Page 67 of His Sinful Touch

Though she could not see him, she knew it was Alex. He stood so close she could feel the warmth of his body all up and down hers. He was murmuring something in her ear, but she couldn’t understand it because all she could think of was the desire pulsing through her. He began to kiss her neck, and his hand left her waist to glide up and down her body. There was a growing, insistent ache between her legs. She let out a soft moan, and the noise awakened her.

Sabrina’s eyes flew open. She felt warm and positively tingling all through her body. Had she actually made that noise or had it been only in her dream? She glanced at the other end of the bench, where Alex sat, watching her, an answering heat in his eyes. He quickly looked away.

“I, um, I’m going to take a walk along the corridor.”

He was gone so long Sabrina thought he must have walked through every car in the train—twice—but she was grateful for the time to bring herself back into composure. After he returned, the air was still fraught with tension, and Sabrina avoided giving Alex more than a brief glance. She was grateful when they reached Baddesly Commons and were able to disembark.

The small station was deserted except for a man sweeping up. But he was happy to give them directions to the inn, which was apparently the only one in the town and was located on the main road, a short walk from the train station.

There was, Sabrina decided, probably nothing that was more than a short walk from the station, for Baddesly Commons turned out to be only a short string of shops along a High Road, all shuttered for the night. Nothing about the place looked familiar to her, which disappointed Sabrina but did not surprise her.

The road was dark, but the inn’s lone lamppost acted as a beacon. They walked into the inn yard, and a man came out of the stables beside it.

“Can I help—” he began but stopped as he peered at them in the low light. A beam broke out across his face, and he said, “Why, it’s you. Welcome back, miss!”

Chapter Twenty-Three

SABRINA STIFFENED. “YOU know me?”

“Oh, aye, miss, I’m not likely to forget a girl ridin’ in ’fore full light and stabling her horse. Not to worry, your father and brother came along soon enough, and they sent your animal back. Not a good enough mount for ye anyway, I’d say, for ye had good form.”

“Um, well...thank you.” Sabrina wasn’t sure how to respond to the garrulous man’s response.

It turned out there was no need to, for he went on. “I ’spect they found ye, eh? They seemed dead worrit about ye.”

“Yes, we’ve spoken to them,” Alex said.

“Good. Ain’t right for a young lady to be out alone like that.”

“She’s not,” Alex said repressively.

The man nodded wisely. “That’s what I thought—elopin’, weren’t ye? I figured as much with your father in such a pucker.”

Sabrina’s eyes widened and she started to protest, but a little poke in the back from Alex’s finger stopped her.

“Quite right. But Mrs. Mor—” Alex stopped abruptly, then continued, “Mrs. Moore is safe now in her husband’s protection.”

Surreptitiously, Sabrina put her hand into her pocket and grabbed the ring, slipping it onto her left hand behind her back, all the while smiling madly. Alex took her arm, steering her away.

“Why did you say that?” Sabrina whispered as they approached the inn door. “Now we’re in a tangle.”

“I had planned to say I was your brother, but the Dearborns already usurped that. I thought yet another brother would seem peculiar. And I didn’t want to set every tongue in the place wagging.”

“But what about tonight? Do you mean to share a room?”

“I’ll get two rooms.”

“Newlyweds? Oh, no, that won’t cause tongues to wag.”

As it turned out, the inn was small and had only one room available, the host apologizing profusely that the best rooms had already been taken.

“But we have a private room to dine in,” the innkeeper added, beaming. “And there’s no roast beef like my Ellie’s, if you’re feeling peckish.”

“Yes.” Alex smiled stiffly. “Excellent.”

The innkeeper grabbed their bags and showed them up to a small room tucked under the eaves. Its ceiling slanted at a sharp angle up from the low outside wall, leaving only half of the room in which Alex was able to stand without stooping. There was but one window, a single straight chair, a small chest of drawers and a bed, which barely qualified as large enough for two people.

Sabrina glanced around at everything in the room but Alex. The innkeeper, seemingly sensing the tension, said, with a hopeful smile, “It’s small, I know, but you’ll not find a place cleaner than here, and the bed’s soft as a cloud.”