Scandal Meets Its Match (The May Flowers #7) - Merry Farmer Page 0,55
it have been better if I’d burst into tears or fainted instead of done whatever the hell I could to save my life and get away from Wyoming as fast as possible? If you ask me, changing my entire life on a dime by asking Papa to bring me with him to England, going with him without so much as making a quick jaunt home to say goodbye to my mother and my family and my friends, knowing I might not ever see them again, is the bravest thing I’ve ever done. So for you to chastise me for it, for you to have the gall to be hurt because I was so frightened and overwhelmed by what I’d done that I didn’t even want to think about it, let alone speak of it, is—”
Phin stepped into her, clasping her face with both hands and crashing his mouth over hers in a kiss that not only silenced her, but hopefully banished every miserable thought from her mind. He was still boiling with anger over the way she’d kept the truth from him. If she loved him, surely she would have confided in him long before now. She would have explained from the start why she couldn’t marry him at present. He continued to be furious with her, but his heart and his body couldn’t resist her, no matter how wicked she was.
He kissed her possessively, harshly, even. That angry part of him wanted her to know she belonged to him, even if she didn’t. He kissed her with a rough passion designed to prove that he was the only one who had any right to her. He parted her lips and thrust his tongue against hers, owning her like a rogue. And like the courageous woman she was, Lenore grasped his sides, digging her fingertips into his body as if to tell him he could try to dominate her all he wanted, but she would always have the upper hand.
Only when Hazel cleared her throat and muttered, “Do either of you want this tea I’ve just gone through a heap of trouble to make or would you rather go to bed?”
Phin broke away from Lenore, frowning at his sister. He expected Hazel to wear a sly grin, but her expression was deadly serious. Then again, Hazel had seen enough of the darker side of life to know that the only way to get through it was to find humor wherever possible.
“Frankly, I want to go to bed,” Phin growled, taking another step back from Lenore. “Alone,” he specified, although that was a bald-faced lie. If not for his sisters and their habit of prying where they shouldn’t, he would have dragged Lenore up to his room and made love to her in a dozen different ways that would have shown her precisely who had the upper hand in their relationship. He would have been a rake and a cur for doing so, but he had a feeling they both would have enjoyed it, no matter how many bruises they each ended up with.
“I think I’d better go to bed too,” Lenore said in a hoarse voice, her eyes alight with fire, as if she could read Phin’s thoughts. She turned and marched swiftly out of the room.
As soon as she was gone, Phin let out a breath and rubbed a hand over his face. And here he’d thought whisking Lenore away to the country and the safe bosom of his family would make the stars align and everything come clear.
“You certainly do know how to pick them,” Hazel said, pouring herself a cup of tea after bringing the teapot to the table.
“Aside from the lying, being married to another man, engaging herself to Freddy Herrington with no intention of marrying him, and cockamamie plot to flee her homeland, Lenore is a perfect angel,” he growled, stomping to the table and sinking into a chair, then reaching for the teapot and one of the cups Hazel had waiting.
“Be patient with her,” Hazel said on a sigh, pouring milk into her tea. “She has a lot to sift through.”
“If she’s telling the truth,” Phin growled.
“Oh, she is.” Hazel reached into the box of Lenore’s documents and took out a small newspaper clipping. She slid it across the table to Phin.
Phin reluctantly picked it up and read it. “Range Wars Heat Up As Five Killed,” the headline read. The article went on with, “News from the wild frontier has taken a deadly turn