Read Online Oxford Shadows by Marion Croslydon - Free Book Online

face to cool the heat that flushed her cheeks.
    “We’re both consenting adults. You won’t go to jail for having sex with me,” Rupert teased as soon as the door shut behind them.
    “Twenty-two years of being a virgin have left their mark,” she snapped back. “I might never recover from it.”
    “I love your blushing self.” With two steps, he narrowed the space between them. She expected him to overwhelm her with full force. Instead, his lips were feather light on hers. He had bent down toward her but he kept his body separate from hers, leaving a gaping void over which she was dying to jump.
    “I love seeing the effect I have on you.” With that, he proceeded to suck on her lower lip … and she melted like a sundae in the midday sun.
    Not that easy, boy. Madison tore herself away from him. “I thought you were spending the day at Magway with your dear father.” She wasn’t quite ready to forgive yesterday’s rejection at Blenheim, even if her need for his touch made her hungry.
    “I had to come back to Oxford.”
    “Why?”
    His smile evoked images of old-fashioned Hollywood stars. “Because I missed you.” He delivered the compliment with a shrug of his shoulders.
    She tightened the towel around her breasts to strengthen her will.
    “Why are you angry with me?” He wasn’t completely oblivious to her body language.
    “You treated me like dirt yesterday.”
    He placed his hands on his hips, like a captain on a ship. “Seriously, you’re pissed off because I asked you to wait a little before replaying Ghostbusters to my father and his pregnant wife?”
    “When it’s about protecting them from a very real danger, yes, I think it’s worth it. Unless …”
    “Unless what?”
    “Unless you still don’t believe in me, in my powers.” With her voice quavering under the strain of the memories, she pointed at the rug that lay between them on the threadbare carpet, her index finger shaking.
    “Miss Lindsey really died in this bedroom.” Hillary Lindsey had been Christ Church’s censor. She had surprised Peter after he had broken into Madison’s room and it had cost Miss Lindsey her life. “And Pippa is now six feet under in a cemetery near Dublin.”
    Rupert rubbed his face with his hand, and a frustrated growl escaped from his mouth. “I believe in you. I thought I’d made it clear.”
    “Then why don’t you want me to talk to Camilla? I’m not totally naïve. We’ll have to choose our moment. But until then we can ask her some questions. Maybe she’s seen something as well.”
    Her study appeared to shrink once Rupert started marching across it, back and forth, back and forth. Madison ordered herself to stay put and not give up a single inch of ground. However, the hollowness that had built up since their argument at Blenheim spilled out of her heart and welled up in her eyes. A betraying tear fell over her cheek. She bit her lower lip to wrest control and lowered her head to hide her weakness. The hatchet of rejection—rejection by Rupert—always hung over her head. The fear of losing him—his love or whatever he was ready to give her—dragged her down.
    Too late. Rupert was already camping in front of her. His fingers cradled her face and forced her to stare up and meet his gaze. “I can’t stand you crying. Forgive me.”
    Trusting her towel to stay put, Madison laid her hands on his and shook her head. “No, it’s me. I’m a sissy with all my insecurities.” A sniffle punctuated her confession.
    “I must be a sissy too because I’m rotten with insecurities. You know that better than anyone else.”
    “Come on. You’re the king of the jungle. You don’t talk, you roar, and everyone bows down before you.”
    His response was a muffled laugh. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me. I only want you to look up to me, to be proud of me.”
    He locked his words with a kiss. A fierce, devouring kiss. One that radiated his need for her and smashed her self-doubts