Why did you refuse her? ” His sluggish smile approximately blinded her. “Because I belong right here. ” “With me? ” McKenna was once silent, his smile lingering as he stared into her eyes. unstated phrases drifted among them…words as tangible because the very air they breathed. Aline desired to curl up beside him like a napping cat, enjoyable within the sunshine and the shield of his physique. as an alternative she pressured herself to stay nonetheless. “I overheard one of many footmen announcing which you can have got double the wage you earn now—only you would need to supply her with a distinct form of provider than you’re used to. ” “That should have been James talking,” McKenna muttered. “Damn his free tongue. How could he be aware of, besides? ” Aline used to be involved to determine a blush crossing the crests of his cheeks and the heavy bridge of his nostril. Then she understood. the girl had desired to lease McKenna to come back to her mattress. a girl at the least two times his age. Aline felt her personal face start to warmth, and he or she enable her gaze slip over the vast slope of his shoulder, right down to the massive hand that rested on a green-black berth of moss. “She sought after you to sleep with her,” Aline stated instead of requested, breaking a silence that had develop into painfully intimate. McKenna’s shoulders twitched within the barest trace of a shrug. “I doubt that drowsing used to be her purpose. ” Her middle was once spurred right into a violent cadence as she discovered that this had now not been the 1st time that this type of factor had occurred to McKenna. She had by no means allowed herself to live totally on McKenna’s sexual experience—the prospect was once too hectic to consider. He was once hers, and it was once insufferable to think about him turning to another person for wishes that she longed to satisfy. If basically, if purely… Smothering underneath the load of jealousy, Aline fastened her gaze on McKenna’s huge, callused hand. another girl knew extra of McKenna than she did, than she ever could. somebody had taken his physique over hers, within hers, and had recognized the nice and cozy sweetness of his mouth, and the drift of his hand on her epidermis. conscientiously she driven again a lock of hair that had blown throughout her eyes. “When…when used to be the 1st time you—” She used to be compelled to forestall because the phrases caught in her throat. It was once the 1st time she had ever requested approximately his sexual pursuits—a topic that he had regularly taken scrupulous care to prevent. McKenna didn't answer. Glancing up at him, Aline observed that he looked to be misplaced in deep contemplation of a beetle because it climbed up an extended blade of grass. “I don’t imagine we must always speak about that,” he acknowledged ultimately, his voice very gentle. “I don’t blame you for slumbering with different women. I anticipated it, actually…I just…” Aline shook her head a little bit, pained and bemused as she compelled herself to confess the reality. “I simply want that it can be me,” she controlled, whereas the lump in her throat accelerated. McKenna’s head bent, the daylight slipping over his darkish hair. He sighed and reached out to her face, stroking again the lock of hair because it fell over her cheek once again. the top of his thumb brushed the sweetness mark close to her mouth, the little black fleck that had continuously appeared to fascinate him so.