A Winter's Knight: A Regency Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

down dozens of lighter kisses across Phoebe’s face and neck, listening to her delighted breaths of awakening desire. Why had he thought this could never happen? He couldn’t remember. For once, he was able to cast off the past that haunted him and live for the moment. A moment that was more delicious than anything he remembered.
    Phoebe clung to what she hoped was her sanity, her head spinning under the gentle assault of kisses. Tony held her as steadily as a rock, allowing her to give herself up to the feeling. Was this kissing? How did people stand it? She could barely think.
    Hearing the soft, tantalizing moan Phoebe let out when his hand grazed her breast, Tony knew that if he didn’t stop now, he would do something he’d regret. With a tremendous effort of will, he pulled away from her. He was having trouble breathing. “Darling, this can’t go on.”
    She looked at him with desire coloring her eyes, her lips full and red. “I wish it would. I…I’ve been thinking about you.”
    “I’d be lying if I didn’t admit the same.” Tony took two steps back, until he was leaning against the bookcase. It helped, but only a little. Seeing Phoebe’s whole, ripe figure in that simple gown was still torture. He tried to think of a way he could be near her without being driven mad. Then, something occurred to him. “Phoebe, will you dance with me?”
    “I can’t dance,” she said, coming back to reality. “I told you that.”
    “I’ll teach you.” He heard the faint sounds of music coming from the great hall. “Trust me.” He held out his hand. By rights, he shouldn’t feel so confident in his own abilities. But after that kiss, he thought he could do anything.
    Doubtfully, but wanting to be near him again, Phoebe slid off the table and stepped toward him. Tony held her in the correct embrace of a dancer, grateful that it provided a slight space between them. “Can you hear the beat?”
    Phoebe cocked her head. “Yes, softly.”
    “Dancing is perfectly easy, since the gentleman leads. When you feel me push just so, you move back. When you feel me pull, step this way. You can’t fall, darling,” he said, seeing the look in her eyes. “I’ll never let you fall.”
    Tony began to move her in the pattern of the dance. Phoebe felt it strange at first, but she was so secure in his arms that she didn’t think once about her leg, finding that is was easier than she thought to keep from balancing on her weak foot. She was overwhelmed by how tantalizingly close he was to her. If dancing would let her get this close to him, she’d gladly learn. She looked up at his face, and thought that she’d never seen anyone who looked so much like a proper knight. Captured by his ice blue eyes, she felt herself wanting to get closer to him, and suspected that she was falling in love.
    They moved in a lazy circle around the room, Tony murmuring encouragement and guiding her with only light pressure. “You’re a natural,” he said, smiling. He had forgotten that he hated the way he looked whenever he tried to smile now.
    “Or you’re a good teacher.” Phoebe replied. “Billiards and dancing, all in an hour.”
    “You forgot the kissing.”
    “No, I certainly didn’t,” she said, looking at him with serious eyes that were filled with an emotion he couldn’t quite name. He wanted her to keep looking at him like that. His grip tightened around her waist.
    The formality of the dance did serve to dissipate the sharpest desire, but they were both aware of a tension between them, one that Phoebe did not fully understand, but that Tony knew would exist between them until their wedding night. Tony didn’t even know when he had decided that Phoebe had to be his. Possibly the moment he saw her. All he knew was that Phoebe deserved the highest honor, and that he had no wish to live without her. And he did have the means to change his future, if he dared.
    “Phoebe!” They both heard the voice coming from the hallway.