Page 38 of Cousin Conundrum

Or did a different, far more dangerous emotion grip her? If he reached for her, would she flee, or lean into his touch? Permit him to cup that lovely face? To skim a thumb over skin he knew would be softer than silk.

Her attention shifted and he realized he’d raised his hand. She turned her head. Her breath whispered across his palm. He stilled, knowing he could not touch her, yet unable to pull away.

“You are engaged to your cousin.”

“No.” The word grated from him as his arm fell back to his side.

“Mr. Collins informed us so.”

Let her believe it. Let her— “Mr. Collins is mistaken.”

She searched the darkness that shrouded him. “You are angry?”

“I am—” Mad. He was mad to stand here alone in the dark with Miss Elizabeth when, any moment, someone might open the door behind her, spilling light and sound into the night. Revealing him standing here with longing naked on his face. “I am entranced.”

“By me?” she breathed, inching nearer.

“Since the moment I saw you.” He seemed to have lost all control of his tongue. To have no ability to say the words he should say to send her hurrying back into the crowded hall, away from him.

“On the roadway?”

He nodded. “From within Bingley’s carriage.”

She drew in a quick breath.

“Tell me you do not feel the same,” he demanded, his voice pleading. Begging her to do what he could not…to end this moment.

A tremble went through her frame. “You are the only man I have ever met who makes me long to know what it feels like to be kissed.”

His hand reached for her of its own volition, to find her skin every bit as soft as he imagined. Warm and smooth against his palm. He skimmed his thumb along her cheekbone in a tingle of sensation. Then lower, to graze her full lips. “Am I?”

She nodded, her skin caressing his palm, muting the clamor of his better judgment. His other hand joined the first, lightly cupping her face. “Do you wish to learn?”

Another nod.

Do not kiss her. Stop. You know you cannot—

Coming up on her toes, she pressed her lips to his.

Her mouth was soft. Pliant. Her hands settled against his chest over his jacket, hesitant, but her lips moved in harmony with his. So perfectly. So rightly, it was as if he’d found the other half of his soul. As if he’d journeyed all the years of his life, and suddenly come home.

He could kiss Elizabeth Bennet forever.

***

Elizabeth could be impertinent. Headstrong. Daring.

Never before was she reckless. But here he finally was, the man she’d dreamed of day and night since the moment she saw him. The man she longed for. Who filled her thoughts.

Still, she should feel shame. Embarrassment for her brazenness.

Instead, joy surged through her. Warmth made her weightless. She had no form. No body, except for the torrent of sensations where her lips met Mr. Darcy’s. Where her palms braced against his chest, strong and firm beneath his coat.

Nothing had ever felt as right as Mr. Darcy’s kiss. Even Longbourn didn’t feel as poignantly, achingly, like she’d found the one place she truly belonged.

His hands dropped from cupping her cheeks to encircle her waist. His grip tightened. Lifting her—

—he set her away from him.