A Season Beyond a Kiss Read Online Free PDF

clasp hold of her buttock. All too soon she would be swept up into his arms and taken to her bed. Except that she didn’t want that. If she was going to surrender herself to this marriage, then it had to be in his bed, the bed wherein she would likely bear their offspring.
    Raelynn found it very odd indeed, but somewhere in the last few moments she had lost her nervousness, as if the small nudge he had given her over the steep ridge of her impasse had been enough to settle her mind on the course she would take. She was definitely not retreating like some shy, young maid now. She had thrown aside her inhibitions as if they were nothing more than filthy rags. She knew what she wanted, and she would not be satisfied until she and he were one. And if it came to be that he was playing deceitfully with her, then heaven help her.
    The corners of her mouth curved slowly upward in a poignant smile as she threaded slender fingers through her husband’s thick hair. Leaning down, she brushed her lips against his temple and then, with her fine white teeth, nipped at the uppermost part of his ear, causing him to start and clap a hand to the side of his face as he straightened.
    A handsome brow angled upward sharply as Jeff stared down at his young wife in widening curiosity. If this was some new way she had contrived to tease and torment him, he would have no part of it. She could stay a virgin in her damned room until all hell froze over!
    His eyebrow jutted upward to an even loftier level as Raelynn smiled up at him provocatively, making no effort to repair her dishabille. Turning, she strode away from him with hips swaying with a slow, wanton movement, giving Jeff cause to wonder if he had married an unmitigated tease. A brief moment later he became convinced of it when she glanced over her shoulder with an invitation in her eyes that promptly reversed the dwindling of the manly bulge. Deliberately she rolled a shoulder, sending the nightgown slithering down her arm, allowing him a glimpse of a pale orb, albeit from a rearward angle. Upon facing away again, she gathered the gown across her buttocks, yielding him every detail the clinging cloth could afford.
    A brightening gleam lit Jeff’s eyes as he idly scratched his chest. There came a time in each man’s life when he had to put all finesse aside and do what came naturally though he might well be hell bent for his own destruction. At the present moment making love to his wife seemed the most natural thing in the world.
    Raelynn’s fine nose lifted to emulate a haughty noblewoman as she coyly played a game of pretense. “You’re drooling in your beard, knave,” she pompously complained, looking at him loftily. “Now depart from my room and give me peace from your presence. I wish to summon water for my morning bath and cleanse myself at my leisure. Only when I’m dressed and properly attired will I consider your invitation to visit the couturier.”
    “Minx,” Jeff muttered and, with a low, playful growl, sprinted after her, causing her to squeal like a child in a game of chase as she skittered behind a chair.
    Briefly Raelynn faced him over its winged back, but she soon discovered the piece provided no safe haven from the grinning swain who pursued her. He leapt around the back of it just as she skirted a nearby table. The door to his bedroom was before her, and she raced toward it, barely managing to thrust it open and escape around another chair and table. In her haste, she released the nightgown, inadvertently giving Jeff something tangible to grasp. His hand caught its flying hem, and in the next instant a shocked gasp was wrenched from Raelynn as he gave the cloth a downward yank, splitting the gown completely open down the front. The remnant was promptly whisked free of her arms and banished to the floor.
    “Oh, you lewd, knavish cad!” Raelynn cried through her laughter as she scurried around another chair. She tossed a glance over her shoulder, but her long hair