Provocative in Pearls by Madeline Hunter Page B

to write your letter?”
    “Perhaps.”
    “With whom are you so impatient to correspond? Since you demanded I keep your resurrection a secret while we are here, I am surprised that you intend to inform someone on your own so quickly.”
    “I am writing to Katy Bowman. She is the mother of the family whom Bertram threatened. She was my father’s housekeeper for years, and like a mother to me too.”
    “It must be she whom you fear grieved for you. I can see how you would want to correct that sad error.”
    He prodded at her guilt. She carried quite a bit of it on this point. Since Katy could not read, the letter would have to be read to her. The vicar would do that. Maybe he would also let Katy dictate a response.
    Verity hoped so. It would be wonderful if a letter would come that said Nancy had lied, and Bertram had done nothing to Katy’s son Michael, that Michael still plied his skills at the forge the way her father had taught him. She dared not count on that, but she could pray for it.
    “I will take my leave, Lord Hawkeswell, and see you this evening.”
    She turned to walk back through the garden, but he took her hand and stopped her.
    “Not yet, Verity. I will have a kiss first. Several, in fact.”
    “Several! It is supposed to be three kisses at three different times, not all three at once.”
    “You left that clause out of our contract. How careless of you.”
    He gently tugged. She found herself tripping toward a cluster of tall rhododendrons. She really did not want to go behind those shrubs. She tried to dig in her heels, but even his gentle pull proved stronger than her best resistance.
    “You are not being fair,” she objected.
    “Be glad I demanded only three kisses a day, and not many more. As it happens, I am not claiming any of today’s kisses, let alone all at once. I am claiming the ones you still owe me from yesterday.”
    “We did not agree that you could save them up, and catch up on Tuesday if you forgot to use them on Monday.”
    “We never said I could not.”
    “I am saying it now. Why, if that were the rule, you could go half a week and I would have to suffer twelve or fifteen all in one day.”
    “What a pleasant thought. However, it will be easy for you to avoid such a fate. Simply make sure that I am kissed three times before the day is out, and you are safe.”
    The devil was in his eyes as he teased her. Only it was the devil that also suggested he was not only teasing.
    How had the perfectly sensible agreement to three small kisses led to such a disadvantage? One where it might be wise to kiss him instead of him kissing her ?
    “Three, then,” she agreed. “So we catch up.” She quickly stepped toward him, rose on her toes, and planted a quick kiss on his lips. She tried to peck him again, but he angled back, out of reach.
    “That is one,” he said. “Two to go.”
    He appeared to be having a fine joke at her expense. She held herself straight and tall and prepared for the other two.
    To her shock, he took her face in his hands. The hold was gentle enough, but very intimate. The sensation of his warm palms against her cheeks startled her. “We did not agree that you could touch me like this. You are just supposed to—”
    “Hush,” he muttered, his lips hovering near hers, but not exactly kissing her. “When I kiss a woman, I do it properly.”
    Properly meant he watched while his thumb caressed her lips in a manner that made them sensitive and tingling. It meant nipping her lip, creating a jolt to her body much like an arrow of sensation spiraling downward. It meant a stunning closeness that made her too alert and too aware of him. When his lips finally touched hers, her breath caught.
    She did not step back at once. Being held like this, she was not sure she even could. But the kiss provoked something inside her that caused her to forget momentarily that she wanted to get away.
    Still cradling her face in his hands, he looked down at her, those blue eyes