of them, isn’t it?’
There was a heady perfume in her nostrils, a waft of velvety scent as Jake’s arm brushed against the thickly clustered briars. And something else that she was beginning to identify—sharper, warmer...the scent of Jake himself, the scent of man.
His cheek had moved unnervingly close to hers. Amber’s big eyes slanted sideways. Jake’s skin was like warm brown satin. At least, she presumed it was warm. Heat was coming off his body, filling the space between them.
Her heart seemed to be leaping all over the place but she had no idea why, only knew that he disturbed her and that she didn’t feel safe any more.
‘Jake! Set me free!’ she demanded jerkily.
He gave a wry smile. ‘That was my plan,’ he murmured, both arms now firmly around her still slender waist. The lines of his mouth were butter-soft as his fingers fiddled at the small of her back. He looked at her obliquely, an amused glint in his eyes. ‘Mind you, I don’t think I can achieve that without some damage to—’
‘My dress! Please be careful—’
‘I think,’ he said drily, ‘the condition of your dress is the least of your problems.’
His meaning wasn’t clear at first. And then it was. As he struggled to free her he shifted his weight so that his knee pressed into her skirt, crushing the petticoats against her thigh with a soft whisper of taffeta. A slight movement of his body brought his chest against her heart-shaped bodice again and she drew in a shuddering breath.
That wasn’t deliberate, was it? Please not, she begged silently. She was imagining his interest. She had to be.
‘Hurry up!’ she muttered nervously.
‘Don’t fidget. You’ve got yourself into a right tangle and I’m the only person who can sort you out.’ He smiled faintly as if he’d said something privately amusing. ‘There! It’s free—Stay still!’ he ordered, when she made to knock away his arm. ‘The veil’s caught. Be patient.’
Her liquid brown eyes met his and flashed a hot defiance. ‘Patient be blowed! I’ve had enough of this!’
Crossly she reached back, encountering his strong fingers. For a moment they both seemed to be wrestling with the stubborn sprays of roses and Amber became increasingly heated as she struggled to escape from Jake’s unwelcome nearness.
‘Nearly there,’ he murmured casually.
‘Oh, curse it!’ she raged.
‘Calm down, it’s no big deal. Is it?’ he breathed, in the region of her small, horribly sensitive ear.
Amber gritted her teeth and wrenched at the offending briar. Pain lanced through her hands. Warm blood trickled onto her palms. But she was free and the relief was overwhelming. Quickly she ducked and slipped sideways, beneath his encircling arm. And then to her dismay she felt his hand closing around her elbow, spinning her around.
‘You fool!’ he said gruffly.
And suddenly his warm mouth was pressing into her palm and his tongue was licking the small drops of blood there. Amber found that she couldn’t move. Pale and frightened,
