A Kiss to Remember by Teresa Medeiros Page B

outweighed her by at least five stone. It was only by wrapping one arm around his waist and bracing his shoulder with her own that she was able to keep him on his feet. Locked in that awkward embrace, they staggered toward the bed in a graceless waltz. She tried to ease him to the mattress, but the slick chintz of the coverlet gave her no choice but to half tumble into the bed with him.
    She lay there in a gasping heap, her arm still trapped beneath his weight. She couldn’t have said whether her shortness of breath was due to exertion or the heated press of all of that smooth, bare male flesh against her side.
    “It’s fortunate that we’re already engaged,” he said dryly, his warm breath tickling her ear. “If that manservant of yours caught us in this predicament, I suspect I’d be marrying you at the point of a pitchfork.”
    Wrenching her arm free, Laura shoved herself to asitting position on the bed. She tucked a wayward curl back into her topknot, her cheeks burning. “Don’t be silly. Dower knows as well as I do that you’re not the sort of man who would compromise his fiancée’s virtue.”
    “I’m not?” He frowned up at her. “Are you absolutely certain about that?”
    “Of course I am,” she assured him. “You’ve always behaved with perfect decorum.”
    Groaning, he flung an arm over his brow. “No wonder I was trying to throw myself in front of that cannon. I had no reason to live.”
    With those piercing eyes of his hidden, Laura was free to study the beguiling curve of his lips. Free to remember the tantalizing kiss they’d shared in the wood.
    “You had the best reason of all,” she said softly. “So you could return to me.”
    He lowered his arm. An emotion even more disquieting than suspicion glimmered in the depths of his eyes. “Just how long have we been apart?”
    “Almost a year, I suppose.” Laura ducked her head, beset by both shyness and shame. “Although it feels more like a lifetime.”
    “Yet you waited for me.”
    She met his eyes. “I would have waited forever for you.”
    A spasm of bewilderment crossed his face. It was almost as if that tiny kernel of truth was more unkind than all of her lies. As he moved to cup her cheek in his hand, she realized it had been a mistake not to escape his reach when she’d had the chance. She doubted she could move now if the bedclothes beneath them burst into flames.
    His fingers were only an inch from her cheek when he let out a startled yelp.
    A yellow tabby kitten, all ears and gangly paws, was scrambling up his right thigh, its claws digging into the quilt with each exuberant bounce. Relieved by the distraction, Laura scooped up the tiny cat, cradling its fat, furry belly in her palm. “This one’s so small my sister must have missed it.”
    “Get it out of here, please,” he said through gritted teeth. “I can’t abide the beasts.”
    Rubbing the kitten’s downy fur against her cheek, Laura beamed at him. “I’m afraid your memory is failing you again. You adore kittens.”
    His eyes widened. “I do?”
    She nodded. He watched with visible horror as she deposited the wriggling kitten on his chest. Man and cat eyed each other with equal mistrust for a tense moment before the kitten finally yawned, stretched, then curled itself into a purring heap, making a cozy nest of his breastbone.
    He shook his head. “I suppose next you’ll be telling me I adore that insufferable little brat who set the cats upon me in the first place.”
    Laura chose her words with care. “Despite your occasional clash of wills, you and Lottie have always been quite fond of each other.”
    Closing his eyes, he turned his face away from her as if that last revelation was more than any man could be expected to endure. Laura gently drew the quilt up over his chest, stopping just short of where the kitten napped. “You’ve had more than enough excitement for one day. You need to conserve your strength.”
    She was turning to go when he