Page 60 of To Follow her Heart

He walked into the corridor, looking up and down and seeing nothing that resembled a headless corpse or whatever it was that roamed the house at night. Reassured, he headed for the stairs with Kitty clinging to the back of his waistcoat like a limpet.

He had one foot on the stairs when it came again. The first couple of times, it had been a low yowling sound that curled and echoed about the place like the soul of something long dead. This time… Luke frowned. That hadn’t sounded as ghostly and undead as it had earlier.

A tad more confident, he carried on.

“It’s definitely downstairs,” he said, holding the candle aloft and peering over the banisters as he went.

Kitty hurried after him, squealing softly as Luke followed where the sound had come from and turned in the direction of the west wing of the house, which was still very much under renovation. He paused as something stirred, something… scratched.

“I-It’s c-coming from in there,” Kitty stammered, pointing at the door in front of them.

Luke nodded and moved towards it. He hesitated, taking a deep breath before throwing it open, and diving out of the way as an angry screech and a hiss rent the air, and something small and furry bolted past them.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” Kitty cried, stumbling back and falling on her backside in a flurry of white cotton. “W-What… w-what…?”

“A cat,” Luke said, doing his best to look smug and not as if he’d just seen his entire life pass before his eyes. “See, I told you. No ghost. Unless it was the ghost of a cat, which I suppose is possible.”

He gazed down at Kitty, sitting in a rumpled heap on the floor, and then exclaimed as her lip trembled and she burst into tears.

“Kitten!” he said, feeling like the worst kind of brute for having teased her. He pulled her to her feet and into his arms, hushing her softly. “I’m sorry, love. I’m sorry. There, it’s all right, there’s no need to cry.”

Kitty sniffed, clinging to him. “I’m s-sorry,” she mumbled. “The stupid c-cat scared me half to death.”

Luke smiled and gave a sigh, kissing her wild dark curls. “To be honest, it put the wind up me too,” he said, pulling back to give her a sheepish grin.

“It d-did?”

Luke nodded, stroking her cheek and wiping away the last of her tears with his thumb.

“I very nearly screamed like a girl. I would have done if you’d not been here, forcing me to act like a man.”

Kitty’s mouth twitched up as she stared at him. “Good thing I was, then,” she said, staring at him with big, dark eyes.

“A very good thing,” he murmured, before he could remember that he ought not risk touching her tonight, and kissed her.

She sighed, all the tension leaving her as she coiled about him, warm and willing and soft, and everything he’d ever wanted. The nightgown was fine and sheer, and the heat of her skin burned through it and set him ablaze as surely as if he’d embraced a naked flame.

Ten years of longing, of missing her and wanting her, the shock of love and desire, and the joy of seeing her again fired through his blood like a spark upon gunpowder.

The result was incendiary.

Luke backed her up against the wall, deepening the kiss as she clutched at his hair and pressed against him, so eager that he felt as if he’d die from wanting her.

“Kitten,” he whispered against her neck, his hands cupping her breasts and finding the peaks of her nipples. He pinched gently and she gasped, her head lolling backwards.

“Yes,” she said. “Oh, yes.”

Luke reached down with one hand, snatching at the material covering her and hauling it up and out of his way until his hand could find its way beneath the hem.

“Tell me to stop,” he said, his voice harsh, remembering everything he’d wanted for her, for them both. “Tell me to wait.”

“Don’t stop, don’t wait….”

He groaned and kissed her again as his palm slid up and up, over the warmth of skin like silk, over the tender flesh of her inner thigh, until he found the downy patch of curls and stroked with the back of one finger.

“Luke,” she whispered, his name spoken with such astonishment. “Oh… Oh, Luke.”

He toyed with her, exquisitely gentle, barely touching her as her breathing became erratic. His heart wanted to burst with longing, his body ached and burned with the desire to be inside her… and yet he’d made a promise to her, to them both.