“I must say, this is the best meal I’ve had in a very long time. And a sprig of parsley?” He paused to lift the green leaf in her direction. “Always a good addition to any date meal.”
Abby blushed, hoping he hadn’t automatically thought she’d put that there to keep their breaths fresh for kissing purposes.
“Thank you,” she said, and excused herself to go brush her teeth. A few moments later, she emerged, finding Edmund clearing off the rest of the table.
“I have a brand new toothbrush if you’d like to use it, in the first drawer on the right,” she offered.
He glanced up and smiled, stepping across the planked floor and runner carpet, his strides confident and quiet.
When he closed the door, she tried to remember her world without him. She was independent and focused. She was also confined to a life her parents had created; a life she was so afraid of surrendering, concerned if she did, she might lose the memory of them forever. Unfortunately, her trepidations had only placed her in a solitary and confined situation. With this, she discovered an even deeper fear—the fear of being left alone.
With her mind a whirlwind of thoughts, she began the task of washing the dishes. She realized after her sink began filling up with suds that she’d spent more time thinking of Edmund than measuring how much lemony-scented soap she was putting in the water.
“You look very domestic.”
Abby peered up to find Edmund leaned up against the wall, his arms folded across his chest. She believed he’d been there for a while, watching her, engaged. No matter how many times she glanced at him, her heart flipped.
“Is that a compliment or an insult?” she said, tearing her gaze away.
He chuckled before pushing off to saunter up behind her. “Show me how you do this.” His voice was low and gentle in her left ear. Before she could shoo him away, he slid his hands down the length of her arm and into the temperate water. She thought he could make dissecting a frog sensual.
Amused he didn’t know how to wash a dish, she placed the dishcloth in his right hand and shifted her palms outside his. “Well, you always wash the glasses first,” she said, as she fished for the one she’d already placed in the sink.
“So, there’s a science to this?”
She twisted up to look at him, studying his beautiful profile. His sturdy jaw, straight nose, and serene features exuded strength and importance. He noticed her watching him and grinned.
“You find me sexy, don’t you?”
She laughed and brought up a handful of airy lather, smashing it against his nose.
“Insufferable is more like it,” she commented in an aristocratic accent.
He chuckled at her attempt at mockery, pausing to wipe the wet suds off his face and onto his shirt. Proud of himself, he brought up the glass he’d been washing for inspection. “What do you think?”
She eyed the piece and nodded. “Congratulations, Lord Rushwood. You have just successfully cleaned your first dish.”
His eyes widened. “We should celebrate.”
Before they could fully think of how, the intercom crackled close by. “Why the hell aren’t you guys at the gardens yet?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Christ!” Edmund hissed as Abby froze in her place. She had hoped, by some miracle, Will had forgotten about them. Her stomach sank into her knees, knowing what lay ahead.
Calm and poised, Edmund swiped his wet hands on his jeans and stepped to the box, reaching out to push the button. He never let his gaze stray from her face. “We’re here,” he told Will. Then Edmund turned, his brilliant features a mask of hidden emotions as he shifted toward her. He didn’t stop until she had to tilt her head back to look at him.
Was this another moment, when he’d kiss her and then stop himself, leaving her breathless and confused? As before, his mouth hovered so close to hers…so close she could feel the crisp warmness of his breath.
She waited, his fingers spreading under her jaw as his thumb coerced her lips further apart. Her pulse at the base of her throat hammered against his palm. He guided her to the nearest wall, her feet backing up without the slightest resistance.
His free hand slipped under her shirt, the tips of his fingers grazing her waist and causing her breath to catch. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back as he continued a slow slide up her hip and waist. He stalled, for a moment, close to her breast, and she realized her legs were shaking from the expectation of his touch.
“Give me your hand,” he said in a quiet, but stern voice.
Without hesitating, she lifted her arm, his fingers grasping hers and guiding them to his chest. Under her palm, his heart beat furious and hard. “Bronte compared Jane Eyre to a caged bird. I understand those words. I never thought I’d compare myself to poor Jane, but I have become caged, trapped by my obligations…and selfishness.”
She stood stunned, silent, unsure what he was saying or why. When he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to Abby’s, she let out a quiet exhale.
“There was a time, not too long ago, when I knew exactly what I wanted. Now I’m not so sure.”
She sent him a conflicted smiled. “How ironic.”
He pulled away, his lips parting on a question.
“Oh, come on, Edmund. Let’s go. It’s starting to rain again,” Will’s voice whined through the intercom.
Edmund smiled, indicating for them to change. With their backs to one another, they slipped into their damp dinner clothes before meeting a pacing and agitated Will outside.
“So, are you skipping Kiss the Bride night and going straight to the honeymoon, Edmund?” Will said, half laughing, his voice pitched to a lunatic level.
Abby wished she stood within range to slap Will across his smug and agitated face. Edmund seemed to sense this and placed her behind him.
“That’s not fair,” Edmund ground out between clenched teeth.
Will, though smaller, but with just as much testosterone running through his body, didn’t budge an inch. “Then tell me what is. Is it fair that you initially cancelled the reservations at the restaurant? Clever. What are you trying to do? Is there some secret plan I don’t know about, Edmund? Don’t forget this whole thing was your idea.”
Abby glanced from one man to the other, trying to make sense of their conversation.
“No,” Edmund said. “This plan was your idea. I just went along with it to—”
“That’s right. Be very careful of what you say here. We both have contracts that, if breached, are detrimental to everything we enjoy in life.”
Abby focused her attention on Edmund as the muscle in his jaw jumped with indignation. However, within a matter of seconds, he retreated.
Will paced back and forth before stopping and placing both hands on Edmund’s shoulders. “Look, it’s all right if you treat her differently. I get it, but at least make the show believable enough so I don’t get my ass canned. My freakin’ rent’s due in two weeks.”
Edmund turned toward Abby, his hardened expression giving her an apprehensive jab to her midsection. There was something he wasn’t telling her, and she knew it had to do with his warnings and withdrawals.
“Good, we’ll see you at the Rose Gardens in fifteen minutes.”
Will and Joe left, leaving Abby and Edmund alone. On the wet sidewalk Edmund stood quiet and reserved.
“Why do you treat me different than the rest of the contestants?” Abby couldn’t stop herself from asking the question.
It didn’t take him long to answer. “Because you are different, Abby.”
“Right. A simple storekeeper. How stupid of me to have forgotten.”
She started to turn when his hand stretched out to grab her wrist, hauling her hard against him. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Embarrassed by her sulky response, Abby dipped her head to avoid his disapproving gaze. It was getting harder for her to remain in her comfort zone. Life with Edmund had become complicated. More than complica
ted and despite its profoundly unpredictable nature, it had become complete.
“I know,” she conceded before attempting to change the subject. “I suppose, if we don’t show up this time, I’m fearful Joe might have to check Will into a mental hospital.”
Edmund laughed, lightening the heavy mood around them. She knew burdensome thoughts lay behind his turbulent green and blue hued eyes, thoughts that were bound to force them to talk about their relationship, if such a thing existed.
For now, they chose to stay on safe and easy topics of conversation. They arrived at the gardens in plenty of time, Edmund taking her hand as they walked up the lighted stone path between rows of dark purple foliage. The saturated leaves sagged from the rain and the air smelled of rich earth. Ahead, the lane twisted into a snake-like pattern where a pool projected out into the walking path, jumping with colorful koi fish.
“So, how is your report going on nineteenth-century Women’s Lit? Are you almost done with Jane Eyre?” he asked her.
She smiled. “Well, I have bounded from Page ix, and will be diving into Chapter Seventeen soon.”
“And what happened in Chapter Sixteen?”
Abby loved their talks, his easy manner and sincere curiosity. “Well, a tragedy has been averted, as Jane goes to Mr. Rochester’s room to save him from an inferno as he lies sleeping.”
“Good girl,” Edmund commented, while giving Abby’s hand a gentle squeeze.
“Yes, she is good. I haven’t read many books where the heroine saves the hero. It’s always the damsel in distress that must be rescued, and the male rides in to save the day.”
“Do you find the notion of a damsel in distress so disgusting?”
She had to laugh, until she realized he was serious. “No, Edmund, I find it chivalrous, but outdated. A woman is just as capable of saving a man as a man is of saving a woman.”
His fervent gaze blinked down at her, his lips parting slightly at her decree. “Then you would save me?”
She thought to tease him. “Perhaps.”
He drew back as if she’d balled up her fists and punched him. “You’re not sure?”
She sent him an alluring smile. “You have an enormous number of followers, Edmund, standing ready at any moment to pluck you out of whatever hole you’ve placed yourself in. I think if I did decide to save you, I’d be trampled on before I even got there.”
He said nothing, her declaration of sorts appearing to give him pause. He recovered well enough to inquire after her assignment.
“So what else happened to Jane and Mr. Rochester?”
Abby didn’t want to talk any longer about the book. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted to abandon all her fears and lose herself in his embrace. However, she continued to talk, her feet leaving the ground every time his thumb stroked the back of her hand.
“Well, he has left her. She is very disappointed to find that he has gone to a party to entertain a lady by the name of Blanche Ingram.”
“Is Jane jealous of Miss Ingram?”
“I believe Jane feels inferior to Blanche’s beauty and station in life, and doesn’t see how she can possibly compete for Mr. Rochester’s attention.”
Edmund eased closer. “And yet there is a thread of hope.”
“Yes,” Abby whispered. “At least for the reader.”
He smiled at her, endearing and soft. “Isn’t there always?”
****
Abby’s words about rescuing Edmund resonated clear to his bones. He confessed to himself she was right. Never alone, he managed to surround him with people, although he could not name one of them to whom he’d extend his hand or trust enough to pluck him out, so to speak.
“Over here,” Will called.
They both turned to his animated figure waving at them as if they were an aircraft needing landing directions. “He is a relentless sod, isn’t he?”
“I’m not sure what sod is in England, but I’m going to go with yes.”
Edmund chuckled and then cleared his throat, remembering her and Will’s rather dysfunctional history together.
“So, from what I gathered, Will tried asking you out once.”
She snickered. “Once? Try twenty times.”
“Christ,” Edmund muttered. He’d forgotten what Will told him about his numerous attempts. “Twenty times?” Edmund questioned, bringing a hand to rub at his forehead. He thought the motion would somehow wipe the image of Will doing everything in his power to try to bonk her. It didn’t.
“It was actually quite pathetic,” she volunteered.
Edmund should have left it there. He didn’t. “What stopped you…from giving in, so to speak?”
She made a face at him. “Well,” she began, pausing to observe the man swinging his arms in an exaggerated circle fifty feet away. “From a distance, he looks quite insane.” She sighed, drawing up her slim shoulders. “And I was looking for something more amorous than, ‘Hey Abs, do you like quickies?’”
“Quickies?” Edmund turned, now wanting to send his friend crashing into the water fountain several yards away. However, Edmund wondered if he hadn’t been just as perverse upon meeting her for the first time.
“I apologize,” he said, causing her to stop walking beside him.
She smiled. “Apologize for what? You can’t help the guy is one-dimensional and shallow.”
“But didn’t you think the same of me on that first night?”
She smirked at him this time and pulled away. “No. I thought you were judgmental and arrogant with exasperating, yet somewhat amusing qualities.”
“Yes, I’d say that’s much better than being one-dimensional and shallow.”
Her round cheeks lifted and he reached out to touch them, her skin like cool silk. “I don’t think I could ever get tired of touching you.”
“Did you get lost?”
Abby jumped at Will’s voice as it projected across the gardens, sending a congregation of nesting birds scattering in all directions.
He snapped his fingers at Holly, who trudged forward, a young child in tow. He was an adorable boy with mahogany-colored hair and rich brown eyes. He stood dressed for bed, wearing a pair of baby-blue footy pajamas with monkeys and bananas tumbling about the material.
“Mommy, can you read my story?” he asked, as Holly placed her bag of makeup and hair supplies on the nearby bench.
“Not now, baby. Mommy has to work.” Guiltily, the young woman glanced back at Abby. “I couldn’t find a babysitter this late.”
“It’s okay,” Abby reassured her.
“His father split when Sam was six months old,” Holly confessed between a dab of peach rouge and a quick blow of the brush. She said those words as if she’d repeated them over a hundred times between then and now.
“Do you mind if I read to him?”
Both Abby and Holly glanced up to find Edmund, his handsome features serious, almost pleading.
“No,” Holly said, surprised by the offer. “That’s all he wants anymore.”
Abby watched as Edmund bent down and lifted the boy into his lap as if he weighed nothing. Right away, the child nestled against Edmund’s chest, a silk-edged blanket, clean but discolored, fisted in one hand.
Abby recognized the popular rhyming children’s book about a moon and smiled. Edmund read as his young pupil snuggled closer, his eyes wide and a thumb tucked into his mouth.
“I bet he’d make a wonderful father,” Holly muttered.
Abby said nothing, remembering one of her and Edmund’s heated conversations not so long ago. She’d insinuated the opposite, not having any evidence to prove her wrong. Now, he was making her eat those words, his attentive care to the child one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen him do.
Edmund closed the book and placed a gentle kiss upon the child’s head. Still wide awake, Sam tilted his chin upward and blinked. “What’s mush?”
Edmund chuckled, and then thought before answering. “Well, it’s like porridge.”
“What’s por…ridge?”
With Abby’s makeup and hair in place, Holly rose to rescue Edmund, lifting Sam and leading him a few feet away to another bench. She held him, his eyelids growing heavier the longer she sat rocking him.
Unmoved, Will gave the round-up sign and motioned for Joe to get ready to start filming. Abby sank down next to Edmund, knowing she owed him an apology.
“Don’t,” he said before she even had the chance to open her mouth. “There is some truth, I am sure, to what you said. After all, I am my father’s son.”
He lowered his gaze to hers as she sat quiet and stunned beside him. Did she dare ask him what he meant? Even if she wanted to, Will chose that moment to crouch down and bark out orders.
“Okay, Edmund,” he said. “Scoot closer to Abs…Abby, and act like you want to kiss her.”
Edmund cocked an annoyed eyebrow at Will. “I’m quite sure I can take it from here.”
“And action,” Will yelled, making Abby jump for the second time, annoyance pumping through every cell in her body.
“Now Edmund, grasp Abby’s hand, bring it up to your lips and kiss it, just like you did with the others.”
“Oh God,” Abby mumbled, her insides twisting. How many times had she tried to shove the imagery of Edmund with the other contestants out of her befuddled mind? Too many, she thought. At this point, she didn’t know if she stood a chance against Jasmine, Courtney, or the others. She only knew her heart soared every time Edmund touched her.
“Now kiss her,” Will shouted, under his breath.
Beside Abby, Edmund’s body stiffened and his already stormy eyes turned darker. Along his masculine jaw line, his muscles convulsed.
“And today…would be good.”
“Bloody hell, Will,” Edmund said, crushing the words between his teeth. “I don’t think I need you whispering in a loud manner on what I should do next.”
“The audience doesn’t want to see you thinking, Edmund. They want to see you kissing. They want to see you falling in love.”
Will’s words echoed through the damp trees and past a pebbled path beside a man-made brook. Then, everything ceased to move. Even the muscle in Edmund’s jaw froze.
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